Creating Loyalty for a Small Manufacturing Company
How will a small manufacturing company create loyal customers? How will they reduce the cost of customer service into the future while doing so? Loyalty gets created even for the biggest of manufacturing brands in the world through the introduction of high impact customer services. Therefore it is worthwhile to discuss this aspect under the aegis of Services Marketing.Let us make some assumptions to start with.
(a) The Company is making a consumer product
(b) The Price of the Product is under $ 1000
(c) We are referring to a utility product (typically a local brand) - something you need at home.
(a) The Company is making a consumer product
(b) The Price of the Product is under $ 1000
(c) We are referring to a utility product (typically a local brand) - something you need at home.
(d) It is not a lifestyle (branded) product like a Kodak Digital Camera.
Having made the above assumptions, the best loyalty programs that work would be:
(i) Usage Training: Whenever a customer buys the product, have an employee train the customer on using the product effectively - this will ensure the customer utilizes the product frequently and effectively.
(ii) Have a telephone help line that is manned 7 days a week. Have an answering machine that takes calls during off duty hours. For the email users have an email id that responds within 24 hours. Have auto response enabled on email with typical response commitment.
(iii) Stick the telephone number and the email id on the bill, warranty card and on the product itself.
(iv)Have a ticketing system for calls on the phone, Voice recorder and email and inform the customer about the ticket number and when the problem will be attended to.
(v) Have trained personnel to attend to the problem and keep the promise that is made through the ticketing system.
(vi)Create communities of users in neighborhoods where they regularly meet and exchange usage best practices. These could be:
(a) Cooking classes for cooking products
(b) Gardening classes for Gardening products etc.
Sponsor the major costs of the events while allowing community members to share the minor costs between themselves. This will help them learn from each other and create friendships.
(vii)Invite prospective customers for these events. They will love it – typically.
(viii)Have the local press cover these events - they will cover these events since they address the needs of the community who are their primary subscribers.
(ix) Create a second sale market through your resellers for lower income groups and allow your higher value customers to replace their products with newer versions that you release from time to time. The used products will get sold through resellers to lower income customers. If you do not want to create a second sale market, use the buy back option to replenish your inventory of spares. You would be buying spares on time and at lower costs therefore your costs to serve would be low.
(vii) Have a solid supply of spares or the better still use parts available in the market to manufacture those parts which have the highest wear and tear so that you do not have to hold too much inventory.
Having made the above assumptions, the best loyalty programs that work would be:
(i) Usage Training: Whenever a customer buys the product, have an employee train the customer on using the product effectively - this will ensure the customer utilizes the product frequently and effectively.
(ii) Have a telephone help line that is manned 7 days a week. Have an answering machine that takes calls during off duty hours. For the email users have an email id that responds within 24 hours. Have auto response enabled on email with typical response commitment.
(iii) Stick the telephone number and the email id on the bill, warranty card and on the product itself.
(iv)Have a ticketing system for calls on the phone, Voice recorder and email and inform the customer about the ticket number and when the problem will be attended to.
(v) Have trained personnel to attend to the problem and keep the promise that is made through the ticketing system.
(vi)Create communities of users in neighborhoods where they regularly meet and exchange usage best practices. These could be:
(a) Cooking classes for cooking products
(b) Gardening classes for Gardening products etc.
Sponsor the major costs of the events while allowing community members to share the minor costs between themselves. This will help them learn from each other and create friendships.
(vii)Invite prospective customers for these events. They will love it – typically.
(viii)Have the local press cover these events - they will cover these events since they address the needs of the community who are their primary subscribers.
(ix) Create a second sale market through your resellers for lower income groups and allow your higher value customers to replace their products with newer versions that you release from time to time. The used products will get sold through resellers to lower income customers. If you do not want to create a second sale market, use the buy back option to replenish your inventory of spares. You would be buying spares on time and at lower costs therefore your costs to serve would be low.
(vii) Have a solid supply of spares or the better still use parts available in the market to manufacture those parts which have the highest wear and tear so that you do not have to hold too much inventory.
It is quite clear that all the programs that we discussed are services that the manufacturing company needs to put in place to create a "wow" experience every time the end customer contacts the OEM. Leaders have long realized this and put their investment in processes, people and systems to make this happen every time. Small and Medium Manufacturers can leverage these tools and techniques to create loyal customers today!
Cheers
Paul Simon Arakkal
Cheers
Paul Simon Arakkal

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