Tag: user experience

EXAIR’s New and Improved Website

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Evolution and constant growth are merely two constants in the life of a living business. Here at EXAIR we strive to develop new efficient and safe ways to utilize one of the costly utilities industries see, compressed air. In order to convey the information on everything we have we continually update and add items to our website. Yes, we still have a print catalog, that is still one of my favorite places to pull data from when discussing parts with customers over the phone or through online chat, it is not always as updated as our site though. With that note, we also just launched a brand new EXAIR.com.

Visit http://www.exair.com and explore our new website today!

The new site features all the information you are accustomed to from EXAIR that helps feed the data driven desires of any engineer and also makes it easy to navigate to the exact item you are looking for, add it to your cart, and get it shipped to you as well. Our new site makes it easier to locate detailed information like performance specs and dimensions, available materials and the different kit offerings we have for each product. This site reacts quicker and the look has been simplified to provide an improved user experience.

Some of the new benefits include hi resolution images for each product, 60+ native 2D and 3D CAD extensions prevent you from converting other files to work with your modeling software. Downloadable .pdf files include our complete catalog or just each product section. Related videos, FAQ’s and Case Studies are all presented with a specific product. The videos include all the wonderfully helpful videos from the Application Engineer team which provide tips, tricks and demonstrations for many of our products.

One of the most helpful features for someone who may not know exactly what they need to solve their problem is to navigate through the Solutions pathway to easily walk through over 1,000 existing product applications that are discoverable through the type of application or the industry the product application serves. You will see the multitude of problems and solutions EXAIR products are capable of solving and providing.

This is all while keeping the methods to contact us which includes our live chat option that even has some new benefits as well. We can now send you the quote you need, CAD models, or catalog sections all through the chat window while we are talking. If you need fast information and assistance, the chat feature is for you! Of course, feel free to call or e-mail as well.

Managing your account details, like adding multiple shipping locations, changing an e-mail address or retrieving your order history have also been improved and friendlier to modify. Do you already know the model number you would like to order – use the Quick Order function to get it right into your cart and complete an order. Check out the new EXAIR.com today!

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
E-mail: BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_BF

User Experience vs. Customer Service

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

An article caught my eye a few days ago. The subject was about good careers for the future. Having three kids, I have interest in things about the future. But beyond that point, one of the careers sparked my interest, or rather, skepticism.

The “User Experience Manager” who should have a Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s preferred. And who would potentially make solid money according to the article.

Here is how the article describes it:
               “What’s user experience? Why, its what happened to you when you went to get your new drivers license or when you, say, read a captivating column online about professional opportunities. User experience managers were first widely seen in Web-design firms, focusing on a website in development from the viewpoint of a user who would eventually have to navigate the thing. Now, user experience is the watchword for banks, insurance companies, restaurants and virtually any company that has reason to evaluate and improve the way its customers and prospective customers encounter its people and processes”

Why am I skeptical about a user experience manager? Because it’s a new watchword as the article states, it’s a refocusing, a convergence upon the customer. And I ask; shouldn’t a focus upon the customer have already been in place for any business around before the “user experience manager” was in vogue? In fact it sounds an awful lot like a customer service manager or public relations manager – have companies lost focus on customer service so badly that traditional managers are being usurped by a user experience manager? And better yet it points to a breakdown in a whole population of employees whose job it is to treat customers properly if they need another titled manager to come in and help customer relations. It seems to be a veiled attempt to make themselves feel better for trying to improve things.

But that’s just my take, I’ll take the good old-fashioned customer service manager any day. Fortunately for EXAIR, the leadership of this company has never lost focus upon treating the customer properly. Since Roy Sweeney started the company 28 years ago, he has made it a point to make sure his employees understand the importance of the user experience when it was still called customer service. Keeping the user experience at the top of his priorities all these years has led to a population of employees who understand what is important to this company. And when we understand what is important to EXAIR we also learn…

  • To care about our customers, listen to them and help them.
  • To become knowledgable about products, service and resources available to customers.
  • To be accountable and responsible to make decisions without a necessity to refer problems up the line.
  • To solve customer problems quickly and effectively.

I’m glad to say I haven’t heard of any plans for a customer experience manager at EXAIR. We will leave it to the banks and insurance companies and restaurants to hire them, we all know they lost focus a long time ago anyway. In fact I will even be so bold to say – if you are considering hiring a customer experience manager yourself, expose them to EXAIR to learn a thing or two. I can imagine they would all be prepared with their Blackberries, and laptops and all the new technology tools they think will be helpful – only to find out it’s not the tools that will help the customer, it is the people behind them. Kind of like this…

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com
@EXAIR_KE