The
first part of this series has analyzed the concept of Relationship Marketing
while the second part titled CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP Part 2: Benefits of Relationship Marketing to Firms outlined its benefits to organizations
that practice it. Here, I present another sequel and third part of a theme we
started couple of months back, which highlights what customers stand to gain
when organizations engage in relationship marketing.
Customers many times don’t give deliberate attention to brand loyalty;
they just want the best, most affordable or most convenient product or service.
But most times they subconsciously find themselves stuck on a product, usually
as a result of the relationship marketing tactics deployed by the manufacturer.
So, in the long run, the customers enjoy the services being rendered to them
and also benefit through relationship marketing because they get a better
product, a good backup service and the company is always prepared to listen to
their grievances. Such major customer benefits may be summarized as follows:
- Superior
value through better products and services
- Attention
to customer complaints
- Customization of products and services
BETTER PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
All
such firms that have taken the relationship route have invested substantially
in improving the quality of products and create systems to provide the
requisite backup service. Because to retain a customer it is necessary to keep
him/her satisfied.
When Philips NV, the Netherlands-based
electronic giant, developed an online product for children that would soon be
launched in Europe, they sent industrial designers, cognitive psychologists and
sociologists in mobile vans to communities in Italy, France and the Netherlands
to help brainstorm for ideas for new electronic products to meet customers’
changing needs. They hosted a dialogue in which specialists ‘and customers
interactively imagined new possibilities. Philips looked at all the ideas,
narrowed them down and settled on one online interactive product for children.
The researchers then went back to the communities and tested the new product
idea on the same children.
Another
example relates to how Unilever group
gave us an insight into how firms are trying to solve their customers’ product
application related problems in India. Kitchens of institutions like hotels,
hostels, airports and factory canteens work almost continually without enough
time available for cleaning. Kitchen grills usually have extremely greasy
deposit formations on them, which are tough to clean.
Traditionally,
using chlorine has been the preferred method for cleaning them. Besides the
fact that chlorine is a hazardous chemical, the process itself is arduous
because the grill needs to be dismantled, cleaned and left out to dry
overnight. So there is need for a backup grill while one is being cleaned.
Lever
Industrial already had its Taski and Clax range of cleaning products for such applications,
but when confronted with the problem of cleaning kitchen grills, Lever
Industrial found that these products were not fully effective. The company
therefore asked its R&D division to develop a new product for this specific
application. Within a few months they came out with Suma grill-cleaning liquid.
It is non-hazardous in nature and removes deposits without any need for
dismantling the grill.
ATTENTION TO CUSTOMER
COMPLAINTS
To win
and retain customer loyalties, it is essential to hear the complaints and solve
their grievances effectively. Philips Electronics started a 24-hour complaint
registration service for customers. Some of their service centres offers free
check-up of sets to be repaired. Hero
Honda and LML Vespa have also
substantially beefed up their service centres to offer personalized attention
and satisfactory solution to product-related problems. Service organizations
such as Apollo Hospitals, Citibank, ANZ
Grindlays Bank, Hyat Regency Hotel, HDFC, Federal Express Service and Singapore Airlines are getting
specially attuned to listening to customer problems. At times, they even go out
of their way to solve customer problems.
CUSTOMIZATION OF PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES
Customization
means offering a product or service tailor-made to suit the convenience of each
individual customer. In the Air India
frequent flier scheme (discussed
in part 2), for instance, there is a customized chain at work. The database
records the customer’s flight and travel preferences and other likes and
dislikes. This is updated each time the customer takes a flight. So the system
allots the person a favourite seat, his preferred meal and on arrival at
destination a room in the hotel where the newspaper he prefers is delivered to
him. All of these go into building closer bonds with the customer.
Levi Strauss, the California-based apparel company
began marketing a ‘made to order’ service for customizing women’s jeans in
selected US locations. Sales clerks
measure customers and feed the data into a computer-aided design information
system. The customer tries on sample jeans in the store, to perfect the fit.
This additional data is also fed into the system. The system forwards the
information to a computerized fabric-cutting machine at the factory and the
jeans are made to order. The custom jeans cost only US$10 more than the
mass-produced jeans.
In India, Mafatlal sells fabrics as well as branded readymade garments.
A research conducted by MARG showed
that while most executives buy readymade shirts, only a few preferred to buy
readymade trousers because unlike shirts, trousers don’t offer as good a fit as
tailored ones. In its quest to get closer to the customer, Mafatlal decided to create a product that offers the purchase
convenience of readymade trouser with the fit of a tailored garment. Thus was
born the ‘Dial-a-trouser’ service targeted at busy executives. The service was
first introduced in Bombay and is now extended to Bangalore and Delhi. The
customer may call the company’s showroom to send the tailor to his home or
office. The tailor goes there with the shade card and samples of fabrics. The
fabric and colour are selected, measurements taken and the trousers are
delivered within five days of the order.
One
common attribute of the three customer benefits enumerated above is that, they
all solve some major consumption related problems, like quality, purchase
process, ease of use, product suitability and so on. At the end of the day, all
efforts made by firms to retain their customers, as much as it benefits the
company’s turnover also end up to the benefit of the customers. So, next time
you want to choose a brand, you may want to consider what more is in it for you
besides consumption. Adam Smith, a
famous economist in his book “Wealth of
Nations” in the year 1775 says “Consumption
is the sole end and purpose of all production and the interest of the producer
ought to be attended to, only so far it may be necessary for promoting that of
the consumer”.
Reference: National Institute of Business Management –
Marketing Management – Module II
@TywoAkintoye
