Life of an engineer – a systematic approach to transforming relationships through reliable deliveries

By: Jeroen Minnee and Angelique Toorians, 13 January 2024

Integrated business processes and systems

Building and maintaining strong customer relationships is the founding principle of any successful business and integrated business processes are nowadays essential. In a world where customer expectations are constantly changing, it is necessary to remain proactive and adapt in your approach to maintain these essential connections. Recognising and addressing issues such as dissatisfied customers, slow responses and lost requests is crucial to building lasting customer relationships. Integrated business processes and systems will help you and your engineers in tackling these challenges.

Improving customer relations is crucial, but this does not immediately mean that your business system needs to be completely overhauled. That is why in this article, we will discuss practical steps for immediate customer relationship improvement which also impact business processes and the work of your engineers. By adopting these strategies and budget-friendly solutions, you will not only improve your customers’ experience, but also foster loyalty, trust and ultimately your bottom line. And not less important: your technicians will be able to keep innovating and create better products and services.

Integrated business processes and systems do not only create advantages for your engineers and your customer success, but they will also speed up the responses to your client’s needs by 40%, ensuring that no request ever gets lost again and improving the possibility to retrieve lost deals.

In this article we will discuss:

What customer churn is;
How to identify bottlenecks,
What your engineers experience and need;
The root cause of churn risk;
The problems and advantages of integrated business processes and systems.

What is Customer Churn?

Before we go into how you can improve your customer relationships it might be useful to first understand what the risks are if you don’t maintain and improve customer relationships. In the professional world we call this customer churn. But what is customer churn?

Customer churn is the probability and risk that a customer will not reach a deal. However, customers who are very likely to cancel are also at a high churn risk. When you analyze your company’s churn, it allows you to identify pain points throughout the customer journey, from closing a deal to the after-sales service you provide. Identifying and understanding the pain points will help you to optimize your products, services and communications.

The ugly truth about churn risk on business processes

Bringing in customers is one thing. Keeping them happy is a second. Churn is an important part of a company’s success and contributes directly to results. Depending on the industry, reducing churn by 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%.

But there is more to it. Part of the reason why a significant part of the company’s resources should be spent on keeping customers happy and making sure they grow because of you is the fact that it is much easier to earn more on an existing customer than on acquiring new ones. According to Semrush, the probability of selling to an existing customer is between 60% and 70%.

What causes churn?

People: high turnover among skilled technicians, engineers or project managers can disrupt project continuity, resulting in gaps in knowledge and handovers. In addition, strained customer relations due to poor communication or service quality issues can also contribute to churn.

The product: inadequate product quality, frequent defects or lack of innovation can lead to customer dissatisfaction, causing them to look for alternative solutions or suppliers. The inability to meet evolving industry standards and requirements can also lead to customer turnover.

The processes: inefficient production processes, delays or inconsistent project management can undermine customer trust and satisfaction. Failure to adapt to changing project demands or industry dynamics can cause clients to look for more streamlined and reliable alternatives. Integrated business processes are essential.

How to prevent customer churn?

The most common discussions in boardrooms on the subject of customer churn are about ways to prevent it. And already starts at the very beginning of the process:

Sell to the right companies

What seems like good money in the beginning can drain unnecessary resources in the long run. Gaining customers is just one step in the whole process. Retaining customers ensures the growth of your sales. If you sell to companies that do not meet the ideal customer profile, it can become costly in the long run. The right companies contribute to one of the most important statistics in business: lifetime value.

