5 Mistakes SMEs Do in Marketing

Marketing makes or breaks a business, reason why big brands splurge on marketing on different platforms. However, just like every decision in business does not yield desired results, marketing too sometimes fail partly or out rightly. Big names or brands, can afford to forgo the wastage of time money in undesired results due to the cushion in budget. But small businesses or SMEs, in particular, do not get that cushion as they run short on time and resources and so there is little margin for error for SMEs.

This is not as much to say that SMEs should not think about using the power of marketing, they should know the right approach to marketing. Much as they need to know what to do in marketing, they should better know what not to do in marketing to avoid the common mistakes SMEs often commit.

If you are an owner of SME business or are mulling plans to start your own business, sooner or later, you should take note of these don’ts that will give your business the boost it needs to become a brand.

Not Believing in the Need of Marketing  

Some small business owners often have preconceived notions such as their business is too small to need marketing at all and they do not need marketing for their products to be sold. Certainly some products and services are strong enough to do that, but not until after people know about them. If you aren’t marketing your business because you think what you have to offer will handle it itself, then you are missing out on opportunities to earn new business, let alone establishing your business a brand.

Some time small business owners think they do not have the required budget to indulge in marketing. This idea stems from the lack of knowledge about or willingness to try new marketing approaches. Digital marketing is the new marketing technique which costs less than traditional marketing campaign and hence is suitable for small business owners or SMEs.

Not Having a Marketing Plan

SMEs often are found lacking in having a proper marketing plan for their business due to lack of clear vision about their own businesses i.e. what their business goals are, how is their business different from that of their competitors.

As a result, many a time, small business owners end up spending too much on adopting wrong marketing techniques. Like every plan in a business, marketing, too, should have a proper layout which is based on the insights about one’s own business and goals.

Not Having Online Presence    

Your marketing starts from having your presence on the internet – that is a website for your business.  SMEs often think they are too small or too local to run an online presence, so they do not require a website at all. But the truth is customers use internet as the first channel to find out products and solutions provider for their needs. So, a website for your business will only add up to the identity building process of your business among customers, both local and global.

Not Targeting Right Customers

The very basic mistake that small business owners commit is that they do not earmark their target customer group and so they target all as their customers. When it comes to marketing you need to narrow down your target to a recognizable group so you can use best use marketing approaches that work more effectively.

A tricky situation that arises here is too often small business owner are some time too blinded by their the idea about target customer segment that they fail to recognize an actually potential customer segment that goes unnoticed.

Not Focusing on Social Media Marketing

Those business owners who are averse to using new marketing approaches show a dull face to using social media marketing. It is true, although, that small business owners often do not have the time to spend in social media marketing. But this platform can be actually be rewarding and an ideal platform for small business owners. Social media marketing is one of the most affordable and effective marketing techniques for business owners who can focus their efforts and maximize their time spent on social media to yield big results.

A key point to remember here is once they start social media marketing they should avoid abrupt absence from it. Since customer these days search online and keep track of your product and solutions online, if a potential customer sees no activity, that often leaves them wondering if you are still in business and they move on to the next company. So, choose your channel wisely and keep updated.

Five points to consider before entering in the Customer Service job

Making your client valuable is the key to success of any business and very important for organizations these days. Building credibility is very tough in today’s era of competition. Business means not only acquiring new clients but also retaining your existing clients. Your existing clients are your ambassadors, who can help promote your business and in turn help you grow. But, this will happen only if they are satisfied with your customer service. In today’s world, client servicing is not an option but a must. You don’t have to struggle for repeat business if your relationship with your existing clients is excellent. Neglecting client servicing means neglecting your business, and that’s why, it has to be taken seriously. It is also one sure way of assuring your organization’s cash register ringing.

If you are in a Client Relations profile, you have to take utmost care while dealing with your customers. Good customer service should come naturally to you and should be a major part of your daily schedule. Below are five guiding principles to abide by in a Client Servicing profile:

1. Effective Communication - both verbal and non-verbal: Communication is an essential aspect of Client Servicing. If you have good communication skills, you will be able to express your thoughts in a much better manner to your clients. This ensures that the information you provide is conveyed effectively to them. Effective communication helps to bind your customer with you for a long term as it is the foundation of any business. The interaction should be personalized, and the clients should feel your willingness to help them. Client relations are effectively maintained if communication is made in a positive manner. Negative communication can make a bad impact on the client. So, communicate appropriately and clearly with your clients.

