Customers and their Needs

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Introduction

Financial services organizations are among the fast growing industries. Competition is so high in this industry forcing organization to be aggressive in meeting customer needs without comprising quality and profitability.

Creating appropriate delivery channels, sound selling strategies, and building viable market relations are some of the important strategies t5he organizations should adopt to ensure they remain competitive. The following is a discussion of how these organizations can deliver quality services, boost their sales and profitability while meeting customer needs in an efficient and effective manner.

Delivery Channels

A delivery channel refers to mechanism used by organizations to reach the consumers. Financial services organizations need to identify customer needs and then design the right channel to use in order to reach their customers in an efficient and effective way. In addition, the financial sector can use either face-to-face channels or remote channels.

Face to face channels

These include branch networks, personal services, and third party agencies.

Branch networks refer to a situation where a financial organization sets up physical premises where the customers can be served; personal services requires that a representative from the organization arranges to meet the customer either by booking an appointment or via cold visit; while third party agencies refers to use of agents such as insurance brokers,.

Remote channels

Remote channels include multimedia, telephone, and paper, whereby, multimedia incorporates use of the internet, websites, ATMS, television, as well as mobile sms. In addition, telephone is about having call centers from which, customers can make calls or called and these centers can be used to conduct telesales or provide customer support among other functions; and paper channel involves use of brochures and catalogues.

Factors to consider in evaluating a delivery channel

It would be unrealistic for a firm to take on a distribution channel without evaluating how it will affect the business. The following factors must be put into consideration: cost of the channel, expected outcome i.e. how effective will it be in satisfying the customers while minimizing costs, effect of new technology, channels used by competitors as well as the nature of the product. (Havaldar and Cavale 12-2) and Proper evaluation of delivery channel gives the company a chance to cut down on costs such as opening of a new branch where internet can be used to serve the same purpose, save on staff costs while maximizing on profits and ensuring customer needs are taken care of.

Under normal circumstances, conflicts are inevitable hence, it is important to manage channel conflicts. All channel members should work closely towards some common goals and objectives having clearly stated roles and responsibilities.

Impact of technology on delivery channels

The impact of new technology has been felt in financial services organizations; indeed, there have been opportunities as well as challenges and threats. Use of new technology such as internet has allowed online marketing, which is faster and cheaper as compared to some other marketing approaches.

Eliminated geographical areas and transaction can be done without physical contact. It has also increased competition in the market; however, personal contact with customers has been lost leading to weak personal relationships. People have also been reluctant in embracing the new technological changes due to security reasons while others lack technical know how (Sharma 288).

Financial organizations are however required by law to ensure customer privacy breach of which can lead to legal suit by the customer. According to the Data Protection Act, organizations should hold personal information of their customers in a proper way and incase of processing of such information, the eight principles should be followed.

In addition, customers have a right to know information held about them and correct such information if need be. Privacy and Electronic communications regulations give the customer the mandate to stop electronic marketing messages that they are not interested in (Information commissioner’s office, para1)

Selling

Financial sectors need to understand that selling is not all about getting customers to purchase their products. Costs incurred in the process are high and require the organization to come up with a mechanism to offset them while still maintaining quality.

According to lamb, Daniel and McDaniel (459), selling is a seven-stage process. First, prospecting and qualifying implies searching for new clients and assessing their potential by knowing whether they have a need, their financial ability to satisfy that need as well as whether they have the mandate to so. The second stage is the Pre- approach and this requires proper preparation before meeting the customer.

Booking and confirmation of appointment is vital, the seller should also have excellent product knowledge and the objective to be met by the end of the meeting. Approach follows the pre-approach; the sales person should have good communication skills, create a good first impression, and establish a rapport with the prospects. Presentation and demonstration should follow which involves an analysis of prospects need through questioning and listening professionally.

The product offered should match clients need and show the benefits. The fifth step involves handling objections from the client that should be done in a professional way after which it is time to close the sale. Close of sale literally means the actual purchase or placing order by the client. The final step is to follow up with the clients and know whether there are any complaints or issues from the client.

According to Pezzullo (213), the financial organizations should ensure that they have quality sales people. This implies that they have good personal attributes such as proper planning skills, integrity, healthy, hardworking, and courteous and so on. Selling skills are also very important such as good negotiation skills, ability to listen and make a decision. Sales person should also go through vigorous training to equip them with product knowledge and organizational knowledge.

Managing customer interface

Managing customer interface generally refers to application of the appropriate selling techniques and skills when dealing with a customer at all stages in the selling process. The sales person has a duty understand both the buying and selling processes well in order to match the selling process with the buying process.

