Are you more likely to be loyal to a company that has taken the time to build a relationship with you? Studies show that building strong relationships with customers is key to customer satisfaction, retention, and business success. This is why relationship marketing has become a popular approach to cultivating strong bonds with clients. It is perhaps a slower approach in terms of the number of products or services sold in the short term but it is more lucrative in the long run.
In this article, we will discuss the 4 basic elements of relationship marketing as well as the benefits this approach provides. We will also provide an example of relationship marketing.
What Are the 4 Basic Elements of Relationship Marketing?
The key to successful relationship marketing is to build a strategy and know when to implement which step. There are 4 basic elements that make up successful relationship marketing.
- A People Orientated Strategy: It is important to ensure that your marketing and retention strategy is focused on people and making customers happy. It is a long-term strategy that focuses on nurturing the current customers to turn them into loyal supporters. Every aspect of your strategy should be built around one simple question “How does this improve my relationship with my client”?
- Get to Know Your Customer: It is important to actively pursue information about your customer. As you gather the information you will get to know your customer better and be able to provide them with better service that is tailored toward them.
- Excell at Communication: Once you know your customer you will understand their preferred method of communication and will be able to provide that to them. Communication is key to building and maintaining a strong relationship and the manner in which people prefer to receive their communication from a company can be just as important.
- Make Use of a CRM: A CRM is vital to building customer relationships as it allows one to store all the information one has gathered over the years in one central location. This also allows multiple employees to access this information so that relationships can be built up and continued once employees leave and new representatives take their place.
What is an Example of Relationship Marketing?
A great example of relationship marketing in South Africa is FNB (First National Bank). From rewarding users with eBucks to making payments easier than ever with GEO Pay. FNB is constantly looking for new ways to make their customers’ lives easier and give back to their loyal customers. Customer retention is extremely important for banks which is why they are often at the forefront of new relationship marketing strategies and ideas.
To find out more about how a CRM like Leadtrekker can assist you in your customer relationship marketing strategy, feel free to fill in a contact form or even book a demo! We are here to help your business succeed by improving your customer relationship management strategy.
