Stakeholder Research: Live Call Interviews Synthesis

Executive Summary

12 stakeholders participated in 10 live call interviews between November-December 2025: Honorata Grzebielucha (Sales Director UK/EU), Linda Yang (Sales Director China), Ricardo Munoz (Sales Director Mexico), Cristy Sanchez (Sales, Mexico), Jim Boehm (Beckett Division Sales Manager), Dave Koester (Cleartec Division Sales Manager), Shawn Halley (Director of Global Sales), Kate Parish (Customer Service Manager), Matt Hull (MOCAP Sales), Michael Wester (Director of Global Marketing), Ildar Khakimov (IT), and Shane Flottmann (Art Director). Two interviews included pairs: Ildar Khakimov and Shane Flottmann (IT and creative), Ricardo Munoz and Cristy Sanchez (Mexico operations).

Three critical dysfunctions dominate across all interviews:

1. No customer portal forces manual processing of routine requests
2. Broken search prevents customers from finding products
3. Inaccurate data causes order failures

These problems compound. Search failure drives phone calls. No portal means every call requires manual lookups. Inaccurate data means orders fail even when customers successfully navigate the broken journey.

Perspectives by role:

• Leadership sees customer portal as strategic priority for growth strategy
• Customer service experiences it as operational crisis generating 70+ manual tickets daily
• Development identifies search as quick win requiring 20-25% sales increase potential
• International operations report zero online orders from key markets due to checkout friction

Universal Pain Points

No Customer Portal

Appears in 8 of 10 interviews as top pain point.

• Shawn Halley (Director of Global Sales): Calls it the number one feature to reduce sales workload, critical to meeting 2030 growth goals
• Kate Parish (Customer Service): Fields 4-5 order tracking requests daily because customers can’t check status themselves
• Jim Boehm (Beckett): Receives weekly same-day shipping requests requiring manual email escalation across up to 17 people when stock data fails
• Honorata Grzebielucha (UK/EU): Reports seven years of internal discussions about portal implementation

The portal absence creates cascading failures:

• Customers can’t view order history, so they call sales
• They can’t see their negotiated pricing, so they call for quotes
• They can’t track shipments, so they call customer service multiple times per order
• Matt Hull (Sales) spends time guiding customers through reorders that should be self-service, consuming capacity needed for strategic deals

Broken Search

Appears in 7 of 10 interviews.

• Kate Parish: Search returns zero results for valid configured part numbers, forcing customers through multiple manual filter selections
• Matt Hull: Describes “vast majority” of customers struggling to find correct products with irrelevant results
• Michael Wester (Marketing): Identifies this as the main pain point, especially impacting younger users who “expect to find, order, and move on within seconds”

Technical cause: Ildar Khakimov (IT) explains the custom-built search without Magento native functionality. The fix is “technically straightforward” but requires replacing custom code. He estimates 20-25% sales increase from fixing search alone. This represents the highest ROI quick win in the entire research dataset.

Inaccurate Data

Manifests differently across regions but appears in 6 interviews.

• Honorata (UK/EU): Reports 40-50% order cancellations or delays because the website displays Ukrainian warehouse stock instead of Polish inventory
• Jim Boehm: Describes stock data failures requiring manual intervention from 17 people to resolve
• Ricardo Munoz (Mexico): Cites mismatched part numbers and missing product lines in category menus, especially for Cleartech and Beckett
• Dave Koester (Cleartech): Reports customer ordering 50 tubes but receiving wrong type due to misleading product thumbnails, forcing refund despite strict no-return policy

Root cause: The data accuracy crisis traces to technical architecture. Ildar Khakimov identifies legacy ERP system (Sage Fox Pro) plus custom synchronization code creating 2 week to 3 month delays for product updates. Every data problem compounds: wrong thumbnails lead to wrong orders, wrong stock displays lead to failed orders, wrong pricing displays lead to disputes.

Role-Based Patterns

Leadership

Director of Global Sales, Director of Global Marketing

Frames problems strategically:

• Shawn Halley connects portal to 2030 growth goals
• Michael Wester thinks about competitive positioning and brand differentiation
• They see website dysfunction blocking strategic initiatives: sales can’t focus on large deals when handling small order inquiries, growth targets depend on self-service efficiency that doesn’t exist

Leadership identifies AI Application Advisor as strategic differentiator. Michael Wester calls it “key opportunity to differentiate Mocap” with 24/7 interactive tool asking guided questions to narrow product options. Leadership enthusiasm for AI appears in MoSCoW ratings where they scored AI advisor higher than frontline staff. They think about market positioning, not daily operational pain.

