Creating a next-level customer experience that drives innovation

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See for yourself: Eaton’s experience centres let customers go beyond the catalogue or specification sheet and see the solutions in person – and often in action (iStock)

Wesco is a Business Reporter client.

Immersive environments can pave the way for deeper, more collaborative customer relationships that lead to stronger outcomes.

There’s tremendous power in trust, especially in business. When customers trust that you have their best interests in mind, they’re more likely to have open, honest conversations about their goals and challenges.

But how do you create that kind of relationship with your customers? How do you create an environment where they trust you to not only solve their problems, but also address challenges they didn’t even know they had?

The key is creating a powerful, tailored and immersive experience that showcases your expertise and provides free-flowing collaboration. Anyone can simply sell a product. Truly becoming part of the customer journey and helping them achieve their goals sets the foundation for successful, long-term partnerships.

At Wesco and Eaton, we’ve channelled that passion for becoming a valued, trusted partner into innovation and experience centres specifically designed to solve our customers’ challenges. These are more than simple tours or presentations. They’re intentionally designed to provide value and benefits beyond the challenge the customer is looking to overcome.

Seeing solutions in action

To begin with, these centres let customers go beyond the catalogue or specification sheet and see the solutions in person – and often in action. At Eaton’s experience centres, customers learn about industry best practices and the latest innovations through hands-on demos and training in multiple application environments. For example, customers can see how employees can be better safeguarded with electrical system testing products that prevent recordable injury incidents.

The Wesco Innovation Center also lets customers take advantage of both a breadth and depth of solutions, thanks to a robust partner ecosystem with manufacturers such as Eaton. Whether you are trying to leverage technology to better secure a facility or improve your production line efficiency, a range of solutions can be explored. And, if a deeper dive into a specific solution is needed, Wesco and its manufacturer partners can provide that through various options, including via Wesco’s Infrastructure Solutions Lab, a 4,000 square-foot lab dedicated to researching, testing and evaluating solutions to help customers meet their application challenges.

Customers can also see how seemingly disparate solutions – such as lighting, IoT and network infrastructure – can come together to enhance operations. At the end of the day, it’s all about giving customers confidence that their unique needs and challenges will be met.

Harnessing the power of design thinking

Every visit is tailored to address the customers’ particular challenges, but the real value comes from being able to generate an honest and collaborative conversation and identifying key challenges. Then, determining what goals and outcomes the customers and their various stakeholders are looking to achieve. But taking the time to understand each perspective allows for the creation of an end-to-end solution that best addresses everyone’s needs.

This type of approach often lets the customer address challenges they didn’t even know they had, or find better solutions based on their goals. For example, a hospital might want to upgrade their lighting to be more energy efficient or implement electric charging solutions to help employees and patients. This may require them to update their electrical infrastructure or investigate if a microgrid could provide a more reliable, resilient and sustainable energy solution.

Identifying potential solutions is often just the first step in addressing a challenge. Innovation and experience centres allow customers to leverage our subject matter experts (SMEs) and implement both technology and deployment plans to execute projects on time and under budget.

ISP expands its service offering

A recent example that highlights the value an innovation can provide to customers. A large internet service provider (ISP) wanted to build out their suite of product offerings to their customers in order to stay competitive in a tight market.

Visiting the innovation centre allowed them to identify a new IoT solution that could create a new revenue stream and provide more value to their customers. Had the ISP’s representatives not visited, they might not have known that Wesco could help with applications engineering, sourcing solutions in various regions, training and leveraging our global logistics network to help them scale deployments across the globe.

Joining customers on their journey

Many businesses, regardless of industry, are facing challenges on several fronts – from labour shortages to supply chain issues and cost pressures. At the same time, they’re often tasked with meeting environmental or energy-related goals. Innovation and ingenuity are key to addressing these challenges, whether that’s by way of advanced technology and connected solutions or by finding a more efficient way to source materials. This means off-the-shelf fixes often won’t cut it.

Businesses need to be confident that their partners genuinely understand their unique needs and are prepared to help them achieve their goals. Innovation and experience centres, such as those at Wesco and Eaton, are an excellent way to foster a relationship of trust and help customers on their journey to success. When done correctly, they can provide several powerful benefits to the customer, and make a meaningful impact on their goals and objectives.

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Scott Dowell, Senior Vice President and General Manager, US Industrial, Wesco

In his current role, Scott is responsible for leading the strategy, execution and growth of Wesco’s industrial, automation, institutional and government end-users across the US.

Scott has over 28 years of experience in distribution and joined Wesco in 2007 to lead a strategic accounts team within the utility business.

Since joining the company, he has held multiple sales and leadership roles, most recently leading Global Accounts for Wesco before the acquisition of Anixter.

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Dan Carnovale, Director, Experience Centers, Eaton

Dan is the director of the Eaton Experience Centers in Pittsburgh and Houston, where tens of thousands of visitors and industry professionals have come to learn about Eaton’s electrical solutions for power quality, efficiency and safety.  In previous roles at Eaton, Dan led a group of engineers performing power quality analysis and conducted hundreds of power quality site investigations for commercial, industrial and utility power systems. Prior to Eaton, Dan worked for Westinghouse Engineering Services and ABB Power T&D.

Dan has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Gannon University in Erie, PA, a master’s degree in power systems from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY and an MBA from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. He is a registered professional engineer in the states of Pennsylvania, California and Alaska, a certified energy manager (CEM) and a senior member of IEEE.

To learn more about Eaton’s experience centres, visit eaton.com/experience and for Wesco’s solutions visit www.wesco.com.