Author: blogger
No business is just a buy-and-sell business in todays competition driven world. Customer service and superior after-sales have emerged as the two critical success-oriented techniques and the core drivers of competitive advantage.
Excellent after sales support can help improve customer retention, streamline service process, maximize efficiency and reduce overhead costs. But there are still a lot to it- customers of a business can be new ones, or current ones returning to buy more. The significance of good customer service can be seen in the fact that it costs 5 times as much to win a new customer than it is to retain the current one. This particularly goes well with short-term growth as the cost of acquiring new customers is typically much greater than the cost of retaining existing ones. With excellent after sales the repeat business is generally much cheaper for the company as their sales process is usually less intense. This is how the dictum goes Sales sells the first one, Service sells the rest. Let us understand this better with the help of an example. A mobile phone manufacturer may be a market leader, but if it has poor customer service, the customers may switch to its rivals. To stay ahead of the competition, he has to provide exceedingly good after-sales support that could bring back the customers- repeat customers we say them.
This repeat business can become much cheaper for the mobile manufacturer as its sales process would now be less intense and become more of an “order” taker effort. In contrast, poor after sales support could have made the sales process much more intensive. This would have required the sales function to overcome that poor after-sales support with more sales techniques like demos, sales calls, presentations, etc., which inculcate a higher cost.
On the flip side, happy servicing brings in loyal customers, and loyal customers are free advertising as they will not only tell others of the great service they have received, but also come back to buy again.
Why Companies are Unable to Provide Quality After-Sales Support
Many companies are unable to provide the high degree of after-sales support because they consider customer service as a cost and investment, and not a profit center. It does not make good sense as spending few bucks for keeping your customers happy would not only make them your regular customers, but would also act as revenue stream for you. Effective customer management with the help of Service Management Software and other service automation tools can actually be bundled into the original sales offer.
There can never be more opportunity to invest in sales and foster valuable connections by delivering excellent customer service and support.
Sales people often feel that all marketing needs to do is to drive loads of leads their way. If this is the approach in your organisation, then you are missing sales and lowering potential profitability. Careful management of the tone and quantity of your marketing content across a planned sales funnel can deliver pre-qualified leads to a sales person, significantly improving the chances of conversion.
Many of us will have experienced a sense of ‘information overload’ where we simply switch off, or the frustration of wanting to know more about a product or service before we commit and not being able to find it. Both happen regularly, and when they do – you’ve lost a sale.
For almost every purchase we make, we run through a broadly similar decision-making process (I say almost, as the impulse bar of chocolate at the supermarket counter is quite a different process). Typically, and particularly for more complex purchases, our thinking will go something like this: ‘My laptop is heavy – I saw that ad for really light weight ones, who was it again?’ (Latent need); ‘There’s that ad, it’s X-brand’ (Awareness); ‘I’ll just check out their site’ (Interest); ‘Hmm, well the weight certainly compares well, but can I afford it, what are the other options?’ (Evaluation); ‘I’ll pop into Y-shop to see what it feels like and ask a little more about it’ (Trial); ‘I’ve researched the best price, I’ll get it from there’ (Purchase). Kotler and others have spelt out various different versions of this process, there’s bound to have been one modelled for most markets. By understanding the way people make buying decisions, you can map your sales funnel: 1. Awareness, 2. Interest, 3. Evaluation, 4. Trial, 5. Purchase.
Against this process you should map and measure your sales funnel, you’ll steadily whittle down your audience at each step, with interested parties moving through the funnel and those who either don’t want what you offer or who are turned off by your messaging going elsewhere. To maximise the conversion at each stage, marketers should consider two key elements; tone and quantity.
