Consulting’s Future: Specialization
Customers First? Sure, But How
Corrections or additions?
These articles were prepared for the November 15, 2000 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
US Postal Service: Pushing the Envelope
E-commerce, boast the computer nerds smugly, will soon
banish the U.S. Postal Service into a fond memory. Websites, fax and
E-mail will run it all, some believe. In reply, Postal Classification
Specialist Peter Furka simply laughs: “They predicted this
with the telegraph and then with the phone — and we’re still here,
handling a record 105 billion pieces of mail this year.”
Although mail may be sure, its technologies, discounts, rates, and
possibilities are changing in great leaps. To help large and small
mailers keep abreast, the Postal Service is offering a lavish Mailers
Education Day at Princeton University’s McCosh Hall on Friday, November
17, from 7:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. While the program will be laced with
catered breakfast, lunch, and several campus tours, it is very much
a nuts and bolts event. The series of talks and workshops such as
“Direct Mail Marketing;” “E-commerce,” “Automation
& Office Services” are designed to aid both business and non-profit
mailers. Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan will present and
explain a list of new business service innovations.
Those interested should register with the Business Service Network,
U.S. Postal Service, 21 Kilmer Road, Edison 08889. Or call 732-819-4322.
Cost is $85 with lunch, $60 without.
And who’s interested in mail? Maybe you should be. Odds are your business
expends 5 to 10 percent of its budget on mail; more if you are a non-profit
or deal with direct mail marketing. The post office offers more than
500 ways to mail an item and discounts (beyond the regular bulk permit)
of over 20 percent. “And darn few firms,” says Furka, “are
taking advantage.”
Furka admits that rates will increase this year, first class rising
probably a penny and non-profit bulk taking the biggest increase.
But the savings available from the new automation along with a sharper
mailing strategy could offset this increase several times. “Truth
to tell,” says Furka “too many firms praise innovation in
the board room and ignore it in the mail room.” Among the mailing
flaws:
Mailing lists. First and costliest among these flaws stemfrom the use of ancient mailing lists. Firms buy or develop potentialclient lists through marketing surveys and then treat them as golden.But 15 to 20 per cent of addresses change annually. Any list heldover one year means wasted postage and pushes up substantially thoseprecious response-percentage-points your mail campaign needs to breakeven. The Internet can aid in updating, but not necessarily in thesubstantial number of address errors. Checking address validity isone of several Post Office business services offered.Bar coding. By bar coding your outgoing mail in house,you simply turn a two-step sort process into a single step. In returnthe post office thanks you kindly by discounting six to eight centsoff a first class letter and 20 percent or more off your bulk rate.Paul Dreifuss, who will speak on automation, claims that pre-mailcoding has proved a boon to McCarter & English, the 256-attorney firmin Newark. As the law firm’s operations manager, he insists bar codingnot only trims costs, but increases speed and accuracy. “Manyof our contracts require non-faxed signatures and demand a five-dayresponse time,” says Dreifuss. “With bar coding we get a two-daydelivery, without going into priority rates. More importantly, wejust lose less than with a hand-scribbled address.”Traditionally, the process of bar coding one’s mail before sendingit out required an expensive machine, limiting the discount only tomajor mailers. But now coding has become a service that can be outsourced.Private firms will code at the close of a business day for mid-sizemailers, or drop off points can be arranged for small (under 300 piecesdaily) companies.Tracing mail in house. Of every 10 parcels and lettersthat get lost in the mail, usually nine are lost in house. Most companiesjust dump and sort packages with no recording. Dreifuss, tired ofdealing with frantic lawyers’ tirades, instituted a tracing system,using the post office and UPS bar codes. Scanning guns record everyincoming box, electronic note pads record the date and signature ofthe recipient, the software even sorts it by office and floor. Nolost checks, no screaming lawyers.B>Parcel rate comparison. The overnight parcel options arenumerous, but the lowest rates vary greatly on volume and distance.Express mail is optimum for single items, particularly when shippingto out of the way places. A quick category-sort may save the smallshipper substantially.Planet coding. The newest and probably the most helpfulinnovation to business mailers since the zip code, planet coding shouldcome fully on line by 2002. Basically, it allows the sender to tracehis mailings through the Post Office system and know the exact daythey will arrive. The direct mail marketer will know the exact dayhis brochures hit Princeton, or the entire Southwest. The marketercan then plan orders and rotate sales staff and stock accordingly.Sounds ideal, but the kinks need working out. Installation of sucha system requires a 98 percent on-time delivery rate with virtuallyflawless tracing and instant reporting back to the sender. “We’renot there quite yet,” says Peter Furka. “But give us a yearor two.”With all these Post office offerings it would be wrong to sense desperationin the face of an ever growing flow of E-mail and E-commerce. Backin 1849, all the gold rushers tore out to California to cash in onthe latest quick-rich enterprise. Most returned bankrupt. But thelittle German Heinrich Schliemann sold each miner the picks and grubstakethat allowed him to operate, and he walked away with millions.So it is with electronic commerce. Jim Lombard, head of theBusiness Development Division of Redi Direct and Redi Mail, says that”one of the hot five businesses in the coming decade will be fulfillment— firms that will take up the E-commerce company’s orders andfulfill their promises and get the stuff to the customer.” Thiswill