Welcome to Eco Ask why? A podcast that dives into industrial manufacturing topics and spotlights the heroes that keep America running. I'm your host, chris Granger, and on this podcast, we do not cover the latest features and benefits on products that come to market. Instead, we focus on advice and insight from the top minds of industry, because people and ideas will be how America remains number one in manufacturing in the world. Welcome to Ecosy. I'm your host, chris Granger, and looking forward to spending some time with you today.

So we've been doing some things a little bit different on Ecosy this year and really been focusing more on trying to give you information around procurement, how to buy better online resources, and things like that. So what we're going to be doing here for the next focusing more on trying to give you information around procurement, how to buy better online resources, and things like that. So what we're going to be doing here for the next few months, we're going to work through together what we call our eco-online knowledge base. So we're going to break this down, because what we have within our knowledge base are a ton of resources for you to help improve your experience working with an electrical equipment company, particularly for the online e-commerce solution. So we're going to be talking today about why account management within our e-commerce solution matters and how you can utilize it to the best of your needs. Okay, because we know that in today's fast-paced world, things are moving so fast that having control over your online interactions is absolutely crucial. So we know that we know that you want a good online experience and we understand that managing your account efficiently can significantly enhance your user experience, because it's going to make you want to come back and use it more and more when you're feeling good about it and you know where the buttons are, where to go to get stuff. It's just going to make it a much better experience for you. So, whether you're existing, already working with us now, or you're new to the platform, we have a really detailed, robust account management system designed to provide you with the tools that you need to streamline your operations, ok, and to make better decisions.

So we're going to dive into some of those nuances today. And one thing to know before we get into this podcast too far there is an article that goes along with this, ok, and within that article, there's links for everything we're going to talk about today. So we'll have those in the show notes as well for you listeners out there. We're going to talk about today, so we'll have those in the show notes as well for you listeners out there. But definitely check out the article, because that article has all the links for all the videos, all the areas that we're going to be pointing to.

So if you have questions and want to lean in and learn more, or maybe you're an existing ECO customer but you don't have an ECO online account, this is going to be absolutely invaluable for you so that you can know how to do this with confidence moving forward. And the cool part is it's really easy. We've really hit the easy button to streamline that for you to get started, okay Now. So first thing you have to do when you start working with any online platform, just like any account you have out there, even when you think about your Amazon account you have to get registered. Okay, so we're going to have some links in the show notes again, links in this article for you to get registered. So if you're an existing customer of electrical equipment company, we won't. What we want to make for you is have that instant access to personalized pricing availability to, so you can register quotes online. You can start your start to return process, all these different things, directly from the website. So registering for that online account is super easy, because what you do is you navigate to Eco Online and you'll see a login register drop down and you just register for account right there, and from that registration page you'll get an option Do you have an existing account with an electric equipment company or not? If you do, you just click yes, and from there it gives you a registration form, and with that you will need your account number. From there, though, you're just filling in boxes, okay, and once you do that, there's a verification process that we're going to go through to make sure everything is verified and set up correctly on our end, and then you'll get that confirmation email and you'll be able to start making those, those, those solutions and purchases, directly online right there. So it's super easy if you're existing.

Now, if you're new to eco, there's a little bit of a difference, a way to work through this, but it's still. We try to make things extremely easy. So what you do is you go there and when you hit, when you hit, no, when you get to, but to the yeah, I want to set up an account. Are you an existing customer. You say no. From there, what we do is we automatically reroute you to a credit application. Okay, so this is going to be a pop-up, it's going to be right there, and from that, you just follow the instructions on the credit application. You send it in. Now, upon the approval of the account itself, you're going to get an account number, which is really what you need. That's the keys to unlocking the system, and from there, you can proceed with the existing customer registration steps. Okay, so that whole process of yes, I have an account now. Now, boom, boom, boom, boom and you'll be set up in no time. Okay, so that's a really great, great, great area of it.

Now there are also some advanced account management features that we want you to just be known to know about once you get into the system, and the first thing is that you have that customized homepage. Okay, because you'll have that personalized homepage where you can quickly access your account management links. So if you want to view recent orders, or if you want to contact your account representative and you're not really sure what their maybe their cell phone number is, we'll have all that here. So this hub is designed to put everything you need right there, right at your fingertips, so you don't have to worry about where can I find this, where can I find that? Again, easy button, and within the account management system as well, you even have a dashboard. So think of the dashboard as like the command center. Okay, so you can manage everything from the dashboard. So you can update your user profiles, you can view different things, you can change ship to addresses, you can change the user roles and permissions within your account. So this is a very comprehensive tool to give you complete control of your operations. I literally think of like just a dashboard for like a command center, like in a flight tower or something like that. You have all the power right there.