The financial services organizations are at liberty to adopt either a hard selling approach or a soft selling approach. The later is highly recommended since it focuses on relationship marketing rather than aggressive sales closure. Establishing a relationship with the customer and follow up are key in this approach and it normally starts with the pre-approach step. Hard selling approach focus on closing the sale fast thus transaction based and it normally starts with the approach step.

The decision-making unit

According to Peck et al (42), it is important that the sales person understands the decision-making unit (DMU), which refers to a person or a group of people that influence the buyers’ decision-making process. In managing customer interface, it is important to identify, communicate all the members of the DMU.

Decision making unit comprises of seven elements: initiators, users, influencers, deciders, approvers, buyers, and gatekeepers. Initiators are the pioneers of the original idea to purchase. Users are the consumers of the product or service and they influence the purchase decision. Influences can be either external or internal persons of the organization with special or expertise knowledge who can play a role in the purchase decision.

Deciders have the authority to make the purchase decision and are often the buyers while approvers exercise some form of management such as authorizing payment. The buyers have formal authority to handle the purchase transaction and select where to buy. Finally yet importantly are the gatekeepers such as personal assistant. These make it difficult to access other members or else withhold necessary information.

Managing selling activities

Having the right salespeople on board and following the sales procedure is not enough to drive sales and maintain quality. Financial organizations need to adequately manage the selling activities that focus on various aspects – planning, monitoring and evaluating as well as enhancing sales performance.

Planning means that clear objectives of what the firm aims to achieve are laid down and proper sales forecasts are conducted. The set objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and time bound. Monitoring ensures that the progress is in line with the plan and addresses any problem that may arise and hinder achievement of goals set. It also ensures that sales team meets the targets and gives a justification for any incentives that may be given.

Performance of the sales team need to be evaluated regularly which translates to measuring of actual performance against the set standard. it shows the difference between the highest and lowest performing sales person which then allows a corrective measure to be taken. The corrective measure taken should start with problem identification as proposed by Watkins (1999 p.165). It is important to note that the sales team should be well trained and training is an on-going process (should be done regularly).

Management and Leadership

A sales manager normally leads a sales team; it is therefore important that such managers have both management and leadership skills. A leader can be defined as someone who influences others to follow a particular direction.

A good leader has certain characteristics such as integrity, good communication skills, self-confidence, ability to inspire, enthusiastic and maintains a positive attitude. On the contrary, management entails planning, organizing, coordinating, monitoring and evaluation. A sales manager must be able to plan and also do research i.e. what the competitors are doing, how are the customers’ responses and so on.

Financial organizations need to understand the roles of a sales manager since he is a key position in determining the sales volume and profitability of the firm. The main role of a sales manager is to design a sales force. The main components of a sales force are objectives, strategy, structure, size, and compensation.

It is indisputable that customer objectives define what is to be achieved while strategy defines the way to achieve those objectives. Sales force structure explains how the sales team will be assigned tasks i.e. geographically, product line and so on. The size of the sales force should be determined with care since the larger the size the higher the costs.

Costs should be minimized and profits maximized while still delivering quality to satisfy customer needs in a competitive way. an optimal sales force is therefore one that serves the customers adequately to generate target sales at minimal cost. The sales force also includes compensation. The manager should design a compensation scheme that will attract the best sales people who in return will generate sales. It is at the discretion of the manager to decide the best compensation strategy to adopt.

Motivating Sales Personnel

The importance of motivating sales personnel cannot be underestimated since it is motivation that gives them the morale and agility to do their work in an excellent way. Lack of motivation kills their morale resulting to poor performance that can make the firm close down.

Sales is a very demanding job, at times , the sales people meet very rude clients while at times, they lose orders without any good reason hence need continuous motivation. Sales managers should devise remuneration and incentive scheme and this requires them to know motivational theories such as Maslow‘s hierarchy of needs and the two factor theory (Herzberg’s hygiene factors) (Watkins 150).

Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing is one way in which organizations establish and sustain relationships with customers. According to Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne (76), the main purpose of businesses is to establish and maintain relationships that are mutually beneficial, with all market domains. In the financial sector, relationship marketing helps in winning and maintaining customer loyalty, establish a positive reputation and reduce customer defection.

Relationship marketing focuses on various aspects such as; customer retention, emphasize on relationship as opposed to transactions, acknowledges good relationship with other stakeholders other than customers, and appreciates the importance of internal marketing in achieving external marketing.

