keeping your customers

8/14/2019 Keeping Your Customers

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Keeping

yourcustomers

If you wonder why your

customers left when you

think your competitor has a

similar offering then think

again. Tangibles may

resemble but intangibles

may not and there could lie

the difference

Balajhi N


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N.Balajhi - Business Consultant

Page 2 of 4Mobile: +919843544954 http://enablingbusiness.blogspot.com [email protected]

Keeping your customers

On the other day I was having a discussion with my new cl ient when he popped the

question, why do customers leave despite same offering from competitors? He was

making an assumption that the offer ing from his competi tor is simi lar to what his

company offers. I t was di f f icul t for me approve or contradict that wi thout knowing the

details however I told him, "tangibles may resemble but intangibles may not" and there

could l ie the difference. Intangibles that I am talking about are given in the diagram

below. There may not be anything new about them but just that one needs to realise

that they, the intangibles, are very much part of an offer ing by a company to i ts

customers.

Intangible aspects of an offer to customers

Pre-sale service

Few years back, in a seminar, one sales

manager shot back at me saying 'service

starts only after sales' when I drew the

attent ion of audience to 'pre-sale service'.

But when I asked him about information

support g iven to customers on order status,

delivery t ime, despatch etc. he said "they

are part of the process". Then isn't post-

sale service part of that process?

It 's important to classi fy any interact ion between a customer and a company, wi th

regard to a sale, as service as i t underl ines the importance of the act ivi ty being

performed. Any service before the product is del ivered is part of 'pre-sales service'.

The reason why I am emphasising on 'pre-sales serv ice' is because people across the

company are involved in this and not just sales department. Manufacturing, Accounts,

R&D, Transportat ion are some of the departments that are responsible some of pre-

sales service act ivi t ies. A wel l co-ordinated, uni f ied approach is necessary to ensure

that the customer gets what he is made to expect from the company. I t 's very easy for

a company sl ip up here. Customer focus across the company is the only way forward

in this regard.

Fig. 1 -Intangibles of an offer to a customer
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fbbS7QLFtYo/SgftpszjRNI/AAAAAAAAAUg/co2sifReuPw/s1600-h/Intangibles.JPG


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Post-sales service

Not much needs to be said with regard to 'post-sales service' except that st ick to your

established and expected service standards both in terms of t imeliness and delivery.

Commitments

Commitments are of two types, one is authorised and the second unauthorised. Many

companies face problems with unauthorised commitments made by t heir sales team to

gain a sale. Some of these don't get documented and quite a few may never reach any

other person except the concerned salesman. Every commitment that is vio lated

creates a deep hole in a customer's trust. A company should be mindful of

commitments i t makes in the form of concessions, addi t ions, terms etc. and honour

them without fa i l . With respect to unauthorised commitments made by salesmen, the

customer should not be made to pay, for the mistake is not theirs. Companies must

set their house in order and dr ive home the message that unauthorised commitments

wil l not be tolerated and those who make them wil l be made to pay for i t.

Relationship

Beyond tangibles, service and commitment what else can a company offer? A

relat ionship, certainly. When you buy a product of a company you are a proud

customer of i t only i f the company is equal ly proud to have you on their l ist . In mid

1990's, besides poor service standards, many customers jumped over to new private

sector banks due to poor treatment meted out to them by staff of Public Sector Banks

(PSB s) in India. In fact the t ide is now turning and more and more people are leaving

for PSB's. Nowadays, customers get much better t reatment from the staff of PSB s

and their service standards have improved great ly.

Never betray your customers' trust

Customers can get vocal when their expectat ions on tangibles are not met but may not

waste their lung power to get the message across when i t comes to intangibles,

barring may be post-sales service. They wil l just move away and the onus wil l be on

you to learn why they did so. One of the basic tenets in business management is"never betray your customers' t rust" . When a customer decides to buy your product or

avai l your service he / she starts bui ld ing trust in your offer ing and remember both

tangibles and intangibles are part of an offer. If this trust is taken for granted or


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played around with then those customers who leave you wi l l take away much more

business than they brought you in the f i rst p lace.

Final words

Tangible aspects of a product / service may win you a customer but i t is intangible

aspects that help you retain customers. Intangibles carry your own mark and are

di f f icul t to dupl icate unl ike tangibles. They even m ask some short fa l ls in your products

and services, albei t for a short period, therefore be mindful of them.

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keeping your customers

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