Customer stalking

Various other customs were followed to coax hemp into growing tall. In some countries, the hemp dances were performed on rooftops. In Germany, hemp seeds were flung high into the air in the hope that the stalks of these seeds would be able to find their way back into the air one day. 

One measure of competition is response time or speed of response. Blackburn [6] and Stalk [86] describe firms that compete on delivery speed. One example is Atlas Door, an industrial door company that coordinated its supply chain to offer custom door delivery (for reactors or furnaces) within two weeks, when the industry standard was over four months. Atlas performed at this level by coordinating order quotation and scheduling production, excess capacity, and tools, synchronizing all components so that a complete kit was delivered to the construction site. Atlas s market share increased rapidly to 80% of the industry volume within five years, with a 15% price premium. 

Stalking customers. Just because managers can contact a customer does not mean they should. This quote from the authors demonstrates the fine line between customer care and customer heckling. Any investment in CRM techniques should reflect what that customer would like to see, and that may not be — and most likely will not be — what the technology is capable of, including pestering from salespeople. 

One of the major advantages of a time-based approach to managing processes over one based on cost or quality is the ease with which time is understood as a measure. While cost and quality are open to differences in interpretation, time is an absolute measure. Stalk and Hout (1990) refer to the time elasticity of price, where the price that customers are prepared to pay is often related to the delivery speed. For example, Talleres Auto in Case study 1.4 was able to charge premium prices for spare parts in breakdown situations because these were distress purchases. ... 

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