And then the cool part as well is we have quick navigation. So if you want to navigate to the most salient features, it's never been easier, because the my Account drop-down really offers you that quick links to manage your products, to manage your orders, to manage your account settings. And what we're trying to do with this part of the process is to give you a seamless experience every time you log in. Because you want to log in. We want you to get familiar enough with the system so that when you do log in, you know exactly where to go to get what you need. Okay, all right. Now a cool part we're going to. Really, we've really worked to simplify logistics as well, because we know so many of you out there have different locations and buildings and things like that that you want materials sent to, and there's nothing more frustrating than to have the stuff sent to the wrong place. We get it. So we're going to make this a super easy breeze for you with this online process.

So what you'll be able to do is you'll be able to view or change addresses directly. So let's say that you have a new warehouse or a new area within your company that you want to start shipping product to. Hey, you can go right here to the ship to drop down arrow and you can request a new ship to address. That's it. You request that address. It usually takes just give you a little warning. It's going to take 48 to 72 hours. Give yourself two or three days, okay, and what it's going to do, that's going to update into your account dashboard and then, once that's been approved and you've got everything set up, you'll be able to go in directly right there and select that ship to that you want to use for future orders? Okay, so it's really really neat that you want to use for future orders. Okay, so it's really really neat. Now, when you're in there as well, you can personalize your profile so you can come into the profile information and you can use the quick navigation again to get there. Then you can edit your name, your email, your password as needed, because we want to make sure that your profile is as accurate as possible.

So sometimes emails and addresses change, or sometimes you want to update your passwords from a security standpoint. This is where you do it. And so far as that password, let's say you forget it we make the password recovery very easy. So we recognize it can be so frustrating. There's so many different password managers out there. I totally get it. It can be hard, but recovering that ECO1 is very simple. You just basically log over I'm not hover over about that that login and registration drop-down arrow. There's a forget your password link. You just click on that, the standard process that you would go through request a button, request a new password, and it's going to be sent to that email account. Here's the key the email account that is associated with your account. That's where that email is going to go to and from there you just get you know, reset your password as usual.

Okay, now we also have a really great way that you can manage the users within a system, because I know that could be such a big deal. So we have what are called roles within the eco online system. Well, we have three primary roles. We have an administrator, and that administrator manages the users. They place the orders and they approve orders. Okay, so that's a very that's. That's the high end. Then you have authorized purchasing, purchasing agent roles. So these, so these individuals, can place orders without approval. And then we also have a general user. They can view products, they can check out prices, availability and they can also submit orders, but they have to be approved.

So what we have going on here is with the administrator. They're set up to manage the company's users and usually the way it works is the first company I'm sorry, the first user within a company to register for an account, they're going to automatically be the administrator. So let's say that someone did that and you're their purchase procurement manager. Well, you'll need to send an email to us, a request, and we can be able to change those roles directly for you, because once an administrator exists for account, that administrator themselves must add and manage to inexperienced users to their company's account. So there's some responsibility that comes with that and we want to make sure that responsibility lies in the person that you want within your company.

And so far as creating new users, it's super easy. Again. You just you navigate to the quick, to the quick navigation or account dashboard. You find the users page. We actually have a set up users page and this is just for administrators. Now, again, just for administrators. If you won't be able to see this, if you're not an administrator, you just create a new user button. You won't be able to see this if you're not an administrator. You just create a new user button. You fill out the form and what we do is we send a welcome email to the new user to validate and verify for them that they are in. I ask them to promptly get a new password and from there you just set the role which you want for the user to have and you're ready to rock and roll.

Now, sometimes you do want to change user roles. In quick navigation on the account dashboard, I found that user's page and from there you can hover over the user that you want to update, click the edit button and then maybe you want to update the. You can update the user's information, the password, or change the user's role, or you can even even disable a user. So let's say you had a. Unfortunately, sometimes you need to. People leave companies and you want to make sure that they don't have access to the system. Super easy, right there, you just disable them. Right there, take that enable checkbox away and click save and at that point, moving forward, they can't get into the system. So it's just another way of security that we're trying to help you to give you at your fingertips.

Ok, now, one of the things we're pretty excited about is we have a dedicated support and we have on demand chat. So that's just pretty cool how this works. We actually have, if you need assistance, we have a Web support team that is available. That is available through an on-demand chat. So basically, just like most of the e-commerce platforms, you go to you, click on the chat icon on any page, submit your information and you get prompted directly to our dedicated team, and that's a great way when you're in the moment and you don't want to pick up the phone. You just want to. Maybe you want to work on something else while somebody else is figuring out this pricing or this part number for you. Just have that chat going on another screen. Boom, we'll take care of it. We'll help you out in your direct communication with us there. If you're an existing customer, your accounts representative contact is always going to be available within that account dashboard. So let's say, you don't want to use that on-demand chat and you need to talk to somebody, but you don't really know who to call. Tell you what right there. Just log in, click right over there to your account dashboard and you'll see who is your assigned representatives for our electrical equipment company and you can call them directly. You can email them. All their contact information is right there so you can make a very informed in-the-moment decision moving forward.

