Is Your Competition Taking Your Customers?

While perusing the Internet for great industry news to share with our valued customers I came across a great article on Modern Distribution Management by Ian Heller entitled “The Secret to Beating Grainger”. http://www.mdm.com/management-strategy/2010/05/10/the-secret-to-ibeatingi-grainger/PARAMS/post/25979

I loved the catchy title, but inside are tips that are relevant for many businesses, not those just in the wholesale distribution profession competing with a large giant. In fact, all of us are competing in our perspective industries with all kinds of competitors, and shouldn’t we be looking for all of the ways we can keep our customers for life?

His two suggestions that I think fit all businesses are “Simplify Your Transaction Process” and “Technical Support”. We know that these two areas of the customer experience are usually where things can go wrong.

I would suggest that you talk to your customers and better understand what they think of your current experience. Often time’s front line employees also provide exceptional information on processes that can be improved or just don’t make sense from a customer satisfaction standpoint. Another opportunity is to have an outside company/consultant come in and look at your processes and procedures from another view to help you better decipher, what changes will assist you the greatest in creating increases in customer loyalty.

All in all, happy customers don’t leave you. Those that are neutral about the relationship and haven’t been wowed are the customers you have to be concerned about your competition wooing away.