DRIVERS AND DIFFERENTIATORS
After a relatively calm year, companies are gearing up for a possible debt crisis. In the face of macroeconomic factors, a combination of innovation and responsiveness to customer needs enabled companies to beat the recession and weather the coming storm.
One way to survive is through continuous innovation. “The path we embarked on many years ago has proven to be correct,” Feil said. “We address all aspects of video security technology rather than concentrating on individual components.”
While R&D is not cheap, it can pay off. “Our competitors reduced their workforces during the recession,” Moss said. “We didn't do that, we hired through it. When the recession eased up, they didn't have enough people and we had a bunch of new products.”
Warranties support a highly innovative position with guaranteed quality. “Given the number of low-cost competitors, we've gotten business back from customers who had catastrophic product failures in the field,” Bodell said. “We always boasted the best products, and in 2011 we backed that up with a five-year warranty on our minidome and a three-year warranty for our professional line with on-camera recording and analytics.”
DVTel also launched a quality assurance program, providing a lifetime warranty for new products good for at least four years, Amir said.
CUSTOMIZATION
Tailoring solutions for specific applications benefits both manufacturers and customers. “Diversification related to multiple vertical markets is one way to ensure ongoing success,” Piran said. “It helps that OnSSI has a product that is versatile and useful in a variety of end-user environments, which allows us to focus on hot verticals without having to reengineer the system when the market shifts.”
One phenomenon this year was low-volume customizations. While this was previously unthinkable, economies of scale have enabled manufacturers to adjust products to customer specifications.
CUSTOMER FIRST
The goal of innovation and customization is to satisfy buyer demands. “Companies have to be consistent and focused on execution,” Amir said. “Focus on the customer.”
Continued engagement is about supporting user needs. “Our sales guys are with integrators every day,” Bodell said. “Product management talks to customers and gets feedback. Then we make a list of things, determine what's real in the long term and we invest in that. The simple way to say it is it's just the voice of the customer. You've just got to learn to listen to it.”
Extending the value of existing customer investments is crucial. “In the recession, we solved business problems for end customers and that allowed us to grow,” Gally said. “Our strategy and advice is to make sure solutions delivers a value-add to the channel partner as well as the customer.”
Customer satisfaction is not a new concept, but achieving it is easier said than done. Providing security and convenience at an affordable cost benefits all parties. As companies with a clear value proposition witnessed growth even after the market contracted, it proves that following best practices delivers real results.