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For many years, the building materials branch has found it difficult to consistently maintain a sound, lucrative retail price index. As a retailer, you have to have be pretty tough in order not to get dragged down with the rat race. And although in recent years the number of bankruptcies have fortunately been on the decline again, well-known and major companies are still collapsing.
This often happens despite there being enough market demand, because people are unable to keep up with price fluctuations and because they have not been able to stand out sufficiently from the rest. Inadequacies gave the customer added value.
Indeed, it costs more money to make a new customer enthusiastic about your product or service, than it does to keep a satisfied customer for a longer period of time. It is also an opportunity to show how much expertise you have on hand and apply this to the individual customer in question.
In the longer term, a company that distinguishes itself just by the price of similar products or services becomes easily replaceable for the customer. After all, the party that offers the best price at that moment, is the one which is doing well with their sales at that moment.
Will someone else be cheaper next time? Then the customers will move over to them.
If you are able to translate your needs and desires into more added value for your customer, you will be able to benefit more from the improved economic conditions. Is your company able to grow in terms of turnover, ask better prices and is your company less susceptible when it comes to pressure on margins? Eventually, you will end up with more profit.
We are talking here, of course, about ‘Customer Intimacy’.
In practice, ‘Customer Intimacy’ is often confused with the usual good customer service. Yet customer intimacy is really a much broader term than that and encompasses so much more.
After all, it is not only about a service which is being provided, but also about a willingness to discuss things with your client and if necessary, to fully customise your own product to someone’s specific requirements.
Being able to demonstrate and share knowledge about a particular subject (the expert role) is also a way of bolstering your ‘Customer Intimacy’ from a substantive standpoint.
You will not make it just with the finest quality product or service. The choice for ‘Customer Intimacy’ means that your entire organisation works on behalf of the customer.
Therefore it’s certainly not just about the salespeople in the field or on the premises. The feeling that the customer gets when dealing with your organisation should be apt across all areas. Whether it is during telephone contact, order processing, the handling of quotations, complaints and invoices, or in the delivery of your products and service.
If you choose for a ‘Customer Intimacy’ strategy, then make the conscious choice that every employee is a salesperson.
I like to look beyond someone’s specific role; I assume that people are always able to do a bit more than they think that they can or that they are expected to do. Making sure that your employee is committed is not ‘rocket science’.
Using the following pragmatic approach – which consists of three elements – I have been able to significantly increase employee commitment in a short period of time in several organisations.
Whereby almost as a matter of course, turnover, profit and productivity were able to grow year on year. There are three basic needs of employees to explore which ensure commitment.
A person has the need to be seen and to be appreciated in order to develop positive self-confidence.
Being able to decide for yourself how to handle things, to act from your own experience, to learn from your own mistakes.
The development and application of your knowledge, abilities and skills. See the results of your efforts be rewarded and appreciated. Be asked because of your abilities, skills and knowledge.
At your place, the daily intractable practice looks different. You are already happy that you are able to find and keep enough people on board to do the work.
Let’s keep it simple. You can just hire me for that.
With over 25 years of successful experience in commercial and managerial positions with Profit & Loss final responsibility. I have very often been employed as a change manager for the implementation of reorganisations, improvement processes and growth of business-units. With the aim to make the business more customer-oriented, productive, cost-effective and profitable.
Although time and again each situation differed in terms of complexity, my no-nonsense approach has without a doubt proven to be successful and effective.
My view is that the success of customer focus revolves around the establishment of a spirit of entrepreneurship among your employees.
I prefer to do this within a senior executive management role with a commercial profile in the manufacturing industry, B2B, as well as the building materials sector and trade. At international groups, mid-sized enterprises or family businesses.
Available for projects, interim-assignments and/or permanent contract.
My approach leads to greater customer satisfaction, more profit and an enterprising, decisive and future-proof organisation with committed employees.
At your place, the daily intractable practice looks different. You are already happy that you are able to find and keep enough people on board to do the work.
Let’s keep it simple. You can just hire me for that.
With over 25 years of successful experience in commercial and managerial positions with Profit & Loss final responsibility. I have very often been employed as a change manager for the implementation of reorganisations, improvement processes and growth of business-units. With the aim to make the business more customer-oriented, productive, cost-effective and profitable.
Although time and again each situation differed in terms of complexity, my no-nonsense approach has without a doubt proven to be successful and effective.
My view is that the success of customer focus revolves around the establishment of a spirit of entrepreneurship among your employees.
I prefer to do this within a senior executive management role with a commercial profile in the manufacturing industry, B2B, as well as the building materials sector and trade. At international groups, mid-sized enterprises or family businesses.
Available for projects, interim-assignments and/or permanent contract.
My approach leads to greater customer satisfaction, more profit and an enterprising, decisive and future-proof organisation with committed employees.
Cultivating decisive organisations with committed employees.
+31 6 50 51 05 76
joris@imjoris.eu
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