7 STEPS TO TARGETED MARKETING FOR MANUFACTURERS

There is no single formula for successful marketing. The rules for “shotgun marketing” — selling the widest possible number of items to the widest possible base of consumers — are quite different from the rules for selling manufactured products to other businesses.

In past issues of this newsletter, we started to examine why consumer marketing rules and strategies don’t transfer well to industrial marketing. This month, we look at management consultant and author Michael P. Collins’ third step for  manufacturers to use in identifying their target markets.

STEP 3 – CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MONITORING

Keeping customers means keeping them satisfied. Studies have shown that only the highest levels of customer satisfaction guarantee customer retention. Most businesses lose 10 to 30 percent of their customers each year. Often, the company doesn’t even know why.

In order to find out what will make customers happy, businesses need candid, objective feedback. This information is a necessary component of any effort to continually improve customer satisfaction. How can companies acquire this kind of feedback? One way is through Customer Satisfaction Monitoring, or CSM.

CSM is designed to help business owners gain competitive advantages by determining the key factors driving purchases. The process involves in-depth third party surveys of important customers to get quantitative and qualitative data about their experience buying from your company. With proper follow through, CSM can help prevent lost orders, improve profits, develop additional sales opportunities, and give department-by-department direction for quality assurance programs.

Simple surveys of customers can be conducted by fax, letter, telephone, or in person —using a list of Most Valuable Customers and others — to determine if customers are happy.

Total customer satisfaction includes:

• Product and process quality — meeting basic quality requirements and standards such as ISO9000

• Good customer service and support — systems and procedures are in place; responsibilities are assigned.

• Knowing customer perceptions, through customer surveys and audits

• Monitoring customer needs.

Any survey of customer satisfaction should contain some basic elements. It should ask questions about the criteria that are important to customers in making their decisions. It should ask customers to rate these criteria, and ask for comparisons with competitors. It should score your company on a simple performance scale, from 1 to 5, for example.

Getting survey results is only the first step. Next, the company — on its own, or with the assistance of a consulting firm like Northern Initiatives — analyzes the survey results and generates a plan to increase customer satisfaction and improve the bottom line. Solid, actionable observations from customers are the basis for improving company and customer loyalty.

CSM can create a qualitative and quantitative measure of customer perceptions — a ‘bible’ of how your most important customers see your company. The information may validate your assumptions about why people buy — or don’t buy — from you, or they may shake those assumptions up. CSM surveys that ask customers to compare you to the competition can also be an excellent source of competitive intelligence.

If you’re interested in finding out more about a targeted marketing, and Customer Satisfaction Monitoring in particular, contact NI’s marketing specialist Chris Rector at 906-254-2156 x680 or crector@niupnorth.org.

Next issue: Marketing research and competitor intelligence.