By Sidsel Vejby Krabbenhoft

A very interesting blog posting entitled ‘Caviar on the Surf’ hit my mailbox recently. I interpreted the moral of the story this way: always grab the opportunity to provide the best possible solution for a customer when they need it the most or least expect it, and this way you’ll guarantee yourself good publicity.

Close your eyes. Imagine yourself swimming around in warm, crystal-clear water in a Caribbean island paradise. You’re leaning against a raft with your friends or partner. All of a sudden a waiter offers you a glass of chilled champagne and platter of divine Russian caviar. Could anyone imagine a more luxurious situation? This is Step 1.

Then a photographer steps into the water and starts shooting fancy photos of you (of course with a Seaborn Cruise Line ship in the background). This is Step 2. 

When you get back aboard your cruise ship, the crew have printed the photos and positioned them nicely on the desk in your room along with a personal greeting from the photographer. This is Step 3.

This is what the (at that time) smaller company Seaborn Cruise Line* did to create awareness and publicity – and guess what the guests did? Well, what would you do? The guests showed the pictures to friends and family of course, and by the end of the year Seaborn Cruise Line had more than 8,000 extra nights booked on the cruiser compared to the previous year, all thanks to this relatively cheap advertising stunt. This was back in the 80’s – long before the internet and social media were a reality, and today the company has joined the big league of luxury cruise lines…

 

Why do I want to share this story with you?

For two reasons. First of all, this example is the essence of good customer service. It is a highly concentrated cocktail of all the right things to do, combined with the power of word of mouth.

Secondly, the company involved was not a big corporation with an unlimited marketing budget, but at minimal expense it managed to find a simple but very effective method to make a small company highly competitive – and to make it grow.

There’s a term for this sort of behaviour: content marketing, though this term wasn’t even invented at the time that the company hired a photographer to capture the tourists’ memories. Some professionals claim that modern terminology is simply a matter of pouring old wine into new bottles: it’s looks good but that doesn’t make it effective. It’s up for discussion, but no matter what you believe, directing communications at the heart of your target demographic, and as a result encouraging dialogue and commitment can never be a bad thing. At the end of the day you want your customers to say: ‘Yes, of course I’ll recommend your company!’. This statement is the essence of the story and is also what will keep your company alive in the long term.

How should you communicate?

A good campaign is one thing, but you won’t actually succeed until you’re in contact with your main target group. Believe it or not, this is where your ERP system can help you. You can set up your ERP system in such a way that you can monitor both your customers and your potential leads.

You don’t want your customers to feel like they’re ensnared in a vast, electronic, systemized web deep inside your company. Keep it personal by finding out who your customers are and when they’re likely to be looking to make a purchase. You can categorize customers and leads, and administrate your e-marketing efficiently and thoughtfully by using different mailing lists, and by sending different material to selected groups with a customized or more general message. At the same time you can monitor the responses you get from your customers, save it on your system and share it with colleagues.

To cut to the chase, it doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, you need a reliable and effective tool to manage your customers and leads so you can cater for their specific needs and preferences. The foundation for this is your ERP system, and then you can empower your business and decide how you want to start serving your customers caviar in the surf. Through ERP you can bring this dream within reach.

Bon appetit!

Learn more about SAP Business One and how to integrate your email marketing plan to SAP Business One with MailChimp, and how to store your communications with CRM for Outlook – both add-ons by the creators of the very popular B1 Usability Package and Boyum Pack.

*Source: www.relationwise.dk, Christian Andersen, Relationwise A/S