Customer relationships

Customer relationships

Organizations should have a relationship with their customers beyond selling a product or service. While the price, location, and quality of products and services are important, consumers are more often looking to their retailer for brand preference. In general, customers rate and return to companies based on service.

According to Purdue University research, the percentages of customers who abandon a business do so because of:

Poor Service 68%

Product 17%

Price 10%.

A poor, unaccommodating service experience, along with rude employees and slow response times all contribute to customer loss. Of course, you don’t want this to happen in your business. It is difficult and nearly 10 times more expensive to find new customers than to keep existing customers.

Although promotional communications send a message, your relationship with your customer provides credibility to the message. With credibility, your messages are believable and more effective. The customer experience must match the brand perception. In other words: the business must live up to the branding message it communicates to customers and prospects. And when the customer walks away happy, they become a walking advertisement more valuable than money can buy.

Relationship building is especially critical in a competitive business environment. When you know your market and have a good relationship with your customers, you can recognize opportunities and mitigate problems.

"To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say." 

--Rene Descartes