Customer Service and Sales

Kate Parish, Matt Hull, Jim Boehm

Experiences operational crisis:

• Kate processes 70 manual order requests daily with 4 team members covering all 4 brands
• Ticket volume breaks down: 4-5 tracking requests daily, 60% of new customers need shipping account number processing manually, 2-7 return requests weekly, plus constant documentation requests for USMCA certificates and certificates of origin
• Jim Boehm reports 40-50 online orders monthly for Beckett, with 50% requesting samples first. Sample conversion rate: 70%. But the sample request process itself multiplies work because customers can’t self-serve
• Every sample requires Jim’s personal involvement in North America
• Manual sample processing appears in multiple interviews as unnecessary administrative burden

International Operations

Honorata (UK/EU), Ricardo (Mexico), Linda (China)

Reports region-specific breakdowns on top of global dysfunction:

• Linda Yang: Reports zero online orders from China this year. Zero. The checkout process doesn’t match local expectations: Chinese customers expect quick checkout with phone verification codes like JD.com or Taobao, not lengthy forms. Privacy resistance stops prospects from sharing details. Tax invoicing and payment trust issues reduce willingness to order online.

• Ricardo (Mexico): Describes freight cost estimation and cross-border shipping as major pain points. Freight charges often don’t match quotes, causing payment delays and disputes. No warehouse in Mexico means all bulk orders ship from Missouri, increasing lead times and dependence on perfect order processing. Sales team acts as bridge managing logistics and paperwork between customers and US warehouse rather than enabling self-service.

• Honorata (UK/EU): Reports website shows Ukrainian warehouse stock instead of Polish, causing 40-50% order cancellations or delays. Pricing and order quantities display inaccurately. Checkout confusion creates high bounce rates: unclear VAT and shipping costs, payment errors, inability to store shipping and billing details forcing repeat data entry every order.

IT

Ildar Khakimov

Provides technical diagnosis. Three major blockers:

1. Custom-built search without Magento native (easily fixable, high impact)
2. Legacy ERP system creating 2 week to 3 month product update delays (major bottleneck)
3. Outdated legacy code where size charts use static HTML from VB scripts instead of real-time interactivity

Quick wins identified:

• Search functionality fix (20-25% sales increase expected)
• Checkout UI fixes to remove clickable field confusion and enhance 3DS loading animation
• Chat bubble repositioning to lower right corner for visibility

Complex builds requiring significant effort:

• AI advisor chatbot
• B2B customer portal with legacy system integration
• Size charts full rebuild
• Kit creator tool

Department-Specific Insights

Marketing

Michael Wester

Thinks in competitive intelligence and brand positioning:

• Has studied Essentra, Caplugs, and Fastenal closely
• Fastenal invests heavily in brand storytelling, though Michael notes Mocap’s strength lies in direct product-focused journeys not lifestyle branding
• Wants industry-specific pages for 8-10 sectors (hydraulics, automotive, medical) with resources and recommended products
• Prototype pages were built during COVID but never published due to technical constraints

Critical failure identified: Role-based content management. Marketing can’t make simple updates independently. IT bottlenecks force reliance on single developer for most changes, limiting agility. Website updates face delays due to single developer dependency. Ildar Khakimov faces steep learning curve with highly customized, undocumented framework “resembling a house built without plans” from former employee.

Sales

Matt Hull, Shawn Halley

Articulates workflow impact:

• Website slows sales process by consuming time needed for strategic deals
• Matt requests RFQ (Request for Quote) feature competitors advertise prominently
• Customers currently can’t submit formal quotes through website, requiring back-and-forth via phone and email
• Even with portal and search fixes, some communication will remain necessary due to business nature and relationship dynamics
• Goal: Reduce unnecessary friction, let sales focus where they’re most valuable

Shawn frames portal as enabling thousands of small accounts to self-serve, freeing salespeople to acquire larger clients. This directly aligns with sales growth strategy. Portal implementation becomes “critical to meet company’s 2032 goal.” Failure to deliver it “would jeopardize multiple other strategies dependent on efficient small account management.”

Beckett Operations

Jim Boehm, Dave Koester

Reveals brand-specific challenges:

• Jim reports 99.99% catalog products for Beckett despite perception of custom focus. Injection molds too expensive for custom. Top 100 customers receive special volume-based pricing. Remaining smaller customers pay catalog prices. Weekly same-day shipping requests from loyal customers require manual escalation with urgent flags.

