Built To Last – Customer Relationships in Times of Crisis
Forget the four P’s of Marketing and concentrate your efforts on the 3 M’s of Customer Relations as we head deeper into the global recession. What are the 3 M’s I hear you ask? Quite simply they are Manage, Maintain and Measure. Why? Because people, that is your market, are becoming far more prudent with how they spend their income.
In today’s market, referral and word of mouth mean more than slick adverting campaigns and promotional gimmicks. And although we are not advocating that you stop your marketing efforts, we are saying that it makes great sense and logic to reinvest in that one area of your business that has perhaps gone untapped for some time – Your past customers.
It may surprise you just how many businesses never go back to their past customers with offers and promotions. Bizarre when you stop to consider how much you spent to acquire these customers to begin with.
An essential tool in managing your current customer base is a robust CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System. A good CRM allows you to do far more than just store contact information and customer notes, it will allow you to manage sales campaigns whether they be part of your acquisition marketing strategy or your re-engagement strategy.
Once you have secured a customer you need to develop a long-term strategy to re-engage with them. This requires that you take off your ‘drive instant revenue’ hat and put on the ‘how to add value to my customers’ hat. Remember that your customers brought from you for a reason, now turn that reason into a compelling proposition for them to continue purchasing from you. Read more…
CRM Articles, CRM Success Recipes, Contact Management, Customer Service Systems
