For distributors, manufacturers and wholesalers
It should be the thing that asks. Not a spreadsheet upload, not a survey every Tuesday — a question after the order closed short, the invoice finally cleared, or the quote went to somebody else.
Why timing beats frequency
Send it on the first of the month and you get a shrug. Send it four days after a shipment arrived two weeks late and you get the truth, in detail, from someone who still remembers the part number.
The moments that decide whether somebody keeps buying from you are already recorded in your system: an order finished, an invoice cleared, a return resolved, a quote lost. Nothing else reads them.
The moments
| When | What you learn |
|---|---|
| An order closes out | Whether the thing they bought actually did the job |
| An invoice clears | Whether the whole transaction went smoothly, paperwork included |
| You lose a quote | Why they went elsewhere — almost nobody asks this, and it's the most useful answer you'll get |
| A first order lands | Whether a new relationship started well, while you can still fix it |
| A return is resolved | Whether you actually made it right, or just processed it |
You choose which of those fire, and how long to wait after each. We read your account first and tell you how many that would be a month — using your numbers, not a benchmark.
Three problems specific to your business
The median account is small and one is often a quarter of the business. Count them as one vote each and you get a number that describes nobody. Avota ranks by what you're willing to tell us — your own A/B/C tiers, how often they order, or revenue if you'd rather.
On the first real ERP we connected, 97% of orders carried an email address — and 77% of those were the company's own staff. The rest were shared accounts-payable inboxes. Build the obvious thing and you email your own accounting department. We don't use that field, and we tell you why using your figures.
A buyer, a maintenance lead, a plant engineer and a controller all have different opinions and only one of them signs the PO. Scores roll up to the account, and the screen tells you when you've only heard from one voice — which is not the same as good news.
A good customer might order 30 times a year. Ask every time and you've trained them to delete your emails. Each person hears from you once every six months, however much they buy — and we simulate every rule against your history before it can be switched on.
Connecting
NetSuite today. Front for working out which human to ask, if you use it. A spreadsheet works too.