HTH162

TOPIC 8
Enhancing Customer Relationship
CONTENT:

 The role of trust

 The importance of customer relationship management
 Provider characteristics affecting customer loyalty
 Be responsible for your customer relationships
 Making customer number one
 Enhancing customer satisfaction as a strategy for retaining customers
THE ROLE OF TRUST
 The most important criterion for a relationship.
 The key element in cementing interpersonal relationship.
 Customer loyalty: term used to describe the tendency of
customers to return to a product or organization regularly
because of the service and satisfaction they receive.
 For customers to continue doing business with you, they must trust
you and your organization.
 The trust needs to be earned.
 TRUST
 When you win customer trust, customer satisfaction is achieved.
 Customer satisfaction: a marketing term that is used to describe
how well an organization is doing in providing products and
services that meet or exceed a customer’s need and
expectation.
 To gain and maintain trust, organization needs to incorporate the
values and beliefs into daily actions by exhibiting trustworthiness
in words and actions.
 Every touch point with a customer is an opportunity for you and
your organization to influence customer loyalty.
THE DIMENSIONS OF CUSTOMER TRUST AND
LOYALTY

 Personal experience
 Organizational knowledge of the company
 Deference (trust of company in general)
 Reference (what one learns about a company from others)
 Glitz (advertising, packaging and high pricing)
 STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING TRUST
 Communicate effectively and convincingly -
i.e. don’t do one thing but say another
 Display
caring and concern - This can be
done through simple communications with
customers.
 Befair – treat all customers(internal and
external) with respect and consistency.
 Admit errors or lack of knowledge - Ego can make it
hard to do this sometimes!
 Take responsibility when something doesn’t work right
and fix the problem.
 Trust
your customers - Most customers aren’t out to rip
you off! Most have valid concerns
 Keep your word - If you promise it, deliver it
 Provide peace of mind -Be positive and assertive
 Takeresponsibility for customer relationships -Be caring
and have the best interest of the customer at heart
 Personalize
your approach -Know customer names
and recognize them, help customers feel accepted
 Keep an open mind - Make it a habit to assess
attitude
 Individualize
service -Handle every situation different,
depending on the customer . Find out what their
needs are and meet those needs.
 Show respect- you might disagree but do respect
the customer point of view or need and provide the
best possible service.
 Elicit customer input - Try to get feedback from customers and make positive
changes that will enhance the customer experience.
Ways to gather feedback
 Comment cards
 Toll free numbers
 Verbal comments
 Follow up phone surveys
 Service contact surveys
 Internet surveys
 Exit interviews
 Focus groups
 Sales and service records
 THE IMPORTANCE OF
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT (CRM)
 DEFINITION

Concept of identifying customer needs;

understanding and influencing customer behavior
through ongoing communication strategies in an
effort to acquire, retain and satisfy the customer.
COMPONENTS IN THE CRM PROCESS
The CRM concept involves
Operational (involving sales and service representatives).
Relational/ Collaborative (involving interaction with
customers through such means as e-mail.)
Technological Web pages and automated voice
response, or AVR, systems.
Analytical (involving analyzing customer data for efforts
like marketing and financial forecasting).
FOSTERING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

Seems to forget the value of fostering solid long

term relationships.
Companies treat existing customers poorly or not
as well as newly acquired ones.
Examples:
High maintenance and transaction fees
charged by financial institutions.
High fees charged by hotels for local calls.
Exorbitant fees charged by airlines for ticket
changes and baggage.
Inability
for existing cell phone customers locked into
contracts to get the same deals as new customers.
Cancellation fees by doctors’ and dentists’ offices
regardless of the reason.
Restocking fees charged by many online retailers for
returned items.
Charges for air and water for vehicles at a gas station.
Feescharged to access Internet connections in hotel
rooms.
 BENEFITS OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT

o Less need to obtain new customers through marketing, since current

customers are aware of offerings and take advantage of them.
o Reduced marketing costs, since direct mail, follow-up, and other
customer recruitment activities are reduced.
o Increased return on investment (ROI), since marketing can target
specific customer needs.
o Enhanced customer loyalty due to pricing and product service offerings that
meet current customer needs.
o Elevated profitability due to increased sales, customer referrals, and longer
customer retention during life cycle.
o Targeted marketing based on statistics on which customers buy more and on
high-ticket item sales
o Research shows it is much more expensive to earn a new customer than keep an
old one
 PROVIDER CHARACTERISTICS
AFFECTING CUSTOMER LOYALTY
 RESPONSIVENESS – Make customers feeling appreciated , listening to
complaints and fixing the problem, attend to customers promptly

 ADAPTABILITY – take measures to adapt your personality style to that of

your customers in order to communicate with and serve them effectively.

