Case Study:
You are a salesperson for a small boutique shop, Studio Productions, specializing in print design, web design, motion graphics, DVD production, and presentations. Your company is located in an urban area where there is much competition in a dwindling economy.
The company consists of the original 2 owners/partners, 1 office manager, 1 project manager, 3 designers, 1 technical support person, and 3 salespeople. Although the company is small, they have been in business for over 10 years and have some key alliances. Some of the large advertising firms and public relations firms outsource work to your shop. Some of your projects are outsourced for: printing, slide production, high-end video edits, and illustration.
With the changes in the economy, the company has chosen to stay small in order to respond quickly, but revenues are continuing to drop, and repeat business is slowing considerably. More often, the owners are bartering services with alliances because liquid assets are unavailable. The 2 owners serve as artists/ designers, sometimes salespeople, and also attempt to lead marketing efforts, but without a strategic marketing plan.
Clients tend to be friends of the owners, one-person businesses, advertising agencies, large internationally recognized companies, and marketing or sales professionals in various industries.
In this small firm, many times salespeople and/or designers act as project managers, which takes them away from bringing in new business or working on projects. This has been a frustration for the sales people since they work on commission and they are not paid separately for managing projects. The designers also get frustrated when this happens, because they end up receiving creative direction from a sales person and not an art director/creative director. Also, when the designers end up project managing, their time is split and objectivity on the project may suffer, resulting in a less refined outcome.
To turn the company's business around, the company owner decided to boost sales. As a result, your responsibilities as a salesperson will be expanded to include: prospecting new business, servicing existing clients, keeping clients informed of project progression and listening to their feedback, communicating with internal staff regarding client projects, generating more business from existing clients, participating in networking/ business events to generate more contacts for building new business opportunities.
Required:
The owners were impressed with your argument that good customer service equals more business. "Customer service" is now officially a salesperson's responsibility.
You've been "elected" by the other two salespeople to take the lead in getting everyone up to speed.
Think about how well Studio Productions has been at creating a successful customer service system (internally and externally). Develop a short presentation answering the following questions:
What are the 4 characteristics of a successful customer service system?
How could both internal and external customer service be improved at Studio Productions to affect customer satisfaction and loyalty?
What is a blueprint of customer service systems?
How can Studio Productions use a blueprint in creating successful customer service systems? What would be an example blueprint?