Larry Hochman
Offshore Dreaming
Part 1
Posted on October 29, 2007 - Filed Under Innovative marketing strategies, CSA - Celebrity Speakers, Expert Interviews |
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THE BUILDING OF RELATIONSHIPS IN THE GLOBAL, MOBILE, TEMPORARY, OFFSHORED and OUTSOURCED WORLD
by Larry Hochman
Every competitor has dreams. Every competitor studies trends. Every competitor attempts to “connect the dots” on its radar screen, in order to better visualise the picture of what sustained commercial advantage may look like in the months and years ahead. Merely envisioning a bold future does not develop a sustained competitive advantage. Hope is not a strategy!!
Take, for example, the bold future of breakthrough customer relationships promised by the “CRM Dream Factory”. Did your investment in CRM software (thousands/millions??) REALLY build better relationships with your most important customers, that you have been able to quantifiably link to the bottom line? Do you REALLY know? How do you know? Would you make that same investment today?
My experience tells me that buying software alone, did not (and does not) transform companies automatically into successful relationship marketers. This was not the fault of the software (which itself was brilliantly marketed), but the fault of the dreamers, who thought the purchase of this software, and the information it provided, would transform their ability to build better relationships accordingly.
There still seems to be little appreciation, and even less understanding (remarkably!!), for the true value of the personal contact between your customers and your front line employees, and how the result of that contact truly impacts on customers, their brand loyalty, and your bottom line. No software – none, and no amount of information collected – none, will substantially affect your ability to build and maintain relationships with your most valued customers, as will the ability of your front line staff to make their contact meaningful, memorable, efficient, human, and genuine. The “CRM Dream Factory” sadly failed to help people understand this, but they are really not to blame. Any company that failed to understand the role of human contact in the building and maintaining of customer relationships can only blame themselves.
The last issue of this magazine reminded everyone, yet again, of the debilitating cost to your business of poor customer care and the fact that most, if not all, research shows that customers believe service is actually getting worse, not getting better. Don’t you shake your head in amazement at how much money has been spent in trying to improve service and build better relationships with your customers, and yet every form of measurement shows it’s actually getting worse? Let me state something very simply, that I have speaking to audiences about for a very long time: too many companies depended on software, and the information it provided, to build better relationships with customers, instead of focusing on the necessary skills of front line staff to accomplish the same. You DO NOT build better relationships with customers by installing software, you DO NOT build better relationships with customers by collecting information; instead you do build better relationships with customers by BUILDING TRUST IN YOUR BRAND BY THE SERVICE THAT YOU OFFER.
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