DO YOU KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER?

Customer relationship management (CRM) is the process of how you engage with your customers from acquisition, selling and then the on-going retention of their loyalty and hopefully repeat purchases.

Where does customer relationship management begin?

In order to gain a customer, you need to have a product or service that is needed/wanted and to achieve that you will have had to identify and understand that prior to launching your business. So in effect, your CRM has commenced before you have even one customer engaged.

Regardless of your selling point, the experience that your customer receives when engaging with your business will determine the future loyalty of that customer.

So let’s think of the customer engagements with your business.

Browsing

The customer has entered your shop, your e-commerce site, your marketing site, your magazine article… whatever their first contact with your company happens to be. Examine how you are presenting yourselves to your target audience. Is it as clear as you can make to ensure customer engagement and capture?

Committing to purchase

The customer has indicated to you that they are interested in purchasing your offering. For retail shops, this is simply the decision to walk to the counter with the product the decision to buy on-line. For those in services, there may have been a negotiation requirement or competition with other companies. In all instances, have you done everything possible to entice that purchase from you?

The purchase itself

Obvious one, but is it as simple as possible and delivered in as friendly a way. Did the assistant look grumpy or happy? Is your e-payment system as easy as possible?…

You want your customer to leave your sales point with a good vibe – this will enhance their enjoyment of the product/service offered.

The quality of the product/service purchased

Did it meet expectation? Ask your customers, they’ll be happy to tell you.

The after sales (if appropriate) care and follow-up

Did you check your customer was happy? Perhaps you could drop them a line a week or two after the purchase and see how they are getting on.

If they had a complaint, did you deal with it appropriately, quickly, openly and honestly?

It appears that I am simply talking about good customer service, but this equates to customer experience which creates loyalty and better sales i.e. the CRM end-game.

How do I get customer data?

Great, if you have a system that can capture some of that information for future use, all the better – but it is not mandatory.

For many smaller businesses, particularly those that have personal interaction with their customers, the CRM tool is the personal understanding of that customer that is held by the sales man, owner, retail assistant.

Often, the interpersonal relationship creates an innate understanding of your customer through the interactions, the trick is to make sure that your business acts on that understanding to engender loyalty.

Embrace the concepts of CRM. Look at your business and see how the concepts can be applied to give you and your customers benefit.

You neglect customer relationship management at your peril. Don’t fear the language that is used to sell software to big business, understand its message and apply it to your business.

Do you employ customer relationship management in your business?

Photo: Olibac