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| The
Challenge of Acquiring New Customers |
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Customer acquisition starts off with establishing
a "share of mind", by creating product awareness. This is traditionally
achieved by placing your offerings ahead of those of the competitors
within the prospect's mind. Usually expensive mass marketing
techniques are used for this purpose. The high levels of expenditure
required usually mean that all but the very well heeled waste
their advertising expenditure. Most efforts are ineffective,
achieving little other than margin erosion. At this stage of
the challenge, if you are lucky, the prospect may become aware
of you, but no lasting bond has been established. A competitor,
with a slicker campaign, may still win the prospect over. This
is usually the most creative, challenging and expensive part
of the marketing campaign.
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To
meet the challenge of acquisition has usually required
deep pockets, intense creativity, analytical rigour and
advanced technology. Components that have been out of
reach for the majority of businesses until recently. By
using advanced segmentation analytics dialoguemarketing
is capable of automatically engaging with the prospect,
gathering information and in the process sifting through
multiple suspects, producing qualified prospects for targeting
by your organisation. These qualified prospects in turn
have a higher probability of becoming profitable new customers. |
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| Making
Your Customer Service Pay Dividends |
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A trial purchase follows your initial marketing
efforts. This is where you have the opportunity to impress.
Don't waste it. Every single customer touch point needs to be
optimised, to name a few, product displays, in-store music and
atmosphere, employee cleanliness and courtesy, delivery punctuality,
production accuracy and lead time, quality control, customer
feedback, invoicing accuracy, website layout and functionality,
telephone etiquette, store access and employee interactions.
If the trial purchase does not satisfy the customer there will,
in all likelihood, not be a second purchase. If perceptions
meet or exceed expectations, the customer is open to a repurchase.
Because dialoguemarketing
is premised upon communication, there are truly powerful capabilities,
or loyalty tools, to manage the intricate relationships between
customers and the various business functions within your organisation.
The net result undoubtedly being a more efficient organisation
and a truly satisfied customer, raising the probability of a
repeat purchase
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| Solving
the Challenge of Retaining Existing Customers |
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VALUE
= PERCEIVED BENEFIT - PERCEIVED COST
After the purchase your customers will evaluate the transaction,
and this is done in accordance with a simple formula,
one by which most businesses fail. If the perceived benefit,
which is a |
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combination of product offering and customer service exceeds
the customer's expectations or the perceived costs of dealing
with you, you would have created value for the customer. Not
unexpectedly, most businesses erode value, and are painful experiences
for the customer. It is your duty to create value for
your customer. Surprisingly, most businesses ignore
their past customers during this phase, only being too happy
to have made the initial sale. Any interactions during this
phase need to work towards deepening the relationship, therefore
the nuisance factor needs to be minimised. Forget about mass
marketing, usually in the form of mass email or sms campaigns.
Engage your customer in personalised dialogue. Gather crucial
information, respond to customer requests, build value. Your
customers want to know and feel you them. By using the dialoguemarketing
capabilities effectively you can automatically gather information,
engage and respond to your customers, thereby building a positive
association with your brand, which has a high probability of
resulting in repeat purchases. It is up to you to nurture this
positive association by reinforcing the value benefits, and
by developing high switching costs. |
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| Customer
Data, The New Competitive Advantage |
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Over
time the customer profile becomes increasingly accurate,
and the customer may have developed a strong bond with
the brand. Because of a positive association with the
brand the customer would be receptive to offers to cross-sell
(offering related products that would add customer value)
and up-sell (offers to trade up the product chain). These
efforts, when successful lead to value creation for the
customer, and improved profitability for you. |
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The
Challenge of Acquiring New Customers
