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 [...]
Delivery as a service opportunity: In the past, distributors could choose from just two delivery options. Either you could bring the product to the customer, or the customer could pick it up from you. Fortunately, you're no longer limited to that model today. https://vimeo.com/269901725 Having a problem viewing the video? Click here to watch: [...]
If you called your customer service department anonymously to have a problem resolved, what would your experience be like? And how would you quantify that experience? Measuring the results of your company's problem resolution ability is vitally important. Without determining how effective your resolution process is, or how satisfied your customers are with it, you could [...]
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 [...]
If you’re like most distributors, you’ve probably lost touch with more than a few customers as the first quarter of 2018 comes to a close. Here's an easy fix for customer churn in distribution. The key to retaining customers, acquiring more customers who are like them, expanding revenue per customer, and increasing your profitability is [...]
Obviously, it's easier to reducing customer churn than it is to sell more products, so where should distributors be more keenly focused? In a world where experts consistently say it is seven (or more) times more difficult to create a new customer than it is to sell more to existing customers, it's obviously easier to reduce [...]