The idea behind standing orders is to satisfy a customer’s desire to have one or more disposable item automatically shipped to them on a regularly recurring basis. The benefit to the customer is clear: They won’t have to remember, nor take the time, to reorder coffee beans, wine, nutritional supplements, pistachio nuts, incense, kitty litter, air cleaner filters, or whatever else they may want to replenish on a regular basis. The benefit to the cataloger is the ideal customer—one who not only places repeat orders but has them generated automatically like clockwork. Any opportunity you find to entice customers to sign up for a standing order program should be pursued very aggressively.

Response is integrated to work along side of CASS address correction services. Addresses are checked, corrected (zip+4 is added) and standardized during data entry. Real-time address correction is also available for all touch points including order entry, order importing, plus customer, prospect and vendor maintenance. Batch updating of existing records can be performed as well.

The Response Counter Sales (CS) Module is designed to take retail (point-of-sale) orders where the customer is present and the inventory is sold, paid for and delivered on the spot. CS supports item barcode scanning, credit card swipe and receipt printing (credit card and sales receipts, both of which are fully user-configurable).

Response provides for “automated order entry” from web storefronts as well as call center service providers such as Midco Call Center, New England 800, West Telemarketing, Watts, and many others. This is accomplished by exporting the order data in the prescribed manner (or, alternatively, you can create a template to match the existing format which may differ from our standard). In short, your call center or web site will export the raw order data to a file formatted either

The RESPONSE Telephony Interface (RTI) is now available for users running RESPONSE v9 build 4023 or later. RTI seamlessly links Response to your phone system to automatically provide call-driven database look-ups and screen-pops to CSRs inside Response as incoming calls are routed to them. RTI is 100% TAPI-compliant making it vendor agnostic and, consequently, compatible with the vast majority of business telephone systems on the market today.

The advantages of telephony integration in the call center are huge. Having a caller’s complete record automatically appear on an agent’s screen without any intervention is reason enough to invest in telephony integration. But the benefits don’t stop there. When an existing customer calls, their summary history is provided and pre-filled Order Entry and Customer Service options are a single click or hotkey away. RTI supports multi-company and multi-division installations and can even display multiple hits for selection when the same phone number is assigned to multiple records (e.g. a husband and wife at the same address). The RTI summary screen includes name, date of last purchase, # lifetime orders and lifetime dollars spent by the customer. Links to drill-down into customer history are also provided. In addition, by assigning specific inbound telephone numbers to specific promotions the CSR can be automatically advised which promotion the customer is responding to. These are all features that are typically found in more costly and proprietary phone switch products.

The Manifest Interface Module allows you integrate your manifest software with Response. This module allows your manifest software to read printed order information from Response and send back shipping information to Response. Most manifest packages (UPS and CPS/Harvey included) today allow you to automate this process using Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) to move data to, and from your Manifest system. ODBC is the preferred manifest setup today.

The UPS OnLine® Tools module in Response for Windows provides the following functionality:

• Real-Time package tracking – UPS Tracking can also improve internal business processes such as accounting and customer service. For example, when a customer calls about the status of a recent shipment, your Customer Service Representative can view specific details about the shipment, including the time and location of each scan as the package moves toward its final destination. With this information, your representative can quickly and efficiently deliver top-notch customer service.
• Shipping Rate Calculator for all UPS service levels – This powerful UPS OnLine®Tool identifies all the available UPS domestic and international services and displays shipping rates based on a package’s specifications. This empowers you to compare, price and select the shipping services that best fit your customers’ needs and budgets. For example, your customers can choose express services, like UPS Next Day Air, when they need their packages right away and standard services, like UPS Ground, when they have more time for delivery.