2. Be a good Listener: Active listening is another important aspect of Client Relations. Listening carefully helps avoid miscommunication as miscommunication can cause us to lose a great deal of business. It helps us in resolving client queries effectively. Active listening makes the client feel that you can relate to their needs. It helps you focus on the problem completely. Show respect towards the client by avoiding any interruption during the conversation. Be focused.

3. Understand the Customer Needs: Try to understand the needs of your customer and act promptly. Think from the clients’ perspective and try to offer them solutions accordingly. This ensures the clients’ trust in you. It makes your clients feel that you care for them and their business. For this, you need to thoroughly understand your clients’ business, as you can offer solutions as per their needs. You have to regularly interact with your clients to know the current trends and to know any future developments at their end. Knowing about your clients can help you anticipate what you can offer them. This gives you a better edge over your competition.

4. Know-how of the Service Catalog: Strong know-how of your organization’s service catalog is another attribute of the Client Servicing profile. Knowing your services completely can help you map the customer’s needs more effectively. Because of your strong know-how of the services, you can eventually spread your footprints in the customer landscape. You can be more confident while dealing with your clients as you can address any query immediately.

5. Patience - A crucial factor for customer servicing Patience is the key to relieving all the problems. Be patient with your clients, especially when they are angry or irritated with you due to any reason. Empathize with them and give them extra attention to understand the problem. Try to keep calm and cool, when dealing with a dissatisfied customer. Being patient helps to avoid any impulsive decision and also plays a major role in winning the client. As it’s said, patience is a virtue, so have lots and lots of patience.

Client servicing is all about how to know the pain areas of your clients, take feedback from them, and provide them solutions promptly as per their needs. There many more attributes to a Client Relations profile, apart from the ones mentioned above. Client servicing is not a one-time job, but it needs continuous improvement. The more you improvise, the better you get at it. Your style of customer service can leave an impression on your clients’ mind for quite a long time, and your client will start recognizing you as the face of your organization. 

Lastly, remember that great customer service is an art and can help you to maintain a long-lasting relationship with your clients. Make your customer feel valuable and increase the chances of your organization’s growth. 

World-First Temporary Storage and Sortation System “SPDR” Developed

In 1957, Daifuku supplied Japan’s first chain conveyors for body transport to an automobile plant. Since then, we have achieved many results in almost all processes of automobile production. For the construction of main assembly lines, in addition to innovative conveyor systems, we have provided various solutions for improving productivity regarding parts handling in the lines and parts supply to the line side. However, systems for the reception and storage of parts from suppliers and timely retrieval according to production schedules often required human labor. To improve such a situation, we developed and launched the SPDR (pronounced spider), a temporary storage and sortation system for parts in December 2014.

For more information, visit http://www.daifuku.com/in/solution/storage

Case Study-Case Study- Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

The Honda Group’s largest production facility in Southeast Asia, Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (HATC)’s Ayutthaya Plant, boasts an annual production capacity of 240,000 automobiles. This facility was damaged during the unprecedented heavy flooding that occurred in October 2011. This disaster not only forced a stoppage of operations, it also completely cut off the facility’s ability to supply completed vehicles and components for export from Thailand, impacting markets in Japan and North America. Just as the factory reached full production of 1,000 vehicles per day in September, the company had no choice but to make significant renovations to the flooded equipment, virtually building a new facility. HATC resumed production at the end of March 2012, just six months after the disaster, and started the plant at full capacity in April 2012. 

For more information, visit http://www.daifuku.com/in/

5 Best Practices for Utilizing Your Warehouse to the Fullest

Indian manufacturing industry has witnessed the fast-paced advancement in past few decades and every manufacturer in the industry is participating and becoming a part of the journey. New tax policies i.e. GST has played a vital role in the manufacturing sector as well as in the development of the country by taking an initiative in the advancement of businesses.

Supply chain logistics has continuously changed and evolved, the warehousing sector has to advance at the same pace. The warehouse managers always faces the challenges of utilizing and optimizing the warehouse space. Warehousing plays a major role in any manufacturing industry and its costs are an account of cumulative costs of labour, inventory, finished goods, building, and land. Warehouses if not managed well are expensive to operate for the end companies.

