The Bigger They Are The Harder They Fall

A billion dollar computer and network services company engaged SixPillars Research Group to interview 80 of their largest customers. There were over 3,000 total customers, and 400 large ones. We objected to the sample size as wasteful of our time and their money, but they insisted.

Normally we get more than 90% participation of the people identified by our clients as key contacts. In this case though, we were able to interview only 57 of the 80 people listed, or some 71%. The reasons, some of the respondents were not current customers of our client (although the client thought they were.) Also, serveral of the people listed as contacts were no longer employed by our client’s customers. In one case the customer company no longer existed. Our client’s obviously poor recordkeeping was our first indication that all was not well.

The interviews confirmed it. Customers complained universally about the administrative nightmare of doing business with our client. There were many errors in shipment and in pricing, and the difficulty and time consumed in getting errors corrected was frustrating. At least ten of our contacts revealed there were actively searching for a vendor to replace our client.

At a meeting with the President of our client, and several of the Vice Presidents, their comment was, “You are not telling us anything new. We have known about these problems for a long time. Industry surveys show us as better than our competitors.”

It is no wonder that, as many of their largest customers fled, the company failed and filed bankruptcy.

Charles R. Schaul, Partner of SixPillars Research Group, focuses on increasing business profits by resolving the problem of customer attrition. Aligning companies with their customers; generating and implementing strategic initiatives; and promoting employees’ customer focus through commitment, responsibility and accountability combine to achieve the result.