DO YOU HAVE AN EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUPPORT MODEL? (PART 3)
Step 5: Evaluate your company’s sale and order process.
If your company’s sales order process is arduous, it will dissuade customers from doing business with your company. But if your company’s sales order process is efficient, it can provide a competitive advantage. This is why companies that achieve market domination streamline their sales order process as much as possible.
Streamlining your sales order process can also help its customers avoid buyer’s remorse. The more complex a purchase decision is, the more likely it is that a customer will “second guess” their own purchase decision. And in some selling situations, such as retail consumer sales, it is important to complete business transactions before customers have a chance to talk themselves out of spending their money. Many companies, such as departmental stores, consumer electronics superstores, and car dealerships, that achieve total market domination use automated systems to help them streamline their sales order process and approve their customer’s credit “on the spot” – after verifying their customer’s identity and checking their credit history.
TRAINING SALES ORDER PROCESS
| Describe your customers’ purchase process. | Normally, our customers sign our standard training contract, which includes a detailed description of the program that we will present and all terms and conditions of our agreement. Our contract also details any special arrangements that have been agreed to, such as supplying extra copies of our workbooks.We ask our customers to pay a nonrefundable scheduling deposit when they sign our agreement. |
| What processes or procedures does your company have in place to ensure the quality of its customer’s purchase experience? | One of the senior managers contacts our customers within two business days after we have received their contract to determine whether they have any questions or concerns about our services or our personnel. |
| Is there any way to reduce the amount of time that your customer spends in the purchase process after making a purchase decision? | We have eliminated a detailed customer questionnaires that we used to ask our customers to complete when we took their order.Now, our training manager completes this form during a pre-seminar planning meeting. |
Step 6: Identify any order fulfillment issues that my impact your business.
If your company has problems filling orders, it will incur higher operating costs and will ultimately lose sales and customers to its competitors.
ORDER FULFILLMENT AND SHIPPING
| What is your average time for order fulfillment? | 12 days. |
| Do you expedite rush or special orders? | Yes. |
| Do you use private carrier to handle rush or expedited orders? | Yes. Peace Air. |
| Do you ever need to postpone order fulfillment because of production backlogs, out-of-stock inventory items, lack of equipment capacity, or other issues? | Yes, we are having problems scheduling print runs. |
| Do you have any sole source suppliers that can impact your ability to deliver your products or services? | We are trying to locate another supplier out of state. |
| Do you have a contingency plan if your supply of critical products or services is interrupted temporarily? | Yes. |
| Are you vulnerable/at risk because of unfavorable business relations with any of your suppliers? | No. There are no competitive issues. |
| Have you implemented EDI to support any of your customers ‘or suppliers’ order entry requirements? | Yes. |
| Do seasonal or peak loads cause bottlenecks? | We have had problems in August, our busiest month. |
| Do you hire additional personnel to handles seasonal or peak loads? | We rely on our subcontractors. |
| Do you outsource work to handle peak loads? | We use our direct mail service to help us fulfill Requests for Information. |
| Do you have a formal bidding process in place with your subcontractors? | Yes, we send out an RPF for all major projects. |
PRIORITIZING LIMITED RESOURCES
It is often possible to handle sales and support problems before they damage customer relations by assigning extra resources or prioritizing delivery schedules. For example, if a major customer demands immediate delivery of a product that is on location, your company may weigh the value of its relationship with this customer and decide to delay a delivery to another customer.
Most salespeople are too biased and have too narrow a view of their company’s operations to make objective decisions about which customer orders to expedite or delay. So in most companies, a senior marketing or operations manager is responsible for scheduling development and production resources. And decisions about prioritizing specific orders are based on a careful evaluation of how these decisions will impact the company’s ability to achieve its objectives.
Step 7: Evacuate your sales and support facilities.
Most companies that achieve total market domination provide local sales and support facilities.
The Bottom Line: Do you have an effective customer service and support model?
If you have effective customer support programs in place, your company will be able to provide the level of service that it needs to differentiate it from its competitors, generate new business, reinforce customer loyalty, ensure repeat business, and earn referrals.
Companies that achieve total market domination treat their customers the way that they would like to be treated in their place. When a company treats its customers like friends, it is selling downhill. And when a company is selling downhill, it is easy to build the momentum that it needs to achieve its business objectives.
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