Proper onboarding

Onboarding new customers is the very first step after signing the contract. The new company can’t wait to get started. However, onboarding can also be a tricky part that can leave a nasty taste in customers’ mouths if not handled properly. Here are some of the most common obstacles on the road to customer success:

False expectations – Avoid false expectations. What your salespeople communicate during the sales process will have to be delivered by your project team. Salespeople often go to extremes to close deals and therefore promise things that the project team may not be able to deliver. Make sure that everything is clear and well documented in the contract and service level agreement. Training your salespeople can help with this.
Lengthy process – When both parties get started, everyone is full of enthusiasm and energy. A settling-in process that takes too long might cause cracks in the foundation. Make sure you and your teams set out and apply a clear settling-in process.
Unclear roadmap – If a customer misses steps during the onboarding process, it is like walking through a dark forest blindfolded. Make sure there is always a step-by-step plan that clearly describes all the steps to be taken. But also who is involved and what can be expected at each step in the process.
Communication – Communicating the steps to the right stakeholders/people is essential. After signing the contract, you cannot expect the whole world to revolve around the project. Those involved have their daily tasks and activities and perhaps multiple projects are ongoing. Clear and timely communication is imperative.
Getting people aligned – Make sure all the right people are involved in the project, this basically goes hand in hand with good communication as mentioned above.

Agile Management – go for flexibility and transformation

You will go a long way if you go the extra mile. Offering your customers more is one thing. But taking the transformation, or the desired outcome, all the way to the end is what matters. Most companies provide a product or service and that’s where it ends. That’s probably not what you want to offer your customers.

An innovative way for transformation is Agile Management and Agile Thinking. All stakeholders on your side and that of your customer are involved and, thanks to the iterative approach, everyone knows what stage a project is in, what is needed and who is involved. Adjustments can be made throughout the process, but also after delivery.

Calculate the churn rate

Calculating churn is an ongoing process within any business. No company is perfect, no customer is perfect and there is certainly no perfect customer relationship. Customer churn is simply part of doing business. There are several ways to calculate churn. The simplest way is to divide the number of customers who dropped out by the number of customers.

Depending on the size of the deal, you can set a time unit. If you do big deals, then your sales cycles are more likely to be longer. Annual churn is more realistic in those cases compared to companies that sell products and services at lower prices. They use a month or week as the time unit in which they calculate their customer churn.

As we are focussing here on preventing and winning back lost clients, we will stick to this ‘simple’ calculation.

Let’s say you have had 500 clients this year and 25 churned customers. The churn rate is in this case as follows:

The churn rate: 25 / 500 = 0.05 > 5% across this time unit (year)

Identifying bottlenecks

Our goal is not to give you specific information on the churn rate, but we do want to understand what causes customer churn in the production industry. Not only does this sector involve long and laborious sales cycles, but the operational part of customer focus is also extremely complex.

We will dive a little deeper into the components that determine the overall customer experience, what goes wrong and how to fix it from an engineer’s point of view.

Customer experience

What is customer experience? Actually, we could call the total combination of all customer interactions, outcomes and the means to achieve a desired outcome the customer experience.

A simplistic definition of customer experience could be: treat your customers the way you want to be treated yourself. There is a truth in that, but the reality is a lot more complicated.

All the links in your company are interconnected: people who conceive and execute ideas, managers who manage processes and directors who decide on long-term strategies. In this web of decision-making structures is the engineer, the one who is pivotal to project success and therefore customer satisfaction.

In many cases, when customers receive no or late responses or solutions to their requests and queries, they experience a range of negative emotions and adverse effects, with which your engineers have to deal with, such as:

Frustration and discontent – Customers can become dissatisfied and frustrated if they do not receive a response or solution in a timely manner. This often results in them feeling that their needs or concerns are not prioritized or taken seriously, or they may feel neglected or undervalued, which can damage their perception of your company and erode their trust in you and your products.

Anxiety – Depending on the nature of their requests or queries, customers may be anxious, especially if their concerns are time-sensitive or have significant implications for their business. Timely responses are crucial!

Decreased Trust & Loyalty – The lack of timely responses or solutions can lead to a loss of trust in your company and your products. Customers may question the reliability and professionalism of you and your people. This will reduce customer loyalty and increase the likelihood of discontinuing doing business with you.

