Who owns the customer, B2B?

All too often over my Supply Chain career, I have heard Supply Chain Team members say that they dare not make connection with a customer as they need Sales permission!

In this fast paced world, where customers expect and deserve exemplary customer service, I challenge that customer "ownership" is the sole domain of a sales function. Yes, I believe this too even when I wear my sales hat! Not one sole department can lay claim to being the custodian of the customer.

Customers want fast responses to their queries and concerns. No longer is it satisfactory to wait until the Sales Representative is on their monthly call cycle to enquire what happen to my credit claim? Or, "we would like to discuss a Chain of Responsibility matter with your Supply Chain?" / "we would like to run a promotion and require your organisations style guides for an EDM campaign".

Following an old customer service model (as below) using the Account Manager or Sales Representative as the conduit for all these questions, slows the customer service response time and distracts the core task of selling away from the sales person.

By building partnerships between each respective organisation's functions, customer service can and will be exponential.

Now, this doesn't mean each function is not collaborative with each other. No quite the opposite. It is imperative that each communicates with each other and especially the Account Manager / Sales Representative of what communication and actions have occurred. This where a CRM system when used correctly comes into its own, enabling a 'One view of the customer'

If you would like to know more, please feel free to join the conversation or contact me directly.

Andrew James

"The Rule of 3"

andrewjames@andrewjamesconsulting.info

+61400371557