Continental Tire improves dealer ordering

Nov. 15, 2004

Continental Tire North America Inc. (CTNA) is taking new steps to improve its dealer order processes.

CTNA’s passenger and light truck replacement group recently centralized its Call Center sales group at the company’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., to improve its phone ordering process and expanded its online ordering system, ContiLink.

ContiLink, one of the tire industry’s leading on-line order systems, has boosted business sevenfold in the last year, and quadrupled its registered members.

"ContiLink is an easy-to-use dealer tool that provides concise tire inventory and an exact shipping information," says Dan Clark, Great Lakes Group coordinator of the Tire Alliance Group.

To maintain user satisfaction, CTNA continuously introduced several new features on ContiLink over the last year. Web-only specials on selected products, purchased through ContiLink, were well received by dealer members, according to the company.

In addition, ContiLink is now also offering daily sales reports, packing lists, enhanced order tracking and a new information section, as well as on-line claims processing for some accounts.

In the near future, ContiLink will provide access for co-op and G.O.L.D. programs, national account claim file imports and marketing section enhancements.

To further enhance service to dealers, CTNA has centralized its Call Center sales group. Today, tire sales professionals, who are organized into fully dedicated account teams, have immediate access to corporate information. In the past, regional offices across North America shared responsibilities and were only involved in an account’s regional business.

"This new structure provides our customers with teams dedicated to their account. At the same time, every Call Center person has direct access to all corporate programs, tools and members of both the passenger and light truck marketing and sales teams," says Andreas Gerstenberger, vice president of replacement passenger and light truck tire sales and marketing.

"Our new Call Center organization mirrors and complements our Key and Corporate Account sales team structure. We’ve received very positive feedback from our customers about our new structures, and we believe this is clearly another step toward Continental’s goal of becoming the most customer-oriented tire manufacturer."