Increased Customer Churn– If the lack of responsiveness becomes a pattern, customers may choose to take their business somewhere else, leading to customer churn. Losing customers can have a negative impact on your company’s bottom line.

Negative Word-of-Mouth -Unhappy customers are more likely to share their negative experiences with others, both in person and on social media. This negative word-of-mouth can harm your reputation.

It is crucial to prioritize effective communication and timely responses to customer requests and queries to ensure that customer relationships remain positive and your business reputation remains high.

The Common Dilemma for engineers

We all know that maintaining strong and healthy customer relationships is paramount. Many companies, regardless of size or industry, often struggle with dissatisfied customers, slow response times and requests lost in faulty systems.

The reluctance to give in to this often stems from the fear of disrupting established processes. However, it is essential to recognise that addressing these issues head-on is the key to building trust and nurturing long-term customer relationships.

Your engineers are at the center of your business processes and deal with many different processes, people and issues. What do your engineers have to deal with on a daily basis?

What do technical project managers and engineers experience?

A lot. Full stop!

Engineers and technical professionals play different but interrelated roles in production and project-based companies. They drive product design and development and push the boundaries of innovation. Technical project managers ensure seamless project execution from planning to completion (and beyond).

Technical project managers and engineers play different roles, like:

Technical project managers ensure seamless project execution, from planning to completion.
Sales engineers bridge the gap between customer needs and technical solutions.
Quality engineers sustain product excellence through rigorous quality standards.
Engineers focus on process optimization to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Supply chain managers oversee the flow of materials, from procurement to inventory management.

In the dynamic field of production and project based industries, all these roles together contribute to the creation and improvement of products and services. Not to mention all the other tasks they perform.

The eternal itch of being an engineer

Engineers perform various tasks every day that are central to their work. The 5 main daily tasks are project management, project development, problem solving, data analysis and reporting, and customer interactions.

Project Management

Managing projects is a time-consuming task that includes planning, coordinating, executing, monitoring and making sure projects stay on track. This includes setting project goals, managing resources, tracking progress and addressing issues that arise during the project lifecycle. And last but not least, ensuring that projects are delivered on time and on budget.

Product Development and Design

Engineers and technical leads spend a significant amount of time on product development and design activities. This includes creating detailed specifications, researching, designing, prototyping and testing new products or improvements to existing products and ensuring that products meet quality and performance standards.

Problem-Solving and Troubleshooting

Engineers often have to solve technical problems, be it product defects, production delays, quality control problems or equipment failures. But also solve customer problems and queries. Troubleshooting requires time and expertise in order to find effective responses and solutions.

Data Analysis and Reporting

Analyzing data and generating reports is essential for making decisions and improving processes. Production engineers spend a lot of time collecting and analyzing data on product quality, production efficiency, project progress and other critical metrics.

Customer Interactions

Sales engineers and technical solutions specialists spend a significant part of their time liaising with customers. This includes giving product demonstrations, answering customer questions, solving problems, gaining insight into customers’ needs and providing technical expertise to address challenges that customers face.

Besides the above 5 daily tasks, engineers are also involved in quality control processes, inspections and compliance with quality standards and regulations.

Supply chain management and resource allocation are other tasks that keep engineers occupied. Managing resources such as manpower, equipment and materials are essential to meet production targets. Managing inventory and ensuring the smooth flow of materials is essential to keep projects on schedule.

Engineers also monitor compliance and ensure that products meet safety and quality requirements. They are responsible for risk management and proactively identify, assess and mitigate risks such as supply chain interruptions, production delays or regulatory changes. Last but not least, engineers also deal with managing costs to ensure profitability.

The variety of engineers’ tasks is huge and no working day is the same. So the most important question is: what do engineers need to support them in their work?

What do engineers need?

