News Splash, 3nd Quarter 2008

Welcome to News Splash, the newsletter of Springboard Commercial Solutions. Our aim is to provide you with a quarterly update covering new developments in customer management and at Springboard CS.

This is the third issue for 2008 and follows ‘hot on the heels’ of Qtr2’s.

What’s on the minds of the Mutual Building Societies at the moment?
“Soundings from within the Maelstrom”
	We asked our communications department to go and find out and this is what they uncovered. Surprisingly, we found a wide variance of views across the people we interviewed: from complacency to ‘a call to action’. Feedback from a varied range of executives, media and sector commentators suggest that even in these tumultuous times, pro-actively managing customer experience remains vital to meeting current challenge and securing future business. If you would like the complete article either:- <Click Here> or www.springboardcs.com

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE “THE NEXT BATTLEGROUND”

Have you tried to buy a washing machine lately? You could buy one for less than a good night out! The price of a supermarket DVD player is less than 2lb’s of steak.

So What!

In this drive towards commoditising, brands and services have a problem. Just how do we differentiate in these circumstances?

If you would like to see the complete article then <click here>

Going back to The Old School - Training with a “Hard Edge” In today’s modern world of business training it is very rare to find a hard edge to the delegate assessment process...at best delegates are often asked to complete a course/workshop assessment upon completion of training and this is often focussed on the T&D provider rather than actual content learned. Interested to know more and see the complete article then. <click here>

“Customer Experience” in B2B environment Does “loyalty” matter in B2B Relative to the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) environment, Business-to-Business (B2B) suppliers operate within a framework that implicitly supports the existence of long – and therefore more likely rewarding – relationships with their customers. Customers’ downstream processes are set up to work with the incumbent supplier (production line adapted to specifications of supplier’s parts, marketing material mentioning brand or specs, etc). Customers’ buying processes are less flexible (MRP system in place, supplier is on the approved list, EDI payment functionality set up). Personal relationships develop between the buyer and the seller, making the buyer less inclined to shop around. A buyer has a large number of orders to place every day and may not have the time or inclination to spend a lot of time researching alternative offers. Interested to know more? <click here>

Customer Management Assessment & Benchmarking The SCS approach in an easy to understanding format. To download the ‘two pager’ <click here>

Persuasive Companies are Successful Companies The above statement may appear obvious...however if you think about it a little more carefully it becomes really clear just why the statement is business critical... Successful boards of directors – persuade the city to invest capital Successful Managing Directors – persuade talented directors to join them Successful directors – persuade strong managers to work for them Successful Managers – lead through persuasion [not coercion] Successful Salesmen – persuade customers to buy your products Within this article we explore the context and highlight the how. <click here>

Our Featured Partner in Newsflash this quarter is AD-Creative. They have just finished a ground breaking project……..here’s a glimpse.

Let’s talk electrical, think of all the gadgets and stuff that you have that is electrical, both home and business, the sheer range and depth of choice is simply staggering.

Our experience with Elkjop - Scandinavias largest electrical retail group is long standing and covers the full range of retail design, our most recent project opening in May 2008 was the opening of our latest format scheme across 6000 sq m of brand new space in Lorenskog Oslo. Gadget heaven, covering two floors and every conceivable category in electrical,

Breaking this down into easily understood chunks for the customer was our first priority with a new store navigation system based on clarity, inspiration and explanation. Combine this with a few simple exclamation points and the whole retail experience becomes a clear welcoming conversation.

Our approach has always been to orchestrate the best players in the retail mix (product, place and people) then get the tune together. Up the tempo on fast moving lines and create slower pieces where the product needed the time.

So how did all this mighty clever design stuff actually do?- the new store is simply the largest in terms of sales within the group by a VERY substantial distance.

Key? - keep it clear, keep it simple and keep it RELEVANT.

For further information on this exciting project please visit their website:- www.adcreative.co.uk

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