Customer Advisory Boards: A Strategic Tool for Customer Relationship Building

by Loudon; David L

• ISBN13: 9780789015587
• ISBN10: 0789015587
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-10-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Learn why customer advisory boards are so successful--and how to create one for any business! From a leading authority in business management comes a book to give your company the winning edge. Customer Advisory Boards: A Strategic Tool for Customer Relationship Building examines the customer advisory board (CAB)--one of the most effective competitive tools for building and maintaining customer satisfaction. This business guide shows how to create and make use of an effective CAB, and how doing so can give your company a marketing advantage and improve vital aspects of business, including customer responsiveness, trust-building, and customer satisfaction. Customer Advisory Boards focuses on bringing companies and customers closer together utilizing input and advice from a CAB. This book shows how to use three types of customer bases--existing customers, potential customers, or former buyers--to form three different types of advisory boards: corporate strategy boards to plan future investments, product planning boards to create new product, and launch success boards to improve existing product. Using the information in this book, your company can transform from being customer focused to customer driven. Customary advisory boards benefit your company by: improving sales contact and dialogue dynamics of the company enabling the company to see itself through the customers' eyes sharing ideas and suggestions to improve a company's programs and services to its customers showing that the company values its customers' opinions and wants to improve for them providing access to expertise and experience from a wide range of necessary disciplines without legal liability Customer advisory boards also benefit the board members by: giving them opportunities to offer practical advice that can affect a company allowing them to establish personal and professional contacts from each other rewarding them with company perks and products giving them a sense of belonging and empowerment With case studies, appendices, notes, references, and surveys, Dr. Tony Carter has created an illuminating, educational research tool for company owners and managers. Whether applied to a corporation, a medical or religious institution, or a not-for-profit organization, Customer Advisory Boards will help increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Author Biography

Tony Carter, JD, MBA, is Professor at the Christos M. Cotsakos College of Business, William Paterson University in The Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales in Wayne, New Jersey. In addition, he is Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University, where he teaches in the MBA program and has taught in the Executive MBA program. At Columbia University, Dr. Carter is also Associate Faculty Director of the Executive Management Programs for Sales Management and Key Account Management

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Donald W. Spiro
Preface and Acknowledgments	xiii
SECTION I: CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Introduction: A Way to Reach Customers	3	(18)
An Overview of the CAB	4	(3)
The Customer Relationship--Building Process	7	(1)
Relationship Selling	8	(3)
Summary	11	(1)
Case Study: SI Customer Advisory Council	12	(1)
Appendix: CAB Survey Results	13	(8)
The Customer Relationship--Building Process	21	(18)
Customer Selling Modes and Membership Commitment	21	(5)
Defining the Customer Relationship Sales Process	26	(3)
Methods to Build Customer Relationships	29	(4)
Maintaining Customer Relationships and the CAB	33	(4)
Case Study: Sales Force Transition, PG Industries, Inc.	37	(2)
Customer Focus	39	(16)
Customers and Reengineering	43	(2)
Value Focus	45	(1)
Value-Added Features	46	(2)
Customer Satisfaction	48	(2)
Customer Orientation	50	(1)
Networks	51	(1)
Case Study: Sales Strategy, IBM Software Group	51	(4)
Customer Alliance and Trust Building in Relationship Formation	55	(20)
The Nature of Relationships	56	(2)
Role of Trust	58	(1)
Importance of Listening	59	(1)
Successful Leadership and Emotional Intelligence	60	(7)
Case Study: Consumer Sales, Campbell, Inc.	67	(1)
Appendix: Senior-Level Management and Customer Alliance Building	68	(7)
SECTION II: BUILDING CUSTOMER ADVISORY BOARDS
CAB Structure, Procedures, and Agenda	75	(16)
Forming a CAB	76	(3)
Board Composition and Procedures	79	(2)
Types of CABs	81	(2)
CABs and New Businesses	83	(2)
Case Study: Sales Management and Measurement, EMEA	85	(2)
Appendix: Sample CAB Agenda	87	(4)
Value of CABs to Customers and Organizations	91	(10)
Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty	92	(1)
Gaining the ``Competitive Edge''	93	(1)
Case Study: Sales Management, North American Operations, Tia Electronics, Inc.	94	(7)
SECTION III: STRATEGIC USES AND EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT
Customer Satisfaction at Prudential Insurance	101	(12)
Organizational Culture	101	(1)
Customer Acquisitions	102	(1)
Customer Retention	103	(1)
Initiatives to Improve Customer Satisfaction	104	(5)
Internal Customers	109	(1)
Prudential's CABs	110	(2)
Case Study: Strategic Account Initiative, Walter, Inc.	112	(1)
CAB Challenges for Lubrizol and Sony	113	(18)
Innovation Through Customer Relationships	113	(4)
Lubrizol's New Direction and Performance	117	(5)
Sony's Expansion Through Partnerships and Innovation	122	(8)
Case Study: Lubrizol and Sony	130	(1)
Global Applications	131	(18)
Real-World CABs	131	(6)
Competitive Advantage in International Markets	137	(3)
The Nature of Global Relations	140	(3)
Saba's Global CAB	143	(1)
Global Integration of Strategic Change	144	(3)
Conclusion	147	(1)
Case Study: Organizational Teamwork, French Airways World Cargo	147	(2)
Notes	149	(8)
Index	157