Engineers love innovation. They like to create better or new products. But at the same time, they are completely dependent on all other departments involved. Their challenges are immense. Like when salespeople make promises that engineers then have to fulfill, but which may not be possible. This inevitably leads to friction. Or when, during the production process, certain materials are not yet in the warehouse, causing delays to a project. Often, the engineers are forced to explain this to the customer. Or a product requires modifications, but it takes time to find a solution for the customer. All these aspects make the work of engineers quite complex and demanding.

Engineers have to work closely with customers, but also with colleagues from other departments. Bringing engineers and other departments together, especially those that depend on each other, is therefore essential for good collaboration, aligning goals and ensuring the overall success of your company.

There are solutions to these possible problems, like:

1. Cross-Functional Teams – Establish cross-functional project teams where members from engineering, sales, marketing, production, logistics and other relevant departments work together so that each part of the production process is involved in the project. These teams work on specific projects or products and ensure that all perspectives are taken into account from the start and throughout the process.

2. Joint goal setting & concept generation – When working in multifunctional teams, engineers, salespeople and other key stakeholders are involved early on in the process of generating ideas and creating common goals and objectives. One works together with a shared sense of purpose and alignment. Engineers will better understand the needs of the market and salespeople will gain a better understanding of the technical aspects of the products they are selling.

3. Clear defining of roles and responsibilities – Once the goals and objectives of the project are clear, you should define the roles and responsibilities of each department and its relevant team members in the development of the product and project process. This reduces confusion and ensures accountability.

4. Clear communication channels – If you set up clear and open communication channels between all departments with regular meetings, both formal and informal, as well as tools where all project stages are structured and clearly visible for all team members, you ensure that everyone is on the same page in terms of project goals and its progress.

5. Regular feedback loops – It is important to create feedback mechanisms that allow all departments to provide input and feedback throughout the life of the project. This encourages iterative improvements and reduces potential conflicts.

These 5 strategies are the foundation of any successful project, but your employees need to know that the company’s management values and actively supports collaboration between departments.

Another important and very useful strategy is cross-training. For example, engineers providing technical training to sales teams and sales teams presenting market insights to engineers. This way, employees get a basic understanding of each other’s roles and challenges. Or you can organize team-building activities and workshops to strengthen relationships between departments and foster trust and mutual understanding. Last but not least, developing shared performance benchmarks that measure success and progress in achieving common goals can motivate all departments to work together towards their common goal.

By implementing these strategies, you can bridge the gap between engineers and other departments and ensure that they work together effectively in delivering the company’s promises and meeting the needs of both customers and the organization. Collaboration is the key to a successful and harmonious work environment.

It is generally not people that cause churn risk. The systems in place are often the root cause of failure and churn risk. Let’s look at the root cause of churn risk.

The root cause for churn risk are NOT the people

So what do all the above things have in common?

Systems! Preferably not too many, but one integrated business system that integrates and streamlines all business processes and tasks.

A common cause of customer churn is the lack of integrated business processes and systems to manage and deliver products or services. When tasks and processes are fragmented across different systems, it will inevitably lead to dissatisfied customers and employees, which makes business operations more complex and increases the likelihood of clients choosing to leave.

If you want to reduce the risk of churn, it is necessary to invest in solutions that provide better integration, automation and streamlining of internal and external customer-focused processes. This ensures a consistent and positive experience for customers and can lead to higher customer loyalty. But equally, your employees benefit from a robust integrated business system.

The risk of losing customers is not the only risk a flawed system can cause. Your employees may become frustrated with the system and ultimately with their jobs and you as their employer.

When the lack of integrated business processes and systems creates friction with your people

Your employees often encounter significant frustrations when dealing with the lack of inefficient and not integrated business processes and systems in their work. Some of the biggest frustrations in this regard are:

Communication – When integrated business processes and systems are lacking, the risk of unclear or failed communication is a major challenge in any company. Working with cross-functional teams, which is inevitable in production and project based companies, demands clear and efficient communication channels. You need to provide collaborative workplaces where ideas can be developed, but also recorded. It is paramount that everyone understands the ideas and progress, and everything needs to be communicated to stakeholders, both internal and external.

