Full disclosure
The Internet is making us soft. If we can’t click to find something, it’s going to stay hidden. So now that this e-commerce phenomenon is in full swing, I did my best to do my Christmas shopping from home, filling my “shopping cart” with CDs, DVDs and books from Internet retailers. When I couldn’t buy it online, though, most manufacturers’ sites did offer a list of local bricks-and-mortar stores that would be happy to take my money. Enter your zip code, and a plethora of purchasing options appear.
Although two-way radios and trunking systems weren’t on the top of any of my family member’s Christmas lists, I started to wonder, “If I want to find my local radio dealer, how do I do it online?” I guess I could pick up the Yellow Pages and flip to “Radios-Dealers,” but come on, this is the 21st century. Phone books are sooo 1999.
After a quick perusal of the Web sites of Motorola, Com-Net Ericsson and Kenwood, it becomes quite apparent that the radio industry hasn’t reached this level of Internet sophistication. Motorola’s “dealer locator” page offers a toll-free number for dealer information, which is a small step in the right direction. Com-Net’s site has links to local district sales managers, and it plans to offer access to dealer lists in the near future. Kenwood’s site, on the other hand, will display a map of local audio component dealers, but as far as LMR dealers are concerned, no dice.
Manufacturers hold their dealer networks close to their chests – the prospect of losing one to the competition is enough to keep executives up nights – so the argument could be made that no one wants to make such information so easy to find. But the real losers in this scenario are the dealers themselves. At a time when the usefulness of the Internet as an informational tool is at an all-time high, dealers stand to lose a substantial foothold in the new economy if their manufacturers deny them the exposure the Web can offer. Motorola’s Web site is a little easier to find than Bob’s Radios and Repeaters’, so the big boys owe it to their dealers to rely on some good old-fashioned name-brand recognition.