Based on trend predictions for 2007 and the hundreds of articles I read throughout 2006, the best advice I can give cellular retailers to increase their sales revenue is simple:
Take care of your customers. Fact is, consumers have so many options when shopping for a cellphone, accessories or service: countless handsets, an array plans and several carriers. Because the U.S. market is essentially saturated, competition for the remaining buyers is stiff and as a result, pricing and product/plan/carrier offerings are the same from one cellular retailer to the next. What’s to draw a potential customer to your store instead of somebody else’s? Not much.
One competitive frontier remains: exceptional service
1. “This market is so competitive that price, plans, features and even handsets are pretty much the same,” says Steve Koenig, Senior Analyst for CEA’s Market Research Department. “It’s just how you’re treated as a customer (that makes the difference).”
It sounds cliché, but customer service truly is the key differentiator in today’s cellular retail landscape. Creating outstanding customer experiences will not only do wonders for your customer retention, it can help in customer acquisition
2 via the most effective kind of marketing: word-of-mouth referrals. Your customers will be so impressed with your salespeople’s product knowledge, patience, and attentiveness that they’ll recommend your store to everybody they know.
To get a leg up in the customer service race, retailers have been investing in CRM technology
3 in recent years, to improve customer experiences and increase customer satisfaction. With improved means of obtaining and studying customer feedback, these retailers can respond strategically to all types of customer needs.
Improving customer service requires a company-wide effort to smooth out the rough edges of your retail operation. Paul Levesque
4, customer service columnist at Entrepreneur.com, highlights his Top Five “Biggest Customer Service Blunders of All Time”: making customer service a training issue; blaming poor service on employee “demotivation”; using customer feedback to emphasize what’s wrong; reserving top recognition for splashy recoveries; and (as mentioned earlier) competing on price.
And it’s not just independent retailers who are tightening up their customer service. Best Buy
5 ramped up its “customer centricity” approach in 2004, investing roughly $50 million a year to realign stores and employees to cater to customer needs. In 2006, the company enjoyed a 38 per cent jump (to $234 million) in first-quarter earnings.
As big-box stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart gain ground in the cellular retail market – particularly with the recent opening of Best Buy Mobile
6 – the importance of customer service as the key differentiator becomes even more apparent.
Mark Landiak
7, president of Corporate Dynamics, Inc. (an Illinois-based sales and customer service consulting firm) says the battle with big-box competition can be won by selling value over price. "While you can’t sell every customer and prospect at list price, still, a large percentage of your clientele is open to a well-defined value proposition," he says.
Let 2007 be your year for improved customer care/service/experience/centricity. By no coincidence, it will also be a year for increased sales and profits
- Customer Service Key Differentiator
http://newsletter.iqmetrix.com/index.aspx?section=2006-03-01&page=Story+One
- Happy Customers Stay Customers
http://newsletter.iqmetrix.com/index.aspx?section=2006-02-01&page=Story+One
- Customer Centricity Top Priority:Expect Rise in CRM Spending
http://newsletter.iqmetrix.com/index.aspx?section=2006-03-29&page=Story+One
- Correcting the Five Biggest Customer Service "Blunders"
http://newsletter.iqmetrix.com/index.aspx?section=2006-05-10&page=Story+Two
- Customer-centric Success: Following Best Buy's Example
http://newsletter.iqmetrix.com/index.aspx?section=2006-07-21&page=Story+One
- Best Buy to Launch Cellphone-only Stores
http://newsletter.iqmetrix.com/index.aspx?section=2006-12-06&page=Story+Five
- Competing with Wal-Mart, Part II: Selling Value Instead of Price
http://newsletter.iqmetrix.com/index.aspx?section=2006-10-11&page=Story+One 
