In the business environment, the main goal is to meet customers’ needs. However, how can we accurately assess the demands and understand whether we can actually meet them? In an extremely competitive world, if the difference is not made by the high-quality product, the consulting service that can in fact actively help companies increase their credibility and build customer loyalty must achieve it.
When a customer comes to a screws and bolts company, such as ours, they often have a specific request or problem to solve. However, it is not always easy to meet that request exactly or solve the problem with standard solutions. A knowledgeable and well-informed team can carefully evaluate the request and offer targeted recommendations or alternatives that might exceed the consumer’s own expectations.
The key aspects of consulting are expertise and experience. Experts must have in-depth technical and practical knowledge of the products as well as their applications. This enables them to understand customers’ specific needs and propose customized solutions that best meet technical and functional requirements.
Why should a company offer consulting services?
Providing an effective consulting service offers several benefits.
- First, a company that demonstrates that it listens carefully to customers and understands their needs gains credibility and trust. Customers appreciate being treated as unique individuals and receiving targeted advice that solves their specific problems.
- Second, it allows the company to differentiate itself from the competition: many may offer similar products, but if a company can provide superior, personalized consulting, it will have a significant competitive advantage. This approach can lead to increased customer loyalty and sales growth.
- Furthermore, consulting can help create a long-term relationship with customers. When a customer feels understood and supported by the company, they are more likely to continue to rely on it for their future needs.
It seems trite to reiterate, but the consulting service is a plus of experience and technical skills gained in the field that a company offers for the simplest and best application of its product.
At Kilton, we began as far back as 1976 to support customers in solving, speeding up and maximizing the application of screws in a wide variety of industries. Of course, the chipboard screw was not invented by us, but strange as it may sound, we were the ones who brought its use to a great many furniture factories in the 1980s, when self-tapping screws were still being used.
Today the world of screws has changed!
By coming into contact with so many industries, we understood that each had its own problems in handling applications on different materials, as in-house designs required non-standard screws.
Instead, today we are moving into an industry where there are far too many alternatives. This exaggerated differentiation does not come from a real market need, but more from a need of competitors to bind the consumer to buy a standardized good, thus, essentially, to sell.
Does this situation, however, help the client? Does it facilitate technical departments? Does it simplify purchasing? Does it support product selection? Obviously not; in fact, it confuses people.
The key is competence and simplicity
In the situations in which we have found ourselves several times, we have managed, thanks to the expertise of our technicians, to find simple, effective and economical solutions without any constraints on the client, who would still be able to find a wide range of alternatives on the market.
We believe that consulting today should aim for simplicity in the solution offered, where by “simplicity” we do not mean a loss of quality, and this kind of thinking also stems from what we have gone through in the past two years characterized by product shortages.
Nowadays, many companies, in order to prove the goodness of the goods offered, provide countless sheets with data inherent to the item’s performance. However, we like to remember that these are still and always tests obtained in the laboratory and tried under protected conditions that do not consider certain interferences (such as, for example, wear and tear over time, dirt, etc.), and therefore are not totally realistic.
Production variables also change from batch to batch, leading certain quotas to differ by even a few centesimal units. In short, we are well aware that a laboratory test is distinctly different from practical, industrial use; as obvious as it is from a certain point of view, we do not like to omit it.
How to optimally offer consulting services in our screws and bolts business
The consulting service should not be limited to suggesting the right screw, but it should also explore the best way to apply it, that is, with self-powered screwdrivers.
The latter, are incredibly simple machines to use despite their mechanical complexity and should provide the ability for the user to screw in easily. However, even this does not happen, as there is not enough knowledge about this tool.
The consultancy that our company can offer is well-rounded.
Kilton’s screw and bolt consulting is not limited to products
We have experienced the construction of the production machines, with which we still make screws today, so we can provide advice on production systems and machinery. In fact, screw manufacturing allows us to understand with immediacy the design or feasibility difficulties of a product.
We have offered and offer consulting in a wide variety of fields (blank, frames, household appliance, etc.) and have always succeeded in solving the customer’s needs. Dealing with large works of unification of items and taking care of the logistics that we handle every day, we provide effective and economical management. In fact, our solutions have saved at least 20% compared to previous management.
Learn more about all our services offered!
For us at Kilton to use the word “consulting” means to help as we teach.
If you want to find out how we feel about other current issues, you can learn about them all in our blog