Making good on your service promise
By Oliver Post
Every electrical distributor strives to offer good service but, in a competitive market, it isn’t enough to be good... you must also be different.
Competitive differentiation is where many distributors get it wrong; too often they try to follow suit of what they believe to be their most successful opposition, and risk losing those qualities that set them apart in the eyes of their customers.
Too
often the focus is on short-lived promotions, and not on the value that
a distribution business brings to its customers every day.
This is,
frankly, not that different from any business. How many smaller
retailers tried to emulate the Wal-Mart model when it first arrived in
Canada? Quite a few, actually, and to their own detriment. What those
businesses failed to recognize was the unique value they already
brought to their customers.
It was,
in the language of the business consultant, all about the customer
experience. Now, I frankly dislike turning the individual efforts of
people who work in a business into a set of catchphrases, but they do
provide some easy-to-remember focal points.
In the
case of the customer experience, each person in your organization
should be asked what your distribution organization stands for and, in
turn, what they contribute in support of that position.
For
example, if yours is an organization that focuses on offering
premium-quality, branded products, but you have a purchaser who spends
an inordinate amount of time hunting down the cheapest products on the
market, there is an obvious disconnect.
Or, if
you believe in fast service above all else but don’t staff the counter
with enough personnel to really deliver on it, then perhaps your
business’ strong points are different from what you thought.
Again, the goal is not just to be good, but to be good and different.
The fact
is that great service will keep customers coming back more than
pricing, and that a series of bad service experiences at a deep
discounting distributor will wear down even the most price-oriented
customer.
I
recently came across some research that said 80% of customers stopped
doing business with a company because of a bad service experience, and
that they will never do business with such a company again.
There
are a lot of ways you can drive a customer away, but to keep the tone
positive here, I’ll focus on the flipside: how to ensure a great
customer service and differentiating yourself.
Be fast
Fast
service has to be number one. As much as you might pride yourself on
your company’s ability to get orders to the customer quickly, have you
ever measured it? And can you improve? Do both, and see if you can’t
find something to set yourself apart from the competition.
One
electrical distributor must have done exactly that and determined that
it could promote what it was already doing (or close to doing, anyway)
with service guarantees. It promises that a counterperson will be at
the counter within 30 seconds of a customer pressing a service button
or they’ll give him a $5 coupon. And for called-in orders, if needed,
and if in stock, the distributor promises they’ll be ready in 20
minutes or they credit the account $20.
That is
something they can and do promote. And it sets them apart from the
competition in ways that have nothing to do with price.
Everybody seeks to provide quick service, but not everybody achieves it consistently. A consistent process can help you do this.
Be smart
Having
competent staff would seem an obvious path to good customer service,
but in a labour market where it can be tough to keep experienced
knowledgeable staff, you likely find yourself with less experience at
the counter and on the phones than you might like.
So you
need a good training regimen. Yes, the supplier clinics and online
resources are valuable but, when you hire staff, do you pair them with
experienced members of your team? When you do, they can learn properly
on the job—not just by trial and error. Not everyone is cut out to be a
mentor, but you could probably make a list right now of those who would
enjoy the experience.
Further
to the knowledge front, you also need to have proper information
systems in place to access information on products, inventory, building
codes, etc. The right resources can allow even the greenest team member
to competently serve a customer.
Be personable
Customers want to know that the people with whom they are dealing care about their businesses.
This
trust is often the result of years of dealing with the same person.
Having direct lines to individual counter staff is one way, but there
has to be a fallback position. After all, it’s not always possible to
have one individual dedicated to a given customer every time. Having
the right systems in place can provide a level of confidence for the
customer; that whoever is serving them knows at least something about
their business. A note on the customer file about a job they are doing
(i.e. “big renovation on Century home”) and a friendly manner can keep
dealings personable with all customers.
Focus on money matters
While
customer-facing staff spend most of their time dealing with the
business needs of the customer—and probably doing a pretty darn good
job of it—much of that goodwill can be lost when an invoice is wrong or
unclear.
More
acrimony is the result of invoicing issues than any other single point.
Consider our service guarantee example: how would a customer feel if
his $20 credit wasn’t applied? The same goes for rebates, discounts,
returns and promotional pricing.
Everybody
involved in entering orders needs to understand how important it is to
get it right; service doesn’t stop once the sale is completed.
Be consistent
It may
seem like a contradiction, but the path to differentiated service is
through consistency of process. Deviation is the enemy of excellence.
When every staff member in your business has “his own way of doing
things”, you’ll never achieve excellent service in a consistent fashion.
It is
only by tightly defining how customers are handled, how orders are
pulled and how follow-up is conducted that you can make promises to
customers you can keep. And that’s the best way to set yourself apart
from the competition.
Oliver Post can be reached at
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