The Customer Service Strategy
| Category: Customer Service | Date: 2001-07-03 |
E-commerce
Everyone reading this newsletter is very familiar with the power of the Internet. The Gartner Group Inc. says the business-to-business (B2B) Worldwide marketplace will grow from $145 billion in 1999, to $7.29 trillion in 2004. By 2004, B2B e-Commerce will represent 7 percent of the forecasted $105 trillion total global sales transactions. That’s just three years away.
The Internet is the great equalizer. It allows a small business to compete with other businesses much larger than itself.
Rob Eibensteiner, chairman of Wyncrest Capital, a major investor in start-up companies, best described it with these comments:
"By allowing consumers to choose between products anywhere in the World, the Net has shifted power from companies to customers.
Customers expect to decide what they want, how they want it, when they want it, and where they want it. And they demand it at a lower price.
Smart companies are reacting by becoming customer-centered, service-oriented, efficient, and cost effective. They can succeed only by understanding what they do best, focusing on those processes and outsourcing the rest. The result is more choices and better products for consumers."
Your customers are only loyal to speed, price, service and quality. They don’t care where in the World they buy the product or service.
Amazon does business in more than 160 countries. Millions of people know that they can get any book they want, for less money, and in a few days if they buy from Amazon, which claims 85 percent of online book sales.
Soon, if not already, there will be thousands of other firms selling products and services similar to yours on the Internet.
To compete you have to provide exceptional service, eliminate waste to keep prices low or preferably lower prices. Millions of firms, across the World, who "don’t get it" will go out of business as the Internet advances. The days of putting up with high prices, lousy service, and crummy hours are soon going to be gone. Millions of new businesses from every corner of the World will take their place.
Amazon.com
Many people have asked me why Amazon is so successful. There are a variety of reasons.
Amazon set the standard for the Internet. Most companies have only copied a small portion of its success.
Amazon was built on price, speed/technology, and service. The three legs are critical to their success. But many Internet firms have forgotten service. And we all know that a two-legged stool will not stand by itself.
Amazon gained 3.1 million new customer accounts in the first three months of the year, increasing its customer base to more than 20 million people.
Many analysts have been very critical of Amazon because it has not made money. CEO Jeff Bezos,however, expects the company to be profitable for the 2000 fiscal year.
Sales for the first quarter were $574 million, up 95 percent over the $294 million for the first quarter one year ago.
Another reason for Amazon’s success is that Jeff Bezos focused on hiring the best people he could find. If they weren’t on the "A" list, he was not interested in hiring them.
All my research on world-class service leaders shows they are very careful about the people they hire. A "body" for many firms is okay if they have a pulse or a blood pressure.
But Bezos surrounded himself with smart people. All applicants were asked for their SAT scores and college grade point averages, and if their scores weren’t high enough, they weren’t hired.
Department managers were required to interview each applicant and then write a report outlining what was discussed during the interview, their impression of the applicant, and any other relevant thoughts or comments. Each candidate had to supply three telephone references. Those references also were interviewed for about 30 minutes by human resources people, who then wrote transcripts of those interviews.
Each of the four or five people who interviewed the candidates received as many as 100 pages of information on each of them.
Eight thousand employees later, Amazon is still looking for the smartest and most customer-focused people it can find.
Find out more about Amazon by reading Robert Spector’s new book, "Amazon.com: Get Big Fast."
I challenge each of you to copy Amazon’s focus on service and selecting only the best people.
Service a Strategic Weapon
As a result of the hit TV series, Survivors, many shows are emerging. It takes only weeks, days, andsometimes hours for new technology, new pricing strategy or new store design to be copied.
More than 100 firms already have copied Amazon. Superior customer service is the only strategic strategy you can roll out, right under the nose of your competitors, and they will not copy your service strategy.
Over the last 20 years, as I have focused on customer service, I still consistently see service leaders take a strategic three- to five-year lead over their competition. It’s amazing.
Service is the only strategic marketing tool you can use and not be copied for years, if even then.
Delta Dental Plan of Massachusetts moved from a 15 percent market share in April 1990 to 55 percent today. There is not a signal competitor that doesn’t know about that company’s "service guarantee," and yet NO competitor has copied it.
Wal-Mart has $165 billion in sales, but no one in the World wants to match its focus on customers and employees.
Home Depot has $38 billion in sales. Earnings are up 37 percent, and sales are up 26 percent from 1998. And no one wants to copy its focus on customers.
I am not talking about lip service or competitive advertising. Virtually every organization in the World believes it provides exceptional service. It’s easy to give an ad agency $25 million and say, "Create an ad campaign based on service". This is hoping that false advertising will work.
Customers are very smart. Word-of-mouth advertising is 10 times more powerful than the fictitious commercials we see on TV and in print.
If you want to build a market share and grow your organization fast with less money, then I suggest you focus on a customer service strategy.
About the Author.
