Building a Loyal Clientele

Relationship building is the central theme of CRM. It lays the foundation for building a loyal clientele. Retaining an existing customer always works out cheaper than adding new customers to the existing customer base. Customer loyalty is nurtured over a period of time by making intelligent and sensitive use of data generated from your CRM systems.

It pays to remember that customers are individuals with distinct needs, customization of products and personalization of service goes a long way in winning the customer’s hearts. Simple acts like discussing their requirements, communicating regularly with them, maintaining contact lists will not only keep you in your customer’s mind frame but also involve them in the communication process. These interactions eventually lead to a burgeoning sense of loyalty and finally more sales.

Customers that offer their loyalty will usually go that extra mile to do business with you, they may be fine with traveling a little more and paying a little bit extra but at the same time they will demand a higher level of service as compared to those who are one-time shoppers. Your customer-facing staff and your contact center executives should be at the forefront of your customer loyalty initiatives.

What is Customer Experience Management?

Customer experience management or CEM is the next evolutionary step for CRM. With CEM, the focus is on customer experience rather than on operational practices. A “customer centric” attitude is central to making use of the data generated. A CEM strategy aims to involve the top-level management at every level so that the practices implemented are not purely market- or operations driven. Every interaction with the customer is viewed as an opportunity to learn more about his preferences, his lifestyle, and what drives his purchase decisions.

CEM is an exhaustive strategy and a management style that extends across all business functions and not just the front end. A customer centric attitude has to be visible at the back-end too. This helps to help evaluate the gaps that may exist in your present business practices. Immediate or short-term profitability may have to be put on hold when implementing CEM practices. An exciting new idea to implement in CEM is to make use of Web 2.0 in order to reach out to the customers through blogs, forums, podcasts, emails, online press releases, and social networking sites. CEM is about molding the customer experience to the best interests of parties, the buyer and the seller.