Tio Nakasole

Customers are the queens and kings of every running business. Allow me to zoom my discussion on one of the biggest challenges that most businesses are faced with, which is not the ability to attract customers but to retain them.  Therefore, in today’s world, consumers demand a great experience throughout the entire path of purchasing, which incorporates the after-sales service. 

This translates into the fact that entities are required to put their house in order, understand their basics right and also provide an easy-to-use path in resolving customer issues and problems that arise after purchase.  

Competitive advantage

In a highly-congested and contested business environment, with similar product demands, it is worth highlighting that great companies are built on great products with memorable experiences. This means only entities that lay down a product and service of value than your competitors will sail through despite all economic and political odds. Being competitive means, more than creating value through your solution both during sales and after the sales are completed. 

Thumb rule

According to Andy Paul’s cardinal pillars of building customer relationships that last, there are three crucial ingredients needed in the sales process. 

Firstly, practice equivalence: This golden rule implies that you should treat others the way you would want them to treat you. This means that if you would like not to compress the rebound of your clientele, it’s crucial for your entity to recognise, acknowledge and bridge the gap of inconsistency between the past service experienced and what was expected, service rating via “Google review” and “customer relationship management” (CRM) system, are some of the mitigating mechanism to be benchmarked from time to time. Secondly, delight your customers with your commitment to customer service: He emphasised the ingenuity and responsiveness that should become customary enacted with your customer’s requirement for support, both presales and post-sales. In business sense, most unsuccessful win the battle but not the war of sales since they are more concerned about losing a walking-in customer than satisfying the customer who will give you the next order and receive the greater referral to another potential customer in perpetuity. Thirdly, demonstrate your appreciation for the opportunity to serve your customers. On the other side of the same coin, this is also another juxtaposition that intersects with corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is an ethos based on saying that entities have a mammoth task to perform than just providing jobs and making a profit. It is so crucial, as it will increase brand recognition, build public trust, improve customer loyalty, accelerate capital growth, deepen competitive advantage, and greater sustainability in terms of product being environmentally friendly and trade which must be reciprocal and not counterfeit goods that have no warranty condition and whose longevity is unreliable.

Quality of service

Customers purchase goods or services in the market exchange and pay for tangible benefits and values chosen from the entire assortment introduced to them. In the same vein, service quality is the result of certain internal factors such as availability – as to whether the service is readily available on time; reliability – in terms of fulfilling its commitment; Knowledge – the ability to understand the customer’s need; Safety – the safety net of the service rendered; Politeness – whether the staff are sensitive to the customer’s needs; Communication – as to whether the service was explained in and out.  

Therefore, paying lip service to the promise of after-sales service will be disastrous and unsustainable if the sales consultant, sales and service consultant concentrate more on what to sell than on how to sell. Lastly, the sustainable and repeatable sales success of any business nature is less about what you sell and more about how you sell. Finally, the highway of all aspects of after-sales service, enterprises should create and provide something worthy and memorable that other people want and need at a price they are worthy of spending, in tandem in a way that satisfies the purchaser’s needs and expectations, as this will breed what we call “leisure fire” chance of satisfaction, making it a worthwhile relationship built on trust, loyalty, honesty, commitment and fairness.