The late 1990s brought the advent of customer relationship management (CRM). CRM offered the promise of huge increases in loyalty and customer profitability based on the delivery of continuous value to customers. Like real-world relationships, these technology driven conversations were truly two-way dialogues, replacing the one-way messaging that was delivering diminished success.
While CRM advanced the state of marketing from a monolog to a dialogue, it was still a conversation that was driven by the company, not the customer. Increasingly, customers have come to take control of this situation and not only participate in conversations with brands, but control that interaction as well. Marketing in 2008 and beyond must evolve an approach from one of executing on a relationship..
Today, with the battle to retain customers, coupled with escalating pressure on marketers to be environmentally friendly, digital print is increasingly becoming the obvious choice for customer communications and marketing messages, allowing for a more targeted and personalised approach.
High quality digital print has been available to marketers in the UK for several years now and within this time, due largely to the increased level of personalisation capable, has dramatically improved response uplift to direct marketing communications.
Leading case studies show that by varying the images, message, offer and copy in a single print run, companies are more likely to engage the customers and make them feel valued by the communication. What’s more important is that..
In today's market the first commandment is "Love Thy Customer." Corporate trainers and speakers Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirschner bring their style and innovative approach to winning over even the most challenging customers in their new book Love Thy Customer. CRM magazine's Colin Beasty spoke with Rick Kirschner about what customer love means.CRM magazine: In the book you show how there are different ways to communicate to customers to let them know you're taking them into consideration. What are some of those ways?Kirschner: We came up with the idea that there are different roles a company should play when you want to create delighted customers. You want to be a healing presence in their life if they're upset. If they have an issue you want to make sure you communicate that you understand what the problem is from their point of view. Another one is getting into a problem-solving mode..
Think long-lasting business relationships rely on complicated strategies and technology? They don't, says The Relationship Edge in Business: Connecting With Customers and Colleagues When It Counts (John Wiley & Sons), by Jerry Acuff with Wally Wood. The key to developing successful professional connections, it contests, doesn't stray far from the techniques we use in our personal relationships. Acuff reveals the questions to ask to discover what people really care about, and how to optimize this information and incorporate it into our everyday business interactions. CRM magazine's Emmy Favilla spoke with Acuff to discuss this approach. CRM: You say personal relationships are crucial to business success. What is the biggest challenge for individuals to grasp this mind-set? Jerry Acuff: The reality is that 80 to 90 percent of our waking hours, we spend thinking of ourselves. To think of others is not an easy thing to do..
There's a line from the old Paul Newman movie, Cool Hand Luke, "What we have here is a failure to communicate." It was an extremely popular part of American culture for a short while, though it has gone the way of pet rocks. But the point still resonates.
You could develop the greatest CRM strategy in the history of the species, but if you fail to communicate it, it don't matter—to me or anyone else.
Communicating CRM strategy isn't so easy. What do you communicate? To whom? How frequently do you communicate it? How much of the strategy do you communicate? With what tools and via what media do you transmit whatever it is you're communicating? Is the communication "approach" or is it "feel"? Is it formal, informal or something of both? Is training part of communicating? Should it be?
OK, I presume I've made the point. It's a pain in the neck and yet one that needs to be felt all the time..
