Malcolm says

It’s easy to spend too much time trying to second guess competitors plans when quite often even they are not clear about them. However, it is important to know enough about competitors to clearly position your company and products. To me the best way to do this is to ask existing customers and people who you would like to be your customers. Questions to understand could include:  Are there things that you like about our competitors that we don’t do? What is it that you like about us and why do you stay with us? It’s also important to understand what alternative ways they could spend their budget and what their business strategies are. “Competitors” are not just companies with similar products or services.Often questions like these are akward for companies to ask for themselves. Get outside help to find the best ways of getting to the answers.

When you start asking these types of questions you gain valuable information from a customers perspective that you can use to modify your sales and marketing plans or even your overall business strategy. You will most probably learn that customers care about a range of things that you will have never considered. To you they may not necessarily be logical or sensible but they are factors that influence buying decisions. One real example that I discovered was the customer who liked the way that their supplier broke down the details on the invoices because it made it easier for them to internally recharge. That was the only reason why they stayed with that supplier. This led to the no brainer decision of don’t change the invoicing system and see if it is, or could, be an important differentiating factor for other customers.

Malcolm says

1. Not listening to customers
2. Not listening to and involving staff
3. Not being clear at the beginning about the outcomes that are expected
4. Not having a planning and a communications process
5. Allowing a consultant to rigidly enforce their methodology and not adjusting it to the needs of their business.

Malcolm says

Customer care in its broadest sense is a key factor for us to stay with a particular supplier both in our private and our business life. One of the biggest problems for a supplier of products or services is that they are over optimistic in thinking that their customers love them. Have a look at the first article on my web site www.simpleplans.co.uk/7.HTML to get the whole story.

Malcolm says

I recently carried out a survey of over 60 companies that asked which marketing tools are best for acquiring new customers. In #1 slot was Face to face networking. In #2 & #3 slots were Partners & agencies and Articles & white papers.

As we know many prospects use their perception of Relationship, Expertise and Trust (RET) to help select suppliers. The top 3 certainly help support this view.
By comparison the bottom three marketing tools were: Call centres, Price cuts and Cold calling. None of these are very likely to help anyone’s RET rating.

We carry out RET customer surveys for individual clients and while results do vary the results of this multi company survey are pretty consistent. I can certainly see that RET is becoming increasing important to prospects as the economic environment becomes harsher. Hence the increased drive to be more customer focused in everything that we do.

To read more about the survey results on the best marketing tools visit www.simpleplans.co.uk/7.HTML   Be interesting to hear if you get similar results.

Malcolm says

I think that we all “worship” customers at one time or another. For example when they have just given us a big order or perhaps even helped our business survive by staying with us. The secret is to do the “worshiping” when customers are not looking.

Malcolm says

One of the largest challenges for Customer Services is to convince their senior management of the importance and impact on customers of what they do. Many companies talk about customer being their top priority and delighting customers but often its just marketing blah blah and has no substance.

Customer Services often need help to get the right level of investment, support and recognition of what they add to the business. I’ve found that one of the most effective ways to do this is to get senior managers to spend half a day in Customer Services listening to calls and speaking to customers. I’ve also used other methods such as analyzing why customers leave. This type of research and factual customer feedback often has a major impact in identifying issues in other parts of the company that can be improved or have to be fixed to stop customers leaving. The 2009 goal for a Customer Services team is to be recognized by top management as the function who knows most about why customers really leave and why others stay as customers.

Malcolm says

Innovation is anything that makes life better for customers, easier for staff and cheaper for the business. Real success is doing all three at once.

Malcolm says

Step one, do not beat them up and tell them how badly they are doing. Step two, take the opportunity to engage other parts of the business to discuss what can be done to increase sales. Talk to Customer Services, Marketing and yes even Finance. Get a different take on customers that can be used to change how things are done. This current environment is a great opportunity to pull together the whole organisation to help and support Sales. With this extra knowledge and support Sales staff will be able to build better relationships with customers and improve results. Another key benefit is that top Sales staff will be more encouraged to stay with a company that helps them rather than just beats them up.

Malcolm says

Dogs are loyal, customers are not. Customers buy from you for a range of different reasons based on their perceptions and the relative value that they place on price, relationship, expertise and trust. There are often a few emotional factors in there too. The mix and importance of all these factors varies by product, circumstance, time and immediate economic environment. Of course it can also vary by individual customer too. This gives a lot of variables and shows that there are no easy answers. Success is usually based around really understanding your customers and providing an appropriate mix of the variables under your control for your target market.

If a strong competitor enters your market the worse thing to do is nothing. Hoping that “customer loyalty” will see you through is very dangerous. You have to understand the competitor, their offering and the likely impact that it will have on your current and target customers. Only then can you decide the most effective actions to take.

Malcolm says

Everyone agrees that companies need to better understand what their customers are trying to tell them. Often it’s only by having this type of knowledge that real differentiation from the competition can be made. Many companies are starting to gather this intelligence in a variety of different ways, some successful and some not.  

I’ve asked many companies how they are gaining this type of information about customers and the answers range from hiring consultants, to surveys and employing ex customers. I very rarely hear someone say that they are carrying out qualitative research. Unless they have a history, like P&G, of carrying out this type of work many companies don’t even know what it means. Harsh words but this is my experience. Just think about it. Getting something labelled “research” through the marketing budget approval process would be nigh on impossible in these difficult times. Add the word “qualitative” which is difficult for many people to say let alone understand and you can see why its avoided.

There is lots of “qualitative research” being carried out to better understand customers but much of it hidden under a variety of different labels. Perhaps if we just changed the name, it would be better understood!