As a SME owner or manager, our customers are critical. Can we say doubly so in a down economy?
Are you utilizing your existing technology tools to stay closer to them?
To make you easier to do business with?
What could that look like?
Rather than telephone tag, can your largest customers look up delivery status on your web site?
Can repeat orders of your products be placed with you electronically? Or are you forcing them through a lengthy exercise of faxes, sign offs and phone calls?
Have you actually asked them how you can make yourself easier to purchase from?
If you haven’t, try it!
Don’t take anything for granted.
If you are drop dead easy to to do business with, advantage is yours.
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There’s an irony here, Elliot. Many techniques that allow customer self-service (such as in some of your examples) not only take out costs, they also increase customer satisfaction and deliver an improved customer experience. I recently needed to fix a kitchen sink faucet that had become hard to turn. I went to Moen’s web site, and found all the information I needed, including useful animated graphics showing every step of the procedure to replace the cartridge, plus really easy instructions for ordering the correct replacement part. This was far more cost-effective for them, and was a highly satisfying and economical experience for me. I know that Moen is not an SME, but the technology to provide this type of capability is available to just about anyone – and is usually highly cost-justified.
Thank you so much for dropping by!
You are absolutely correct. And from print, to journalism, to business expert blogs, the constant mantra in this tough economic climate is to create a unique identity for your business.
To create a value proposition that will enable you to retain your customer base.
Creating that value can make it so easy to do business with you – that your customers perception of that value can outweigh a thought of moving to the competition.
Regards,
Elliot
it’s interesting and relevant
Well-written and clear narrative, capturing some of the spirit and mystery of polar exploration.
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