This month’s newsletter and blog topic is “The growing pressure on middle and upper management.” This pressure comes about from sweeping layoffs in the last year following the pandemic. The consequence has been major gaps in middle and upper management overburdening the remaining few.
One particular result of these significant gaps, as discussed in the first of this month’s articles, is a drop in service standards. As discussed in our last article, a drop in service standards can quietly drive away that company’s customers. Since complaining customers are singled out and labeled if they speak up, they don’t. They simply take their business elsewhere.
For Others, an Opportunity
The major layoffs talked about above have happened primarily in large companies. High producers and experienced managers making extraordinary salaries were laid off to cut costs, and the result was often reduced service standards.
That is certainly a downside for these large companies and a frustration for their customers who now must either suffer the resulting diminished standards or look elsewhere for superior service. A reduction of standards in a large company can be, however, a real potential opportunity for small to medium businesses. They can prosper in such an environment by picking up customers who have quietly quit doing business with their larger competitors.
An Example
Without naming any specific companies, we have witnessed these situations and the opportunities they present. There is a particular very large company that businesses in we deal with count on for regular service. This company, unfortunately, is one that has engaged in massive layoffs, generally under the guise of “restructuring.”
If a customer has a service issue that a regular customer service representative cannot handle, they expect to be elevated to a knowledgeable manager to sort out their issue. However, with this company, customers have unfortunately discovered that either the manager who could help them is gone, or current managers are so busy—having absorbed duties from other laid-off personnel—that they don’t have the bandwidth to deal with elevated customer service issues.
Businesses can only tolerate such treatment for so long. They have quotas to make and milestones to achieve. Customers of this large provider have indeed sought services elsewhere, with small and medium businesses reaping the benefit.
Engage in Marketing
Small and medium businesses with large-scale competitors that have engaged in massive layoffs should take note. It’s a critical time for them to rapidly create marketing campaigns specifically targeting potentially disgruntled customers of these competitors.
Such campaigns need not mention these competitors by name—in fact, it’s better if they don’t. It’s easy enough to describe the superior service that your company is capable of delivering.
When these former customers come to you as a potential new service provider, your company should do all it can to demonstrate that you can not only meet the level of service of your large-scale competitor but exceed it.
It often happens that someone’s loss is another’s gain. That is certainly true in this instance, and small and medium businesses should take full advantage.
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