Great Support Is What Great Support Does

Last night I watched a very hilarious episode of 30 Rock, where Queen Latifah assumed the role of Congressman Bookman who is finding her way to fail the merger between Kabletown and NBC. Using a politician’s style of speech, she spoke with a lot of passion and energy; she made everybody listen to her and not the details of her speech. The dialogue went like this, “I don’t know where I’m going with this! But if I continue talking like this, everybody will pay attention and they will clap their hands when I’m finished talking!!” And lo and behold, everybody ended up applauding her for the so-called speech. I ROTFL; so to speak. That scene also depicted the term lip service quite obviously.

In business, many advertisements and marketing efforts are not as what they seemed. A gigantic burger could turn out to be just a normal burger. A mouthwatering pizza with extra cheese could turn out to be a hard pizza with a thin layer of cheese. Not only do many companies boast unrealistically about their products, many also highlight great after-sales service and excellent technical support to close business deals. But when push comes to shove, do they actually experience the greatness and excellence that were promised? It’s very crucial to note that the inefficiency of lip service does not only apply in politics; lip service does not work in business as well. Delivery of the promises, on the other hand, does.

Apart from strengthening the company’s support systems, monitoring of the delivery of support must be second to none. Currently, we are using the world's renowned CRM, Salesforce, which means no emails or technical enquiries could be left unattended. All enquiries must be replied within our specified time. Now, how do you monitor yours?

At the end of the day, great support is what great support does. And only your satisfied clients can verify this testimonial. You can scream with a microphone from the top of a mountain that your company has great support, but if you fail to deliver your promises to your clients, business is not going to prosper in a long run.

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

Support is Marketing? Yes, apparently!

I met someone long ago who told me that a good marketer could sell a useless dirty rock for a price, for the art of selling is in its convincing. He stressed that the ability to convince a client to want a product he doesn't really need is a highly sought-after trait in a marketer. I could partly concur with his opinion but marketing these days need more than just the convincing part in order to retain customers in a long run. The question is always, how to capture customer’s attention, to get them to buy your products, to make them coming back for more and to make them be with you through good and bad times.

It sounds a tad romantic isn't it? But that’s the real challenge in marketing these days. A lot of times, marketing also involves customer relationship management whether you prefer it or not. FingerTec is least interested in hit and run Alibaba's style of business, we prefer our relationships with our customers to be a long lasting one.

Through the years, I’ve experienced different marketing approaches from different countries and they are variety. I am in no position to judge who is right and who is wrong because when faced with different demographic group and foreign business cultures, my wrong could be other people’s right. Nonetheless, they are some common ingredients to a succesful and long lasting relationship with existing customers and the new ones. Apart from promoting the excellent specs of your products, what else do you pitch to your clients to get them to choose your brand and your company?

In my opinion, excellent customer support is always a winner! While customer is king, in a business like FingerTec, customer support is Queen. Customer support is vital that the absence of it could make your company absent from the market. Many companies I met talked about customer support but when customers send them problems, they view problems as burdens. We receive problems in bulk everyday and while not all were solved immediately, we always let you know that we are attending to your problem(s), and the remedy would come sooner or later. Customers must be comforted in the fact that when they buy something, someone from the supplier would know the answer when they are stuck with a problem or two. Maybe you don't have sufficient staff or your staff is not proficient enough in the subject matter but that shouldn't be the excuse to play hide and seek with a client. Nothing is more frustrating than not knowing what to do in difficult times.

Play it smart! Tap on what FingerTec has prepared for you. Get them to sign up to our resources, get them to use our user website, guide them to where they could find information. This education could be done in the early stage of marketing. FingerTec has just introduced some feature badges, which you could place on your website to direct your clients to find information they need about FingerTec. Pick and choose the badges you want and place them strategically on your company's website. I'm not saying that you should be ignoring your clients and direct them to inhumane interaction, but you must make them feel that you care about them, wanting to take care of their problems. Explore what FingerTec has prepared to better your support. For example, last onth we introduced the toolbox for technician to bring along during site visits; you don't need to source the toolbox from us but use the information to improve your support. When customers feel taken care of, changing supplier would be the last thing in mind.

I am a firm believer that customer support is the determining factor in marketing. Ignoring this aspect in business could spell disaster in capital letters. Your sales could be good this month but there is always next month and when clients know the good reputation of your customer support, the repeat orders are not hard to come by.

Drop by at FingerTec tips website and user website to learn how you could use our readily available information for your company. We don't charge you any cent, take advantage please!

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