The most important thing in sales and marketing is to attract and retain your most profitable business customers. In order to accomplish this feat, you must devise and implement a customer strategy that builds, fosters, nurtures and extends relationships with your customers. Your company profits only when the earnings from retained customers exceed the costs to acquire and to service customers over time.
There is a strong correlation between long-term business success and long-term customer relationships. Successful businesses capitalize on every stage of the customer life cycle--from customer selection, to customer acquisition, customer retention, and customer growth. Once a certain level of trust and comfort has been established, most customers …show more content…
In other words, if your company becomes too dependent on any one or only a few existing customers, then the future growth of your company could be in jeopardy. So, be cautious that the growth in purchases by, one or a few customers does not represent too large of a proportion of your company 's total sales. Striking this balance, between servicing existing customers and acquiring new customers, is imperative.
Creating and managing this balance can be a major challenge to management. However, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications offer solutions to this challenge. CRM is the process of tracking and managing all aspects of a company 's interaction with its customers, including prospecting, sales, and service.
Here are just a few customer touch points that you can use to strengthen your relationships and keep your customers informed and engaged:
Email messages, newsletters, and surveys: Provide product/service updates, promote goods and services, and communicate …show more content…
Customer loyalty: Implement loyalty, affinity, and rewards programs.
Relationship building: Talk and listen to customers in order to maintain a dialogue and to build a trust based relationship.
Be accessible: Make it easy for customers to reach you.
Customer satisfaction: Implement a customer satisfaction policy that provides a way to resolve/remedy problems and issues.
Involvement: Engage customers in product development /enhancement, via beta tests, focus groups, and pilots.
Anticipate customer needs: Learn their business, their purchasing patterns, and their requirements for effective proactive solutions.
Become an indispensable resource: Look for ways to add value, to be a real partner, and to help your customers achieve results.
Help lines: Provide support, service, advice, and information.
In building customer relationships, remember to value the "personal touch." Make an effort to get to know your customer "as a person." You will be surprised at how much you may have in common. Establishing personal bonds goes a long way toward building lasting relationships.
Your efforts will be rewarded with repeat business, referrals, and satisfied, loyal
There is a strong correlation between long-term business success and long-term customer relationships. Successful businesses capitalize on every stage of the customer life cycle--from customer selection, to customer acquisition, customer retention, and customer growth. Once a certain level of trust and comfort has been established, most customers …show more content…
In other words, if your company becomes too dependent on any one or only a few existing customers, then the future growth of your company could be in jeopardy. So, be cautious that the growth in purchases by, one or a few customers does not represent too large of a proportion of your company 's total sales. Striking this balance, between servicing existing customers and acquiring new customers, is imperative.
Creating and managing this balance can be a major challenge to management. However, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications offer solutions to this challenge. CRM is the process of tracking and managing all aspects of a company 's interaction with its customers, including prospecting, sales, and service.
Here are just a few customer touch points that you can use to strengthen your relationships and keep your customers informed and engaged:
Email messages, newsletters, and surveys: Provide product/service updates, promote goods and services, and communicate …show more content…
Customer loyalty: Implement loyalty, affinity, and rewards programs.
Relationship building: Talk and listen to customers in order to maintain a dialogue and to build a trust based relationship.
Be accessible: Make it easy for customers to reach you.
Customer satisfaction: Implement a customer satisfaction policy that provides a way to resolve/remedy problems and issues.
Involvement: Engage customers in product development /enhancement, via beta tests, focus groups, and pilots.
Anticipate customer needs: Learn their business, their purchasing patterns, and their requirements for effective proactive solutions.
Become an indispensable resource: Look for ways to add value, to be a real partner, and to help your customers achieve results.
Help lines: Provide support, service, advice, and information.
In building customer relationships, remember to value the "personal touch." Make an effort to get to know your customer "as a person." You will be surprised at how much you may have in common. Establishing personal bonds goes a long way toward building lasting relationships.
Your efforts will be rewarded with repeat business, referrals, and satisfied, loyal