:To contact see details below.
administrator@internetclinic.org
http://internetclinic.org/
Everyone reading this newsletter is very familiar with the power of the Internet. The Gartner Group Inc. says the business-to-business (B2B) Worldwide marketplace will grow from $145 billion in 1999, to $7.29 trillion in 2004. By 2004, B2B e-Commerce will represent 7 percent of the forecasted $105 trillion total global sales transactions. That’s just three years away.
The Internet is the great equalizer. It allows a small business to compete with other businesses much larger than itself.
Rob Eibensteiner, chairman of Wyncrest Capital, a major investor in start-up companies, best described it with these comments:
"By allowing consumers to choose between products anywhere in the World, the Net has shifted power from companies to customers.
Customers expect to decide what they want, how they want it, when they want it, and where they want it. And they demand it at a lower price.
Smart companies are reacting by becoming customer-centered, service-oriented, efficient, and cost effective. They can succeed only by understanding what they do best, focusing on those processes and outsourcing the rest. The result is more choices and better products for consumers."
Your customers are only loyal to speed, price, service and quality. They don’t care where in the World they buy the product or service.
Amazon does business in more than 160 countries. Millions of people know that they can get any book they want, for less money, and in a few days if they buy from Amazon, which claims 85 percent of online book sales.
Soon, if not already, there will be thousands of other firms selling products and services similar to yours on the Internet.
To compete you have to provide exceptional service, eliminate waste to keep prices low or preferably lower prices. Millions of firms, across the World, who "don’t get it" will go out of business as the Internet advances. The days of putting up with high prices, lousy service, and crummy hours are soon going to be gone. Millions of new businesses from every corner of the World will take their place.
Amazon.com
Many people have asked me why Amazon is so successful. There are a variety of reasons.
Amazon set the standard for the Internet. Most companies have only copied a small portion of its success.
Amazon was built on price, speed/technology, and service. The three legs are critical to their success. But many Internet firms have forgotten service. And we all know that a two-legged stool will not stand by itself.
Amazon gained 3.1 million new customer accounts in the first three months of the year, increasing its customer base to more than 20 million people.
Many analysts have been very critical of Amazon because it has not made money. CEO Jeff Bezos,however, expects the company to be profitable for the 2000 fiscal year.
Sales for the first quarter were $574 million, up 95 percent over the $294 million for the first quarter one year ago.
Another reason for Amazon’s success is that Jeff Bezos focused on hiring the best people he could find. If they weren’t on the "A" list, he was not interested in hiring them.
All my research on world-class service leaders shows they are very careful about the people they hire. A "body" for many firms is okay if they have a pulse or a blood pressure.
But Bezos surrounded himself with smart people. All applicants were asked for their SAT scores and college grade point averages, and if their scores weren’t high enough, they weren’t hired.
Department managers were required to interview each applicant and then write a report outlining what was discussed during the interview, their impression of the applicant, and any other relevant thoughts or comments. Each candidate had to supply three telephone references. Those references also were interviewed for about 30 minutes by human resources people, who then wrote transcripts of those interviews.
Each of the four or five people who interviewed the candidates received as many as 100 pages of information on each of them.
Eight thousand employees later, Amazon is still looking for the smartest and most customer-focused people it can find.
Find out more about Amazon by reading Robert Spector’s new book, "Amazon.com: Get Big Fast."
I challenge each of you to copy Amazon’s focus on service and selecting only the best people.
Service a Strategic Weapon
As a result of the hit TV series, Survivors, many shows are emerging. It takes only weeks, days, andsometimes hours for new technology, new pricing strategy or new store design to be copied.
More than 100 firms already have copied Amazon. Superior customer service is the only strategic strategy you can roll out, right under the nose of your competitors, and they will not copy your service strategy.
Over the last 20 years, as I have focused on customer service, I still consistently see service leaders take a strategic three- to five-year lead over their competition. It’s amazing.
Service is the only strategic marketing tool you can use and not be copied for years, if even then.
Delta Dental Plan of Massachusetts moved from a 15 percent market share in April 1990 to 55 percent today. There is not a signal competitor that doesn’t know about that company’s "service guarantee," and yet NO competitor has copied it.
Wal-Mart has $165 billion in sales, but no one in the World wants to match its focus on customers and employees.
Home Depot has $38 billion in sales. Earnings are up 37 percent, and sales are up 26 percent from 1998. And no one wants to copy its focus on customers.
I am not talking about lip service or competitive advertising. Virtually every organization in the World believes it provides exceptional service. It’s easy to give an ad agency $25 million and say, "Create an ad campaign based on service". This is hoping that false advertising will work.
Customers are very smart. Word-of-mouth advertising is 10 times more powerful than the fictitious commercials we see on TV and in print.
If you want to build a market share and grow your organization fast with less money, then I suggest you focus on a customer service strategy.
About the Author.
:To contact see details below.
administrator@internetclinic.org
http://internetclinic.org/
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