Engineers often struggle to explain complex and highly specialized concepts that require expertise to others. Communication is crucial but often overlooked or, worse, pushed to the background. Even if you have daily meetings and think everything is in place, the lack of integrated communication systems or standardized methods all too often cause miscommunication, delays and errors in the execution of projects.

Inefficiency & inconsistency – A lack of well-defined and integrated business processes and systems can lead to inefficiencies in workflows and project management. Consistent, standardized and integrated business processes ensure the quality and accuracy of work delivered. When integrated business processes and systems do not exist or are used inconsistently, confusion arises, mistakes are made and faith in the results is lost. Similarly, your engineers and technicians will spend a disproportionate amount of time on administrative tasks, searching for information or sifting through disorganized procedures at the expense of productivity and innovation.

Data management – Effective data management is critical. If the processes and systems for storing, retrieving and sharing data are not up-to-date or structured, it affects the integrity of any project. You absolutely want to avoid data loss, inaccuracies and problems in accessing critical information due to a lack of integrated business processes and systems. Your engineers must be able to count on the availability and integrity of all data.

Lack of insight – This is perhaps engineers’ greatest frustration: the lack of clarity on the exact status of projects, milestones and critical data. Without or lacking integrated processes and systems, it is nearly impossible to have real-time insight and oversight into the progress of projects and to make accurate decisions and adjustments. Your engineers need real-time accurate insights.

Resource allocation – Engineers rely on systems to allocate resources such as equipment, materials and manpower. Inefficient or poorly managed systems can cause resource shortages, misallocations and interruptions of project timelines, inevitably causing frustrations externally and internally.

These are some of the frictions your engineers and other departments have to deal with when your systems are failing. Your engineers also have to deal with meeting compliance with regulatory standards and maintaining extensive records. When your systems fail and documentation is not available, issues around compliance and audits can arise, potentially resulting in fines. Engineers often experience resistance from co-workers when new systems are implemented. Or if your engineers and technicians know there is a need for change, but get frustrated when their recommendations are not adopted or there is a lack of support for system upgrades. Last but not least, there is the problem of insufficient training in existing systems or new technologies. Frustration arises when people are not adequately trained in the use of existing or newly introduced systems, resulting in productivity and quality problems.

Considering the above, addressing technical issues related to customer requests or needs can become a huge challenge if your technicians do not have the right information and a well-structured and integrated business system. Without access to essential data, standardized procedures and streamlined processes, it becomes difficult to efficiently analyze and resolve customer problems.

Effective problem solving and meeting customer needs requires reliable information and well-organized processes and systems to respond in a timely and accurate manner. Investing in the right system and tools is crucial to enable your technicians to provide the high-quality technical support and solutions your customers demand (and you want to provide).

The Solution: Integrated Business Processes and Systems.

Advantages of Integrated Business Processes and Systems

Technology can be a game-changer even without a huge investment. With the implementation of a basic Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to track customer interactions, preferences and feedback and the use of automation tools for routine tasks such as scheduling appointments, invoicing and follow-ups, you will have exactly what it takes to establish excellent communication and collaboration with your customers.

All of the discussed solutions and strategies can be traced back to the importance of an integrated business system. The implementation of such a system creates smoother customer interactions, improved customer satisfaction and increased overall efficiency. Customized solutions, tailored to your specific needs, have the potential of making a big difference to your business, your employees and, of course, your customers.

Benefits of integrated business processes and systems for your engineers

Integrated business processes and systems can offer many important benefits for engineers and your entire organization. In fact, you will discover that integrated business processes and systems solve many problems that cause friction between departments.

