Understanding The Dimensions Of Customer Relationships

 

OBJECTIVES OF THIS ARTICLE  At the end of this lesson, you should be able to: ·  Talk about the two dimensions to customer relationship. I-low organizations can acquire customers. ·         Why they need to retain customers. ·         The reasons why top management must he involved in customer-centric endeavour.

When we talk about dimensions to customer service, it is a concept that help us to understand that customers rate the level of services been provided by any organisation in two dimensions. We are going to take a closer look at these dimensions in order to have a good grasp of it.

 

Procedural Dimension: This is die established systems and procedures to deliver products or services. If for example an organisation has problems as related to quality of their products, inadequate equipment or supply issues or your procedures as an organization are not customer friendly, you have faded as an organization from the perspective of the customers.  In the view of the customers, you have succeeded as an organisation when you operate from their own perspective.

 

Personal Dimension: This has to do with how service providers interact with customers (attitudes, behaviours arid verbal skills). The personal dimension is the key to success. When a customer begins to do business with an organisation, they are already in some type of emotional state, therefore the impression an organisation gives in the first time may be the deciding factor in retaining an existing customer, obtaining a new customer or gaining referral business.

 

You should know that using the following strategies xviii make a tough job just a bit easier Take the initiative, anticipate the customer’s needs, be helpful, be positive; listen and understand, deal with the uniqueness or the situation, and always make the customer feel special.

 

 

Acquiring and Retaining Customers

Studies have shown that it is more costly to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones. The reason for this is very simple, in acquiring new customers; you arc trying to steal people from other people’s Life Cycle into your own Life Cycle; which is somehow very difficult where every organization is trying their possible best to retain their customers.

 

Every serious minded organization must endeavour to retain their hard earned customer, A simple positive decision can make prospects to Hood your Life Cycle while a simple negative decision by the management can also lead to attrition. That is why it is advisable that when carrying out customer-centric strategies, the top management must be carried along.

 

There are two main reasons why the top management must be carried along when embarking on a customer-centric enterprise. The first reason is that you will need them when you need to take some crucial decisions. You will also need them to approve your spending. Without their approval, you might be cash strapped along the way.

 

Another reason is that the organizational structure employed in customer-centric enterprise is much different from the one used in organizations that are not customer-centric in nature. An organisation that is customer-centered must empower its customer-facing agents so that they can resolve customer’s issues completely In order to retain customers, you must not ask customers to wait when you can answer them now. Staff dealing with customers must be able to resolve their issues. This will help in retaining customers for life.

 

You should know that you cannot retain customers if you fail to meet their needs. Know this that the first point that is dragging customers to you is that, they have a need to satisfy. If you are able to satisfy those needs and go beyond their expectations, there is nothing stopping the customers from sticking to you for life.

 

SUMMARY

In this chapter, we have learned that:

 

• There are two types of CRM dimensions which were Procedural dimension and Personal dimension.
• It is more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones.
• In order for organizations to acquire new customers, they must be ready to do more than what the organization that is currently satisfying their needs is doing.
• You have to continually increase customers’ experience if you really want to retain them for life.

 

Brainstorming Session

1. Discuss the two dimensions of customer relationship.
2. Discuss acquiring and retaining customers and CRM.

 

 

 

Action Point
PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on an individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that because I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include the staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.

I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

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