Advertisements may pull a buyer to a reseller once, existing goodwill of the reseller may influence the purchase decision of a person once, however, in this competitive scenario, the most difficult thing is to retain customers for a long time. Why so? What are the ways out?
What do the customers really want from a reseller? They basically look for reliable products, at reasonable rates, as per personal choice or requirement, in time, with hassle-free delivery, acceptable warranty and assurance for help in case of troubles in future.
As far as the branded products are concerned, redressal of the warranty issues and major servicing are the concerns of the vendors. However, a reseller may play the role of a good guide or even as a catalyst in the process.
System integrators have a better control over the process. While a customer comes with limited budget and big expectations, which may be apparently absurd, the reseller needs to spend time to counsel him/her on the best configuration close to his/her budget.
During the discussion, the reseller needs to instill the idea of gradual upgrade. Quoting the present price and whispering the possibility of a price rise in near future, resellers can often lure the customers. He/she may ask to keep an upgrade product for him/her at the present price. The reseller must use this opportunity to tie up the customer. Depending on the customer’s interest, he/she may be asked to book the product by keeping a deposit. Once the deposit is received, the customer will definitely come back.
To deal with the corporate customers, the resellers have to develop relation with the entire IT team functioning there. At times, even if the IT department head wants to go for a product from the reseller, someone or a group from the IT team in that organization may oppose it. In today’s lobby-oriented corporate environment, even the departmental heads often do not want to implement some decisions, which may unnecessarily enrage the opposing group.
As IT awareness is increasing in India, demand for IT, Telecom and Electronics products is rising everyday. Then, why do the resellers lose customers or business? Very often it is found that a customer comes to a reseller with a certain product or some desired functions or a pre-conceived configuration in mind, if the reseller instead of listening to him/her properly, suggests and tries to convince him/her with whatever is readily available in the shop, he hits the customer’s ego. Even if he is successful in pushing a product to this buyer once, it is 99% certain that this person will not come back for a second product. In the event of this product turning out to be faulty, the customer will spread bad remarks and rumors against the reseller.
Anil Sharma, Regional Manager (Maharashtra), Tirupati Enterprises, an IT products distributor, says, “Formerly, one of the major effective tools for customer retention was providing ‘Good Service’. However, these days, customers mostly look for cheaper price options. Now, in this competitive market, if a reseller gives huge discount to boost sales volume, obviously, it’s tough for him to provide good post-sale service support. There only the problem starts.”
“Resellers have to put effort to increase database of customers, and as far as possible stick to the set price. If in an area, all resellers do that, obviously, the customers won’t change shops unnecessarily. Because, they will know that no resellers in the area will offer a cheaper price for the desired product,” opines Sharma.
He advises, “Selling products at reasonable prices with enhanced service assurance is the best way of dealing with the customers. It’s also important to provide good service and build up logistics to supply products within a reasonable period of time.”
Kaushik Pandya, President, Ahmedabad Computer Merchants Association (ACMA), thinks that customer retention mainly depends on the service provided. He categorically states that the word ’service’ includes every activity starting from commissioning to post- sales.
As far as servicing of the sold products are concerned, Pandya doesn’t feel it’s a big problem. If proper documentation is done during purchase, and product registration is done with the vendor, then resellers can easily guide/help the customers to get the product(s) serviced.
“In case of corporate sales, if the party doesn’t come back after one deal, the reseller has to take initiative to find out the reason. Often one or two meetings with the IT department of the company, brings out the issues, which may be sorted out then,” he says.
The ACMA president also stresses on changing the mentality of the resellers. They should remove rigidity in all aspects of dealing, and try to educate the customers.
Thus, it is obvious that better service is the key to customer retention. Efforts to educate customer too yield good results. Above all, resellers have to reach more people.