If we have to take special care in companies, it is undoubtedly relations with the market and customers, without whose trust there is no such company project. But we do not always identify our real and potential clients well, nor do we properly tune into their needs and expectations. Although there are many solid and satisfactory relationships, it would be said, if the analogy is accepted, that sometimes the customer has a screw and expects a screwdriver, and the suppliers go with a hammer and only see nails.
In truth, customer relationships - each day more determining and complex in the economy of knowledge and innovation - must be taken care of in a special way, and not only by simply incorporating the powerful computer tools that are offered to us. A special sensitivity that is not always present is inexcusable in the market or markets we are targeting. There are, yes, several subjects in which companies can progress, and among them:
• The identification of all possible clients - real and potential -, also clearly distinguishing between distributors and end users.
• The relationship with each client group, sending specific and suitable messages to the market, for the benefit of our image.
• The specific relationship corresponding to each “sale”, when it is consultative and complex, and generates the participation of different people and departments.
• The internal communication and organization of the supplier, to give due response to the expectations generated in each client.
Obviously, all this can be talked about for days and months, both giving opinions and drawing on sobering experiences in different sectors and companies. Staying in the ICT (information and communication technology) sector, we can begin to reflect on the proper identification of customers, remembering a very sobering case: that of the expansion of fax.
In truth, without sufficient attunement or empathy with clients and users (well identified each other), one cannot speak of good marketing or of an effective relationship, catalyst of transactions and generator of satisfaction. To begin with, it is convenient to focus, yes, on the technology sector, better in a case of innovation, in case here the analogy of the screw and the hammer -always healthy self-criticism- were more applicable than in other sectors.
Identifying clients: the case of fax
Before these machines (the terminals of the fax service) appeared, today essential in offices and even in not a few homes, many questions arose because their possibilities were not identified or well anticipated. There was undoubtedly a strong underlying market, but the American professionals who developed the technology didn't seem to see business until the Japanese took it over. Peter Drucker talks about this in “Managing for the future”, and information is also available on the Internet.
Although it may be surprising, to find the origin of the transmission of scanned images we must go back to the middle of the 19th century, associate it with telegraphy (the telephone did not exist at the time) and stop at names such as the Scottish Alexander Bain or the English Frederick Bakewell; But this device began to look familiar to us as early as the 80s of the 20th century, when telephone networks began to be digitized, on the way to the so-called Integrated Services Digital Network. So we knew fax as an additional service of digital telephone networks, together with the dataphone or videotelephony.
It is an invention based on the possibilities of technology, the development of which accelerated in the second half of the 20th century. The technologies that support faxing were developed mainly in the United States, but the fact is that the market was soon flooded, in the early 1990s, with fax terminals manufactured by Japanese companies. It would seem that, in seeing business in the fax, the Japanese went ahead, and that was because they not only saw this new machine as an economically questionable complement to telephone service, but as an advantageous alternative to postal service, just when they emerged courier services.
Curiously, it was not the Americans, in the case of the transistor, invented in 1947, who perceived the applications of the invention more quickly, but it was the intuitive co-founder (with Akio Morita) of Totsuko (later Sony), Masaru Ibuka, who used it in what was immediately known as the “Japanese miniaturization”, back in the 1950s. But let's not draw fast inferences, because the Americans have also conquered markets around the world with different impact products, and not only in Informatics. According to the expert Jagdish Parikh, American and Japanese entrepreneurs and managers are the most intuitive, and Europeans are behind.
More about customers and their expectations: a case at Singer
Some additional reflections on end users also seem appropriate here, because relationships are sometimes maintained through intermediaries (let's not just think of distributors) and blurs can occur. This reflection leads us to another sobering case that we bring to consideration: that of Singer, in relation to the Athena 2000 model (sewing machine), back in 1975.
In the early 70s of the 20th century, the market for household sewing machines that had already appeared in the 19th century (remember Walter Hunt, Elias Howe, Isaac Singer…) was in decline. Progressively joining the job market, the housewife did not have time to sew, nor was it worth it to do so, given the advance of the textile industry. There was, of course, still a considerable market for these machines, but it was certainly in visible decline.
At that time, the models that were appearing did it with new facilities, which the salesmen showed in their demonstrations, as John S. Rydz, senior executive of Singer, related to us. Apparently, it was at that time the sellers themselves who were suggesting these additional facilities, perhaps to surprise in their demonstrations and capture new customers; but even with these new possibilities of the machines sales were not encouraged.
It certainly took a quantum leap, and that's what Singer did. The company stopped meeting the demands of its sales force, to focus on the user and their satisfaction. A chip introduced intelligence to the machine, and the Athena 2000 (1975) model was released. You only had to press buttons: it was the first electronic sewing machine, the most friendly machine on the market; Singer sold over a million units of this model.
Taking advantage of the case, we can also remember here something that Ted Levitt, a prestigious marketing expert, warned us about: "the activity of selling has been focused on the needs of the seller". But, in effect, if the commercials stop focusing on the needs and expectations of customers to focus on their own, then the business is at risk.
Other considerations
Perhaps cases where there is a paying customer and a user receiving the product or service also deserve special consideration. Consider the purchasing department (or any department that buys something for use by people in your organization) from a company. The provider can aspire to satisfy both who pays and who uses its services; but it is not certain that expectations always coincide.
Perhaps, in effect, the buyer expects a good price (he may even impose it, if he is a “big customer”) and the supplier is forced to make quality more flexible; instead, the user (the one who does not pay) expects quality and does not think about the price. I once read that "suppliers are types to be pressured…, except for error or commission", but, although it is an irony, the fact is that quality and price are usually inversely proportional. Now, based on the fact that we have clients and their expectations well identified, let's move on to reflect on the messages to the market.
Public relations of companies: final thoughts
Apart from the relationship corresponding to the gestation, development and closing of each sale, the commercial and marketing forces send messages to the market in different media and forums, and must be formulated with the appropriate language, showing an image of service to society and in tune with your expectations and needs.
Indeed, being important (essential) customers, we also have companies to say to society, to which we have a responsibility. Without excluding other more specific objectives, we turn, on the one hand, to society and, on the other, to the markets in which we wish to be present in order to sell. In both cases, we aim to build trust; show our best image, and build trust. What reflections can we formulate in this regard? Perhaps the first thing would be to agree on the inexcusable need to communicate, to make our presence known in the market; then, initiatives must constitute steps forward in achieving the desired trust.
Today companies, often with the help of the possibilities offered by technological progress, deploy various initiatives, according to the characteristics of each case. They create virtual forums for communication with clients, edit corporate brochures and bulletins, organize or sponsor events, display advertising… Executives seek to belong to associations and entities from which to reinforce the corporate image, publish articles, are speakers at different calls of the sector, etc.
This communication with the market is inexcusable, but companies can carry it out with more or less success, as there are also successes and errors in strategic and tactical decisions. To finish these reflections, perhaps we can agree that the market is smarter than us and it is not convenient to avoid this reality.
