Tag Archives: Installation

How Do You Maximize Customer Satisfaction? Six Suggestions

Situation: The CEO of a company wants to assure that his company is doing everything that it can to maximize customer satisfaction. What have others done to evaluate and measure whether their customers are satisfied with the service and/or products provided? How do you maximize customer satisfaction?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Ask customers what they like and don’t like about your services.
• Ask what other things they are struggling with and whether or not you can offer services to improve this situation.
• By asking these questions, other opportunities may arise. Act like a business partner not hired help.
• Set targets for the company and sales team. What do you want to measure? How will you know if the client will reuse your services? What are you looking for?
• In the case of a new installation or activating a new service, as CEO be there when the implementation is complete and ready for “live” time. You may see complementary products or services to suggest to build a partnership with the client.
• Look closely at what added value you are offering so clients want to keep you on retainer. Identify what retainer business looks like and look for options to offer retainer services. This will help to differentiate the offering.

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How Do You Build a New Channel? Four Cases

Situation: A company wants to increase business by building a new channel. The new business is different from the company’s base business, but won’t change the company’s focus on its base business. What lessons have been learned by other CEOs who have accomplished this? How do you build a new channel?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • One company created a new channel without changing the base business.
    • They responded slowly to the opportunity before deciding to change.
    • They needed to change infrastructure by adding more people.
    • They also needed to redefine the offering to meet the needs of new clients.
    • This involved adding additional data which had been accessible previously but hadn’t been presented.
    • At first the hand off wasn’t smooth. Hiccups that could have been foreseen with more planning were extra data fields and rough hand-offs. Future new releases will focus on improved process review and more challenging of assumptions, and more patience in the scoping stage.
  • The second company created a new branch with different products and operations, but maintained one financial and inventory management system.
    • The initial produce was sold and installed, utilizing union labor. The new product is sold wholesale business to businesses and is non-union.
    • After struggling with attempts to house both operations under one roof the new operation was moved to a separate location.
    • This enabled company to set up separate operations and to fully understand the financials of both operations. It also makes it easier to assess the viability of each business and to implement changes in one without disrupting the other.
  • The third company created a new offering to sell to the same customer base, with no change in the back-end systems.
    • The new business created an insurance model for the company’s services as an alternative to the original break-fix model.
    • The two systems use a common sales team, network engineers, and back-end system. Customers choose either insurance or break-fix.
    • The challenge was that the two models need completely different monitoring and incentive systems for the engineers. This took time for development and training.
  • The fourth company created two production operations: turnkey and component.
    • This called for different sales and contracting processes and separate production areas on the plant floor, with clear delineation but using the same back end, financial, and engineering support systems.
    • The component process is short-run, high value, high margin; the turnkey is high volume runs, lower value, low margin.
    • The challenge has been in setting up a new set of contract agreements and monitoring systems to monitor the financial success of the turnkey operation.
  • What is the common thread?
    • Put sufficient time into planning and evaluating options and challenges so that there is a solid understanding of the new channel before starting.

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How Do You Transition to New Management? Four Insights

Situation: The CEO of a small technical company is in the process of handing off responsibilities to a new President who lives in another state. The CEO and President have known each other for a long time and have a strong relationship. The CEO will hand off several key responsibilities immediately, while retaining financial and HR because of the President’s location. How do you transition to new management?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Most of the current hand-off plan concerns non-technical areas. The next logical area to delegate is Customer Support.
    • Establish a trigger process for new requests for support that keeps key parties informed and meets customer needs on a timely basis.
    • Think about bumping up Customer Support to a more proactive Customer Relations function. This is important during economic downturns when trade show attendance is low.
  • Next in line are Installation and Installation Planning, since the new President will already have Installation Support.
  • Think about Technical Support. This could be combined with Customer Support and makes sense because many customer support questions come through technical support.
  • Beef up the financial function to support future growth. Growth brings new complexities into the picture. Consider handing this off to a part time professional who can provide regular updates of the company’s financials. A professional can also look at the structure of the books and suggest changes that will provide more insight into company operations, opportunities for savings, and sources of funding to support planned growth.

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How Do You Compete Against Free Software? Six Tactics

Situation: A boutique software company with superior expertise in their market competes against a large corporation that provides similar software for “free.” The competitor sells systems with their software pre-installed; however, these systems are known to work better with the boutique company’s software. How do you compete against free software?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Create an alternate message that rings consistently through your advertising, speaking, and media. The core of this message is that if you want a successful experience with the competitor’s installation, the only clear choice is your software. Feature data from your case studies showing improvements in performance, savings of time and resources, etc.
  • Your best target is customers who are in the proof of concept stage. Here they are learning about the system and dealing with the early challenges with the software installed by the competitor. They not only have to pay for the system, but they must pay for installation services. If you can demonstrate both cost savings and smoother operation they will be open to your pitch.
  • Keep a list of the competitor’s trial sites and approach them three months after they try the pre-installed software. Have case studies in hand that demonstrate the clear superiority of your software. At this point they will have experienced enough during the trial that they will be open to your sales message.
  • Focus on the regional rales organizations of your competitor – the people who sell the competitor’s equipment. The RSOs are driven purely by sales performance. Show them that it is easier to sell their systems, and that trials go more smoothly when they recommend your software as part of the sale.
    • Your message: with our software your trial installations go more smoothly; without our software, the entire system sale is at risk.
  • Continue to refine your search engine optimization so that you appear in the first five hits when anybody asks about the competitor’s systems or software.
  • Find an independent Blogger who cares and wants to spread the message that your software is the only way to go with the competitor’s system. Continually feed this blogger with fresh material from your field sales experience.

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