Читать книгу Marketing - Peter Spalton - Страница 15

The best marketing people know exactly what they’re good at, and what they’re not so good at – their strengths and weaknesses. You also need to have an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, and know what your customers think of you and your products.

Your customers’ views are much more important than your own. I’m sure you think that you have the best products in the world, but actually it’s their perception that matters most. And you must match your product and customer service to their expectations, based on your marketing material.

one minute wonder Phone your customers immediately after they have bought something from you. You will then get their instant reaction to how the purchase went.

 Product. Ask customers how the features, quality and reliability of your product stacked up to what they had expected.

 Price. Did they feel that they got value for money? Find out if they got more or less than they had expected.

 Availability. How easy was it for them to find out the information they needed when choosing which product to buy? How easy was it for them to buy it? Was it in stock?

 Service. What did they think of your service? Was it friendly, efficient and did it match what they had anticipated?

Many businesses employ someone to phone customers; others use the post. A postal or email survey can gather more information, but it won’t capture the customer’s immediate feelings.

You also need to talk to your prospective customers, particularly those who have never purchased anything from you. Ask them if they’ve heard about your business and what they think you stand for. This is called your company’s level of awareness.

Make a list of what you think you’re good at and a list of what you’re not so good at, and add your customers’ views to the lists. Then look long and hard at each of the weaknesses, and work out how you can address them. Ideally, you want to turn them around completely, so that they become strengths.

Know what you’re good at and not so good at, so you can play to your strengths and fix your weaknesses.