Stretch portfolio
A wide range of products or services can be very useful. This prevents a changing customer need from immediately ending the relationship. Responding well to customer demand, even if wishes arise that do not immediately fall within your standard portfolio.
If you can bend over backwards to still be of service to the customer, you will make a strong impression. You can also put yourself in the spotlight by thinking about social issues, such as sustainability. If your vision in that area matches that of the customer, you automatically have an advantage.
Of course, you can only really come up with something surprising if you have a mountain of prior knowledge. The more you visit the customer, the better prepared you will be. Rached Dekker from Ricoh can talk about that: “One of our account managers delved into the needs of students at a large educational institution. Just by walking around and talking to the students.” This field research provided Ricoh with important insights, so that their advice was spot on.
Strategic trio
In 1993, Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema established that a successful business strategy could consist of three elements:
Operational excellence: effective greek phone number processes that reduce costs.
Product leadership: continuously innovating so that you remain the best choice for the customer).
Customer intimacy: extreme attention to the customer, excellent service and offering tailor-made solutions.
But where in the 90s it was still sufficient to accelerate on one of these three value propositions, that is no longer enough. A good company in 2017 should do its utmost in all three of these areas. The customer simply will not be satisfied with less.
Healthy reading material
Putting the customer first has come to sound like an empty phrase over the years, an empty slogan. Yet this book presents a series of success stories that can slowly give one courage again. The authors also challenge the reader after each chapter with the question: “What will you do differently from tomorrow?”
Healthy reading material for all those CCOs who are at their wits' end and their customers are in trouble. Stand up, take the advice to heart, convince your colleagues. Don't use the mantra as a white lie, but as the starting point of your strategy. Or better yet: as the raison d'être of your company.