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Building strong relationships and having good customer service with your specifiers, influencers & Customers is key!
Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes
As a Building Materials business, you have one main goal, to sell your products profitably. Now you couldn’t sell your products unless you have developed a base of loyal customers, as well as, a brand, USP, or identity as an organisation.
These customers stick around through thick and thin and are more likely to provide you with regular business, as well as additional business too. But to keep these customers and have a positive working relationship can be tricky if you don’t have the business software that works with you!
It all starts with customer service, now it’s pretty self-explanatory right? Everyone aims to support their customers before as well as after they have made a purchase. Especially when thinking about your industry where you can have warranties to manage, meaning you need to know who had what they had, when they had it, and what the warranty was. This information needs to be found all with a click of a finger. But while this sounds like old news, the cracks can all begin to show with old software which no longer supports your business how you need it too.
Keep on top of your game when it comes to customer service
Customer service may not be the first thing you think about when it comes to your business, but in recent years and the help of the ever-growing digital era, we have seen a rise in just how important customer service is and how if you don’t deliver good customer service you can see an effect on your profits directly, it really has become paramount.
I found in a recent McKinsey survey of 1,000 B2B decision-makers, lack of speed in interactions with suppliers emerged as the number-one pain point, with twice as many mentions as price. Companies found by accelerating & simplifying interactions they experienced 40% increase in their win rate, 50% lower associated service costs & 15% reduction in customer attrition.1
So, regardless of what you sell in the Building Materials industry, it's vital you are ensuring that customer service remains at the forefront of your business, as all it takes are a few bad reviews to tarnish your businesses brand.
Furthermore, Building Materials businesses will often demand multi-tasking across the team, liaising with architects, merchants, specialist showrooms & retailers, consultants, house builders or even the end client. Now that’s a lot of different people to deal with, yes? So, you need to be sure you are at the top of your game when it comes to your customer service and ultimately communication, providing your customers with the information they need when they need it!
Get ahead of your competitors
“Unlike B2C, B2B customers are not buying for personal gratification; they are buying as part of their job and need it to be as efficient and easy as possible.”2
Businesses that have information at their fingertips will always have the edge over competitors that stumble and delay providing responses (we know that poor or lack of communication is on many lists of why you may have lost a customer). The continuous rise of supply chain visibility has created an increased demand for on time in full (OTIF). These increased expectations with demand have led to the visibility to customers becoming an ever-present feature in the Building Materials sector. This requirement is vital for you to keep your existing contacts as well as securing new ones. Failure to offer this will make your business less appealing compared to your competitor.
Producing OTIF reports without a single integrated solution is a frustrating task! But this won’t just irritate you it will irritate your customer too as they are the ones left waiting for your response. OTIF needs to be carried out quickly and on-demand, otherwise your customer may find somewhere else and this will only damage your key relationships. The automation & communication of these reports is key in order to keep customer communication present and therefor the experience positive.
But how can you make sure that this isn’t the case?
A fully integrated Microsoft Dynamics solution will provide easy access to the information that you need to enable your team to deliver great customer service, positive experiences and overall boosting your brand reputation and loyalty.
Dynamics Building Materials will give you complete transparency of the products you have in every location. The software will help you to effectively manage stock levels in your warehouse, through your merchants and contractors, as well as enabling you to keep a close eye on what’s been sold.
Dynamics Building Materials allows you to effortlessly track every aspect of your business interactions, from specification to quote, production, delivery and cash. Dynamics Building Materials already supports the likes of Alumasc Group Plc, Biasi, Click Plastics, Eastbrook, Epwin Group, Eterna Lighting, Karndean, The MX Group & Selecta Systems to name a few.
Learn more about our Dynamics Building Materials solution on our dedicated page: www.tecman.co.uk/bm or check out our information Hub here: lnkd.in/dmfimbb (There are some sign-in requirements to access this via LinkedIn)