Dangerous capacity bottlenecks – and how employer branding can break the downward spiral

In manufacturing companies, slow deliveries of raw materials or components lead to situations that were previously unimaginable: the (at least temporary) shutdown of production because orders can simply no longer be met.

Added to this is the lack of (suitable) staff - which of course also affects the service sector. A lack of staff causes capacity bottlenecks. Applicants stay away and prefer to go to the "sexy" competition.

This mix leads to dangerous capacity bottlenecks, which set in motion a downward spiral that can - and will - break the back of companies in the long run. The competition has more capacity (because there are more applicants) and you are on thin ice.

The result: Many companies can no longer take on new customers and are therefore at their limit. Potential customers therefore become customers of the competition . In addition, such a dangerous capacity bottleneck is noticeable among existing customers. It is only a matter of time before they too move to the competition, where they are better served due to the capacity.

Independence from suppliers and business partners from abroad is a complex issue in times of closely intertwined business relationships and tight margin calculations. In addition, bottlenecks in the supply of raw materials and components must be resolved primarily at the political level.

But what can you do to break this downward spiral? There are two significant adjustments that have been proven to work.

MORE APPLICATIONS THAN EVER BEFORE – MORE SEXYNESS WITH EMPLOYER BRANDING

The most important step to stop dangerous capacity bottlenecks is to find suitable staff and retain them in the long term. Motivation and emotional attachment to the employer play a crucial role.

This is where first-class employer branding comes into play, as we implemented for our client Spedination .

Thanks to its branding, Spedination appears super-sexy as a modern employer and receives more applications than ever before. Thomas Kogler, founder and managing director of Spedination GmbH, can choose the best people for his team.

"On target and perfectly executed. We get emails from people who have nothing to do with our industry just to say that the website makes them want to work for us."

A nice “side effect” of the new branding was a 180% growth in sales just one year after the introduction of the new branding and a successful establishment as a top brand in the region .

HIGHER MARGINS THANKS TO TRANSFORMATION INTO A TOP BRAND

It should be clear to everyone by now that we cannot work with knock-down prices in Europe. So how can we increase margins accordingly? The best way is to optimize your own product or service in terms of the customer experience.

Crises or not, there are always people who are prepared to dig deeper into their pockets and pay a corresponding price for quality - provided you keep your quality promise and give the customer a positive experience that they will not forget. Experience shows that in the long run, quality always prevails.

But what is the point of the best quality, the best product, the best service if it is not communicated accordingly? Absolutely nothing. Quality must be made visible to the outside world. This is what first-class branding is for, which we implement for our customers not only in theory but also in practice as part of our 4-step method .

The clear positioning as a quality provider is based on the visual transformation to a top brand . We achieve this for our target group in 90 days.