Wen/Zencan
1
Some time ago, the author wrote an article "It's not quality, color, price... these are the determining factors of whether a ceramic tile brand can be recognized!" 》. A reader put forward a point in the comment area at the end of this article: As long as the product quality is good, why use service to win the favor of customers?
To be honest, the author disagrees with this point of view.
As a low-profile, ultra-durable product in the traditional manufacturing industry, there is no doubt about the importance of ceramic tile quality. This is the basic logic for those ceramic companies that are serious about making products to believe that "product quality is the hard power" and follow the law of "product is king".
However, making a good product does not mean that everything is done well, and good products may not necessarily have good sales.
A good product in the eyes of manufacturers is not necessarily a good product in the minds of distributors, and a good product in the eyes of distributors is not necessarily a good product in the minds of users. The biggest taboo when making products is to regard your own needs or consumption concepts as those of consumers. Manufacturers and distributors can guide consumption and even create some demand, but it is difficult to change consumers' minds and habits.
Even if you really produce a good product, you still need the support of good marketing and good service to achieve good results. Products need good publicity and promotion, and they also need a good shopping experience, and making consumers feel that they enjoy high-quality services is the best marketing. In the Internet era where “the fragrance of wine is afraid of the depth of the alley”, the reason why new retail is sought after is that it not only provides consumers with the best products, but also provides the best experience and the best value for money. Good service.
2
Tile tiles of different brands and qualities are not easily distinguished by consumers, especially tile novices, when placed in stores or in consumers’ homes; but if the experience provided by merchants selling these tilesUnlike service, it is easily felt by consumers, even ceramic tile novices.
In the building ceramics industry where product homogeneity is severe and followers are rampant, it is difficult to create differentiated brand competitiveness through product differentiation - because of this, there are so many ceramics that are manufactured by lowering product prices. "competitiveness". Brand differentiation occupies a special position in the minds of consumers and is one of the important basis for consumers to judge the value of the ceramic tiles they intend to purchase and the market position of the brand they belong to. It includes not only product differentiation, but also brand image differentiation and service differentiation.
In the building ceramics industry, where product homogeneity is becoming increasingly serious, if you want to create differentiated competitiveness, in addition to focusing on the research, development, production and application design of ceramic tiles, you should also focus on brand culture and services.
Looking back at the reality of the ceramic industry, many ceramic companies lack accurate brand positioning or even if they have brand positioning, it is written for people to read. In terms of product innovation, they are too dependent on upstream equipment manufacturers, color glaze manufacturers, and design institutions. . They are willing to spend money to buy production equipment and design documents, and they actively follow the trend and invest in new product development and production, but they are reluctant to spend money to consolidate brand culture and services, and are unwilling to build a brand communication system and service system. The result is that product innovation is often reduced to copycats and supporting products. Marketing innovations have turned into imitations, causing the originally mediocre products and marketing innovations to go further and further on the road to homogeneity. As a result, brand value has lost content and support, and it is even more impossible to create brand differentiation.
3
"No gold is pure, and no one is perfect." Nothing in the world is perfect, and no matter how quality-focused a company is, it is difficult to produce 100% perfect products. In a sense, "If products are not enough, services must be provided" is very reasonable and necessary.
Although ceramic tiles are durable goods and can be used for more than ten, twenty or even hundreds of years after being laid, it does not mean that there are no problems with product quality and after-sales service.
In fact, problems caused by product quality and after-sales service abound in the ceramic tile market. For example, if the tiles themselves have pinholes or black spots, color differences, etc., are shipped incorrectly or underdelivered after placing the order, are damaged during transportation, or are warped, cracked, scratched, hollowed, or peeled off after being laid, these are all consumer-related issues. This is a problem that is often complained about online, and it is something that the author who has been working in the construction and ceramics industry for so many years often hears.Witness the problem.
Judging from NetEase Home’s “315 Home Service Survey” over the years, ceramic tile services have always been at a lower level. In NetEase Home's "2020 315 Home Service Survey" report, the comprehensive score of ceramic tiles (the full score of the survey is 100 points, online services account for 40%, and offline services account for 60%). The comprehensive score is calculated by adding the results of the two parts. (out) only has a score of 75, ranking third from the bottom among the eight categories, 10 points less than cabinets, which ranked first, and only 1 point more than flooring and mattresses, which ranked joint last. In many years, , this score and ranking of tiles is lower.
Of course, it is not the author's original intention to expose the problem, but to solve it. To solve the problems caused by ceramic tile product quality and after-sales service, a complete after-sales service system must be established. This is the guarantee for manufacturers and dealers to achieve sales performance, and it is also needed to maintain the long-term development of the brand.
4
But in reality, many ceramic companies lack a fully staffed after-sales service team throughout the company, let alone an after-sales service department for each brand.
As far as the author knows, an "after-sales service endless loop" incident occurred in a certain brand.
The marketing department staff of the brand received a complaint call from a consumer: The consumer reported that the ceramic tiles he purchased from a dealer of the brand had quality problems, but the dealer did not respond after repeated negotiations. He was willing to solve the problem, but said that it was not the brick seller's problem but the manufacturer's problem, and gave him the mobile phone number of the manufacturer's salesperson in charge of this sales area; he called the salesman, and the salesman replied that he was not the after-sales service department. Unable to solve the problem, he asked him to contact the after-sales service department directly, and gave him the marketing department's landline number as the after-sales service department's service hotline. So, being deceived for the first time, he angrily called the marketing department. When the marketing department staff received the call, they were at a loss. They could only explain truthfully that this was not an after-sales service department, but they could record his questions and feed them back to the brand leadership. Once again, he felt that he was being teased and got angry. He reluctantly said that he would be here now. We must ask for an explanation, otherwise we will go to the media to expose this matter; the marketing department staff were so frightened that they had to lie, saying that they were new employees who had only been working for half a day and did not understand anything. The company was holding an event today, so everything Everyone has gone out, and I am alone in the office. I can only take the first stepIf you want to really solve the problem by recording the situation and then reporting it to the leader, the best way is to go to the dealer. The problem came full circle, back to the dealer. He had to find the dealer again to argue, but the dealer still passed the responsibility to the manufacturer... Finally, he called the marketing department again.
Such a complex, vivid and tortuous, comparable to novels and movies. Just imagine, it is impossible for such a service to impress consumers.
Therefore, to establish a complete after-sales service system, manufacturers must work together. Service is not just the job of the manufacturer, nor just the job of the dealer, but a major event for both parties.
The author boldly suggests that we might as well establish service standards in the building ceramics industry so that dealers of franchised brands not only obtain regional operating rights for brands and products, but also assume regional service obligations. To implement this standard, manufacturers and dealers should work together to promote "contracted after-sales service", that is, manufacturers contract after-sales services to dealers, and then the manufacturers will uniformly manage and assess them, and gradually establish a set of sound after-sales service standards and systems. and system, build a professional after-sales service team, and effectively promote the brand's service differentiation strategy to the terminal market.
In terms of channel fission (finished house channel and fully decorated channel), consumption upgrading (more and more attention is paid to product performance and price comparison, and after-sales service is more and more important), overcapacity (on one side, the leading ceramic companies continue to expand, on the other In an environment where backward ceramic enterprises are shrinking), if they do not make efforts to create high-quality services to enhance brand differentiation competitiveness and effectively link consumers, how can small and medium-sized ceramic enterprises win the hearts of old customers and obtain referrals from old customers? new customers to stabilize the shrinking retail market?
Author: Zen Can
