Bons conselhos para uma empresa

"Relying On Customer Trust To Help You Weather A Tough Economy":
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"In tough times, buyers want to economize every bit as much as sellers do, so customers cut back, simplify, and search for reliability. Discount stores benefit as consumers look for bargains, but customer-oriented sellers also benefit, as customers seek out businesses they can trust."
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"Think about it. Even in the worst economy imaginable--even if unemployment were 20% instead of just 9% -- there would still be some customers happy to buy your product. If you have the tools and systems to know which customers those are -- if you have the right customer insight -- you can almost certainly outrun your competitors. Customer insight is always helpful, but in a recession it can make the difference between success and failure. Retaining good customers is simply a more cost-efficient way to compete in a more cost-sensitive environment.
So when the economy tanks, rather than simply assuming the fetal position and hoping for the best, take some time out first to bolster your customer-oriented services and do a better job of earning your customers’ trust. Here are four places to start:

• Identify the most valuable 20% or 30% of your customers and reach out to them with unsolicited benefits and personalized offers. Consider prioritized service, facilitated deliveries, customized invoicing cycles, more helpful information, and so forth.
• If you have to cut costs, then economize first by reducing or better automating the service provided to low-value customers. (Moi ici: Gronroos escreve muito e bem sobre a eficiência interna e a eficiência externa)
• Strengthen your customer interaction processes. Reinforce your phone and email communications resources and set up better listening posts in social media as well. Create priority channels for your best customers to reach you. 
• And when you look for ways to streamline your business and run more efficiently, think about focusing on the particular types of customers whose needs you meet best."

Afinal uma série de sugestões que já costumamos dar aqui no blogue. Quem são os clientes-alvo? Como desenvolver a relação e melhorar a experienciação que eles sentem durante o uso?

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Por fim, gosto do realismo da frase final:

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"Economic cycles are inevitable. You can blame the Tea Party or the Orator in Chief, hedge fund plutocrats or the ratings agencies, but the simple fact is that downs are as inevitable as ups are, and it doesn’t take anyone to “cause” them. The right economic policies may help soften the blow of a downturn, but simulation studies have shown that any competitive economic system will oscillate, even with no outside perturbation at all. It’s just what economies do."
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E não deixar escapar a história dos caçadores e do urso no início do artigo... uma empresa não precisa de vencer a macro-economia, só precisa de ter mais sucesso na sua micro-economia.