In Gary Deeken’s book, without solid customer relationships, there’s little room for
success.
Good customer service and
satisfaction are among the
essentials for business survival,
and they’re part of the foundation that Central States Bus
Sales Inc. has been built on,
says Deeken.
“You have to stay close to
your customer,” says the company’s president and CEO. “You
have to do what you said you
were going to do when you said
you were going to do it. And
you have to base your business
on meeting your customers’
needs.”
By listening to its customers,
the bus distributing company
developed a business model
with a built-in customer service
component that its opposition
can’t compete with, according
to Deeken. It’s also helped the
company to expand to markets
in five states and grow revenue
to $90 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Deeken about how to create
customer relationships and
measure clients’ needs.
Form solid relationships with your
customers. It starts with your
people. Your people have to be
good communicators.
They have to care about their
customers. They have to relate
to them. They have to understand their business. Most of
that comes from just listening
real well and doing more listening than you do talking.
We tend to develop the relationships with our customers
and the leaders in the industry,
and we listen very closely to
them and learn from them.
It takes time to build relationships. You can’t ever expect a
salesperson, for example, to
walk into a customer and build
a relationship on the first visit.
The way we establish a relationship is getting to know them
over a long period of time.
One of our philosophies is
we don’t want any one of our
people to really own the customer. We want the company
to own the customer. So we
don’t have a salesperson who
is the only person that ever
talks to a specific customer.
We’re touching that customer in a lot of different ways
from a number of different
people in the organization. We
get to know and understand
their day-to-day operating
needs. Then look for ways to
provide solutions.
What that helps us do is realize we have to drill down and
understand the needs [of] our
customers and the needs our
customers are trying to meet
for their customers.
You have to figure out how
to have as many different
touches with your customer as
possible, whether it’s a personal touch, a salesperson calling
on them, multiple salespeople
calling on them selling different products. Contact with them at trade shows and conventions, through newsletters,
advertisements. You want to
build your brand; you want to
have your name in front of
them as much as possible.
When you do that, then you
develop relationships.
