Focus on the Customer and Win in the Downturn December 12, 2008
Posted by onprocess in Customer Experience Management, Customer Understanding Research, OnProcess.Tags: Customer Experience, customer experience assessment, Customer Experience Management, downturn strategies, focus on the customer, strategies for managing in economic downturn
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It seems obvious enough, but when things get tight and cuts loom, sometimes it’s important to take a moment and remember what you can’t afford to forget.
Here’s a good article from InsideCRM.com:
Every economic downturn in history has inevitably been followed by an upturn, so embracing a good customer strategy during a slump will greatly increase your chances of still being in business when the recovery comes around. Ultimately, a recession can actually help differentiate companies and their service propositions. It is therefore worth making the case that cutting into customer-service spend is not necessarily the right option.
More at: http://www.insidecrm.com/features/focus-customer-win-downturn-111808/
Critical to this approach is knowing what areas of your customer experience are delivering value and which are hurting you. Need more visibility into customer-service related issues at this critical juncture? You may want to talk to us about our proactive customer experience management programs.
–sk
Great point. Letting customer service levels slide during an economic downturn risks starting down a death spiral, when in fact it can be a time to build loyalty. Besides the economic transactions that need to be maintained, customers are a prime tool for driving sales and marketing – especially in a downturn. I recently did a post on how leveraging customers in this way can be a key to success in a downturn. Here is a link to it.
http://referencesuccess.com/2008/10/27/customer-references-in-a-down-economy/
Keep up the good work!
[...] Sound familiar? [...]
Down time should be opportunity time. Sales people in a B-to-B industry will need to hit the ground running when the upturn starts, and they had better have the tools to do it. A good place to start would be your CRM software system. Remember the key word there is Relationship. Sure you have a tool that records company info and maybe a pipeline or sales funnel chart. Can your sales force pull up a prospect and see that company’s revenues and where they rank in their industry? Clicking on a tab should bring you to that company’s web site and provide directions and maps. Another tab should tell you the major contacts in that company. Listed there should be a list of all of the previous contacts you have made there, including every visit, marketing call, mailing, and email campaign. And once you engage with the prospect, your system had better be able to capture extended contact info in detail. Who are the secretaries? What are their wife and kid’s names? What hobbies and associations are they part of? What trade shows have they attended? If you are selling to current clients you had better be able to pull their entire sales history with your organization (including invoice and payment history) with analysis tools showing trends and changes. Who are the other key players in your organization they deal with, and can you immediately see a history of those meetings and calls? How much are they spending for products over a year, and what percentage does your company realize (and how much more does your company have the ability to target)? Who are their competitors and what are they doing relative to the industry? In short, your CRM system had better be hooked into the rest of your company and your client’s industry. If you’re using a stand alone simple contact manager, chances are good there’s another sales person targeting that business and they have your client’s entire history and info at their fingertips.
It’s a good time to review what your CRM system can and can’t do, and what you need it to do in the near future.