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o Customer Focus (Marketing Orientation)  4R's 

o Retention

• understanding CLV - Customer Lifetime Value  (bottom of page 17)
• keeping customers is just as important as getting customers
• customer loyalty points programs

o Customer Focus (Marketing Orientation)  4R's 

o Referrals

• one of the best points about having a happy customer is that they will provide referrals to new customers who are usually families and friends
• some companies try to do this aggressively like MCI - which in turn cause people to dislike the company, but some companies do this in a nice way, like Ford: Ford will give a chq for $100 if you provide a lead to a customer who ends up buying a car from the same dealership you dealt with
• working on customers to "champion" your product could be referred to as turning your customers into brand "Ambassadors", a term Prof. Richardson has been using since 1997

This screen capture shows a company inviting customers to become "Brand Ambassadors"

o Relationships

 

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"Customer Relationship Management" has become necessary in a very competitive marketplace were people all over the world are trying to take your customers by offering a lower price, or more features - this becomes difficult though since the technological environment and the economic environment becomes more globalized. When  the technological environment and the economic environment becomes more globalized it means that the distinguishing features between company's products is less and less - so, how do you get someone to buy your stuff - the answer is to have a relationship with the customer. Having a relationship with the customer is considered valuable since you can learn things to increasingly provide better service, and it also leads to CLV, as well as cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. See also  witiger.com/marketing/CLVandVelvetRopeCustomers.htm  WTGR

o Recovery

• when things go wrong - how do you recover consumer confidence so that they will gain buy your product
• if you sell software that contains a virus in the program
• if your packaging contains toxic materials
• if one of your business partners goes bankrupt
• if weather extremes effect your delivery
• if your celebrity endorsement turns out to be a R. Kelly or Paris Hilton
• this is in a sense part of contingency planning

 www.witiger.com/internationalbusiness/politicalrisk.htm
• given the circumstances of the world in the new millenium one can almost guarantee something bad will happen to your company at one time or another - your ability to recover from this is key
• since bad things happen to all companies - those companies that have contingency plans and can recover faster will be better able to retain customers and be competitive in the long term

o Customer Focus (Marketing Orientation)
o Retention
o Relationships

 

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"Customer Retention", or simply retaining customers; and "Customer Relationships" is part of a whole branch of marketing that is called CRM Customer Relationship Management.  Many consulting companies specialize in CRM, particular for Information Products & Services and it has become a very dynamic part of the economy. The screen capture below shows a link to a list on www.business.com of many companies involved in consulting about Customer Relationships WTGR