What do I mean by tone? As short-hand, think emotion. Against the sales funnel, there is an appropriate tone at each step. If you imagine a continuum from emotional to rational, typically your marketing material will need to start at emotional and move to rational through the funnel. To really get noticed, you need to appeal to our most human side, our emotions. If you hit a nerve, they notice you. However rational you are, e.g. ‘we’re cheap’, if they don’t feel a need for what you’re offering they’re unlikely to notice your communications in the first place. Successful emotional appeals, in marketing terms, usually hit on a negative feeling and say that you can take it away. This is called finding the point of pain. Once you’ve established that emotional appeal, your communications need to move into more rational territory, where proof is needed. As a sanity check on the tone of your marketing materials, map out each stage of the sales funnel and look at the material (offline, online, sales person, in-store, etc.) and then judge the emotional appeal – are you delivering rational messages too soon? Is your material providing further emotional messaging, when your buyer is looking for rational proof?
Quantity, in regard to sales funnelling, is a fairly straight forward concept – start ‘short and sweet’ and then provide more information at each step. Where most organisations fall foul of this is on their websites. Home pages are often jam packed with information. In a typical sales funnel, an organisation’s website is the second or third step – this means that people typically reach you looking for an emotional appeal (what’s the benefit for me?) and they are looking for key messages. Again, map out your journey and assess the quantity of information you are serving at each stage, it should start small and increase at each step.
So, if you’re experiencing lots of web traffic, but low numbers of enquiries – or lots of footfall and low sales, think about the sales funnel. An initial assessment against tone and quantity will signpost where your blockage might be and put you on the path to a free flowing sales funnel that has a tangible link to your bottom line.
Copyright (c) 2008 Bryony Thomas
OVERVIEW
Retail Industry in India, contributing over 10 per cent to the country’s GDP and accounting for around 8 per cent of the employment, is the largest among all the industries. Over the years, it has come forth as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries. http://www.bharatbook.com/market-research-reports/retail-market-research-report/organized-retail-industry-in-india-swot-analysis.html
More than 95 per cent of the Indian retail sector falls in the unorganized sector category. Organized retail is expected to grow from 5-6 per cent to 14-18 per cent of the total retail market by 2015.
Organized retail sector’s penetration level is 85 per cent in US, 80 per cent in France, 66 per cent in Japan, 20 per cent in China and, merely 5-6 per cent in India. This confirms that India is at an early stage of evolution in the organized retail space and has a huge growth potential.
SCOPE OF THE REPORT
Industry at a glance Contains a study of the major internal and external factors affecting the industry in the form of a SWOT framework
REASONS TO BUY
Gain insight into the industry in terms of the opportunities and threats that will augment and restrict its growth Get knowledge about the forte of the industry which will help it to ride in the lead OVERVIEW SWOT ANALYSIS 1.1Strength 1.1.1Increasing middle class 1.1.2 Technology 1.1.3 Low cost of operations 1.2 Weakness 1.2.1 Low conversion level 1.2.2 Shortage of skilled manpower 1.2.3 Lack of Industry Status 1.2.4 Supply chain 1.2.5 Policy induced barriers 1.3 Opportunities 1.3.1 Rural Retail 1.3.2 Tier II and Tier III cities 1.3.3 Specialty Retail 1.3.4 Disposable Income 1.4 Threats 1.4.1 Unorganized Retail 1.4.2 Complex taxation system 1.4.3 Macro economic factors 1.4.5 Real Estate Issues 1.4.6 Competition
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Middle class households (mn, 2012- 2026E) Figure 2 Labor cost per person ($ p.a, Asian countries) Figure 3 City wise retail penetration (%, 2006-2011) Figure 4 Per capita income (INR, 2006-2015E) Figure 5 Lease rentals (% of sales, 2005-2010) For more information kindly visit : Organized Retail Industry In India – Swot Analysis
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If your restaurant is growing, then investing in a restaurant point of sale system should be your next move. Having this restaurant computer software will allow your restaurant to become more effective and efficient. The question is how do you choose the right restaurant point of sale system? What do you need to do to ensure your money is spent properly?
The first step to choosing a restaurant computer software is to look at its usability. Does the software have everything you need to manage the restaurant? If so, how easy is it for your staff to use? Usually, systems that use a touch screen monitor are the easiest to use. Try looking at different point of sale systems in order to figure out which ones will make it easy to run your restaurant.
