Could you reveal all to your customer?

Posted on 17 June 2011

We’ve had the worst recession I’ve ever experienced, arguably we’re still in it, but what can we do to help ourselves out of it? Well one fairly obvious way would be to create profits. No, I’m not being flippant, nor am I bashing the ‘save costs by cutting back’ mantra. I really do mean we can help businesses, or more specifically those that employ mobile workers, to grow out of recession by increasing profits.

Conventional wisdom dictates we should cut back on everything other than essential costs – yes we should – now is most certainly not the time to be wasteful. But in comparison to creating profits, saving money is easy, you can simply turn off a light to save money (not much, but it’s a start!). Creating or increasing profit means beating the competition, justifying your sales margin and increasing customer loyalty. It can mean creating a trusted ‘expert’ advisor relationship with your customers rather than just being a supplier. But how?

Your mobile workers are visiting customers every day, writing reports of their progress and noting any specific conditions which could affect their job on site. They note recommendations they’ve made to the users, changes in the environment they visit or simply their everyday interactions with on-site staff. You probably record this in your customer relationship management system (CRM) for use in preparing for their next visit. But this information could be pure’ gold’ to your customer and if you share it with them, through a secure customer specific portal on your web site, your status with your customer will increase enormously.

What does this mean in practice? If your mobile worker has left a note recommending a specification, or environmental, or usage change, it becomes part of a record of their expert opinion. If proven justified in the future, your customer will come to rely on the information your team is providing. Your company becomes the trusted ‘expert ‘advisor rather than simply another supplier. When your competitor approaches this customer with his “I’m cheaper” offering, your customer will ask if he’s also able to be transparent in his dealings with them and can he prove his service quality will match yours. Your competitor is unlikely to be able to prove his claims and your customer will remain loyal.  A loyal customer is far more likely to recommend your services to his peers, increasing your business, creating profits!

But be warned this is not for the fainthearted; it takes guts, a lot of discipline on the part of your employees to write up their best advice and strong management to monitor the effectiveness of your new open policy. You’ll then be able to measure the results and manage the inevitable business growth.

Could you trust your employees to write the right things, would you be able to be totally open with your customer? Share your thoughts and experiences below in the comments section, I’d love to hear your views on this…

If you’d like to discuss a possible deployment of a solution for your business, drop me an email or call the office on +44 (0)845 345 0808.