I Am Not a Number
Today competition for customers is fierce and customer power is on the increase. But what are customers to you? Information to be managed? Or people to be engaged?
There are two answers. The old one is called Customer Relationship Management (CRM). CRM is a process by which companies capture, store and analyze information relating to all parties in any business transaction – vendor, partner, and internal customer.
The second is called Customer Experience Management (CEM). It is the future.The key to sustaining a competitive advantage lies in focusing in on the “customer experience”.<span> </span>Whenever a customer interacts with your firm and its products, this interaction must <em>create value</em> for the customer. To create value for customers, the firm must connect with customers and must create experiences that are memorable.
Businesses have to understand how products (goods, services, or experiences) help make customers lives better (easier, more meaningful) and how customers feel about their products, including any emotional associations they may have. This is called the emotional value or ‘e-value’ of a product.
What does this mean is real terms? In a phrase, doing things that your customers like. Customers want to be liked by the people serving them. The more you do this, the more they will return, and encourage others to come along with them. The more this happens, the more profit you will make.
E-value can take the form of friendliness, authenticity, integrity, or downright fun. They do not want to be analysed or systematized by the procedures of ‘scientific management’. They are people, not numbers.
Forget this in any aspect of their contact with you, and they will forget you.
Our next Customer Service and Satisfaction 2-Day Workshop is on 27-27th February.
Venue: Queen’s University, Belfast
Time: 9.30 – 4.30 Cost: £360
To book contact Marc Forte at QUB on 028 9097 5260/5261 or email m.forte@qub.ac.uk. Discounts available for multiple bookings.
The 21st century marketplace is brutally competitive. Recent research confirms that customer loyalty is more a result of how customers feel about doing business with you, than what they think about your products or services. Companies that satisfy their customers here gain their clients’ loyalty in the form of repeat business and referrals. The most successful companies utilize this by managing the total customer experience – not only meeting, but exceeding, both the rational and emotional needs of their customers. In this course you will gain an understanding of the building-blocks of a customer experience, learn how to manage your brand’s role, and create satisfying interactions that turn customers into campaigners.