Financial organizations are required to identify the needs of their customers and develop products that will satisfy their customers. However, the profitability of each customer group is varied though all the customer groups are important in the financial sector. This poses a challenge since the financial services organization should strike a balance between the revenue generated and the efforts extended in generation of that revenue.

According to Buttle (420), there are five requirements for successful relationship marketing namely: supportive culture, internal marketing, and understanding customer expectations, maintaining a sophisticated customer database and new organizational structures and reward schemes.

Relationship marketing strategy has its pros and cons, some of the benefits include; improved customer retention, reduced marketing costs, improved customer loyalty and a better understanding of customer needs and wants. However, it might call for purchase of new equipment and systems, hiring of new employees with the necessary skills, training to the existing work force as well as time investment. Therefore, it is recommended that the organization should select and screen the target customers.

Relationship life cycle

The relationship life cycle comprises of four stages, the first stage being exploration where company factors such as strategy play an important role. Second is the build up stage, which calls for honesty and efforts from the salesperson to make the customer satisfied with the relationship and the products or service.

Third is the maturity stage at which customer satisfaction is still positive though marginally reduced due to factors such as changing customer expectation. The last stage is the decline stage, at this point; either of the party may have contributed to the decline. However, the sales person can still mend the relationship by trying to change customer’s perspective or follow an orderly termination strategy.

Importance of service quality

It is the obligation of financial services organizations to provide quality customer service to their customers and ensure that all complaints are handled within the shortest time possible. If customer service is integrated with quality and marketing, it is possible to retain customers.

Importance of building relationship with key market domains

Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne (2002) identified the six markets framework that could help improve effectiveness of financial services organizations market which include internal markets, referral markets, customer markets, influential markets such as shareholders, recruitment markets and supplier markets. They emphasized that organizations should identify the importance and main participants of each market, know what they expect as well as their needs, and then focus on building strong relationships in each market.

Segmenting markets by relationship marketing

According to piercy (420), markets segmentation can be done based on customer relationship requirement. From his analysis, four categories of buyers may emerge as discussed below. Relationship seekers, they want to be close and establish a long-term relationship.

Relationship exploiters are interested in having a close relationship and short-term transaction. The other category is the loyal buyers. These invest in long-term relationship but are not interested in being close to the supplier. The final category is arm’s length transaction customers who just want short-term transaction and are not interested in establishing a close relationship. It is therefore necessary to analyze the customers and determine those who are worth the relationship.

Internal stakeholders

Relationship marketing requires that financial marketers create and maintain a conducive environment. All employees should understand and support the idea and this can be achieved through motivation, incentives, and rewards being extended not only to the marketing department but also to other departments that put efforts to generate sales. Senior management should also be in support of relationship marketing philosophy while the marketing team should be well trained to equip them with the necessary skills.

Conclusion

Financial services organizations are faced with a challenge on how to generate sales, ensuring that they deliver quality service and satisfy customer needs. It is therefore important that they identify their customer needs and then come up with ways to satisfy them in an effective and efficient manner. They need to device the right channels to reach their customers, recruit sales people with the required skills and expertise, manage the selling activities and then establish and maintain relationships with all the market domains.

Works Cited

Buttle, Francis. Relationship marketing: theory and practice. London, Sage. 2007. Web.

Christopher, Martin, Payne, Adrian and Ballantyne, David. Relationship marketing: creating shareholder value. MA, Butterworth-Heinemann. 2002. 12 Web.

Havaldar, Krishna K. and Cavale, Vasante M. Sales and Distribution Management. New Delhi, Tata McGraw-Hill. 2006. Web.

“Information commissioner’s office.” What is the Data Protection Act? 2010. Web.

Lamb, Charles W., Hair, Joseph and MCDaniel, Carl. Essentials of Marketing. Florence KY, Cengage. 2008. Web.

Peck, Helen et al. A. Relationship marketing: strategy and implementation. MA, Butterworth-Heinemann. 1999. Web.

Pezzullo, Mary and American Bankers Association. Marketing financial services. London, Kogan page publishers. 1998. Web..

Piercy, Nigel. Market-led strategic change: a guide to transforming the process of going to market. MA, Butterworth-Heinemann. 2002. Web.

Sharma, Abhay. Management of Financial Institutions: With Emphasis on Bank and Risk Management. New Delhi, Learning Pvt Ltd. 2008. Web.

Watkins. Michael. The first 90 days: critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels. New York. Harvard Business Press. 2003. Web.

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