Relationship Marketing involves using methods and tactics to develop long term relationship with customers in order to retain them and their loyalty. An organisation must exceed customer satisfaction in order to retain them and develop a healthy relationship with their customers.
Traditional transactional marketing involved the organisation focusing all of its marketing efforts on attracting the customer for one off sales. However, customers who are loyal end up spending more in the long-term, so it makes sense to keep existing customers happy.
Attracting and retaining customers
Relationship marketing involves the organisation undertaking a number of important activities. First of all, the company must put into place tactics to attract customers. Methods used to attract customers may include promoting the product and brand, offering good quality products/services and competitive prices. Secondly customers that are attracted to the organisation have to be retained.
After all, what’s the point of all the hard work (and money) of attracting customers if you can’t retain them? Methods used to retain, may include, loyalty cards, a good customer service section, and an individual account manager if it is a large client, along with product variety and quality.
Methods of monitoring customer satisfaction
An organisation must continue to satisfy customers, but let’s be honest; it is very difficult to keep 100% of your customers satisfied all the time, one reason is because needs and wants of your customers change. So we have to monitor what is happening in our customer environment.
Methods used to monitor customer satisfaction may include:
- Focus groups
- General comments
- Online surveys
- Suggestion boxes
- Customer complaints
- Mystery Shoppers
- Questionnaires
- Personal interviews
In order to retain customers you must keep up to date with the needs of your customers.
Your customers needs don’t remain static either, they’re always changing. Adapting and changing along with these needs will help your organisation develop the relationship you want with your customers.
The benefits:
- Increased profits
- Increased market share
- Increased brand awarenes
The more you focus on customers – their needs and desires – the more they’ll want to do business with you. Contact us to discuss some of the great cost-effective startegies we can introduce to grow your business.