demand a strong link between the Internet and the physical mailsystems.”Frankly,” says Lombard, “E-commerce has yet to sort itselfout. Too frequently the firms are a marriage of salespeople and techieswho until now have dazzled venture capitalists with screens and highpromises.” The trouble is they are not run by business peopleand they stand clueless beyond taking the order. They vanish in andout of business by the thousands.So you can’t fax anvils to St. Louis. But fulfillment firms, withthe help of UPS, the Post Office etc., can put them in the customers’hands, making the whole E-commerce idea feel a little less vaporous.In addition, Lombard will explain how an enormous new flow of marketinginformation can come when the Postal Service and the Internet linkup. “If I were starting up a new company today,” Lombard says,”I would put my entire catalog on the web and then use my postagebudget to send postcards, inviting customers to visit us on our newwebsite. I’d get three times the coverage for the same cost.”So perhaps in the end we won’t go pitting slow and steady snail-mailagainst rabbit-like E-mail, but let them work together for a moreprofitable run.— Bart JacksonTop Of PageConsulting’s Future: SpecializationNot so many years ago a corporate joke was that nobodywas every unemployed, they were just consultants. Now it’s no joke:Outsourcing has created a huge demand for consultants, and companiesturning to consultants expect to get a high-powered performer.”Most clients’ expectations of a consultant are higher than foran employee,” says Jerry Savin, president and CEO of SitkaSystems Inc. in Pacific Palisades, California. That’s one of the challengesfor anyone carving out a career as a consultant. “The level ofservice and thought generally don’t meet the expectations of the client.When real life comes into play and the client is disappointed withthe outcome, how you deal with the unexpected and your ability todeal with a client when things don’t turn out as planned” canmean retaining or losing a client.Savin, also founder and CEO of the Cambridge Technology ConsultingGroup Inc. and a consultant for more than 20 years, speaks on “thefuture of consulting and the opportunities it offers” at the 10thanniversary dinner of the Central New Jersey Chapter of the Instituteof Management Consultants on Monday, November 20, at 6 p.m. at theDoral Forrestal, 100 College Road East. Call 609-896-4457 for reservationinformation.Savin believes that companies that focus on one area have the greatestopportunity for success. “I am coming to the conclusion that afull-service firm is a farce. Even they have specialties, and maybe heavily weighted to IT. Even in human resources, there may be firmsthat focus on headhunting, but other areas within human resourcesare probably outside their realm,” he says.One of the fields experiencing the greatest growth today is informationtechnology. “If past is any indication, a major revenue driveris IT,” says Savin. “Computers are a kind of a fact of lifeanymore” and they need continuous maintenance and upgrading. Strategyconsulting is another growing area.While IT is growing, Savin says that E-commerce consulting is goingthrough some fallout now. As E-commerce firms have been experiencingdifficulties, E-commerce consultants have suffered along with theirclients. “As E-commerce grew, E-commerce consulting grew. Nowthat E-commerce firms are experiencing hard times, consulting firmsfortunes have fallen as well.”Besides making sure expectations remain realistic for both consultantand client, in terms of length of time and resources needed to accomplishthe goal, Savin has other tips for consultants, including taking careof existing clients; marketing continuously; and trying to turn projectsinto long-term relationships.Savin says that income and activities tend to be project-oriented,but consultants have to market themselves and they have to providethe service for which they were hired. “The natural tendency isless marketing and more [toward] doing. You have to get some kindof balance in there,” Savin says.Once hired, the consultant needs to be aware of “danger signs”that a project might be in jeopardy. These may include: Feeling theclient pulling away; seeing that the client is slowing down on payingbills; dissension in the ranks. If any of these signs appear, thensit down with the client and work through the problem. “Make sureyou and your client understand the true goal,” says Savin. “Inyour heart of hearts you know when the company is going to followthrough.” He says that if the client doesn’t, “you don’t necessarilyhave to have pangs of guilt about it.”A recent change in the field is the “re-emergence of consultantbrokers related to the Internet. The number of companies that findconsulting engagements and make them available to companies has experiencedgrowth over recent years,” according to Savin. He believes, however,that the number of these firms will decrease over time. “Why wouldI want to go to a consultant I don’t know?” Savin says. “I’mnot sure why people would want to use them.”Instead, he feels companies would go to consultants through referralsor those they have worked with before. “It may be trite, but nothingbeats experience and I think management consulting fits in there,”says Savin. When it comes to consulting, there is nothing like havinga fair amount of experience under your belt.”