As competition in all its forms intensifies, customer management holds the key to increasing revenues in a way that also drives profitability. Whether cross-selling or upscaling products to customers, retaining existing customers, attracting new ones, using customer to help develop new products, or simply providing the same products more efficiently and at less cost - the importance of customer focus and management is without parallel.
Making it Happen
Build customer management by combining different approaches in different ways for managing different customers and products.
Treat one-on-one marketing as an ideal target rather than a practical means of returning more value.
Don’t guess what customers want but build an accurate picture from well-researched data.
Recognize that the customer relationship is only one part of the marketing mix, and that other elements may be more critical.
If possible, offer excellent customer management (before, during and after the sale) to everyone in the target market, not just a few.
Review the success of different approaches in your own and parallel markets as part of general corporate strategy reviews.
Stone M, 2006: Managing the Customer, Business the Ultimate Resource, pp. 85-86.