The second step is to think about the hardware that you would need. For most businesses getting started, they will likely need receipt printers, computers, cash drawers and will want to accept credit cards. It is a good idea to go with an all inclusive system to get set up with everything you need. These restaurant point of sale systems can be cheaper than adding on extras down the line.
The third step is to think about a system that integrates multiple channels such as phone, mobile, and the Internet. This can allow for things such as employees being able to track reservations online, tracking orders from mobile devices, and more. Youll get a more accurate way to fulfill orders and track revenue.
The fourth step is to take a look at what kind of support you are getting. Is the restaurant computer software that youre going to use constantly being upgraded? Can you expect strong tech support from the company? Is it going to cost a lot of money to maintain your system? These are all things that you need to think about before making a purchase.
The fifth and final step is to compare different restaurant point of sale systems based on price. List all the features you would need and do some comparison shopping with different companies to make the best decision. You may be able to get great deals if you need multiple terminals for your restaurant.
So thats a quick 5 step guide to choosing the POS system for your restaurant. Make sure that you spend some time doing research on software and systems before you make a decision. You want to make sure that you are satisfied with how the system runs before you make an investment.
CRM is one of the most exciting areas that organizations are looking at these days. We have seen a significant spurt in demand given the accelerated growth and competitive scenario emerging on the business landscape.
Let us look at THREE scenarios here which are clearly emerging in the Indian SME market from a CRM perspective,
First, standalone CRM solutions which many organizations are implementing. I am taking the example of a Brokerage House that has a Customer Service team and a Sales Organization. For a brokerage, the customer service team is the heart of their business as prospects and customers are constantly calling them with requests, issues, requirements, account set up and what have you. This internal Call Center has to be CRM enabled to manage this steady flow of telephone calls, emails and other contact points from their prospects and customers. Invariably their telephony systems have also to be integrated with the CRM. All elements of the Call center have to be truly integrated for seamless delivery of customer service. Likewise their sales team needs also to be tightly integrated in to manage leads allocated by the Call center. This could be within the CRM system or even via SMS to alert mobile sales persons of potential customers. Imagine the customer delight, if you log in your requirements and within minutes the appropriate sales person calls you to set up a meeting. Indian brokerages which are on a high growth path given booming stock markets have realized the importance of CRM systems that will truly drive their business growth. The need has got cemented with brokerages rapidly expanding across multiple locations and the need to manage remotely branch operations. Further many organizations which started small have grown exponentially in the last one year. We have seen the emergence of a high growth industry in the Financial Services business.
Secondly, more and more organizations are seeking end to end solutions with best of breed offerings. The classic example is of ERP integrated with CRM. This is increasingly seen as a trend in the Indian market now. By having this integrated solution, the sales, operations and finance organizations can work together as a team to manage their customers, deals, payments, receivables, inventories and orders. This can powerfully transform the way organizations are run and reduce lead times and improve information flow. This approach has to be taken by organizations seeking exponential growth in an economy where things are happening. Here again we are witness to a new trend that has emerged in the last 6 months or so across SME businesses. This seemed to have been a major requirement for larger organizations until sometime back. This again reflects the rapid growth potential seen by SMEs in India today. This technology driver has accentuated the need for employees to become more result oriented as well as increasingly accountable.
Thirdly, hosted offerings are here to stay for SMEs looking for CRM application. The trend we see is of relatively smaller SMEs adopting this approach quickly as this minimizes investments in hardware, trained technical manpower and infrastructure. It also helps them get off the ground rapidly. CRM is best suited for SaaS (Software as a Service) model given the fact that sales persons are generally on the move and can therefore work from any location as long as internet bandwidth is available. The other major driver of SaaS is the fact that organizations prefer to get started with vanilla applications which makes sure that they focus on user adoption in the initial phase. Further this model makes it easier for SMEs to decide if they wish to rent or buy as the on-premise should always exist in case organizations decide at some point in time to move the application in-house. Flexibility is a huge advantage from a deployment and investment perspective. Lead management, Sales force automation are the two major areas of CRM that are best enabled though the SaaS model.