Welcome to the solution of the short story of our last article. To help you remember what you read in Part I, here is a brief summary:
Chapter I discussed the problem: Mr. Wolters, who was responsible for sales of industrial heating equipment, had declining sales in one area that could not be explained, despite analyzing all the data available to the company.
Chapter 2 outlined the systematic approach TEMA-Q took to solving the problem. Mr. Wolters invited his management and asked the experts from TEMA-Q to present the results they had worked out. The result amazed everyone present.
Chapter 3
It turns out that the problem of declining customer satisfaction came from having the best salesperson in the market. And it came about this way…
This top salesperson had the highest sales and the best performance of all employed salespeople. He had the largest customer base and managed to add two to three new customers every year. His commitment was above average, which meant that he was also the salesperson with the highest turnover and sold the most heating systems.
However, through questioning, it became apparent that he often implemented his orders in an operationally poor manner: He was very difficult to reach and was not available for queries; the specification of the equipment sold was inadequate and his handover protocols to the service department were poor.
This often resulted in the service department being poorly informed on site and due to the difficulty in contacting the salesperson, it was not possible to obtain the missing information straight away. Often, the service department had to leave without having achieved anything or had to improvise. As a result, customers were charged for services that had not been agreed upon. In many cases, the heating plants could only be put into operation later than contractually agreed.
A good salesman is not always a good project manager. But now that this problem was so clearly delineated, a few relatively small organizational changes could remedy the situation. A project assistant was assigned to the top salesperson so that he could concentrate fully on what he was unbeatable at: selling and customer relations.
Shortly thereafter, the installed system showed that customer satisfaction was on the rise again. Business with existing customers was excellent again and new customers were acquired in a short time.
Without this CEM project, this problem situation would not have become apparent: Who ever thinks that the best can also cause the biggest problems at the same time?
Today, my friend Heiner Wolters still works with TEMA-Q, which has become a long-term partner. For a long time now, it’s not only about customer satisfaction in Portugal, but about service quality in Europe. After all, my friend’s excellent work in Portugal has now earned him a promotion to Service Manager Europe.
This short story shows the incredibly valuable insights we can gain from customer feedback, which not only serve to improve product quality: Our CX solutions also help you optimize services and processes, uncover cost-reduction potential, drive innovation and much more.
To learn more about our solutions, visit our website at:
Feel free to contact us and we will design a solution tailored to your goals, just as we did for Mr. Wolters.
Authors:
Jürgen Mohr & Martin Plötz
Managing directors