• Dave (Cleartech/Beckett combined site) describes product thumbnail errors causing costly mistakes: customer ordered 50 tubes, received wrong type due to misleading images, forced refund despite no-return policy. Website confuses retail customers with cluttered navigation and multiple dropdowns. Most Cleartech customers are retail/DIY end-users ordering small quantities, less technical than B2B bulk buyers. Current site suits B2B users better, retail customers struggle.

Critical problem: Customers don’t realize closures are separate selections. They add tubes without compatible closures, creating support calls. Mobile experience particularly poor for retail users. Backend technology makes product updates slow and fragile, breaking critical features like quantity minimums and size charts after changes.

Geographic and Cultural Variations

China

Linda Yang

Represents complete checkout failure. Zero online orders this year versus some orders in other regions.

Specific China barriers:

• Slow loading speeds possibly due to server location or internet speed (US reports very fast loading)
• Phone verification requirement mismatch (Chinese customers expect codes not forms)
• Tax invoicing and payment trust issues
• WeChat as critical primary channel more than other regions

Linda describes Asian customers’ buying behavior as “notably different from Western customers” with less online self-service reliance. Product findability particularly challenging: salespeople guide remotely via WeChat, sharing images and size charts because website navigation defeats customers. 70-80% of external feedback critiques website as outdated and not user-friendly, blocking sales potential.

Global UX problems hit harder in China: non-sticky table headers in product charts, confusing metric/imperial toggles, translation inconsistencies. Privacy concerns prevent prospects from sharing contact details. The combination of global dysfunction plus China-specific friction creates complete ordering system failure.

Mexico

Ricardo Munoz, Cristy Sanchez

Describes highly consultative sales process:

• Most customers initially don’t know what product they need
• Ricardo spends 15+ minutes per call guiding through options, starting by understanding application to recommend products
• New customers rely heavily on phone support combined with live website navigation
• Returning customers start placing orders independently after 1-2 purchases but still need support

Cross-border complexity: All bulk orders ship from Missouri due to no Mexico warehouse, increasing lead times and dependence on accurate processing. Freight charges often don’t match quotes, causing payment delays and customer frustration. Sales team manages logistics and paperwork between customers and US warehouse rather than enabling self-service ordering.

Ricardo’s priorities:

1. Customer portal to reduce workload and enable order history, tracking, reordering
2. Quoting tool integrated into website
3. Better product findability
4. Warehouse stock visibility especially for Beckett and Cleartech which lack dedicated menus
5. Order history access to simplify repeat purchases

UK/EU

Honorata Grzebielucha

Reports data accuracy as primary crisis:

• Website displays Ukrainian warehouse stock instead of Polish inventory, causing 40-50% order cancellations or delays
• Pricing and order quantity data also inaccurate
• Checkout friction creates high bounce rates: confusion about VAT, shipping costs, payment errors, inability to store shipping and billing information forcing repeat entry

Website serves as primary inbound lead driver via Google campaigns, making it “key tool for initial customer engagement and internal guidance.” Salespeople guide less technical buyers through website live, navigating categories and explaining options. Technical buyers use website more independently. Sales team uses website faster than internal price book for standard price checks. The site acts as consultative tool rather than fully self-service platform.

Industrial customers (Mocap, Beckett, Extreme Tape) rely more on direct sales outreach. Cleartech has stronger website traffic, serving mixed retail and industrial audience. Most sample and quote requests come through website visits driven by Google, making site essential for both customers and sales team.

Technical Architecture Constraints

Ildar Khakimov’s diagnosis reveals systemic technical debt limiting all improvement:

• Legacy ERP (Sage Fox Pro) creates 2 week to 3 month delays per product update
• Custom synchronization code slows all product launches
• Cross-department coordination adds procedural delays on top of technical constraints
• Magento’s CSV-based import architecture complicates even simple updates

Current architecture problems:

• Custom-built search without Magento native functionality, causing poor results and user frustration
• Size charts use static HTML from VB scripts instead of dynamic generation
• Ajax custom CMS components need replacement
• The codebase resembles “house built without plans” according to Michael, with steep learning curve for new developer due to lack of documentation

Quick wins identified by Ildar Khakimov:

• Search fix returns Magento native functionality (20-25% sales increase expected)
• Checkout UI fixes remove clickable field confusion and enhance 3DS loading animation
• Chat bubble repositioning improves visibility

These are “technically straightforward” but require replacing custom code and coordinating deployment.

