customer relatioinship management jntu kakinada

customer relatioinship management

UNIT.III 

Aspects of Customer Relationship Management

There are three aspects of CRM which can each be implemented in isolation from each other:

a. Operational CRM:

Automation or support of customer processes that include a company’s sales or service representative.

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b. Collaborative CRM:

Direct communication with customers that does not include a company’s sales or service representative (“self service”)

c. Analytical CRM:

Analysis of customer data for a broad range of purposes.

a. Operational CRM:

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Operational CRM provides support to “front office” business processes, including sales, marketing and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a customer’s contact history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database as necessary. One of the main benefits of this contact history is that customers can interact with different people or different contact “channels” in a company over time without having to repeat the history of their interaction each time. Consequently, many call centers use some kind of CRM software to support their call centre agents.

b. Collaborative CRM:

Collaborative CRM covers the direct interaction with customers, for a variety of different purposes, including feedback and issue- reporting. Interaction can be through a variety of channels, such as internet, email, automated phone (Automated Voice Response AVR), SMS or through mobile email.

Studies have shown that feedback through SMS or mobile email provides greater efficiency relative to alternative channels. Part of this has to do with the ease of use of particular feedback channels. A study of telephone feedback showed that if consumers cannot get through to customer service centres, 31% hang up and go to a competitor. 24% of consumers give up all together.

In addition, in a separate study, it was found that a bad experience with a customer call centre led to 56% of callers to stop doing business with the organisation concerned. The objectives of Collaborative CRM can be broad, including cost reduction and service improvements.

c. Analytical CRM:

Analytical CRM analyses customer data for a variety of purposes including:

i. Design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimise marketing effectiveness

ii. Design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling, retention

iii. Analysis of customer behaviour to aid product and service decision making (e.g. pricing, new product development etc.)

iv. Management decisions, e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis

v. Prediction of the probability of customer defection (churn).

Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of predictive analytics.

Strategy:

Several commercial CRM software packages are available which vary in their approach to CRM. However, CRM is not just a technology, but rather a holistic approach to an organization’s philosophy in dealing with its customers. This includes policies and processes, front-of-house customer service, employee training, marketing, systems and information management.

Hence, it is important that any CRM implementation considers not only technology, but furthermore the broader organisational requirements. The objectives of a CRM strategy must consider a company’s specific situation and its customers needs and expectations.

Technology Considerations:

The technology requirements of a CRM strategy can be complex and far reaching.

The basic building blocks include:

i. A database to store customer information. This can be a CRM specific database or an Enterprise Data warehouse.

ii. Operational CRM requires customer agent support software.

iii. Collaborative CRM requires customer interaction systems, eg an interactive website, automated phone systems etc.

iv. Analytical CRM requires statistical analysis software as well as software that manages any specific marketing campaigns.

Each of these can be implemented in a basic manner or in a high end complex installation.

Key Functionalities:

A typical CRM system is subdivided into three basic sub modules:

I. Marketing

II. Sales

III. Service

I. Marketing:

Marketing sub module primarily deals with providing functionalities of Long term planning and short term execution of marketing related Activities within an organisation.

Marketing Planning:

Long term Market Plans can be made and Quantitative as well as Qualitative measures (targets) can be set for a defined period and for different product groups, geographies etc. These are then monitored based on the actual performance throughout the defined period.

Campaign Management:

Short Term execution includes running Marketing campaigns via different communication channels targeting a pre-defined group of potential buyers with a specific message referring to a product or a group of products.

Lead Management:

One key objective of the Marketing function is to generate sales related leads, which finally get converted into Sales Revenues for the company. Marketing campaigns with the specific objective of generating leads (Prospective customers who may be interested in a product). Lead management deals with processing these Leads, carrying out a sanity check, evaluating the genuineness of the information (Since, there is a lot of information that is gathered during Marketing Campaigns it becomes necessary to screen these leads), and finally converting them to Hot Leads or Cold Leads.

II. Sales:

Sales functionalities are focused on helping the Sales team to execute and manage the presales process better and in an organised manner. Sales team is responsible for regularly capturing key customer interactions, any leads or opportunities they are working on etc, in CRM system. The system helps by processing this data, monitoring against the targets and proactively alerting the sales person with recommended further actions based on company’s sales policy.

