How Do We Hang On To Our Customers and Market Share In Tough Times? The Competitiveness Audit
The global recession.
Orders are down, spending is down, and as a result- competition is tougher than ever.Everyone from wholesalers to retailers are slashing prices as a knee jerk reaction to slower sales.The reality is that if there are ten companies in a particular industry now, soon there may be as few as three, and in some industries- only one or two left standing.Will your firm be one of them? With fewer transactions overall, each customer relationship is precious.No longer can a company afford to ignore their 'B' customers, while the 'A' customers are getting more attention than ever-especially from your competitors.Prepare yourself now to compete hard.But how do you do that? The first place to start is with an internal audit of the factors which most strongly influence customer satisfaction, loyalty, preference and return and recommend rate.An integrated model of customer satisfaction statistical predictor constructs, developed by the cutting edge research of Aquarius Training & Development,yields powerful insight and analysis into the competitive equation. An in depth profile of the customer relationship is prepared based upon internal auditing and external customer satisfaction data.Secondly, a competitor profile is prepared with the same constructs being applied to the top one to three competitors- and compared factor by factor with 50 specific indicators being measured in ten categories which include: Quality, Value, Timeliness, Efficiency, Ease of Access, Service Behaviors, Interdepartmental Teamwork, Commitment to the Customer, Environment, and Innovation. The result is not only a clear picture of your organization's strengths and weaknesses in creating satisfaction with your customers (with accompanying high return and recommend rates) but also where your organization's biggest advantages over competitors reside and disadvantages which need to be mitigated. Organizations are able to map their overall satisfaction scores with a correlation to their specific return and recommend rate using ATD's approach. Moving this number higher and higher yields greater numbers of successful customer-supplier relationships and transactions. Typically, organizations who go through the competitive audit process, discover many areas where they have neglected opportunities to maximize satisfaction and build a stronger relationship.Making small process changes and a few extra low cost or no cost efforts may yield significant results right away. There will also be factors identified which are not an easy fix and may require a longer commitment or postponement before they can be addressed. The key factors to focus on will be those which create a specific advantage over competitors as differentiators and which can be emphasized in sales and marketing efforts and implemented in daily operations. The re-education of the workforce around specific high leverage factors can create an internal revitalization and much needed refreshing of the product line. The organization will have the opportunity to re-orient and re-adjust in a scientifically measured strategic way.Increases in customer satisfaction will be measurable in the form of increased sales, repeat orders, and acquisition of new customers from competitors. These factors may ultimately be the most important to any business enterprise. The competitiveness audit is a high leverage tool that organizations need to apply right away- so course corrections and the rescue of customer relationships can begin to make a difference in the bottom line. Bart Allen Berry is the author of two research based books on the science of customer satisfaction and has authored many satisfaction studies and lead strategic organization change work for the last 25 years. For more information on performing the competitiveness audit contact:bart@bartallenberry.com
