Bike Tyrestore pumps up its customer service with NetDespatch

NetDespatch web services have revolutionised customer service at Bike Tyrestore, the UK's largest motorbike tyre wholesaler.  NetDespatch has supplied its Velocity web-based shipping, tracking and systems integration services to provide a live system that seamlessly connects Bike Tyrestore's call centre, warehouse despatch operation and 3000 plus customers nationwide, with their express delivery parcel carrier APC Overnight.

This seamless real-time integration represents one of the most advanced web implementations of its type. Bike Tyrestore selected APC Overnight because of the added traceability and service benefits made possible by the NetDespatch web services. As a result Bike Tyrestore has been able to introduce significant improvements in its leading-edge logistics, delivery and customer care operations.

Orders received at Bike Tyrestore's central Birmingham call centre are booked by telesales staff into Cameo, a specially developed management system from Gloucestershire-based CAM Systems.  The Cameo system prints picking notes and invoices in the Bike Tyrestore warehouse located several miles away. Cameo also shares this despatch information with the NetDespatch Velocity Connector application, which immediately sends the booking via a secure Internet connection to the NetDespatch web servers.

The NetDespatch Velocity enterprise labelling system prints APC Overnight bar-coded despatch labels to a printer in the warehouse, to be collated with the Cameo paper-work, ready to be attached to the tyres. The tyres are then collected several times a day by Trax Express systems, the local APC Overnight depot.

Bike Tyrestore is part of BMTR, the motor tyre group formed in 1919 and today headed by Peter and Paul Smith, grandsons of founder "JJ" Smith. The Bike Tyrestore brand was created in 1993 and has since grown by 500%; it is ranked the top UK tyre wholesaler and is the main outlet for Bridgestone, market leaders in the UK.

Bike Tyrestore has long been an IT innovator and with the introduction of NetDespatch web services and the move to APC, the company has once again implemented some industry-first developments. These include nationwide next day deliveries, full web-based track and trace from collection to delivery, and special luggage-type tags for APC despatch labelling. Other new developments include automated delivery-time e-mails to customers to alert them to incoming deliveries.

"If used well, technology can play a key role in achieving a market lead and that is certainly the case with the NetDespatch web services.  It has been possible to make the switch to APC Overnight without interruption to our daily operations and the seamless flow of data from call centre to carrier has been a real revelation. It has opened up all sorts of opportunities for improving both our warehouse operations and our customer service which would not have been possible twelve months ago" comments Peter Smith, Joint Managing Director of Bike Tyrestore.