Effective Marketing Tools for Building Strong Customer Relationships
These days, with all the forms of advertising and communication, it's easier than ever for a customer to look around for the best deal, giving customers more and more power to drive down your business margins. But you can also make use of this same shift in the market to build one-to-one relationships with those customers, and keep them loyal.
How Does One-to-One Marketing Work?
One-to-one marketing is a company's only real weapon when it comes to securing customer loyalty now, and it's likely to account for a major slice of sales in the future. In this Interactive Age, transactions with a customer do not occur in a vacuum. Instead, each transaction will be part of that customer's search for the best possible product at the best possible price. Here's what it looks like:
- The easier and more cost-efficient it is for customers to interact with you, the more interaction there will be (NEBS offers customers a toll-free number to call for "Questions, Comments, or Problems" - available seven days a week.)
- Interactions will take place based on past dealings with you.
- The clearer the relationship is, the easier it will be for the customer to communicate his or her needs to you.
- You will then use individual customer feedback to tailor products and services to them.
- As a result, the customer will remain loyal to your business, because a relationship has already been developed (you know who the customer is and what he or she needs.)
- This method actually works to increase customer loyalty and protect your profit margins.
If you can tailor any aspect of your business to your customer, then it makes sense for your customer to let you know what his or her preferences are in return. A good example would be a small general store, where the clerk knows which customers like their groceries double-bagged, and which don't.
So, what aspect of your product or service can you tailor to the individual needs of each of your different customers?
Next Topic: Quiz - How Well Do You Know Your Customers?
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