How VARs Can Make Customers Raving Fans

By Abby Sorensen, Chief Editor

We dedicate a good amount of editorial to encouraging VARs to innovate, to add to their line cards, and to transition their business models. We should spend more time reminding VARs the importance of keeping existing customers happy (assuming, of course, that those customers are the right fit for your business). After all, it’s much more difficult and expensive to bring on a new account than it is to grow an existing one.

Every reseller should take a close look at the customer service and support operation within the business. Is it operating effectively? Do you know how to measure its effectiveness? Do you truly know how satisfied your customers are?

You can start answering these questions by reading Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Success by Kenneth Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. Published in 1993, it is packed with time tested theories about how to create happy customers. Plus, you can read it in a single sitting.

I enjoyed this book so much that I gave it a 10 out of 10 rating when I discussed it in a recent podcast hosted by Jim Roddy, Reseller & ISV Business Advisor at PaymentsEdge Advisory Services with Worldpay. Jim and I – along with POS industry veterans Sean Buckley of Vend and Jeremy Julian of CBS NorthStar – dig in to how the book applies to POS resellers and software companies. You can listen to the episode here.

The “On The Edge” podcast is designed for POS executives with a goal to educate them on leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other SMB best practices. Our first episode was a discussion about The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson. You can listen to that archived episode here. Our second episode was based on Built To Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, which you can listen to here.

To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe to the Vantiv Advantage Podcast via iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.