Relationship marketing is the process of attracting, maintaining and enhancing relationships with key individuals over time. Businesses use one-on-one communication to earn the loyalty of their target audience.
One of the most expensive and difficult tasks facing any business is acquiring new customers. Acquiring a new customer can cost five times as much as retaining an existing customer. Research has shown that 2% increase in customer retention can decrease costs by as much as 10% for a business. To retain current customers, businesses engage in relationship marketing strategies to continually attract repeat business. While both current and new customers must be acknowledged and respected, the ultimate goal is to turn every new customer into a returning customer.
Relationship marketing is about forming long-term relationships with customers rather than trying to persuade a one-time sale. Relationship marketing tries to encourage customer loyalty by providing excellent products and services. Relationship marketing is different than most normal advertising practices that solely focus on a single transaction. Relationship marketing is usually not linked to a single product or offer. It involves a company refining the way they do business in order to maximise the value of that relationship for the customer.
CRM Stages
Customer relationship management plays a vital part in a typical business 's marketing system. CRM is a process of gathering and analysing customer
* Customer relationship management is the overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer relationships by delivering superior value and satisfaction
One way Oxfam have used relationship marketing is great customer service, all Oxfam employees and volunteers go through a various amount of training courses before they qualify to work at a branch or travel around the world to give aid to people in poverty. This is good because if someone walks into an Oxfam branch to maybe give some of their belongings to the shop so they can sell them or if they go and sign up to sponsor them they will be greeted with a smile and a happy tone, which makes the customer feel comfortable straight away, and of course if someone feels comfortable in a place where they are receiving a service they will want will to come back again to support this cause further because they trust them.
Relationship marketing as a marketing technique is where a business focuses on the long term value of customers. Tesco club cards are used to gain loyalty from their customers as the company gives them something back. This persuades people to continue to shop at Tesco rather than any other supermarket. This loyalty offer helps the company keep a customer for life.
The relationship marketing has the opportunity to satisfy the buyer as the seller which is the long-term relationship with the customers. This relationship help company to develop more interesting products to attract more attention and more revenue increasing economic opportunities to grow up to another area. For example, give discount coupon for employees of different companies could bring new clients and at the same time every new client could bring their relatives creating a big relationship
‘Customer Relationship Management is the ultimate challenge for marketing experts in any business. A successful company will use customer information wisely to build relationships with their customers, on the level that together they will work together towards a long-term relationship.’ (Xu et al. 2002)
It is imperative to satisfy customers and give them an amazing experience at the company. While it cost less to sell to existing customers and companies can increase profit by selling to the same customers; if customers are satisfied, there is more chance they will come back for more services or products. Satisfied customers are a free marketing for the company. However, it is the opposite if customers are dissatisfied. Dissatisfied customer will tell 8 to 10 people about his or her experience (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004). If by any reason, representatives see that the customer is not satisfy, they should act fast and fix the problem. Furthermore, there is more chance for sale representatives to sell to an existing customer that to a new customer. A good strategy for customer retention is to reward good customers. Companies can easily do
5. RELATIONSHIP MARKETING: In this competitive era, companies are always looking for ways to develop and maintain a long lasting relationship with customers, employees and even suppliers. Relationship marketing is two way traffic; it goes beyond just making ‘sales’ and companies are beginning to realize. Good relationship with customers is a strategic weapon for any company, this is because long term customers buy more, do referrals and give back valuable and truthful feedback. Keeping a customer requires an extra effort. According to the founder of Walmart: “There is only one boss, the customer, and he can fire
Today, customer relationship management is very important to the business world. Most of the companies established a department and the programs to manage their relationship with the customers. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy which designed to help a company to understand and look forward to the needs of its potential and current customers (Anderson & Stang, 2000). Customer data is being collected in several different areas of the company, stored in a central database, analyzed, and distributed to key points (Anderson & Stang, 2000).The business world once was “product-centric”, the companies just provided what they could produce. However, it is now become “customer-centric”, they provide products and service
Particularly in relationship cultures such as China, relationship marketing, built on effective communications between the seller and buyer, focuses on building long-term alliances rather than treating each sale as a one-time event.
Today, more and more companies find that cultivating customer loyalty is a key factor to achieve success. Customer relationship management (CRM) focuses on the relationship between customer and company. Due to this feature, many companies are trying to establish their own CRM system for helping them to connect new customers and boost old customers’ long-term loyalty. CRM systems include operations and analysis, and relationship marketing strategy and supporting, customer-centric business processes (Buttle 2004). With the development of information technology (IT), using CRM system
Recommended Ideas: In order to make business decisions with customers in mind, it is important to understand their needs, wants, and demands. It is important that products are designed to offer value, satisfaction, and quality in order to create and retain customers and maintain or increase profitability.
Relationship marketing was first defined as a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on sales transactions. As a practice, relationship marketing differs from other forms of marketing in that it recognizes the long term value of customer relationships and extends communication beyond intrusive advertising and sales promotional messages. First of all, the marketing mix is very important in relationship marketing. The
Also, in terms of efficiency, customer loyalty is very important in these days. First, getting new customers is very hard and ineffective. It costs 5 to 10 times more to attract new customers than retaining the existing ones. In addition, even if companies succeed to get new customers, they cannot be sure that new customers will continue using their products or services. However, if a company has many loyal customers, they don 't need to be worry about that. Not only is it less expensive to retain a customer than to acquire a new one, loyal customers spend more and purchase more profitable products and services. It is already proved as 'Pareto 's Law '. The longer the customer is loyal, the more profit the company gains. Therefore, if companies care about not only long term growth and profits but efficiency, customer loyalty has to be a top priority.
The goal of relationship marketing is to increase customer loyalty. Research proves the premise that loyal customers are actually more profitable. Loyal customers are less costly to serve, are usually wiling to pay more for brand choices than non-loyal customers, and act as word of mouth marketers for the company (Reinartz and Kumar, 2002).
Consumer relationships are the interactions companies garner through their bond with their prospective and current clients. It involves the integration of all business activities in order to establish a working connection with the consumer. Generally, this concept occurs through selling behavior; however, it can be done through marketing, customer service and technical support. Each, interaction the customer has with a particular brand further hinders or establishes a consumer relationship. The relationship is also a two way form of communication where the customer also has the means to provide pertinent feedback regarding service or product offerings. Through consumer relationships, companies can better establish a reputation and brand identity. This relationship also enhances profitability by reducing marketing and advertising expense, returned merchandise, and any negative word of mouth marketing (Ailawadi, 2003). A consumer relationship therefore, is a continuous dialogue between a company and its client that is mutually beneficial to both parties involved. The company gains valuable insights into its product offerings, methods in which to improve it, and the brand image relative to competitors. The customer gains a product that caters more to their specific needs or desires (Akerlund, 2005).