 COMMUNICATION SKILLS - Ability to listen, write and speak effectively; and

dealing with emotional situations are keys to successful customers service.

 DECISIVENESS - Ability to listen and then make a decision which results in

actions

 ENTHUSIASM - Enthusiasm on the part of the customer service professional

can make the customer excited about the product, too.
EXAMPLES OF UNETHICAL AND ETHICAL
BEHAVIOR
 Many organizations have codes of ethics to guide ethical behavior
 Before someone complains, companies voluntarily recall a product that it
discovered was defective or potentially dangerous.
 A manager who notifies a customer when he or she finds out that an
employee has lied to or deceived the customer.
 An employee who reports a theft carried out by another employee.
 A truck driver who tracks down the owner of a parked car at a mall to
identify herself as the person who accidentally scraped a bumper while
making a delivery.
 A cab driver who finds a wallet in his taxi and turns it in.
 Providing or substituting an inferior or more expensive product for an advertised name
brand item.
 Providing inferior or nonstandard parts or repairs on a service call but charging for
factory parts.
 Misleading a customer about what is covered on an extended home warranty in order
to sell a policy and make a commission.
 Failing to adhere to local, state, or federal regulations (e.g., dumping hazardous waste,
such as petroleum or pesticide products, in unauthorized areas or collecting sales taxes
but failing to report the taxes).
 Lying to a patient about why they have to wait so long before being seen by a
technician, nurse, doctor (e.g., the medical professional came in late or returned late
from lunch).
 TAKING INITIATIVE - Doing something even if you aren’t asked to do it.

 KNOWLEDGE - Know about the product you are working with or selling.

 PERCEPTIVENESS - Understanding and seeing when a customer has a

need , Awareness of other people’s feelings

 PLANNING ABILITY - Also, deal with situations that are unexpected

(contingency plans)
PLANNING PROCESS MODEL

Set a Examine Identify Select best Create implementation

goal and alternative alternative plan
evaluate s s
 PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITY- if a customer have a problem,
you have a problem. You should take responsibility for the
problem instead of trying to place blame or defer the issue to
someone else.

 PROFESSIONALISM – By projecting a positive personal image,

through manner of dress, knowledge, appearance of work
area and your mental attitude, you are better positioned to
established and maintain a strong customer relationship.
BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPS
 QUOTE:

“It’s not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only
handle the money. It’s the customer who pays the wages.”
Henry Ford
 WHAT IS CUSTOMER RELATIONS?

Customer relations refers to the methods, strategies, and processes a

company uses to build and maintain customer relationships.

 https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-relations/
 EXAMPLES OF CUSTOMER RELATIONS ACTIVITIES
 Providing consistently great customer service
 Analyzing customer feedback through surveys and customer service interactions
 Setting marketing strategies
 Working with IT and technical teams to streamline customer interactions and
decrease wait times
 Building and maintaining brand credibility
 Ensuring the customer service experience is consistent across customer touchpoints
 Proposing solutions to frequent issues, bottlenecks, and customer holdups (including
researching and proposing the right sales and marketing software)
MAKING CUSTOMER
NUMBER ONE
 Make positive initial contact - In other words, make a good
first impression
 Establish
rapport with the customer , in this case, when
something goes wrong, the customer will be more willing to
work with you on it since they feel a kinship
 Identify and satisfy needs quickly
 Exceed expectations
 Follow up
 Encourage customer to return
 ENHANCING CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION AS A STRATEGY FOR
RETAINING CUSTOMERS
 Pay attention to customer so you can address needs
 Only deal with one customer at a time
 Know your customers
 Give customers special treatment-make sure they know
they are special
 Service each customer adequately
 Do the unexpected
 Handle complaints effectively
 Sell benefits, not features
 Know your competition
 Cost of dissatisfied customers
THE END