MalcolmSays

Malcolm says:

I do a lot of customer relationship surveys and when we ask what customers really care about the same top three points come up almost every time.

1. Your… see more expertise

2. The quality of your product/service

3. Your price positioning

Get these three things right as perceived by the client and they will be happy.  But, that is just the cost of entry. To make her/him so happy that they continue buying from you needs digging deeper into other aspects of what they really care about. These additional factors relate to processes, relationship and trust and will be very specific to your company and your customers. So you have to ask and not assume what makes them happy or unhappy.

Malcolm says:

The foundation is that top management set the standard by communicating regularly and consistently in an easy to understand way that adds value. Others will then follow… see more the model. I’m a firm believer that anything that has to be communicated has to be capable of being communicated in just one page or less. For example I use one page business plans and many other one page tools. I’ve learnt that communicating well internally is much harder than communicating well externally. Just as in external communications if you do not communicate frequently and well internally unfavorable rumour or misinformation will fill the void.

Malcolm says:

I recommend to my clients that they start by understanding why people became their customers in the first place. This gives you a base of… see more things to keep doing. In reality most purchase decisions are based on how a prospective customers regards you based upon three factors: Relationship, Trust and Expertise. To understand more about what these factors mean to your specific customers you have to ask them about their views on the relationship they have with you. The best way to do this is via a third party because many customers will not tell you what they really care about. The worst way to do it is to ask your our sales force. They are too close to the action and have too much to lose from negative comments.

By asking the right questions in the right way a lot of valuable information will be uncovered. My advice is to first ask your own staff how they think customers will rate their relationship with the company. Then go out and ask customers. Comparing the answers highlights the differences and because of the personal involvement of staff and customers improvements are more likely to be implemented. These improvements could both encourage existing customers to stay and buy more but in many cases also presents opportunities to reduce cost.  Get the balance right and your company will stand out from your competition. Several papers on my website explain more about this approach and has some examples of the benefits.

www.simpleplans.co.uk/7.HTML

Malcolm says,

Using internal recharging processes does not bring additional revenues into the business and in my experience needs to be treated with a light touch.… see more Having said that support functions can and should help generate revenues for the business. The objective of all support functions is to help the overall business achieve its goals and objectives by ultimately adding value to customers in some form. For example HR ensure that the right people are hired, given the appropriate training, rewarded and measured fairly in line with the overall company plans. These actions keep costs down, save time, improve interaction with customers and make the business run more efficiently. Together they ultimately contribute to both attracting and retaining good customers. Would you trust a supplier who doesn’t care about their staff? A similar case can be made for any support function. The challenge is making it happen and getting the business to operate as one joined up entity. The foundation to making this happen is a simple joined up business plan that is well communicated and implemented. With the plan in place the test for all functions is the simple question. How will what I’m doing help the business achieve its goals and objectives?

Malcolm says:

I recently carried out a survey of over 60 companies to find out which marketing tools worked best to get new business. The number one answer… see more was face to face networking. 84% of people said that it worked for them. Partners and agencies were in the number two slot. The least successful were Call centres, cold calling and price cuts. If you want to read the complete summary report go the below link.  

www.simpleplans.co.uk/resources/Which+are+the+best+marketing+tools+for+acquiring+new+customers.pdf

Malcolm says,

To me a great service provider is one who retains a larger than average percentage of existing customers and finds it easier than competitors to attract new customers.  To find out more about how good service providers become great we got 67 companies to tell us “What do your suppliers do for you?” We wanted to discover… see more why particular suppliers were selected and/or retained.

The bottom line is that the three factors are: Quality, Expertise and Price, in that order.  It’s also as perceived by the customer at all their interactions and touch points. It was very clear that having the “best” product or service was rarely a deciding factor because frequently the company had no basis on which to determine which offering was actually “best”. This makes other factors such as quality customer service not just good to have but critical to retaining customers and attracting new ones. The link below will take you straight to a summary of the findings from the overall survey. www.simpleplans.co.uk/resources/What+do+your+suppliers+do+for+you.pdf

Malcolm says,

To me the three most important things, irrespective of business environment, are: Listen, Think and Act.  

LISTEN to what your customers are telling you about their relationship with you. … see more Sometimes its in words other times by actions. It’s vital to look beyond the raw scores in customer relationship surveys. You need to find out what they care about and why they think like they do.

THINK about exactly what customers are telling you and what your business needs to do about it. Customers will focus on your products/services but the less obvious messages are often more important if you want to retain customers. Focus on the overall relationship. For example it could be that they love your product but hate your rude accounts department. Customers often leave for these type non obvious reasons and never tell you why.

ACT on the messages that you get from your customers and never tell them that they are wrong. When you have fixed whatever it is that you need to fix go back to your customers and thank them for pointing out the area that needed improving. Then tell them the actions that you took as a result of their concerns and ask if there has been an improvement. Your competitors will not do this so your customer has an exceptionally strong reason to stay with you. There are a number of articles at www.simpleplans.co.uk/7.HTML which may help.

Malcolm says,

I would suggest first asking why there are two such diverse market segments and what is the revenue and profitability of each segment. The answers… see more could help you make the decision if one or two marketing plans would be better. Its also likely that a more strategic question of the value and strategy of being in two significantly different segments needs to be worked on.

Malcolm says

I was very cynical about speed networking but I realized that this was because, like many people, I had unrealistic expectations about what it could… see more achieve. So let me give you a few suggestions on how I’ve learnt to get the most out of speed networking events.

1) Use going to a speed networking event to force yourself to write simple explanations of what you do and how you can help people.

2) At the meeting try different versions to see which has the most impact on the people that you speak to. Check that people have the same understanding of the messages that you intended.

3) If you have a good one to one discussion ask the person if you can contact them in a few days to talk some more.  

4) Always write notes on the back of business cards that you collect.

5) Always follow up by phone or email with interesting people and talk about how you might be able to help them.

6) Pass on sensible leads and contacts to people that you have met - you might just get some back.)  

7) Don’t expect to meet your perfect prospect at a speed networking event but do expect the attendees to know a few people who you would like meet.

Use the event to get a feel of the marketplace which may help you modify your marketing and sales approach.

Finally, don’t use it as your only form of networking. You need several types of networking to be part of the mix of things that you use to build your business.

Malcolm says

A lot of your competitors use the same types of actions to take care of top clients so you have to… see more something else as well. My research says that the most effective technique is to pass your customers leads and contacts that convert into revenue and profit for them. This trumps any other action in a difficult trading environment and often costs you nothing.