Relationship Marketing

What is it?

Relationship Marketing involves using methods and tactics to develop long term relationship with customers in order to retain them. An organization must exceed customer satisfaction in order to retain them and develop a healthy relationship with their customers.

Traditional transactional marketing involved the organization focusing all of its marketing efforts on attracting the customer for one off sales. However, customers who are loyal end up spending more in the long-term, so it makes sense, keep existing customers happy!

Attracting and retaining customers

Relationship marketing involves the organization undertaking a number of important activities. First of all, the company must put into place tactics to attract customers. Methods used to attract customers may include promoting the product and brand, offering good quality products/services and competitive prices. Secondly customers that are attracted to the organization have to be retained. As we stated above what’s the point of all that hard work of attracting customers if we cannot retain them? Methods used to retain, may include, loyalty cards, a good customer service section, and an individual account manager if it is a large client, along with product variety and quality.

Methods of monitoring customer satisfaction

An organization must continue to satisfy customers, but lets be honest, it is very difficult to keep 100% of your customers satisfied all the time, one reason is because needs and wants of your customers change. So we have to monitor what is happening in our customer environment. Methods used to monitor customer satisfaction include:

· Focus groups

· Personal interviews.

· Questionnaires.

· Mystery Shoppers.

· Customer complaints.

· Suggestion boxes.

· Online surveys.

· General comments.

In order to retain customers we must keep up to date with the needs of our customers. Customer needs do not remain static and always change. Adapting and changing along with these needs will help the organization develop the relationship it wants with the customer. The benefit, well increased profit, market share and brand awareness.