At-Risk Customer Relationship Found During Continuous Improvement Exercise

Vendors that have individual customer relationships responsible for 5-50% of the company's revenues often have several contacts at each account. Engaged communication at the senior levels is vital to long-term customer satisfaction and loyalty, but maintaining open communication at that level is not enough. Day-to-day contacts on the customer side often have quite a bit of power and certainly a considerable amount of influence. In this case study, a vendor's day-to-day contact within a behemoth account was in a position to pick the vendors he used to make parts for his portfolio of products. He could also influence his peers within the company to switch to vendors he preferred. He was tempted to switch when he voiced a complaint to his day-to-day contact at the vendor and heard nothing back. The lapse was found during a routine customer feedback study that was part of the vendor's continuous improvement program. ..»