Professional Studies for Screen-Based Media
Foundation Degree South West
 
 
 
   
 
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Internal Marketing and Customer Care
     

Developing customer relationships

   

Developing relationships with customers is all about ensuring there are clear mutual benefits between your organisation and customers. They then have a desire to stay as a customer of your organisations and so reduce the chances that they will switch to a competitor. You want current customers to recognise the value in them staying as a customer. The more customers you can retain the less you may have to spend attracting new ones.

If you think of human relationships (i.e. between friends and family) what appears to matter most are things like:

  • Benefits gained
  • Reciprocity (giving and getting back in return)
  • Trust
  • Commitment
  • Shared Values

So organisations wishing to develop and maintain relationships with customers must attempt to demonstrate all of these elements. Some are easier to achieve than others, for example showing the benefits of staying a customer might simply be reminding them of the pleasure they got from their last visit to your theme park. Demonstrating shared values is a lot more difficult and takes a lot of time. Maybe places like Centre Parks have achieved this with some of their customers by showing how they value children and safety, for example see www.centreparcs.com

If an organisation claims it cares about its customers then they probably have to go beyond simply delivering a product/service. They have to show they care by for example doing that little bit extra and not expecting extra payment in return. A taxi company who will meet their elderly customers in the shop and carry the shopping to the taxi, the bike hire company who notices the group of new customers includes a small child and marks on the map a suitable cycling route for them. We see it in large shopping centres that now provide cr“che facilities and even relaxation rooms.

For more on customer relationship management (CRM) visit: www.infoquestcrm.co.uk

Jon Weaver, Marketing Manager, Bournemouth Borough Council

Stuart Perl, Regional Director of Marketing (EMEA), Cunard Line Seaborne Cruise Line.

Internal marketing/customer care: a critique
Some might argue the material in the section on internal marketing and customer care is just common sense and that it isn't marketing its just sensible business practice.

Others would say most of this activity is not really for the marketing function to determine but for each of the other departments who deal directly with customers. They might claim that this is just another example of marketing trying to dominate and stick their nose into others business! These concerns touch on what are commonly known as 'turf wars' where departments within an organisation spend time battling with each other for power and influence. Why for example should marketing be involved in recruitment of employees in other departments?

The idea of internal marketing might be flawed. Too many of the conditions relating to the relationships between individuals and departments within an organisation are different to the relationships between a company and its customers. Customers have daily choice between company a and company b, customers pay, customers have specific legal rights, customers expectations are not the same as employee expectations.

Organisations talk about forming relationships with customers but few actually ask the customers if they would like to enter any form of relationship! Do many customers really feel any sense of having a relationship with their supermarket, bank, travel agent or hair salon? And anyway, some sceptics will say, isn't the organisation developing a relationship simply so that it can increase sales and profits (i.e., to then exploit that relationship), not simply to be kind and caring? Worse still, if this is the case won’t consumers soon suss this out for themselves!