Opportunity Management:

Opportunities help the Sales team by organizing all the relevant data regarding a prospective deal into one place. It is characterised by the details such as Prospective customer, expected budget, total spending, products interested in, expected closing date, Key players in the deal and there key characteristics, important dates and milestones etc. The Opportunity has several phases, e.g. initiation, identification, qualification, RFP received, quotation sent, and final stage, won or lost. Of course these phases can be defined based on individual company needs.A CRM system helps in each phase by “Guiding” the Sales representative to carry out certain suggested activities as defined by the company’s sales policy. It creates reminders and planned activities within the system,

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Quotation and Sales Order Management:

Opportunities if reaches a Quotation phase can be converted to a quotation, and, if won gets converted to a Sales order. Standard features of creating a “linked” Quotation or Sales Order from opportunities are provided. These Sales orders then flow to the Back-End (ERP) system for further execution and Delivery.

Activity Management:

Activities represent various Sales or Service related interactions with the customer (meetings, discussions, telephone calls, emails). Activity Management provides a platform to consolidate all the interactions with customer into a single platform, helping to build a 360 degree view of customer.

III. Service:

Service related functionalities are focused on effectively managing the customer service, avoid “leakage” of Warranty based services, avoid “Penalties” arising due to Non conformity of SLA (Service Level Agreements), and provide first and Second Level support to Customers.

Several functionalities are mentioned below:

i. Service Order Management

ii. Service Contract Management                                  

iii. Planned Services management

iv. Warranty Management

v. Installed Base (Equipment) Management

vi. SLA Management

vii. Resource Planning and Scheduling

viii. Knowledge Management (FAQs, How to guides)

ix. Call Center Support

x. Resource Planning and Workforce Management.

Use of Internet in Customer Relationship Management:

                                   Using the Internet and e-business to provide products and services and information to customers require that you really know and understand your customers’ needs. When customers contact your traditional business by visiting the store or office or contacting someone personally by phone, you have the opportunity to hear their questions and offer solutions based on personal communication. If they have a misunderstanding about your product or a sales objection you can deal with it immediately.

When people visit your online business at your website, you will not even know they are there. You do not have the opportunity to ask or answer questions. It is therefore vitally important that you anticipate their questions and concerns and provide the needed information in a way that makes it easy for them to fully understand your offering. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a way to get the maximum value from your e-business investment.

CRM is the broad category of concepts, tools, and processes that allows an organisation to understand and serve everyone with whom it comes into contact. CRM is about gathering information that is used to serve customers-basic information, such as name, address, meeting and purchase history, and service and support contacts. In a supplier relationship it might be procurement history, terms and conditions, or contact information. This information is then used to better serve the clients.

Making some of that information available on the web site will accomplish two things:

(1) Investors will be better informed, and they will be able to find out the information they require without making specific inquires that take time to provide;

(2) Investors will get the same information at the same time.

Suppliers and partners want to be connected with your organisation. Creating special places where these strategic partners can participate is valuable. Providing them with information, such as product promotions, press releases, and advertising campaigns will build strong relationships.

1. “E” Customer:

Online customers are different from those who are able to contact you and deal with you directly. They have a unique set of expectations. Generally, they expect immediate service, either by finding what they need on your site themselves; or, they may expect that the goods or services be delivered without delay. It is also common for prospective customers to have new or different levels of understanding about your business. An example of this was found by a book printing company that moved to the web to deliver a new “print to need” service.

Their existing customers are those organisations and individuals that have books and manuscripts ready to print and simply required final printing service. What they found was that individuals with books in progress or even those with the idea that they might want to write a book were now visiting their site. These potential customers need information about the self- publishing process before they are ready to buy services. It is important to provide information services to satisfy their requirements, so they will use the book printing services when they’re ready.

2. Power of the Internet:

                              Those organisations that understand the opportunity to build community on the Internet will be successful. A great example of this is an Alberta-based producer of specialty flower bulbs. This company began building its web presence by learning where its customers “hung out” on the web. They discovered their customers visited other flower-related sites and gardening portals, associated chat groups, and online forums. Therefore, the company spent time establishing links and alliances with these other sites to attract customers to its site.

