Integrating Sales and Customer Service

How we came up with the Continuous Customer Service Contract

By Mark Heisler and Suzanne Baldino Jones

It’s not easy to start your own company, and we should know. Back in 1996, we left our senior executive positions in corporate America to launch Competitive Business Strategy Group. Our management consulting practice has doubled in size and revenue every year we’ve been in business. In addition, we have been able to keep or get positive referrals from nearly every customer we’ve done business with. How did we do that?

We combined our expertise to come up with The Continuous Customer Service Contract—and we practice what we preach. We like to think of the Contract as a unique and practical customer loyalty and retention program. Better yet, we developed and fine-tuned our approach using tools, techniques and technologies in the real world of business, not something we just thought looked good on paper. Through our experience we discovered that sales and service are natural components of the same processes. What does this mean? Our entire organization is responsible for supporting the sales efforts and delivering real service to customers. How can your company do this?

• Identify your real customers. Many companies concentrate solely on bringing new customers through the door while nearly everyone else in the company is consumed with accomplishing tasks that do little more than satisfy the needs of the bureaucracy. This usually occurs at the expense of existing customers, many who simply decide to go somewhere else. Worse, many companies spend 20 percent of their time on customers who create 80 percent of their problems. Real customers are the ones you keep, building mutually beneficial relationships along the way.
  
  
• Create multi-functional service teams and new customer points of contact. Create service teams comprised of both sales and customer service personnel. Rather than simply contacting a customer when an invoice is due, create other openings on a consistent basis. Use these to build relationships—tailor your business to the needs of your customers. Let your customers know you care about them long after the sale.
  
  
• Develop and implement customer-focused technology, work processes and policies. Take a hard look at your bureaucracy, for example: are your forms designed for your ease of use or those of your customers? Where can you be more flexible and less rigid? Ask for what you need to know only when you really need it.
  
  
• Devise efficient customer handoffs and reduce customer cycle times between sales and service operations. Everyone in the company should know—at all times—where a customer stands in service and product delivery areas. Look for ways to make things easier for the customer. Respond to their needs as a team rather than a representative. Share ideas.

Now that we’ve told you what The Continuous Customer Service Contract is, let’s tell you what it is not. It’s not creating a warm and fuzzy customer service program to make the customer feel good. Nor is it a Total Quality Management clone, a process engineering or “internalization” project. Further, software doesn’t drive our process, people do.

Our Continuous Customer Service Contract “partners” your sales efforts with service delivery and execution. It is a business model that can be used as either a strategic, corporate wide initiative or a tactical business unit solution.

In short, a Continuous Customer Service Contract calls for a customer retention and loyalty campaign with real teeth. Our brand of service is tangible—and it’s a fully documented and “systemized” program you can implement yourself.

If your want your customers to become the engine for sustained growth and profitability, our approach works.

For more information, contact Mark Heisler or Suzanne Baldino Jones at (888) 411-5800 or by e-mail at mhesiler@cbsg.com or sbjones@cbsg.com.