Marketing & Sales

Businesses with past success built upon the quality and innovation of their products may falter if their concept of service (repair break/fix) is only as a support to the manufacturing operation. However if the quality and innovation of product is supported by a similar level of quality and innovation in service, this can provide an excellent way to build and sustain long-term relationships.  Retaining customers means that a reputation has to be sustained over an extended period, and the service aspect of the relationship can provide a bridge should there be a problem with a faulty product. If the concept of service has evolved simply from one of reducing the cost of manufacturing errors, and does not focus on the optimum value derived by the customer from the application of the product, the relationship may not be sufficiently robust to resist a stress. This is best illustrated in figure 1, which shows the effort required to build satisfaction in a product into long-term loyalty. Unless satisfaction and loyalty are high, the value of a customer as a promoter is minimal, but promotion by a customer will have immense value.

 Many companies have split personalities over defining service as a marketing tool. On the one hand they recognise that good service brings value to their customers and might be used as a reason to purchase; on the other hand advertisements and salespeople rarely talk of service preferring to focus on the Brand and features. Once an item is purchased, excellent service becomes a real motivator of satisfaction and serves to reinforce loyalty. 

Guerilla Marketing – a term first coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in 1983 [11 years before CRM (Customer Relationship Management) was coined by Tom Siebel – but both reference the same idea] to describe low or zero cost marketing methods. Your customer interface is the basic mechanism for providing high frequency, low cost, and high value marketing and branding.

Understanding the customer's real requirements

Service, generating revenue is a concept not normally considered. The normal assumption is that service, at best, can become more efficient and thereby save money and reduce costs. Applying the real concept of Customer Relationship Management allows the possibility of a profitable service organisation as not only feasible but expected.

Software and technology are not the significant limiting factors in getting an effective result from implementing a service software application - it is the quality of the Vendor and their ability to determine an accurate and full understanding of their customer's needs that really makes the difference.

A significant shift in emphasis is now taking place so that suppliers of software applications are keen to establish themselves as long-term partners with their customers and not just product pushers.

During a recent workshop review I was asked my opinion of the value of implementing CRM in a business, was it satisfactory to talk in terms of intangibles when considering a CRM solution? The question was based on the assumption that CRM is a safe bet and even though you could not put hard numbers on the value of CRM, it still must be considered a worthwhile investment.

Where to Start? What to Start? How to Start? What Steps to take? Don't Want to Start

The biggest challenge to investing in service solution tools is not necessarily the cost, but the time and effort it takes to implement them and generate the value.

Today's modern Service Directors have a growing list of requirements and responsibilities to face. They have to be strategically aware, supporting their board room colleagues in driving the business, while focusing on raising the performance of their own operation. They need to help the business differentiate itself from competitors by introducing new productivity tools, and better utilising working capital, people, and inventory; all of which are seen by many as potential liabilities rather than as assets.

Is the hype around CRM initially key in generating interest now stifling interest?

CRM has become a very common discussion point in conversations with almost any Service Manager or Director and as a result will highlight that they are either a real advocate for CRM or an opponent. However, is this continual exposure to the concept beginning to stifle interest rather than improve the quality of the debate?

A recent end-user survey of 405 European organizations showed that although half of the respondents rate CRM as critical for their business, as many as a third of European businesses are uninterested by CRM software.

CRM has been seen as a panacea for organisations without any real understanding of how it should fit in with the business strategy.  In this article Steve Downton explores the way successful businesses are seeing CRM as a concept not a software tool and are integrating the concept into their overall strategy.