How ya doin'?

Just recently, I had one of those purchasing experiences. I guess it really wasn’t a purchasing experience. It is still a work in process because I haven't bought yet. But the process so far has set me thinking.

Do we really know how we are interfacing with our customers? How are we handling product inquiries? What message are we giving to our prospects? We have trained our sales organization, our customer service personnel, our tech reps. Have we given them the right training? Is the message getting through? Are we winning customers or losing sales? How do we find out?

What prompted these questions were two communications I had with a supplier of Web site design software. It was time for me to consider upgrading to the newest and greatest --at least the newest and greatest for my needs. Naturally, I turned to the Web to initiate my search, downloading two competitive demos for an evaluation. Providing the limited time demos was pretty good marketing I thought.

As most B2B marketers know, the buying decision is not based solely on the product itself, but also includes other factors such availability, warranty, pricing, and terms. On the Web site for Product A, I found a competitive upgrade available, but that didn't match what I owned. It seemed so natural to ask the question. Besides, the potential savings were substantial. The user-friendly Web site invited e-mail queries, and off it went. The e-mail response, from a real person: "Check out details of competitive upgrades on our Web site."

But, we're not done yet. With evaluations of both products complete, Product A seemed to have a slight edge over Product B, but I was wondering whether the price differential was worth it. I asked for some competitive advantages that might justify my spending the additional dollars. Again, there was the e-mail response, signed, to the effect, "I really don't know that information. I seem to recall some discussion of the subject among users on our user forum. Why don't you check there?" I did. There was nothing on the subject. (I did, however, visit Product B's user forum and found lots of comments about the advantages of Product B over Product A.)

Perhaps this is the way that the manufacturer of Product A wants inquiries handled. Or perhaps the only way that the "system" can handle them. I really don't think so, but that could be the subject of a separate article. The whole point here is that I was set to wondering whether the manufacturer really knows what's happening and how it's affecting his business.

We frequently conduct market research to find out new product needs or to measure the effectiveness of our marketing communications programs. Maybe, we should put the same effort in finding out how we are really implementing related processes and activities as well. How do we go about finding out the information we need? User satisfaction surveys would be one way, not simply researching users about their experience with the product or service itself, but also about the whole process of purchasing. Did they get the information they wanted? Was it timely? Was it informative? Were customer service personnel helpful? Were problems and complaints handled properly and promptly?

A second, and often more effective, method of information gathering is to "shop" your company yourself. Request information as the result of an ad. Make a phone inquiry. Place an order. Go through as much of the experience as is practical. See how your distributors respond. Find out the timeliness of your order fulfillment.

For some products and services, such as big ticket capital equipment, the shopping methodology may not work well. In some circumstances, you may have to hide your true identity in order to properly experience the process. You also need to be careful about evaluating personnel through this process. Your goal, here, is usually to evaluate the system, not personnel performance within that system. But, for many products and services, shopping can yield a lot of answers about your procedures, training, and processes. Give it try.

Oh, I bought product B.

Michael T. Brandt
September 1999

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Updated:
15-Jul-2003