Today’s business scenario is very competitive and thus , every organization should maintain good relationships with their clients and attract new customers. Consumers preferences and tastes are rapidly changing, and organizations which don’t adapt to these changing times risk being pushed to oblivion. One of the most important marketing strategies that no marketer can avoid is customer relationship marketing. Customer relationship marketing refers to a marketing process aimed at maintaining good client relationships, and enhancing customer loyalty in the long run. The main idea behind this is to build brand value within the customers. Using the customers feedbacks and data , companies using this marketing strategy develop long term relationships with the customers and develops laser focused brand awareness. Companies that use this strategy, strive to create good connections with the consumers, which may be emotional in order to promote customer loyalty and increase the customers lifetime value. Such companies benefit from the word of mouth promotion and develop brand ambassadors. There are several ways to attract customers, including good after sales services, offering loyalty program perk , providing discounts to regular customers and may more. Companies generally use social media and internet in order to pursue customer relationship marketing initiatives ,which implies that small businesses can also use this strategy in order to grow. They can invite their customers to view their blogs , visit their websites , follow them ,comment on their posts on various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter etc. Since it costs five times to attract a new customer as it does to keep an current one satisfied ,so the main focus lies on customer salinification so as to achieve customer loyalty. This is important as highly satisfied customers are less price sensitive , remain loyal for long , more likely to refer products to others and more likely to talk favorably about the product .
The basic goal of customer relationship marketing is to build trust and engage the customers to build brand loyalty and also , reduce customer churn. One of the best strategies in order to build relationships with the customers is focusing on emotion. Brands who excel in CRM use nostalgia in their campaigns . Some strategies in customer related marketing are as follows : communicate frequently with the customers, expand loyalty rewards ,show customers that you value them , give customer free information and so on . It is important to identify the topics and interests customers have and create content to address them and give customers free access to it, such as informational videos on the products they recently purchased or newsletters that highlight individual customers and share their stories. In order to build any relationship , communication is the key . Hence, companies following CRM strategy should be in touch with their customers via social media, email, messages etc. .
There are a lot advantages of customer relationship marketing , including saving of time and money . Another advantage is that Customers who have strong relationships with the companies interact with them more frequently , which makes it easier to learn more about customers via customer data platforms .There are other advantages as well including , delivering a consistent customer experience, gather customer feedback , improving customer feedback and creating customer advocates . However , it has a number of disadvantages like organizational wise change of priorities to customers , a significant investment of time and money , it threatens management’s control , inappropriate integration leads to disasters and heightens people resistance to change .
The customer pyramid divides the customers in four tiers , namely the platinum tier , gold tier , iron tier and lead tier wherein Platinum tier includes the company’s most profitable customers , these people are nor overly price sensitive and they do not demand disentails, they are willing to invest and try new offerings of the firm . Next comes the customers in the Gold tier , profitability levels are not very high as customers want discounts that limit margins. They maybe heavy users who minimize risk by working with multiple vendors. Iron tier includes the customers that provide the volume requires to utilize the firm’s capacity but their loyalty and spending levels are not enough to provide special treatment . Next comes up the customers in the Iron tier , this basically includes customers who are costing the firm money .they require more attention than they are due given their spending and profitability and they are sometimes problem customers who complain to others about the firm to others .
When social networking sites came into use , very few people thought they can become as big as they are now. All the critics have been proved wrong, and social networking sites have grown creating wonders. Businesses now have a way of following their customers, and today many companies use social networking sites to gather real time feedback of their products as well as services. Apart from giving customers a platform to rate their products and services, organizations are also using social networking sites in order to build their very own brands. The good thing with these active profiles is that customers can be informed about the valuable information without invading their privacy. All the company needs is followers who are voluntarily willing to subscribe to their updates. With the update, the followers also have a chance to interact with the organization’s staff and also , with other customers as well through a casual discussion. A number of organizations have also invested a large amount on their web presence, and this helps them monitor and solve real issues that the customers might be experiencing. This new approach arises from the realization that the job of a marketer does not end with the sales , but it could be the beginning of a long, profitable relationship with the clients.
In the world, there are two types of organizations : organizations which practice customer relationship marketing and those which do not practice Customer relationship marketing . The future looks bright for organizations which does a follow up on their customers , while the future looks bleak for organizations which think that their relationship with the customer ends after the sales. For the organizations that practice customer relationship marketing, they need to keep in mind that the world is now a global village, and they have to think beyond the borders in whatever they do at the present moment . With customer relationship marketing, the opportunities are innumerable and it is the only thing which stands in the way of those companies thinking long term.
By- Ashima
