Is Your Company Easy to do Business With?

Your products or services are often perceived by the market as being similar to those available from your competitors. As a result, being easy to do business with can set you apart, making customer lead generation easier, and making a big impact on your bottom line. It also enhances your brand equity, since every point of interaction is a branding exercise.

There’s a great deal of talk these days about building a company’s “brand,” but in reality, brand equity is simply an investment in ensuring that your prospects and customers have a positive experience each time they interact with your company or its products and services. The little things, such as promptly responding to inquiries, make a big difference.

As a B2B marketer, your job is to guide your company in providing the best possible customer experience at all points of contact. So, take a hard look at your company from your prospects’ and customers’ points of view. These questions will help you identify which areas need improvement:

• Are you losing customers and business due to time zone differences?

For example, if your company is located in the west, what happens when a prospect or customer calls from Boston or Miami at 8 a.m. EST to request information or pricing, or to place an order? Odds are that no one is answering the phone, costing you a fortune in lost business—especially if your competitors pick up the phone when the same customer tries them. Customer lead generation can suffer.

• When calling your company’s 800 number, do callers reach a “live” person or are they immediately shunted to voice mail?

• On your Web site, do you keep prospects and customers at arm’s length by making them submit a “Contact Us” form, or can they click on a representative’s name and dash off an e-mail? How easy is it to find your company’s phone number or a local contact?