So what we've done here for all these different areas we know it can be hard, just if you're listening to this hey, you got these ideas, okay, now you need to go implement it. So what we did I actually was able to go through and make videos on how to do this, little tutorials on our Eco Online knowledge base. So every one of these areas from the registration process, we made a video for that, on how you do that. Okay, the account management features made a video for that so you can see exactly how that works. If you want to understand how you set up to ship to, we have a video for that so we can show you directly, with a little short video, how to make that work. So far as managing your user profiles, again made a short video here as well, and then we did a video also for streamlining that user management and creating and managing users. I want to make sure that you know exactly how to do that. And the last video is around that dedicated support, ensuring exactly where to go and how that support works. Hey, we put it all right there. So, again, all those are on our YouTube channel as well.

But again, the primary area where you can get all this information is on our latest article, so go check it out. Definitely we will have a link in the show notes for this podcast for you directly where you can go check out ECO online. And then I also encourage you to check out ECO on LinkedIn, because what we do on LinkedIn, we put those articles as newsletters and sometimes things can get lost in the mail, but what we'll do here. Each and every month, we'll publish that newsletter. You subscribe to the Eco Inspire newsletter, you'll get all the information, and for this month, you'll get all the links that we're talking about here today.

Okay, so we are very, very committed to enhancing your user experience and the robust system that we have in place. It's pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome. It's very intuitive, but it's all about that user experience and if you leverage our platform correctly, you can really streamline your operations. You can improve some efficiencies that's going on with your facility and you can focus on what truly matters, and that's growing your business. We know that, at the end of the day, it's not about buying parts. You need to grow your business. Our job is to make it easier for you to do that, and we feel like we've done a really good job with this and looking forward to serving you out there for you, utilizing the value of eco online. So again, I'd encourage you to discover the power of that.

Seamless account management what does that look like? Go get your account set up. Seamless account management. What does that look like? Go get your account set up, even if you're not a purchasing manager, anything like that. Maybe you're just a you work with with the equipment directly or, uh, you're even even someone who's just every now then you want to look up a part and you just need something for projects. We have a opportunity for you because once you're in this system, not only will you be able to look up parts, but you'll be able to see some availability. You'll be able to get some drawings and some items that you may need to make the project go smoothly. So definitely want to check it out. And again, what we're going to be doing over the next several months on Eco Asks why is we're going to be unpacking some more of these items on the knowledge base each and every month and that'll probably take us, to be honest, all the way out through the rest of this 2024. So I'm excited because there's been a lot of work put into this knowledge base, because we know, at the end of the day, if we can elevate your knowledge and help you grow and understand how to utilize systems that we have put in place and we've made the investment in it's only going to make you stronger.

So we're super pumped about it and definitely would encourage you to again check us out on ECO on LinkedIn. Follow us there, subscribe to the ECO Inspire newsletter. That's a big area where you can support us. And then YouTube. We're always on YouTube. And then the big thing is just let us know how we can serve you, because, at the end of the day, it's all about people and ideas over the products, and we are committed to serving you at the highest level possible.

And so, as someone who's been for ECO for 22, 24, a long, long time, a long long time, I can say one thing the management, the people, the team, operations, sales we're all dedicated to one thing, that's helping and serving you to the best of our ability. That's what it's about. So, again, utilize the tools that we have, take a look. If you have questions about any of these resources, reach out. Reach out to your account manager, to your account representative. I'll reach out to just call the branch. If you need to Just ask to speak to someone directly, guarantee you will find that attitude of service, ready to respond to help you out. So again, hopefully you're enjoying eco.

Ask why. Definitely give us a rating and review. If you like it, share it out, particularly if you're, if you use our online platform, you think someone else in your facility or other facilities may benefit from it. Share this episode out. It's a great way just to say, hey, here's a distributor that's doing something pretty cool. We want to make sure you take advantage of it, so we would definitely appreciate that. Other than that, looking forward to hanging out with you guys next month and just really enjoying this format and we also have lots of other different videos on Eco Online as well we can help you, try to grow and just educate you as you move forward, so give us that rating review.

Thank you again so much for spending some time with us, and you should know what's coming by now. Remember to keep asking why. Thank you for listening to. Eeco Asks why this show is supported ad-free by Electrical Equipment Company. Eeco is redefining the expectations of an electrical distributor by placing people and ideas before products. Please subscribe and share with your colleagues and friends. Also leave comments, feedback and any new topics that you would like to hear. To learn more or to share your insights, visit EECOASYcom. That's E-E-C-O-A-S-K-S-W-H-YCOM.