Bishop & Associates, the first port of call for anyone looking for top dollar research into the connector industry, has just released the results of its 2011 Distribution Survey.
The research is north America-based but still gives some good insight into what customers expect from their distributors. The good news is that most respondents fell the distribution sector does a good job in meeting their needs.
Pricing came top as the most important criteria for choosing a distributor, closely followed by availability of product and on-time delivery.
Bishop & Associates were surprised to find web sites ranked seventh on the list of criteria, though the company notes that customers see web sites as givens and now expect excellence in this area.
Digi-Key came top in the web site category, ahead of Mouser, and then Allied, the US arm of Electrocomponents.
Respondents encompassed engineers, purchasers, operations, sales management and general management.
To find out more about this research go to http://www.connectorsupplier.com/Facts_Figures/ind_fact_figures_DistributorSurvey_9-6-11.htm
Thanks for the clarification, Lou. It makes the research even more relevant for European reader.
Posted by: Mick Elliott | September 08, 2011 at 05:05 PM
A note of clarification - Bishop&Associates is North American based, but has facilities and researchers in Europe and Asia as well.
The 2011 Distributor Survey was sent to customers in all regions of the world. While the majority of responses did come from US, more than 300 completed surveys came from outside North America. The majority of those were from Europe. Customers that would like to receive future survey questionnaires should contact phanika@bishopinc.com. For more information, contact the author at llipomi@bishopinc.com
Posted by: Lou Lipomi | September 08, 2011 at 03:26 PM