To get the most out of the warehousing, a number of best practices can be opted to improve the productivity and overall process in the manufacturing facility. Although the best practices vary from industry to industry, there are some best practices from Daifuku-experts in material handling, warehousing and logistics management; which helps in utilizing the warehouse SPACE optimally and handle your products with care.

• S - Scope for Expansion and Ease
• P - Pace Up The Movement Of Units
• A - Avoid Manual dependency
• C - Carryout the Process in Flows
• E – Escalate the Process
• These elements will help you in utilizing and governing the process in the right direction. Each element is significant and complementary to each other. Implementing these practices can make an impact on your warehousing facility processes.
• Scope for Expansion and Ease
• With the faster pace of growth, there is also growth in land usage; this had lead to scarcity of land for horizontal expansion. This creates a desperate need of implementing the vertical warehousing, as the horizontal extension has huge investment associated with it. Vertical storage allows storing bulk items in a confined space and provides more space for store keeping units (SKU’s). To ensure the product stored in these vertical storages the automated systems are the simplest and advanced solution. The automated systems help you track down the items stored on regular basis and also favour the FIFO patterns. Maximizing space utilization can help with keeping inventory visible and easy to find.
• Pace-up the Movement of Units
• A plan should be such to allow free and fast movement of material in and out of the system without any loss or delays. The dispatch and receive movements should not contradict each other while in operations. Using the storage area with the optimal storing of items for the size (for example if a rack is designed for the units of 3*3 and is stored in the 2*2 unit, one has stored air in 1*1 area), if there is a fixed location for a specific bin one can free up space in the warehouse and company no longer pays for storing air around the items. Use specific containers like boxes, pallets, etc. for storing items which will help in utilizing the rack areas optimally.
• Avoid Manual dependency
• Once space is in optimal use, it is possible to elude manual dependency in the warehouses.  There are various irregularities in warehouses which are visible as well as hidden; the hidden irregularities cause more glitches than realized. One can avoid delays by ensuring the optimization of two elements equipment and personnel. Leveraging resources appropriately like utilizing time, labour, and manual functioning, as well as definite automated operations help to achieve the continual elimination of irregularities in the warehouse. The optimization of space utilization can prove helpful in ease of finding inventory, making it visible and avoiding unnecessary long travels times between the storage locations.
• Carryout the Process in Flows
• When a process is carried out in a warehouse there is a number of questions that should be asked; what are the volumes of units can be stored, what are the storing bin requirements for the units, what are the arrival and dispatch cycles of the units? One should carry out a proper analysis of the product before storing it. This will help in optimal usage of the stored area and the company can plan for storing other items in the warehouse for further usages and customer satisfaction. The analysis carried out should be based on the product flows in the warehouse, position of storage, the time duration of storage, tracking of the product storage. For carrying out such operations one can use automated storage and retrieving systems, tracking systems for the storage bins.
• Escalate the Process
• Following the four elements of SPACE, one can escalate their warehousing in a faster way which helps to achieve improved productivity for the companies. Automated systems help to minimize the errors in the systems caused in manual systems, helps to monitor the storing and retrieving levels to achieve significant growth in the efficiencies. Escalating the operations will lead in reusing the resources such as manpower in other operations as well the delays will be reduced and will bring customer satisfaction.
• A final word
• Optimized warehouse layout helps to achieve greater efficiencies, minimizes travel time, involves less manual dependency and helps to monitor the appropriate level of processes. Daifuku India helps to achieve the optimized space utilization of the warehouses in your manufacturing facility. Daifuku caters to a comprehensive range of products such as AS/RS-Unit Load AS/RS, Mini Load AS/RS, Racking Systems to its customers that meet their versatile needs in logistics and manufacturing. These systems increase productivity.
• About Daifuku
• Since 1937, Daifuku has been world-class Automated Materials Handling Company – conveying, storage, sorting, picking and controls. We have a global network of offices and subsidiaries that offer design, engineering, sales, installation and commissioning of an Automated Storage and Materials Handling System.
• For more information, visit http://www.daifuku.com/in/