Business Development
Published Articles
Customer service and proactive customer contact
Published in: PICA Scanner, January-February-March 2004
Customer service and proactive customer contact
Changing market conditions usually create opportunities for the supplier willing to implement change to capture new opportunities for additional business.
For instance, most graphic arts organizations have a customer list that measures in the hundreds of accounts. Yet, most customer contact personnel (i.e., CSR's and Sales Reps) understandably give most of their time and attention to those accounts who call most often.
Numerous customer surveys over recent years indicate that many if not most customers are giving their graphic arts suppliers less than 100% of their business. Converging with this observation is the fact that most graphic arts organizations have swings in their work loads, with the first two weeks of each month predictably having less work than the last two weeks.
Finally, in today's market of compressed time schedules, most print buyers rely on the loyal CSR to manage day-to-day communications.
This overview is intended to create the awareness that systematic, proactive contact of generally "neglected accounts" by CSR's can not only improve these customers' preference for your organization, but moderate negotiations and courteous follow-up can lead to additional business being produced when you need it most -- in the early weeks of each month.
To support this happening, create a schedule of who to call, and who is to call. Role play different scenarios of what to say to customers you don't talk to very often, like, "We've not heard from your company, and realized that we should have called you. The items you bought from us over the last year included...."
Just calling these neglected accounts can create opportunities for additional business. Be sure to count progress and successes, rather than who doesn't respond positively. You'll be helping your customer understand that his/her business is important, and you'll be helping your company keep its revenues up, and its costs down.