With the increasing availability of technological tools that allow for analysis of customer feedback, small U.S. companies gain access to services at the time, were only available for large firms
In the previous business ventures such as catering and private chef Lynn Milos, the customer service was old-fashioned, face to face, which was always the advantage of small businesses over large ones.
Then Culinary Twist Milos founded in early 2010 with her husband, Eric Martel, to make and sell three exotic sauces called Bora Bora, Low and Maya Bay. By selling through a distributor and grocery stores on the West Coast and specialty shops, Milos found that the disconnection of customers found it confusing.
An alternative was testing with customers in stores, but she knew she could not afford or sustain personal involvement in these tests over time. This generated enthusiasm in the possibilities offered by technology by offering a management company in the view of customers, OpinionLab.
"My heart beats strong" Milos said, recalling the report he received. OpinionLab software is now in the early stages to allow Culinary Twist, based in Foster City, California, remotely interact with consumers who have smart phones, even while still in the store.
In some cases, such as Zingerman's, an organizer of workshops for food stores, restaurants, food vendors, mail and business, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, improvements to services based digital are internal and invisible to customers .
In the last dozen years, Zingerman's has captured feedback from customers like Code Red (complaints) or code green (praise), but until recently it was all done on paper forms.
Digitally store the comments makes it much easier to analyze, said Maggie Bayless, managing partner of ZingTrain, the division of seminars for businesses. "Now we can sort the entries by the types of complaints, the time it was registered or the name of the customer," said Bayless. "For example, entering the holiday season, you can search the data for the season last year and see what problems there: What do we need to remind people this year?"
In the case of Culinary Twist, the service is activated by QR, these bar codes that allow you to open a special application and provide a number of services when they are photographed by a smartphone.
Potential buyers can see, for example, a recipe for pork chops with sauce down when they are just steps from the meat counter. Milos said he would soon be able to get his cell phone a coupon that can be scanned in the box. And using the capabilities of OpinionLab, Milos can also receive recipe suggestions, comments or reports of problems at a particular store, whether a product is missing or that the shelves are dirty.
Wait for more feedback as they allowed through a demonstration at a store decided to change the label text of the sauce Bora Bora. "There were so many people told us not to know what a tamarind or a date, we decided to get those words on the label and replace them with more information about the taste and how to use the product," said Milos. "Now he says 'Sauce for Grilled species'. That's another thing accomplished by the QR code to better serve customers, which is achieved when you can listen."
QR codes Place costs about 15 cents per bottle. Rand Nickerson, CEO OpinionLab estimates that additional costs for the services of your company add cents per comment from a consumer.
"It's not just the Procter & Gambles of the world who can do this," he said.
"No need to work" focus group "in the country at a cost of $ 100,000. I think the most successful companies in the future will be approaching ever closer to the customer," he said.
That is the intention of Great Clips, the national chain of hair salons. "The main reason why we lose customers is that we expect," said Tim Lawless, owner of Great Clips franchise in Indiana and southern Michigan. "It is also the reason 2 and 3."
The option to order online now turn is adding to the site of Great Clips in the network, allowing customers to enter their zip codes through their computers or smartphones, check the waiting list in the Great Clips hair salons more nearby and allows customers to choose the best place.
"This already works in Peoria," said David Hands, with his wife, Tanja, owns seven branches of Great Clips in Peoria and Bloomington area / Normal Illinois, where customers often had to wait eight to 15 minutes.
Recently a boy I had booked online shift came in the door, sat down and told Hands: "Thanks for saving me 10 minutes." After only two months since it introduced the service, Hands says he gets an average of 10 bookings per day via the Internet hairdresser, about 10 percent of the total.
The technology not only allows you to collect complaints and suggestions from customers, but also allows curious rediscover sales channels, such as using chat Whitflash adopted by the retailer to make the sale of engagement rings
Whiteflash, an online retailer of engagement rings with headquarters in Houston, and uses the chat to tend to their customers, mostly men who handled comfortably with technology and spending more than $ 1500, when this amount is not necessarilypersonally spends a business. In fact, said Debi Wexler, founder and CEO of Whiteflash, many customers prefer the real-time electronic conversation with the company.
"Many of our customers are from Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore," said Wexler."And many of them are not comfortable talking on the phone but with an e-mail or chat."
The site attracts foreign soldiers but civilians committed future even enjoy the purchase via chat sessions, he said. "Believe it or not, many clients talk to us from work he said they do not want to be seen talking on the phone about buying an engagement ring in the office. At home, even when his girlfriend is there, can makethat are working on the computer, when in reality they are chatting with a consultant. "
Whiteflash customers can zoom in on various diamond rings before you write your questions in the Bold Chat service, the software provider company, which stores three to five chats commonly needed to make a sale . This allows another representative of the firm to follow a conversation if it was abruptly interrupted because the future made an unexpected appearance compromised.
The capabilities of the web site of Riten Industries, a manufacturer, founded 78 years ago, tools that support industrial parts while they are being produced, enabling the company to do more than present their products.
Riten site enables customers to modify the plan of a piece that suits their needs, said Andrew Lachat, owner of the company.
The software, created by Thomas Industrial Network of New York, effectively provides remote service at all times. This service helps customers Riten small machines, especially those who have not invested in computer-aided design, or CAD.
"Some firms have only half a dozen employees and do not have CAD," said Mitchell Kirby, vice president of manufacturing. "As we offer allowed to go to our site and designing the tool they need to show it to their workers and then send it to me to give them a budget."
Expanding the DAC also aided design means for the customer, the company, based in Washington Court House, Ohio, has expanded the area of parts designed for clients to represent half of the income of the company, which also make repairs.
"We can say, 'said Lachat, we almost have doubled since we took this approach on the Internet."
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario