This video explores the challenge of maintaining loyal customers through a channel program. Steve Walker, Lauri Jones, and Brad Harmon discuss what Walker has done to measure customer loyalty through a channel and share some success stories and why they worked.
For those in the information technology community, the role of channel partners is becoming increasingly evident. In fact, based on results from The 2005 Walker Loyalty Report for Software and Hardware released last month, we know nearly half (47 percent) of the U.S. hardware and software customers surveyed have some type of relationship with a channel partner either before or after the sale.
"By sponsoring customer surveys and offering incentives for customer loyalty through our Value Incentive Rebate (VIR) program, we can work in conjunction with our resellers to cultivate and leverage their existing customer base, identify areas for improvement, and maximize new opportunities uncovered along the way."
–Scott Turner, channel programs manager, Autodesk
Don't you long for the good old days? When we idyllically assumed that value resided in the actual products and services we offered up? Remember the days when the customer-facing divisions like sales, marketing and support were the only customer-related concerns you had and things like inventory management, accounting, delivery and logistics were just something to increasingly automate?