The concept of community is also illustrated by the success of e-businesses like EBay, where specialty products are auctioned as well as more common products. People interested in antiques and collectibles have “gathered” at E-Bay to buy and sell. Portals, those sites that act as anchors, start sites, or comprehensive market-oriented locations have also discovered the power of community.

A site like Agriplace (Dot) com is one where those who are interested in agriculture can find just about everything related to this industry. News, references, product information and the ability to buy and sell related products are all available on the site.

3. Customer Life Cycle:

It takes ten times more effort and costs ten times more money to attract a new customer than to keep an existing customer. This “statistic” alone should be enough for companies to invest in CRM. Finding customers is the first step and the faster you get through the sorting process of qualifying prospects into customers; the faster will be the returns. A web environment adds to this process in a very positive way. You can provide the means for people visiting your site to select whether they are indeed right to be customers. Good design and clear information will aid in this goal.

Finding Customers:

                                       The process starts with finding customers. The Internet allows you to attract customers in two ways: (1) getting them to find you through search engines, links, and alliances with other sites; and (2), by proactively finding them and sending material electronically. The number one way people find online businesses is through search engines. There are a number of general-purpose engines where you can be registered, such as Altavista, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Because each of the major engines works differently in the way they index information, it is advised that companies engage a person or company that has experience in this activity.

                                                                        A knowledgeable service provider will provide you with prominent placement in the searches. To get more information about search engines, you can visit www(dot)searchengines(dot)com or www(dot)searchenginewatch(dot)com. It is also important to find the specialty search engines that focus on your specific industry.

4. Customer Service:

The Internet allows you to deliver customer service on a 24/7 basis. That’s not service on the 7th and the 24th of the month-it is service 7 days per week, 24 hours per day. This is a great opportunity because most of the service is “self-service” and does not require you to have staff on duty all of the time. Online service can be as simple as FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions), or as complex as interactive text, voice, or video service delivered in real time. Here are a few ideas on how to deliver service and in what areas.

FAQs:

You can anticipate the questions that customers might have and put the questions and responses in an area known as a FAQ. Simple implementations will allow visitors to scroll through the list with more advanced sites, adding keyword search capability and at the high end; you can set up a system where clients e-mail questions, when they do not find the answer they are looking for. Afterwards the answer is automatically added to the FAQ list.

Real-Time Service Chat:

By using products like Live Person from liveperson(dot)com or Webex Oncall from webex(dot)com, you can deliver personal services either as a text-base chat or audio. Many companies have found that a single support representative can work with several customers simultaneously when using a text-based service. The benefits of voice/audio are obvious but add significantly to the cost.

E-Learning as a Service:

An even more sophisticated way to deliver product and service support is by using one of the many video-based, e-learning services. These are offered in two ways: first as an archived or library product; and second, as real time. A real-time service that represents one of the new breeds of offerings is Essential Talk from the Essential Talk Network.

This service operates like a radio talk show with broadcast quality sound and interactivity using either posted chat or phone-in. One way to use this service is to record a session on a particular topic and then make it available from a library as users require the information. These sessions could be comprehensive “how to ‘s” with voice, slides, documents, and diagrams made available to the user.

Help Desks and Call Centres:

A help desk or call centre is a place where all customer contact is directed. Staff of the call centre has access to the necessary information to provide service to customers. There are a number of organisations that provide this service for a variety of companies thereby keeping the costs down for each organisation.

Delivery Status:

If you deliver a product through one of the logistics companies such as Purolator, FedEx or Canada Post, you can use their information service to help keep customers informed of the delivery status. Each of these organisations will provide a link for you to pass on the customers, so they can check status.

For instance, if you sell books or office supplies you can have them shipped to the customer by one of these companies. By letting the customer know the waybill by e-mail or at a secure place on the site, the customer can track the order from the time it leaves your premises. There are two benefits to this service. Customers have up-to-date information available any time of the day or night, and they do not have to call into your organisation to get it; this way do not have to add staff for this purpose.

CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE

Customer knowledge management refers to the tools and processes that a company uses to capture, store, organize, access, and analyze data about its customers, for the purposes of enhancing its sales, retention, and engagement efforts.

