About Waypoint Group:
About YOU
Do you face any of these issues?
- 1) Our rate of growth is not where we want it to be
- 2) We don’t know what our customers value most from us
- 3) We don’t have a robust customer reference database
- 4) We don’t know the strength of our key account relationships
- 5) We don’t know who our best customers are, or We define "best" only by Sales
- 6) We don’t optimally prioritize product and service improvements
- 7) Senior management doesn’t recognize the customer base as a significant asset
For nearly 10 years we have helped our clients rapidly and cost-effectively address these challenges every day.
Considerations & Actions
1) Our rate of growth is not where we want it to be
Consider: Those companies with loyal customers consistently outperform their competition. Loyal customers buy more, refer business, and provide valuable feedback. Whether you are establishing a new market or providing commodity products, your customer base can be your most important asset to generate future growth.
Act: Know for certain who your most loyal customers are. Are you tapping their full potential?
Or, by contrast, do you know if you have large or strategic customers that are likely to stop purchasing from you?
What are you doing about the unhappy segment of your customer base that might be driving away business with negative references?
2) We don’t know what our customers value most from us
Consider: Understanding your company’s value proposition from your customers’ perspective enables you to more clearly communicate your differentiation and purchase justification to the market (that is, communicate your value and unique selling proposition more effectively and less costly). When you can understand any gaps in what you expect to deliver compared to what your customers are experiencing your company can enable customer success and deliver the ultimate connection with loyalty.
Act: Of course you will have different customers with different needs and expectations. Compare customers that consider themselves successful with you to those that aren’t. Are there differences in the products or services deployed, pricing, or sales & delivery team? Comparing one group the another to understand differences is the first step toward driving performance improvement.
3) We don’t have a robust customer reference database
Consider: Are you unable to justify the investment? Or, perhaps you haven't prioritized the initiative? Face it, prospects would rather hear from your customers, not from you. Do you have a database that enables your sales and marketing team to leverage the right customers for references or testimonials at the right time, without over-using (“burning out”) any one customer?
Are your sales people able to get new leads from your most loyal customers that might be able to refer business from their network?
Act: Building an on-line database is both an easy (inexpensive) deliverable that comes out of well-focused customer research, and such an asset should be self-maintaining and easily justified. Especially if your company is already acquiring customer feedback, taking that last step to request permission and manage utilization is the easiest part of the job when you know how.
4) We don’t know the strength of our key account relationships
Consider: Do you get butterflies in your stomach when it’s time for a key customer to renew their relationship with your company? Do you really have the accurate picture of the relationship from the customer’s perspective, or are you relying on discussions with employees that may be wearing rose-colored glasses?
Act: Engaging your sales team in acquiring and acting on customer feedback is the shortest path to retention and growth of key accounts. With the right tools and effort behind them, your sales team will be the first to testify to the benefits of a full-cycle customer feedback effort.
5) We don’t know who our best customers are, or We define "best" only by Sales (Revenue)
Consider: How do you know who your best customers are? Is “best” defined as “largest” or do you consider a broader picture, such as profit and referral influence on other prospects? Understanding that happy customers generally cost less to serve and also refer others should be a factor in these decisions.
Act: Your CRM database can be a good place to start to understand profitability, but it generally doesn’t help you understand customer expectations or predict future behaviors. Your customers have made an investment in your firm, and they are not only the most accurate source of actionable intelligence but they are also generally all too happy to provide it if you know how and when to ask.
6) We don’t optimally prioritize product and service improvements
Consider: Many organizations are abused by Hippos – Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. They'll say things like, "We can't let our customers’ dictate our strategy.” That may be true, and you can let customer’s help you with tactics (how you execute the strategy). Your customer’s know best about what they expect. Those expectations are set by your sales and marketing team, by your competitors, and even by experiences in other industries. The better you understand those expectations, the better your front-line and product teams can meet them.
Act: There’s no shortage of things to do. While you may be acquiring customer feedback to help you understand gaps in your company’s delivery, it’s not correct to assume that the most common issues are the most important items to address. People complain about traffic all the time, but congestion isn’t the most important reason why people move out of their community. Understanding which initiatives will deliver the biggest bang for the buck (that is, biggest revenue gains at the least cost) – before you get started – is the recipe for optimally increasing rates of profitable growth.
7) Senior management doesn’t recognize the customer base as a significant asset
Consider: If you are running a customer survey or feedback program of any type then speaking the language of the business is your #1 priority. You must translate customer feedback into financial metrics that the business cares about.
Act: It’s your job to know how much a Promoter is worth compared to customers that are Detractors or are Disengaged – customers that have “checked out” with no further relationship with your company. Promoters buy more, refer business, provide valuable feedback, and generally are less costly to serve. Translate those actions into money, and then you can explain to senior management how the business will benefit by improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
