In the final part of our agile business series we take a look at the things we use to transact business – either B2B or B2C.
Say you have a widget you manufacture and sell, or you may offer services on how to maintain or use said widget. If it’s any good, you can guarantee there will others jumping on that particular widgety bandwagon ready to take your potential customer base away from you.
So what do you do?
A truly agile business will be looking at more than just competing on the price of a single widget. However, as we know – there is an endless race to the bottom for businesses who think that competing on price is the only way they will get a bigger share of the market. How many times have you gone price shopping to get the most for your money? And as you know, sometimes that works, but more often than not, we are left feeling a little disappointed. Yes we got the best price but the transaction, the sales process or the customer service experience just wasn’t good enough.
So how do you compete when your widgets are being usurped?
Customer Service is still key
I’ve experienced some exceptional customer service over the last couple of months. In terms of dollar costs, the first purchase set me back a fair bit at outlay, the second purchase will set me back considerably more, but as it comes out of the bank on a fortnightly basis you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a small amount of money so they won’t really care about following up.
What they both had in common is not what they are – in my case – one is a product, one is a service – what they have in common is the service, care and follow ups that have occurred.
Will I recommend them – absolutely, every time. Could I have got a better deal elsewhere – possibly. Would I go back – absolutely (which in the case of the latter is a good job as it’s a gym membership).
Now take a look at your recent purchases – big or small, personal or at a corporate level – how well did the people you interact with perform?
Now take a good look at the way you provide customer service to your customers and clients – are you consistently performing at an excellent level (repeat customers, feedback forms and the way people speak to you are all good indicators), or could you do better? Hint, you can always do better.
While you are undertaking a personal review it is also a good idea to undertake a
Product and Service Review
As we have mentioned in previous editions of the agile business series, we are constantly looking at ways we can do things better.
We work across multiple business and services, but one of the main elements in all of these service areas is customer service. Given the feedback we receive from our clients, we know our customer service is excellent, but as an agile business we are always looking at ways we can deliver our services – better and more efficiently.
Yesterday’s Telstra outage affected a huge number of businesses. But it didn’t affect our clients as we were able to continue to take their calls, make their appointments and answer their customers’ inquiries. And in the odd event that our telephone system glitches, we have a backup, so our clients are not affected.
Still not sure – there are 47 other things you can compete on besides price
#businesssupport #perth