Tags: Will Call
Almost anyone who’s attended a sporting event or concert is familiar with the will call counter – the place at a venue where you can pick up those prized tickets just ahead of the big game or performance.
At The Macomb Group’s Sterling Heights (Mich.) location, the will call counter team plays a winning game every day, helping customers find the right materials for their projects, working from a massive 100,000-piece parts inventory.
Two of the team members, Randy Gray and Ken Ensman, recently took time to discuss their roles running the will call counter. Both Randy and Ken are Macomb Group veteran team members with extensive product knowledge.
“The best part of the job,” says Randy, “is being able to make a customer’s order still work even when the exact materials they asked for aren’t available right then.”
For Ken, his work satisfaction comes from “meeting and assisting new people every day, waiting on numerous customers.”
Problem solving is at the heart of the will call counter, according to Randy.
“It’s about listening to our customers’ needs and using our product experience to fulfill orders they’ve come to pick up that, for example, may have an issue, such as parts that are on back order,” he says. “We collaborate with our customers to find alternatives that will do the job.”
At its heart, the best thing about the will call counter, adds Randy, is making sure “to the best of our ability, that the customer can get their job done when they leave our counter, the transaction successfully completed.”
Ken notes that courtesy and good listening skills play a key part in their role, as well as “getting the customers in and out in a timely manner.”
According to Randy, the pandemic drastically altered the customer relations dynamic at will call.
“It caused us to be creative in delivering materials. Instead of handing customers merchandise directly from the counter if they chose to pick up here, we would label their materials and place them on skids just outside the counter area,” he recalls.
Randy and Ken say they’re proud to be part of the Macomb Group team and live true to the company’s overriding business philosophy: “Built to Say Yes.”
