Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Customer Service - Always The Most Essential Component of Marketing & Sales

Many businesses find themselves facing the choice of taking alternative approaches or following certain approaches to marketing and/ or selling their products and/ or services. While it is often possible to make a particular one - time sale based on offering a low - ball price, this approach rarely creates any long - term allegiance. When one observes a variety of business models, there are numerous examples of different levels of customer service or support, as well as different levels of training that businesses offer to their customer service representatives. What those who fail to prioritize or pay sufficient attention to this process may still enjoy some degree of success, invariably it is the quality and consistently of their customer service representatives that dictates their longer term sustainability and acceptance. For example, every real estate professional must balance his promises with reality, as well as paying attention to the fact that most parties to a real estate transaction need to have their hands held.

1. It is certainly true that a business or sales representative can make a sale by offering a lower price, that behavior rarely develops a committed customer, and certainly never leads to the very desirable client relationship. However, we often observe companies that initially react to down periods by diminishing and reducing customer service and the related expenses. Nothing could be more counter - productive, because in the bigger picture, customers remember how they were treated far beyond the period that they recall the price they paid. Consider how you personally feel when you go into any store, or make a call to a company, and how the initial treatment irreversibly impacts your perception and opinion of that business. Effective service means a real and concerted effort to make the buying experience a far more positive one for customers and clients, and differentiating yourself from the competition. Isn't it funny that so many businesses spend so much money and time doing post - process interviews, while often ignoring or certainly not paying enough attention to how they treat their customers or potential customers, in the first place? How often do you observe companies offering some sort of promotion to attract new customers, while not offering these to existing customers to retain them, even though the cost of acquisition is invariably greater than the cost of retaining existing customers?

2. There are many essential components to assure that a quality procedure is consistently followed. It begins, as so many things in business, management and leadership do, with a prioritized commitment to everything that makes the buying and/ or shopping experience a better one! It must begin with not simply acting like you care, but actually doing something. When businesses spend more effort on serving their customers than simply thinking about selling, their sales are enhanced rather than diminished. Successful organizations always understand that exceptional service creates a positive word of mouth, which is the most powerful and meaningful form of marketing.

After more than three decades of extensive consulting to hundreds of businesses and organizations, it has become obvious that the most sustainable behavior is professional, quality and consistent service. Whether the business sells a product, a service (such as doctors, etc) or some combination (the real estate transaction business), they must prioritize how they serve their customers and/ or clients, throughout the process.  Businesses must come to understand that it is not the sales you make today that count the most, but rather how you are perceived and appreciated by future potential customers and clients. Ask yourself why would your existing customers/ clients refer your services?

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