Complex builds requiring significant effort:

• AI advisor chatbot needs robust training on product capabilities (leadership priority, development challenge)
• B2B customer portal requires complex integration with legacy systems for viewing orders and pricing (universal priority, major technical lift)
• Size charts need full rebuild for real-time interactivity
• Kit creator tool in development for simplifying complex product bundling

Customer Journey Breakdowns

Search to Selection

Fails at multiple points:

• Kate Parish: Search returns zero results for valid configured part numbers. Customers forced through multiple manual filter selections.
• Linda Yang: Asian customers struggling to find exact product matches easily
• Dave Koester: Cluttered navigation with multiple dropdowns overwhelms non-technical retail users
• Michael Wester: Identifies main pain point as difficulty locating correct items, especially impacting younger users with lower patience and shorter attention spans
• Matt Hull: Confirms vast majority of customers struggle, getting irrelevant search results

The search failure isn’t occasional edge case. It’s systematic barrier affecting most customers attempting product discovery.

Product Specification

Confuses retail customers:

• Dave Koester explains tube ordering requires choosing: tube shape, open or sealed bottom, quantity, length, closures
• Current site requires too many confusing clicks with unclear visual cues
• Customers add tubes to cart without selecting compatible closures because they don’t realize closures are separate selections
• Back-and-forth conversations with Dave and customer service increase due to this confusion

Product thumbnails create costly errors. Misleading images caused customer to order 50 tubes but receive wrong type, forcing refund despite strict no-return policy. Mobile experience particularly poor for retail customers, complicating ordering process. Website design suits B2B technical buyers better than retail/DIY end-users ordering small quantities.

Checkout Completion

Varies by region but consistently creates friction:

• Honorata: Reports high bounce rates due to confusion, payment errors, unclear VAT and shipping costs. Customers can’t store shipping and billing details, forcing repeat data entry every order.
• Linda: Reports China checkout completely broken: doesn’t match local expectations for phone verification codes, creates privacy resistance, fails to build payment trust.
• Ildar Khakimov: Identifies clickable field confusion in checkout UI and 3DS loading animation issues as fixable problems

Tax certificate processing requires manual intervention: customer places order, then submits certificate separately for credit back rather than at checkout. PO number field requests come up frequently but field isn’t prominently available.

Post-Purchase Tracking

Drives ticket volume:

• Kate Parish: Fields 4-5 tracking requests daily, taking several minutes each. Tracking data only available via email or intranet lookup, not customer self-service.
• Jim Boehm: Receives weekly same-day shipping requests requiring manual email escalation with urgent flags because customers can’t see order status or modify shipping.

Order modification, cancellation, address changes, payment updates require contacting customer service “several weekly” according to Kate. Return requests: 2-7 per week. Documentation requests frequent: USMCA certificates, certificates of origin. All require manual processing because no customer portal exists for self-service.

Competitive Intelligence

Michael Wester studied three competitors closely:

Essentra

Interactive eCatalog that links directly to store items. Michael references this as aspirational model. Expanding rows in size charts: instead of new page, row expands with all information and pricing inline. This approach reduces clicks and keeps users in context rather than forcing navigation away.

Caplugs

Visual buttons on site for selections like color options. Michael wants similar visual interactivity for Mocap. The emphasis on visual selection rather than dropdown menus or form fields reduces cognitive load for product configuration.

Fastenal

Investing heavily in brand storytelling. Michael notes this but clarifies Mocap’s strength lies in direct, product-focused customer journeys rather than lifestyle branding. Fastenal shows alternative approach (storytelling) that Michael deliberately rejects in favor of utilitarian focus matching Mocap’s B2B audience.

Industry/market pages: Competitors have sector-specific landing pages with tailored content, resources, and product recommendations. Michael built prototype pages during COVID for 8-10 sectors (hydraulics, automotive, medical) but they were never published due to technical constraints and developer dependency.

Sample and Quote Workflows

Jim Boehm reports 50% of Beckett’s 40-50 monthly orders involve sample requests first. Sample conversion rate: 70%. Samples shipped next day typically. Jim personally manages sample requests for North America. The high conversion rate (70%) indicates samples are critical sales tool, not wasteful overhead.

Current sample request process uses separate forms for each sample part number. Multiple interviews mention this as unnecessary administrative burden. Frontline staff in written feedback rated “samples as free cart items” at 8.6 combined score. Leadership rated it 7.3. The gap: leadership doesn’t process sample requests daily and doesn’t see administrative multiplication from form-per-part workflow.