             

Consumer knowledge is defined as the research an organisation has about the needs and wants of their consumers. Consumer knowledge helps an organisation to align its business in line with customer expectations and helps the organisation to build strong customer relationship

WHAT IS CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE

Customer knowledge refers to understanding your customers, their needs, wants and aims. It is essential if a business is to align its processes, products and services to build real customer relationships. It includes intimate and tacit knowledge such as that of key account managers, and distant or analytic knowledge including database information about sales, web-behaviour or other analytical piece of data.

Obviously companies know about their customers, but frequently this is in a fragmented form and difficult to share or analyse and often it is incomplete or just in the head of one or two people. To be effective customer knowledge needs to be visible throughout the organisation to ensure the voice of the customer is heard.

                         Customer knowledge has become a big topic since we started. It now encompasses Big Data, Data Science and Business Intelligence drawing in Web analytics. One recent study of business failures concluded that often failure can be put down to complacency creating a gap between what you think customers want and will put up with, compared to what customers really want and what they will go to your competitors for.

                            Customer knowledge can be approached from two viewpoints. Firstly, you could say that customer knowledge is the "collection of information and viewpoints that an organisation has about its customers". Using this definition, the role of customer knowledge management is to capture and organise this data to allow it to be shared and discussed throughout the organisation. This can include sales and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, account reports, but also includes detailed analysis of more quantifiable factors such as purchasing patterns or contact activity, website and social media behaviour.

                                    An alternative definitive of customer knowledge is that it is the "collection of information and insight that you need to have to build stronger customer relationships". From this point of view what you currently know about your customers may not be sufficient. You may need to put in processes and systems to gather more information and data about who your customers are, what they do and how they think. It is likely that the business only has a partial view of customer activity. You may know what the customer spends with you, but not what they spend with competitors for instance.

                             The aim of building up a strong body of customer knowledge is to develop and manage customer relationships now and over the longer term. Customer knowledge should be determining what to offer, when to offer it and how much for and to monitor and affect customer behaviour in the way you market and promote your products. In the long term the company has to design new products, offer new services

                                               One problem with customer knowledge, is that it can be confused with CRM(customer relationship management) and contact management and analysis system. Although there is some overlap, we like to see customer knowledge as including a wider variety of less structured information that will help build insight into customer relationships.

Ideally, customer knowledge should work at both a micro and a macro level. That is it should include information about individuals that helps explain who they are, what they do and what they are looking for, but it should encompass the macro view across the customer database to enable broader analysis of customers a whole and so allow for modelling of behaviour and needs and the implementation of algorithmic systems to tailor products and services to specific customers one-by-one.

A successful customer knowledge programme should include information viewpoints and perspectives on key customers and analytics and trend information across the broad customer base allowing individuals to be targeted for communication and research and burgeoning relationships to be nurtured and grown.

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CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE VALUE

Customer Referral Value (CRV) and Customer Influence Value (CIV), Customer Knowledge Value (CKV) is an indirect measure of a customer’s monetary contribution to a firm. But unlike those other two metrics, CKV is not concerned with a customer’s interactions with existing or prospective customers. Rather, CKV concerns a customer’s interactions with the firm itself, specifically those interactions which involve a transfer of knowledge the former to the latter. CKV, in effect, aims to measure the value accrued from any improvements within a firm that are attributable to the ideas or suggestions provided by a given customer

Value of Customer Knowledge:

Customer knowledge is one of the most valuable assets your organisation has. Gathering demographic and geographic information about your customers allows you to segment them for special attention. You may want to inform customers of a particular product that is of interest to single males aged 25-35. Having a database containing this information will allow you to send an e-flyer to tell them about the product. When you remember that twenty percent of your customers give you eighty percent of your revenue, it is important to know who that twenty percent is.

Delivering to Customers:

There is no better way to ensure customer satisfaction than to deliver to their expectations. Make sure you have the logistics right-packaging, shipping, delivery to the customer’s door, and handling returns. Work with organisations like Canada Post or Purolator to gain an understanding of the logistical operations required by your e-business. They also have tools that bolt right onto your website and add significant value to your customers.

