By bringing together marketing, sales, service, and other divisions
with state-of-the-art electronic customer relationship management tools companies are able
to interact with consumers, identify customers, learn about customer behaviors, and
customize some part of their products (or services) to meet each and every customers
unique requirements. The reward for rethinking operations cannot be underestimated. For
example, over several years a five-percentage point increase in the customer retention
rate can result in profits increasing by as much as 125 percent.
However, the drive for customer loyalty
is something that cant be solved overnight. Today, few companies look at an
individual division and evaluate its potential for success based on resources that it could
have access to. Additionally, there are no standardized accounting procedures for
determining the companys biggest asset- the value their customers loyalty.
In the Internet Age, a divisions
success is measured by how well it uses the customer management tools and information that
exist in the entire organization. By implementing web-based customer communications
strategies, developing business processes devoted to customer loyalty and putting the
necessary infrastructure in place, companies will be able to:
Leverage the Internet to increase
customer loyalty, which in turn will increase profits.
Identify the best and most
appropriate customer relationship marketing practices to retain customers.
Attract the most loyal prospects
and customers for higher customer returns and new customer referrals.
Provide near instant
gratification by serving customers via multiple levels of interaction, contact, and
dialogue building.
Simplify customer interactions in
order to increase customer satisfaction and lower operating costs.
Retain the most profitable
customers by anticipating and meeting their unique and specific needs.
Click here for the Table of Contents
About the Author
Kathleen Sindell, Ph.D., an expert on
electronic commerce, is a popular speaker and an adjunct faculty member at the Johns
Hopkins University MBA program. There she uses her best-selling book, Investing Online for
Dummies as a required classroom textbook. She is the author of numerous popular, academic
and professional books, articles and websites. A dynamic consultant, speaker, writer, and
scholar, Sindell is regularly tapped as an e-commerce source on CNNfn, The Nightly
Business Report, and at popular online and print outlets. |