Your most profitable accounts determine the survival of your business. These critical accounts require dedicated resources and responsive service. Even if you pride yourself on customer interactions, your top-tier, A+ service is not for every customer. Instead, concierge customer service is a tool. Used properly, a concierge customer service team improves internal efficiency, customer and [...]
The nature of sales has changed. Face-to-face sales in distribution are not as common as they once were. We’re finding that more and more these days, those kinds of direct transactions are no longer a dominant means of selling a product or service. When there once was a time when a sales team was the [...]
Gaining An Advantage Through Content: Marketing is not just about letting people know your company exists, or what your latest products or services are. It is a key component to building and maintaining a lasting relationship between your business and your customers. In the past, most businesses’ primary point of contact between themselves and their [...]
Interaction and communication with customers today is difficult. While today's technology is incredibly beneficial in so many ways, it's also made finding or creating an opportunity to engage with a customer – to spend time with them –more difficult than it's ever been. Bluntly, your customers don't want to waste their time on you. They're not [...]
In a recent discussion with Randy MacLean of WayPoint Analytics, we examined the changing realities of messaging and marketing, and how things are changing so quickly. In the distribution industry, the need to communicate with your market hasn't changed, but the avenues of communication and the audience have changed, giving rise to a lot of us [...]
In this interview with Randy MacLean of WayPoint Analytics, I explain to Randy how using a two-pronged strategy or approach to concierge-level customer service will easily result in an increase in profitability. The first step to creating the strategy is to determine the true profitability of each customer. With this data on profitability, a two-pronged customer [...]
One of the most important practices you can implement in your company is a customer service feedback loop between your customers and customer service. I work with many wholesale distribution companies to set up concierge-style customer service programs, and there are clear benefits of having a feedback mechanism that can be utilized. Having a problem [...]
Having trouble viewing the video below? Click here to watch: https://vimeo.com/257403249 In today’s market, conducting a customer survey can really bring a competitive edge to your distribution company. Surveys are used to ask both your sales and your customer service employees how satisfied they think their customers are, while also asking customers themselves how satisfied [...]