From a voluntarily submitted idea or suggestion to actual implementation on behalf of a firm requires many intermediate steps. A firm must identify the most effective channel(s) for quality feedback, screen and analyze the incoming feedback data, and then determine which suggestions are most in need of being addressed and/or which are most viable for implementation. CKV then equates to all profits realized post-implementation. Firms with strong feedback incentives, well-designed feedback channels, effective analytical strategies stand to maximize CKV. Moreover, firms that supply their customer base with greater knowledge about the products and services they provide are likelier to receive well-informed feedback. CLV generally correlates with CKV, but after CLV rises above a certain threshold, the customer in question is generally at a level of satisfaction that precludes the desire to submit feedback. 

Since customer feedback gets initiated through multiple channels, the following five-step strategy can be used to measure and manage customer feedback    

Step One: 

The business will have to analyze the various channels through which customers provide feedback and identify those channels that provide significant and quality feedback that the business can use. Some of the popular channels used by businesses to gather feedback include point-of-purchase surveys, web-based surveys, telephone surveys, website feedback link, consumer user groups, focus groups, and follow-up surveys, among others.

Step Two:

The business will have to come up with mechanisms of integrating the channels to collect feedback data. Customer feedback is a resource, and it is wasted if not acted upon and used for improvement. By finding out and addressing customer concerns from the feedback, the companies’ gain solid understanding of customer needs, wants, and issues. That is, streamlining and consolidating all feedback data can provide valuable insights into what customers need, want, and value most.

StepThree:

Businesses will have to adopt a standard way to normalize the data collected from the various channels to a “likert scale” of their choice that can be used for further analysis. Graphing the available data using advanced computer systems is another technique.

Steps Four & Five: 

The business will need to analyze and classify the feedback data into useful information that can be used in generating CKV. The feedback information retrieved by the company can further be classified in a 2x2 matrix. As shown in the figure below, the Type of Feedback is represented on the x-axis (positive or negative) and the Time to Act on the y-axis (immediate or long term). A response for internal and external action is presented within the matrix. In order to analyze the genuineness of the feedback, the matrix can be completed with selected feedback received that is correlated with customer interactions such as product returns and service calls with complaints during the same timeframe.

                      In this regard, feedback from popular sites (e.g. yelp, amazon, and mouthshut) can be collected and sorted out internally by a business. As we see the review/feedback reaction can be positive and negative and the action that should be taken from the business side could be immediate or long term. Similarly, the action from the business side can be an internal circular or a decision and there will be an external response to the customer by means of a forum, email or a social media website.

UTILIZATION OF DATA CRM IS A VALUABLE ASSET

Customer Relationship Management refers to the set guidelines, principals, and practices that an organization adopts when it is interacting with its customers and potential customers. According to a study, organizations with a fully utilized CRM system can raise its sales by 29%.

But how can the CRM system be utilized more effectively?

1. Simplicity is the best Policy: Most organizations implement a more complicated CRM system for its employees. They track excessive data. Any CRM framework needs Prospect data, when and what was discussed last, follow update/reminder and activity, who is it assigned to, and what is the dollar estimation of the opportunity.

2. Integration is Vital: Is it integral to what is as of now being utilized? Can data be effectively imported and exported from the CRM? Can you sync your CRM with an e-mail account?  An organization must make sure that their CRM integrates well with the other company systems.

3. Train your team Harder:  Implementing a simpler CRM system lets the employee complete their task faster. Train them to use it through their smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Reward your employees which will motivate them to perform better.

4. Treat CRM as a repository: Each organization needs to treat their CRM as the only repository for history like e-mails, calls, meetings, etc. Every employee must adopt CRM and should use it religiously.

5. Reports:  Make sure you have an updated data so that you can answer like questions like What did Sales Rep A do a week ago? What are the best deals openings? Is it accurate to say that we will hit our sales target this quarter?  How well does your organization use their CRM framework?

Change is never readily accepted and can cause resistance from employees. But no one will ever regret a move that will leverage your business by making it more organized and make you more productive. Adopting a new change would take time but will be useful for the organization's prosperous future.

