Strategic Planning Expert
These are difficult times for many companies. For some this may be an understatement, for others not so much of one. Stepping back and looking at your business from the outside, are there things you should consider concentrating on and/or doing better to keep those customers you have? Chances are that there are a number of things you could do to improve your communications with and relationships with your current customers.
Even if many of your customers are not able to buy as much as they were buying a year or two ago, with their business shrinking to some degree, it is worthwhile to make every reasonable effort to keep these customers as happy as you can with what you offer, be it product or service based (or both).
There are three simple reasons for this effort to be made. First: You need to make every sale you can to keep your own business viable during this slowdown period. Second: You should aim to retain as much of their business as you possibly can so when the turnaround comes, you have built on your relationship with each customer to the best possible extent. The goal here is to be the source for each customer’s needs when business returns to higher volumes. Third: Current customers are usually less expensive to keep than new customers are to find, develop and cultivate into regular customers.
How can we do this in an environment where everyone is looking to cut costs, reduce staffing and/or minimize inventory investment in order to survive these difficult times?
Read More (case study included)