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Think
about all the wise men out there. Management consultants,
including me, push improvements in asset management, product-support
sales-market coverage, service efficiency and all of the rest.
Training businesses preach and teach about management and
operational effectiveness in parts, service and product support
sales. Your manufacturers push product training, features
and benefits for parts, and service technical training. Think
about it all.
I agree
that this is all very important. So do you. We must mange
and operate our businesses effectively. There is, however,
something missing.
Where
in all of this is the customer? Remember him?
Somewhere
along the road we got lost, and if we don't find ourselves
soon we might not make it.
It is
long since time that we got back to what makes it all happen
for our dealerships. For equipment marketers customers are
the most important people of all. Not just who they are but
what they want. Not just how much they buy from us but what
we can do to help them make money.
If we
look at the parts and service business closely customers are
telling us something. Our market share, based on the overall
opportunity and the level of our businesses in parts and service,
tells us that they don't like us much. They don't give us
much of their business.
Why is
that? Are we too expensive? Do we not satisfy their needs?
Do they have so much access to the same type of information
we do that they don't need us anymore? What is it?
Well I
hate to say it butÖit is all of the above.
We have
had a terrific run for the last 10 years or so. We have all
grown and made more money. The market has been hot. But nowhere
in that time have I heard anyone pushing distributors to get
closer to more of their customers.
I have
been pushing dealers to calculate customer retention. I know
that is an easy shot at you because distributors have low
customer retention, but I mean it. Do you know how many of
your customers defect each year?
When it
comes to parts, customers who used to buy from you five years
ago have left you in droves. Over half of them have stopped
buying from you. In service it is even worse-more than 65
percent of your customers have gone away. And that is not
all. The new customers who we have acquired during that same
period are much more critical of us than customers who have
been with us a long time. The new customers leave at an even
faster clip.
It is
very clear. We are not doing our job with respect to our customers.
Oh, I know, that doesn't apply to you. You are very close
to your customers. Don't get caught sitting on your laurels.
Maybe that will be true for the top 50 or 100 of your customers,
but there are thousands more.
There
is an old truth that says we either get what we earn or we
get what we deserve.
We need
to have a renewal of our parts and service businesses. We
need our parts and service managers to visit customers and
ask the questions. What can we do to help you make more money?
What is it that you would like to get from us that we don't
do for you? What do you like about what we do, and, conversely,
what would you like to see us improve? Simple questions aren't
they? It doesn't need to be rocket science.
At the
AED convention we had a product support panel of dealers and
manufacturers and also a panel with customers. The discussions
were both informative and, in many cases, sobering.
AED is
also creating a Product Support Opportunities Handbook that
will be available in the spring. This publication shows you
how to develop a model about your market and its potential
for parts and service sales and also features new research
on customer buying habits. All of this is aimed at the same
thing-making your dealership more indispensable to the customer.
I am
optimistic that once all of these things come together in
your mind you will see the strong need to get much closer
to your customers. Each and every one of them is important.
The time
is now. If not now, when? If not youÖwho?
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