                             

MULTICHANNEL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
However, in today’s digital age, a modern marketer needs to be aware of a plethora of channels available so that each campaign has a truly multichannel approach.            Although most major brands understand the importance of using multiple communications channels to reach their audience, many brands still struggle to meet this challenge.           According to an IBM survey reported by The Marketer, nearly 4 in every 10 marketers are failing to adopt an integrated multichannel approach that incorporates traditional and digital.                Part of the problem is that many marketers still consider the traditional channels such as print, broadcast and outdoor as separate and distinct from the newer digital ones.                However, when creating a communications strategy you don’t need to have a ‘traditional’ strategy and ‘digital’ strategy as many consumers float seamlessly between offline (traditional) and online (digital). The secret of a successful campaign is to look at the importance of each channel individually and see if it fits with your overall communications strategy. Not every campaign requires all online and in the same vein not every campaign requires all offline. The role of the marketer is to mix and match whichever channel best suits a campaign to achieve the overall marketing goals. Here’s some advice on identifying the channels and making them work for your brand.   1. Understand your audience Before undertaking a campaign you need to work out what platform your customers are using and how they prefer to interact with brands. As Vine, Instagram, or Snapchat are new to the market, many brands think it is something they need to be on, but there is no point putting time and effort managing it if your customers are middle aged men that won’t engage with you on there. Do not use a channel just for the sake of it — be strategic in your thinking.   2. Choose the right channel Most business owners are time poor so will need to adopt marketing activity that will generate cost effective results for limited resources. Although TV and outdoor are cash intensive and require monitoring, they can be used for creating instant awareness and on a larger scale. They are also responsible for driving traffic to the owned and earned media such as websites and social media — which are great for creating customer engagement. Print ads are also great for longevity, credibility and targeting industry specific publications, but a kneejerk reaction based on costs is unlikely to lead to the best results. The reality is that some channels may initially seem to be too cost-prohibitive to enter, but ultimately deliver the right message to the right audience and drive the desired results. This will pay back much stronger than something you bought at a much lower cost per thousand. Whichever channel you opt for, your choice should ultimately contribute to the overall goal of the campaign, by being most influencing in driving conversion and also working in tandem with the other channels to provide a consistent and unified message in the minds of the consumer.   3. Think ‘brand engagement’ Digital marketing has shifted its focus from brand awareness to brand engagement. There is no point shouting AT your customers; to sell your brand and create real longevity you will need them to interact with you. This is often referred to as ‘conversational marketing’ and it works well for the modern consumer that doesn’t really have brand loyalty and doesn’t usually spend time investing in them unless the company gives them something to invest in.   4. Tailor the campaign Although the message needs to be consistent, a truly successful multichannel strategy needs content specifically tailored to suit each channel. All too often brands expect the same approach to work across both traditional and digital mediums, but unfortunately the same strategy won’t work across both print and mobile platforms as each approach needs to be customised to a specific medium.                 In conclusion, the importance of a multichannel approach in a communication strategy is that it allows the marketer to develop a brand more thoroughly. A print ad in a magazine can start the customer on the journey, but once they come to your site or social media audio or a video can bring it to life. This is why digital communities have emerged as important tools in a multichannel strategy. The challenge for marketers is to ensure the brand message remains consistent when delivering different content across channels. FACTORS AFFECTING THE CHOICE OF CHANNELS Important factors affecting the choice of channels of distribution by the manufacturer are: (A) Considerations Related to Product When a manufacturer selects some channel of distribution he/she should take care of such factors which are related to the quality and nature of the product. They are as follows: 1. Unit Value of the Product: When the product is very costly it is best to use small distribution channel. For example, Industrial Machinery or Gold Ornaments are very costly products that are why for their distribution small distribution channel is used. On the other hand, for less costly products long distribution channel is used. 2. Standardised or Customised Product: Standardised products are those for which are pre-determined and there has no scope for alteration. For example: utensils of MILTON. To sell this long distribution channel is used. On the other hand, customised products are those which are made according to the discretion of the consumer and also there is a scope for alteration, for example; furniture. For such products face-to-face interaction between the manufacturer and the consumer is essential. So for these Direct Sales is a good option. 3. Perishability: A manufacturer should choose minimum or no middlemen as channel of distribution for such an item or product which is of highly perishable nature. On the contrary, a long distribution channel can be selected for durable goods. 4. Technical Nature: If a product is of a technical nature, then it is better to supply it directly to the consumer. This will help the user to know the necessary technicalities of the product. (B) Considerations Related to Market Market considerations are given below: 1. Number of Buyers: If the number of buyer is large then it is better to take the services of middlemen for the distribution of the goods. On the contrary, the distribution should be done by the manufacturer directly if the number of buyers is less. 2. Types of Buyers: Buyers can be of two types: General Buyers and Industrial Buyers. If the more buyers of the product belong to general category then there can be more middlemen. But in case of industrial buyers there can be less middlemen. 3. Buying Habits: A manufacturer should take the services of middlemen if his financial position does not permit him to sell goods on credit to those consumers who are in the habit of purchasing goods on credit. 4. Buying Quantity: It is useful for the manufacturer to rely on the services of middlemen if the goods are bought in smaller quantity. 5. Size of Market: If the market area of the product is scattered fairly, then the producer must take the help of middlemen. (C) Considerations Related to Manufacturer/Company Considerations related to manufacturer are given below: 1. Goodwill: Manufacturer’s goodwill also affects the selection of channel of distribution. A manufacturer enjoying good reputation need not depend on the middlemen as he can open his own branches easily. 2. Desire to control the channel of Distribution: A manufacturer’s ambition to control the channel of distribution affects its selection. Consumers should be approached directly by such type of manufacturer. For example, electronic goods sector with a motive to control the service levels provided to the customers at the point of sale are resorting to company owned retail counters. 3. Financial Strength: A company which has a strong financial base can evolve its own channels. On the other hand, financially weak companies would have to depend upon middlemen. (D) Considerations Related to Government Considerations related to the government also affect the selection of channel of distribution. For example, only a license holder can sell medicines in the market according to the law of the government. In this situation, the manufacturer of medicines should take care that the distribution of his product takes place only through such middlemen who have the relevant license. (E) Others 1. Cost: A manufacturer should select such a channel of distribution which is less costly and also useful from other angles. 2. Availability: Sometimes some other channel of distribution can be selected if the desired one is not available. 3. Possibilities of Sales: Such a channel which has a possibility of large sale should be given weight age.