— Elizabeth B. TimkoTop Of PageCustomers First? Sure, But HowWhile businesses large and small agree that puttingthe customer first is essential to bottom-line success, not all companiessucceed in developing profitable customer relationships. The problemis often that they have not planned and implemented the necessarystrategies and procedures in advance. “Customer relationshipsare not an afterthought,” maintains Helene Mazur of PrincetonPerformance Dynamics. “You have to plan for loyal customers. Buildinglong-term customer relationships will be the differentiating factorin any business’ ability to succeed.”Whereas Mazur looks at customer relations from a global organizationalperspective, consultant Corby O’Connor focuses on the nitty-grittycommunications between the company and its clients and on the businessetiquette that governs these relationships. Business etiquette definesa way of behaving with mutual respect in a business context that helpsthe company’s representatives and its clients to feel comfortablewith each other. “Business etiquette is primarily building rapport,because if you don’t have rapport, you do not get anything done,”says O’Connor.Mazur and O’Connor will be speaking on “Customer Relations andBusiness Etiquette” for the Mercer Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday,November 21, at 8 a.m. at the Greenacres Country Club. Cost is $20.For information, call 609-393-4143.In today’s fast-moving business environment, “customer first”means that a company must be entirely a customer-driven organization,says Mazur. “Most companies have gotten good at quality and service.The next step up is to be customer-driven and work with your clientsto identify what they want to become,” she continues. Mazur suggestsa three-pronged approach for creating a customer-driven organization,one that combines customer-focused strategic planning; systems andprocesses that support the customer; and an emphasis on the company’semployees that encourages their effective interactions with customers:Customer-focused strategic planning should yield a writtenvision statement as well as an action plan for implementing that vision.A vision statement expresses an organization’s values, in terms ofhow it will treat different stakeholders, including customers, employees,vendors, and the local community. With respect to customers, the companymust define how it will collaborate with them to help them achievetheir own goals. “The company’s vision statement,” says Mazur,”should state what your company will look like when your customer’sneeds have been met or exceeded.”Focus on systems and process. A company needs to implementproper policies, procedures, and practices to support and deliveroutstanding customer service. For example, employees must be trainedto ask good questions and react to input, even if they uncover customerdissatisfaction. Processes must also be efficient and cost-effective,so that the company can deliver on time and at lower costs. Businesspractices must always be aligned to changing customer needs and expectations.”As a client’s expectations keep changing with respect to speed,convenience, and customization, your processes need to keep changing.Unless you continue to change, you’re not going to succeed,” saysMazur.Focus on the people side of your company. Organizationalsuccess depends on the interaction between employees and customers.”Every interaction with the customer is a moment of truth whenyou have a chance to enhance customer loyalty,” explains Mazur.However, if employees are to buy in to the importance of a customerfocus, they must be strongly committed to the company. To developtheir loyalty, a company must create an environment where there ismutual trust and opportunities for professional growth. “If employeesknow that their work has meaning, and they are involved in the decision-makingprocess, they will feel good about themselves and will deliver positiveresults for the company,” says MazurLuckily for the myriads of employees who must communicate regularlywith customers, a code of business etiquette exists that can helpthem to behave appropriately and respectfully in standard businesssituations. O’Connor maintains that business etiquette must be a partof employee training and standard company procedures. O’Connor highlightstwo areas of business etiquette that impinge strongly on customerrelations: telephone interactions and client visits.Telephones serve as important gatekeepers of communication betweena company and its customers, and good telephone manners are critical.O’Connor explains that “bad telephone manners can hurt a clientrelationship.” She offers the following suggestions for positivetelephone interactions:1.) Use proper speech and avoid slang like “hold on,””hang on,” and “he’s tied up now.”2.) Always ask before placing a person on hold.3.) Never leave people on hold for longer than 30 secondswithout getting back to them.4.) Include your full name, business association, andtelephone number in any business message.5.) Avoid telephone tag by leaving specific messages abouthow you can be reached.6.) Ask for permission to use a speaker phone and thenintroduce everyone in the room.When a client visits an office, it is important to use appropriatebusiness etiquette to make a positive impression. O’Connor suggeststhat the host make sure that the receptionist greets the client ina friendly way; that visitors are not kept waiting for a nametag oran escort; and that the host always stand for introductions and comeout from behind a desk to shake hands.”Treat a customer as if you’re bringing them into your home,”says O’Connor. “For example, offer them a drink and have themescorted to the elevator, rather than thanking them at the officedoor.”O’Connor graduated from Fordham University in 1978, with a B.A. incommunications. After working in marketing and advertising positionsat Time Warner, Home Box Office, and American Broadcasting Company,she studied business etiquette by the Protocol School of Washington.Today O’Connor consults for corporations on business etiquette, writesa weekly business etiquette column in the New Jersey Star Ledger,and sponsors a forum on the America Online Career Center.Mazur graduated from the University at Albany in 1979 with a marketingdegree and received an M.B.A. from New York University. She has donestrategic planning, product management, sales and marketing, training,consulting, and team management for a number of financial serviceand technology firms. Her company focuses on strategic planning, leadership,sales development, and customer service strategies.Developing a customer-driven organization demands that a company constantlyredesign itself and its strategies in response to changes in the competition,the business environment, technology, and customer needs. To monitorthese changes, a company must constantly seek information. “Themore information you can gather about customers, suppliers, and distributors,the more effectively you can meet clients’ needs.”— Michelle AlperinPrevious StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
