Greater emphasis needed on product information management

To ensure organisations stay one step ahead, it is imperative they invest in the correct technology that not only improves efficiency but also enhances the customer experience. One way this can be achieved is by having the right Product Information Management (PIM) system in place, according to OneTimePIM.

PIM is a growing industry, with more businesses adopting the software year on year. As we move further towards the age of digitalisation and eCommerce, good organisation of product information is vital. Having the correct system in place can also make it much quicker and easier to access information for customer support teams. That means, when there is a customer on the other side of the phone, your staff can find the information they need and pass it on almost immediately.

Dr Pat Violaris, Managing Director at OneTimePIM, said: “Customer experience is essential to a business’s success. Satisfied customers equal repeat business and recommendations. Recent research found that 80% of people will stop doing business with a company because of poor customer experience. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a B2C or B2B company, it’s important to provide customers with the information they need when they need it.

“It is vital for organisations to build a strong trust and form a relationship with customers and one of the key ways of doing this is to be transparent about your products. People want to buy products with good information. You would be more likely to buy a phone if you could view all of the technical specifications then if you could not. That is why it is important to ensure product information is up-to-date, accurate, and consistent across all platforms. With full disclosure of your products information, there is also less worry about getting into trouble over customer's health and safety, which could be an issue if product information is stored and displayed incorrectly.”

As more organisations look to expand, they come across new sets of issues. A breakdown in communication is one example, which is often experienced through data silos. Often organisations find it difficult to share or access data across multiple departments.

Dr Violaris continued: “A data silo is a collection of data held by one group that is not easily or fully accessible by other groups in the same organisation. PIM Systems eliminate these in relation to product data because all departments have access to the same single source of truth. This encourages collaboration across departments and enhances team morale. For example, the technical team may need to update attributes like length, height and weight. Once this is done, the marketing team can come in and write rich product descriptions and titles without having to ask other teams to send further information.

“Most importantly, any system that increases efficiency of an employee’s job, while removing the need to manually perform repetitive, monotonous tasks is likely to increase employee happiness, which in turn impacts the happiness of customers. With a central location for all of the company's product data, the stress of trying to find the latest product information from different parts of the company is eliminated and allows employees to focus on other important areas of the business”, concluded Dr Violaris.