FIVE SIMPLE WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR CUSTOMER BASE

 

                  Do you find yourself thinking about how to increase your customer base?

One of key drivers in your company’s value is the value of your customers. Analyzing customer profitability and maximizing a customer’s lifetime value are highly important and essential to any business.

To increase your customer base, it is necessary to stay in constant contact with potential and existing customers and the more value your business can offer, the more likely they will remain loyal.

A 5% increase in customer retention can result in a 75% increase in customer value. The challenge is how to improve your retention by 5%.

Below are 5 simple ways to bring in more customers and increase your customer base.

 

1. Offer a free newsletter

Free is something that everyone can afford, from small businesses to global corporations. When you offer a free newsletter, you are informing your potential customers that you are willing to provide free information from the start. If you provide good content, customers will know more about your business.

 

2. Increase your customer base by asking for opinions

Before a web visitor leaves your website, request that they complete a short survey related to your business. People are happy to express themselves and often enjoy telling you about their online and offline experiences. You can use a survey to conduct industry research, customer experience or measure customer satisfaction.

 

3. Keep up and maintain excellent customer support and service

A customer who contacts customer support about their first order is just as important as a customer who contacts customer service about their tenth order. Treat each customer with respect and take appropriate action. A happy customer is likely to tell at least three friends about a positive experience and great customer service leads to increased sales. Best of all, you can keep track of previous customer communication through tools such as CRM software.

4. Keep your website content fresh

Fresh and informative content is one of the main elements that pull in new visitors and potential customers. Keep your content fresh by publishing a blog that reports the latest business news, key-takeaways from whitepapers and hot topics within your industry. Fresh content will also help your website be found in search engines.

5. Promote your business on social media networks

Facebook users have an average of 229 friends. When you create new content, launch a new product or run a new campaign, be sure you share this across the social media channels you are active in. There is no easier way to grow your customer base than providing value and then having your customers promote your brand for you.