Customer Management

From the desk of Jenny Roche – Director, Board Business

Is growth stifling customer innovation in Perth?

Perth’s rapid growth rate through proximity to the Australian Resources boom is driving high performance revenue growth across a range of industries. Consulting businesses, entertainment, accommodation, infrastructure and IT&T are all booming to name a few. But is this growth actually an outcome of good business and are these businesses sustainable?

As competition grows in WA only those businesses who innovate now to leverage their growth into better business practices will be agile enough to remain leaders in their field and be well placed to run the course.

Customer relationship management and customer experience are key elements to sustainable business. Yet innovation in customer management is at all time low in Perth today.

Let’s look at an easy example, the restaurant industry.  Restaurants make their margin on wine, in cafes the margin comes from coffee.  The sooner you get a drink or a coffee, the more likely you are to order two, the more money the business makes, and interestingly, the happier you are and the more likely to return. Yet in how many Perth establishments do you have a coffee or drink within 10 minutes of taking your seat? How many restaurants remember if you have been there before, know what you like and recall your last conversation?  How many of the staff in these places even know this is important? It’s not hard to do, but no one does it? Why, because they are all probably reasonably successful business based on the fact that there is demand in the market.  They could be great businesses.

So what does this look like in your business? Do you know where your margins lie and how you should manage customers to maximise margin and customer satisfaction? Do you take orders or work with your customers? Do you monitor your customer interactions within your business? Have you defined how you want them to be or do you leave it up to interpretation by your team? What does customer delight look like to you and how would your team define it? What is best practise customer management in your industry and how do you compare?

If any of these questions are hard to answer for you, what are the chances of them being answered consistently across your business?