RFQ (Request for Quote) feature currently lacks. Matt Hull says sales would welcome this, competitors advertise it prominently. Could streamline ordering and reduce back-and-forth. Formal quote submission through website doesn’t exist. All quotes require phone or email initiation, then manual processing and response.

Ricardo (Mexico) wants quoting tool integrated into website as second priority after customer portal. The consultative nature of Mexico sales (15+ minutes per call understanding application to recommend products) means quotes are frequent and complex. Web-based quoting tool would reduce phone dependency while maintaining sales relationship and expertise application.

Must-Have Features Convergence

Customer Portal

Appears as must-have in 8 of 10 interviews:

Portal represents universal organizational need across all roles, regions, and brands.

Search Fix

Appears in 7 interviews as operational crisis:

Search represents highest ROI quick win in research. Technically straightforward according to development. Universally painful according to operations. Strategically important according to leadership. Expected 20-25% sales increase makes this most impactful single fix available.

Accurate Data

Underlies multiple failures:

The data accuracy crisis traces to legacy ERP creating 2 week to 3 month update delays plus custom sync code bottlenecks.

Implementation Complexity Assessment

Ildar Khakimov categorizes improvements by implementation difficulty:

Quick Wins (High Impact, Low Effort)

Complex Builds (High Effort)

Key Dependencies or Blockers

The implementation assessment reveals fundamental tension: Highest impact fixes (search, portal, data accuracy) face significant technical barriers from legacy architecture. Quick wins exist (search, checkout UI) but comprehensive customer experience improvement requires addressing ERP bottleneck that affects all downstream systems.

Strategic Alignment and Tensions

Leadership connects website improvements to business strategy:

• Shawn’s 2030 growth goals depend on portal enabling small account self-service so sales can focus on large client acquisition
• Michael sees AI advisor as competitive differentiator
• Strategic vision clear: website should be primary channel for small accounts, freeing sales capacity for strategic deals that drive growth

Operations experiences current state as crisis preventing strategy execution:

• Kate processes 70 manual tickets daily
• Jim escalates urgent shipping requests
• Matt spends time on product searches that should be self-service
• The operational burden consumes capacity leadership plans to redirect to strategic work
• Portal and search aren’t just efficiency gains. They’re prerequisites for strategy execution.

International operations report complete system failure in key markets:

• Zero orders from China
• Cross-border friction in Mexico
• Data accuracy crisis in UK/EU
• These aren’t edge cases or minor markets. They represent significant revenue potential blocked by website dysfunction.
• Leadership frames problems strategically. International operations reports blocked growth directly.

Development identifies technical debt as root cause:

• Legacy ERP creates 2 week to 3 month update delays
• Custom code lacks documentation
• Single developer dependency creates bottleneck
• The strategic vision and operational needs both run into technical architecture limitations that prevent rapid improvement

The tension: Quick wins exist (search fix, checkout UI improvements, chat repositioning) but comprehensive portal development faces legacy system integration challenges. Leadership wants AI differentiation. Operations needs basic functionality. Development must balance quick wins against complex builds while managing technical debt from legacy architecture.

Missing Capabilities vs Broken Functionality

Some problems stem from missing capabilities that never existed:

• Customer portal never built
• RFQ feature never implemented
• Industry landing pages prototyped but never published
• Sample cart functionality doesn’t exist
• Cross-brand navigation wasn’t designed

These represent new development work.

Other problems stem from broken functionality that once worked or should work but fails:

• Search returns zero results for valid part numbers
• Stock data displays wrong warehouses
• Product thumbnails show incorrect items
• Checkout confuses customers on payment flows
• Size charts lose interactivity after updates

These represent fixes to existing systems.

The distinction matters for implementation planning:

• New capabilities require requirements definition, design, development, testing, deployment
• Broken functionality requires diagnosis, root cause identification, fix implementation, regression testing
• Quick wins concentrate in broken functionality: search fix, checkout UI improvements
• Complex builds concentrate in missing capabilities: portal, AI advisor, industry pages

Examples:

• Honorata’s data accuracy crisis (40-50% order cancellations) stems from broken functionality: wrong warehouse data display
• Jim’s manual shipping escalations stem from missing capability: no customer portal
• Kate’s 70 daily manual tickets split between both: broken search creates tickets, missing portal prevents self-service that would eliminate tickets

Resource allocation needs to balance both types. Broken functionality creates immediate customer pain and revenue leakage. Missing capabilities prevent strategic growth. Development bandwidth must address both simultaneously or choose explicit sequencing based on impact assessment.