Author: Manuel Blunier
Photo: Chemische Fabrik Schärer & Schläpfer AG
Nowadays small chemical producers face immense challenges. The chemical industry is in continuous upheaval due to the growing competition from Far East. In addition, raw material prices are tremendously volatile. Especially small Swiss companies have many more problems to tackle. High fixed costs, a strong currency and large dependence to raw material suppliers lower the profit or limit the ability to act. But why are still some of these small chemical companies extremely successful? Two important strengths of small and medium-sized enterprises are
- Proximity to the customers, because almost every employee has direct customer contact
- Fulfillment of customer requirements/customized solutions, while big companies just offer standard solutions
This finally leads to greater customer loyalty but is still not the only key of success. Particularly small enterprises require a system to manage all customer relations. Otherwise important information might get lost or important tasks cannot be undertaken. This brings us to the conclusion; that especially small businesses require an innovative customer relationship management (CRM) system to become extremely successful!