How Does Customer Relations Benefit an Organization?
Your current, satisfied customers are the most important assets of your organization. Retaining their business is far less expensive than attracting new customers, so it's important to ensure that they remain satisfied. To do this, customer relations is key.
Customer relations involves managing communications with customers, promoting customer satisfaction and building long-term relationships.
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History
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The roots of customer relations can be traced to the complaints or returns department of the past. But today's customer relations department has become much more proactive. It still handles complaints; however, it also focuses on discovering why a complaint was made and how to keep customers happy.
In business since 1912, L.L. Bean, the outdoor mail order firm, still stands out as the benchmark for customer relations. Their customer-oriented credo describes what customer relations is all about. It reads as follows: "A customer is the most important person ever in this office -- in person or by mail."
Satisfied Customers
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Satisfied customers have the potential to become repeat customers, and repeat customers equal increased profits. Effective customer relations will keep customers satisfied and keep management informed of complaints that highlight the causes of customer dissatisfaction. Understanding the root causes of dissatisfaction is a key function of customer relations.
A customer with a complaint represents a golden opportunity for your business. If you handle the situation well, your customer will likely become more loyal than if nothing had gone wrong. Therefore, a complaint is an opportunity to remind a customer why your organization is the best. People who take the time to complain are rare. A complaining customer might be alerting you to a problem experienced by many other customers who simply stopped using your product or services.
Another function of a customer relations program is to turn one-time or occasional customers into loyal buyers. According to Emmett C. Murphy and Mark A. Murphy, authors of "Leading on the Edge of Chaos", acquiring new customers can cost as much as five times more than satisfying and retaining current customers.
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Customer Loyalty
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The emphasis on customer loyalty is driven by the bottom line, as a small percentage increase in customer loyalty can translate into a significant rise in profits.
Customer relations specialists distinguish loyalty from satisfaction. It is possible for customers to be satisfied and yet have no particular loyalty to your brand.
The opposite of customer loyalty--customer turnover--can signal a problem with your customers' perceptions of your organization. This does not necessarily mean that your product or service is weak or sub-par; it might signify that customers' negative or neutral experiences are preventing them from becoming loyal customers. To solve this problem, a customer relations team might create a survey to gain valuable insights from existing customers.
Internal and External Customers
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It has become common to refer to relations with a company's internal and external customers. Separate business units within a company interact everyday. In organizations that have truly embraced the concept of relationship management (consumer relations), everyone is expected to display service-oriented behavior to both internal and external customers. This approach is linked to stakeholder theory, which focuses on meeting the needs of all parties in a business relationship, including customers, outside vendors, peers and shareholders.
Tips for Building Strong Customer Relations
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Enhanced customer relations impact the bottom line of any organization. Here are some tips to encourage further communication with your customers, according to the website Entrepreneur:
Provide customer feedback forms at point-of-purchase and on your website.
Encourage service culture throughout the organization.
Respond directly to customer feedback and answer frequently asked questions on your website.
Train call-center staff to handle disputes constructively.
Provide a free customer helpline.
Listen to your customers.
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References
- Photo Credit may i help you three image by Paul Moore from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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most customer is very important this bussiness.
