Customer input is critical to continued success
By John J Keough -- Industrial Distribution, 3/1/1999
Ed Koch, the feisty former mayor of New York City, used to greet people on the street and ask them: "How am I doing?" It wasn't the most scientific way of determining the Koch Administration's success. But he said it gave him good feedback and he ended up making some changes as the result of the input.Asking your constituents (your customers) how well you're meeting their needs gives you a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. Yet few distributors actually take the time to survey their customers ... and that could be a big mistake.
Those who conduct such surveys say the questionnaires are simple and include just a few questions, like asking customers to evaluate their sales staff, response time, on-time deliveries and whether shipments are sent in full. "For us, it's just a way of ensuring that we are meeting our customer demands. But it's also the opportunity to show the customers that we value their input," one distributor told us.
Many customers are already evaluating suppliers through a specific set of criteria, almost on a report card basis. A recent survey by Purchasing magazine shows that 48 percent of purchasing executives now measure results of their suppliers. And 67 percent of companies studied by the magazine say that supplier performance has "improved noticeably since they started tracking and reporting performance."
Just think about how much time you or your salespeople spend obtaining an account. Unfortunately, once the prospect becomes a customer, he doesn't get the same treatment. Sound familiar? The reality is that salespeople (and management) don't spend enough time satisfying existing customer needs. This isn't our opinion. It comes from buyers themselves.
If you're a distributor executive, it wouldn't hurt to pick up a telephone and call some of your major accounts to see how well you're doing. It doesn't have to be anything formal, but one call can go a long way toward letting the customer know that you value their business -- and their input. Make sure you also ask your employees about opportunities as well as problems with their existing accounts. Employees all too often want to talk with customers about success, not problems.
All this sounds simple, but being proactive rather than reactive to customer needs can go a long way toward keeping major customers.
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