Customer Attention : Doing things differently

I just finished reading this great post by Michael Brenner, He mentioned about "Customer Attention" which got my attention. 


I have always thought and spoken about customer service and customer retention, not knowing that these revolve around the basic goal of customer attention. As far as "reactive" customer services goes, I think we already have the customer's attention there but then we are not certain if this is the "positive" attention we are looking for and can build a relationship on.


On the other hand, when it comes to customer retention, that is where we need the attention part the most. Let's not forget it's not always that the customer will send out positive vibes but then a lot depends on how he was treated all this while and how much positivism a manager can display.


I have always believed, for any business big or small a customer is a customer. It is when a Manager starts giving preference and not priority to larger customers that the debacle starts. Every manager has a client rooster and is expected to make the most out of it, or to keep them happy at least. The talent here is to make sure your excel sheet has updates for all the clients and not only the marked "Important" ones.


I understand a company has to grow and frequently make a call on who to work with, but in these competitive times the risk of filtering out a client with tremendous potential to grow big supersedes the cost of getting new bigger ones. It is a proven fact that acquiring a new customer is more work than up selling services to an existing one,but this is where more attention has to be given.


I am a little disappointed on how "up selling" is defined. At most organizations, up selling is usually quantified as "development" made or "service" sold. 


Why can this work in a subtle way ? It should.


Account Management should not be about "taking care of the customer's needs" but being pro active and multidimensional. It's important to read between the lines and have a broader perspective when it comes to getting revenue from the customer. When I recommend a change in how business is done at my client's end, I know it would momentarily be a move that would profit my organization too.In other words, embedded in this idea lies a seed that would grow and eventually profit my organization. This would be the ideal pitch where I get the customer's attention and also help my numbers grow up. All this because my business runs on my customer's business.


If I keep pushing services towards them, and choking the tunnel with "up selling pitches" I would be left with nothing but a tag of being an annoying salesman.


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