The main benefits are:

Streamlined workflows

With an integrated business system, all data and processes are centralized and streamlined. As the processes are streamlined, anyone involved in the project ( internally and externally) knows exactly what the status of the project is and what is needed at any point during the project. Your engineers don’t have to navigate through multiple, disconnected tools and systems. With integrated business processes and systems everything will flow more efficiently and the chance of errors is minimized.

Improved collaboration
In production and project-based industries, it is inherent that different departments are involved in projects. As mentioned earlier, it is more efficient to work in multifunctional teams. An integrated system provides effective support to and improves collaboration between departments. The system enables real-time data sharing, communication and tracking of projects between team members, regardless of where one is located, in the office or on site.

Data accessibility and integration
Engineers require accurate data. Integrated business processes and systems integrate data from all departments, including sales, marketing and production. All members of the project team (including engineers) have real-time access to critical information, project and historical data, allowing them to make more informed decisions and designs. This integration and the accessibility enables engineers to design products that meet the demands of the market, thereby improving the company’s competitiveness. But adjustments during the production process also can be achieved much easier and faster with an integrated business system.

Better Resource Management
With integrated business processes and systems, you have access to accurate and real-time data, allowing your technicians to plan and allocate resources more efficiently. Optimization of the use of materials, equipment and manpower reduces waste. Purchasing can buy smarter and logistics will be able to plan warehouse usage much better.

Other benefits
All of this automatically increases productivity and reduces manual labor. No more duplicate data entries, minimizing errors and improving efficiency. Your engineers and other team members can focus on their core tasks, which will increase their productivity.

Another major benefit of integrated business processes and systems is scalability. With integrated business processes and systems, you can scale your business and meet increased technical needs, diversify products and services, without major disruptions or data migration problems.

Integrated business processes and systems offer engineers the advantage of real-time analyses, which provides them with insight into the progress of projects, performance and potential problems. Such information helps them to make data-driven decisions.

Regulatory compliance is another concern that is solved with integrated business processes and systems. An integrated business system ensures that design and production processes meet all necessary regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of noncompliance. But it also provides solid data security and access control to protect sensitive technical data and private information from unauthorized access or breaches.

The value of customized solutions for your customer success

Value-added customized solutions tailored to the specific needs of all your customers drive improved customer service and boost work of your technicians. Three simple examples of the advantage and value of customized integrated business processes and systems.

Improved customer satisfaction & retention – If customers feel you understand their unique needs and respond to them effectively, their satisfaction will increase and they are more likely to remain loyal to your brand. It reduces churn and increases customer lifetime value. The scalability of integrated business processes and systems also gives you the flexibility to adapt to changing customer needs and preferences.

Efficient & proactive issue resolution – With the ability to customize solutions within your integrated business system, engineers (and/or other team members) are able to tackle problems more efficiently. For example, the system facilitates proactive monitoring and troubleshooting. In understanding each customer’s unique situation, technicians can provide faster and more accurate solutions. Identifying and addressing problems even before customers notice them eliminates complaints and negative experiences and reduces frustration and waiting times.

Tailored Recommendations based on data-driven insights – With the access to integrated business processes and systems, your technicians will also be able to provide tailor-made product recommendations and solutions based on a customer’s purchase history, preferences and behavior. Thanks to data analysis and segmentation in the system, your technicians will be able to gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, enabling them to provide customized product suggestions. This increases cross-selling and upselling opportunities.

Integrated business processes and systems create accurate and up-to-date information and clear streamlined workflows and collaboration opportunities for everyone involved in the production process or the project. When your engineers have access to the right information and feedback from customers, they can deliver customized products and solutions and continue to do what they love most: innovate and create!

After reading all the above, the 3 main benefits that you and your technicians will discover when implementing integrated business processes and the system as a whole are:

The speed with which you respond to customer needs;
Not losing track of any customer request or question; and
Improving the chances of recovering lost customers.

Speeding up responses to customer needs

Many companies struggle with slow response times, causing unhappy customers. With integrated business processes and systems, all your operations are streamlined, allowing a more efficient workforce. Centralized information and automation of routine tasks simplify the support process, allowing your employees to focus on what really matters – delivering exceptional and fast service to all your customers.

Integrated Business Processes speed up responses to client needs by 40%

With your own integrated business system you should:

Implement automated alerts – Encourage the use of automated alert systems which instantly notify engineers, technical specialists and others about new queries or support requests from customers. With these systems, urgent requests can be prioritized so that they are answered quicker.
Standardize responses – Create predefined templates or standardized answers for common customer queries. These can help technical teams to respond faster without compromising the quality of the replies they provide.
Prioritize High-Impact Tasks – Provide training for technical staff in identifying high-impact tasks that require immediate attention and prioritizing them. This ensures that critical customer needs are addressed immediately.

How do you set this up?

To effectively set up automated alerts, you should start with identifying key triggers that require immediate attention, such as customer queries, support requests or critical issues. Choose a robust alert system or software that integrates with your communication channels (email, messaging apps, etc.).

Simply design and configure the system for monitoring these triggers and sending real-time alerts to the relevant engineers or specialists. Make sure these alerts are clear, concise, actionable and contain essential details about each request. Review and adjust your alert criteria regularly to refine response times and improve efficiency.

With integrated business processes and systems, response times will be significantly reduced and employees will have access to up-to-date information. As a result, you will not only be able to meet customer demands faster. Your customers will feel seen and heard, which will increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

No request will ever get lost again

One of the biggest frustrations of customers is that nobody reacts to their request, their requests go unnoticed or are not resolved. We all want to be seen and heard. We all want to be taken seriously, but if a request from one of your customers somehow is lost or unanswered, there is a good chance your customers will be left disgruntled or worse, will suffer reputational damage or customers may leave you.

However, with integrated business processes and systems, you can turn this situation around and create a positive and reliable customer experience.

Ensuring no request ever gets lost again with:

A ticketing system – Implement a ticketing system or task management program in which all customer requests are recorded and tracked. Emphasize the importance of recording every request in the system. This will ensure that no requests are being missed.
Automated Follow-ups – Configure automatic follow-up notifications within the ticketing system that prompt teams to regularly check the status of outstanding requests. This prevents customer requests from falling through the cracks.
Accountability – It is important to assign responsibility for each customer request to specific team members. Clear ownership ensures that there is always someone responsible for the solution.

How to implement this?

Implementing a ticketing system is crucial for managing requests. Select ticketing software that suits the needs of your team. Create clear guidelines for logging and categorizing customer requests within the system.

Train team members to assign tickets immediately on receipt and set up a workflow around escalating and/or urgent issues. Setup automatic reminders for follow-ups and create a process to close tickets once they are resolved. Regularly check open tickets to see if there is any risk of lost tickets and assign ownership to ensure accountability.

A robust system with tracking and ticketing mechanisms ensures that every customer request is dealt with effectively. Integrated business processes and systems ensure that customers are notified when the problem is handled. This follow-up will not only solve the customer’s problem but also increases their trust in your company. They see that you take their concerns seriously and are committed to excellent customer service. This, in turn, improves the relationship with your customers and builds trust and loyalty.

Retrieve one or two lost deals

Using integrated business processes and systems can play a decisive role in recovering lost deals. When all your business activities are streamlined and your data integrated, you have access to a complete overview and insight into all your customer interactions.

he system enables your sales team to revisit lost customers with a personalized approach. With both historical data and real-time insights, your sales people can tailor their approach to the specific needs and preferences of each (lost) customer.

Retrieve lost deals with integrated business processes

With your own integrated business system you will be able to:

Reconnect with lost clients – Encourage your salespeople to proactively contact previously lost customers. Share success stories or case studies that show how your business has improved and evolved since your last interaction with them.
Personalize offers – Offer proposals or solutions specifically tailored to the concerns or objections that led to the loss of these deals. Personalisation shows a genuine commitment to meeting the customer’s needs and wishes.
Follow-up strategies – Develop structured follow-up strategies that include multiple points of contact with lost customers. Persistence can pay off in winning back customers.

How to set this up?

Start by compiling a list of lost customers and categorize them based on the reasons for losing them. Develop a personalized strategy for each category and customer. Next, create a series of contact moments, including emails, phone calls or face-to-face meetings, with the aim of restoring the relationship.

Stress during these interactions any improvements or innovations your company has made since the previous engagement. Adjust your offers to address the specific concerns or objections that led to the loss. Consistency and persistence are essential, so set up a timeline for follow-ups and track the progress.

Showing that you fully understand what went wrong and presenting solutions that resonate with the customer will significantly increase your chances of winning back those lost deals. Integrated business processes and systems not only improve efficiency, but also generate trust and genuine interest, making winning back one or two deals not only possible, but highly probable. It is a powerful tool to increase revenues and strengthen customer relationships.

In a nutshell, what do integrated business processes offer you?

Turning customer dissatisfaction into lasting loyalty is not just a theoretical concept; it is a practical and achievable goal.

The road to success begins with the implementation of integrated business processes, systems and strategies discussed in this blog. We strongly encourage you to take action today and embark on this journey to improve relationships with your customers, increase the efficiency of your business and ultimately increase your net profit. The potential benefits are significant and your customers will thank you for it.

Another very important benefit is that your employees can do their work more efficiently. Cooperation improves and they have more influence on how and what they do. With satisfied customers and employees, it can’t be different that your company will continue to grow and innovate.

Talking to entrepreneurs and business leaders daily on how to identify, evaluate and modernize obsolete systems, we strongly believe and recommend seeking guidance from people outside your company who have the expertise in such systems. Seek guidance from professional consultants or peers within your industry. Trying to solve these complex issues on your own is generally inadvisable and will probably not lead to greater efficiency, nor happy customers and employees.

Spire eX Digital Transformation Program

Spiresolutions has created Spire Essentials, a Private Cloud Software System which is developed specifically for production and project based companies. It is designed with your teams in mind; with a smart workspace for sales, production, team collaboration, project management, accounting and more, the system helps you align your teams, tasks and projects from one central place.

Next to Spire Essentials we also developed a program called Spire eX. This is a digital transformation program that offers a structured approach and tools for a successful digital transformation. It starts with the implementation of the Spire Essentials Software, which we will develop together with your teams and will be tailored to your specific business needs. This is followed with the migration of your company’s data, optimization of your business processes and the final step is called Evolution where together we keep creating new ways to make your business flourish. Spire eX is an organic and holistic approach for any production or production based company that has innovation and growth in mind.

If you want to delve deeper into long-term solutions and discover how they can be integrated with your existing technologies, we invite you to explore our website. Here you can find in-depth insights, case studies and tools to help you improve your customer relationships and business processes.

If you have specific questions, or require personalized guidance, or wish to discuss your challenges in detail, don’t hesitate to contact us or schedule a one-on-one call with our team of experts. We’re here to provide the support and expertise you need to thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of customer management, the challenges of your technicians and how to find the right integrated business processes, systems and tools.

SpireSolutions – Digital Transformation Made Easy

Additional Resources around Integrated Business Processes

[1] Superoffice – 7 Ways to reduce customer service response times

[2] Linkedin – Customer response time will either make your business swim or sink

[3] Spiresolutions Blogspot – The coolblue effect: create exponential growth with impeccable customer service!

[4] Spiresolutions Blogspot – Crush your competition: Why a ticketing system is key to customer satisfaction and business growth

[5] Spiresolutions Blogspot – Dissatisfied customers and loss of revenue because of faulty systems. How do you prevent this?

[7] TechTarget – What is business integration?

[8] Oracle Netsuite – Benefits of an Integrated Business Software System

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How integrated business processes reduce the risk of churning customers