Strategies for Customer Engagement

Introduction

The subsequent study would be deliberative about the role of organisations which have customer centric policies from the perspective of the manager of a telecommunications company.

1. Examination of ways through which organisations deal with customers

1.1 Analysis of customer behaviour and identification of patterns and differences in approaches

The research of Raju and Dhandayudam (2018) has highlighted that customer behaviour could be analysed through the assessment of two broad categories such as the lifestyles of the customers and the actual behaviours of the customers towards the various products and services which could be offered to them. These include specific activities, interests, opinions and values associated with the target groups of customers. Wong and Wei (2018) have argued that marketers generally concentrate upon the preferred formats of entertainments/hobbies of prospective customers so as to formulate a psychological profile of such customers to determine their interests and the probable activities within a specified format of market frameworks (such as purchasing or search preferences and expenditure propensities). Such psychological profiles could effectively direct the marketers to determine the interest details of the customers.

1.2 Customer segmentation and identification of targeted groups

This format of customer segmentation involves application of customer behavioural analytical approach. This is primarily indicative of the efforts of business organisations to develop an accurate measure of product development specifications and parameters. Singh (2018) has observed that the initial of customer behavioural patterns is the complex purchase behaviour identification of customers which signify the seeking of actual benefits by the customers in any particular product or service. This approach has been determined by Sarvari, Ustundag and Takci (2016) to be Dissonance Reduction purchase behaviour pattern on part of the customers. Furthermore, the second has been outlined by Fuentes et al (2018) to be the Variety Seeking purchase behaviour under where the marketing research concentrates on the readiness stage of purchase of identified potential customers. The derived information is then utilised to segment the market into heavy, medium and light usage elements so as to judiciously allocate organisational resources to reduce cost overheads. This behavioural approach could be linked to Demographic Segmentation since this includes multiple variables such as age, gender, income groups (with greater income, customers could seek greater variety in similar products), living conditions and social class structures. The third segment consists of habitual purchase behaviour of brand loyal customers. The emphasis of marketing is on the identification of particular attitudes amongst customer segments such as the measure of enthusiasm for purchase within the customers. This segment is indicative of the Psychographic factors of segmentation where values, activities, interests and opinions of customers underscore the purchase behaviours ultimately.

2. Customer retention skills and practices development

2.1 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Customer Relationship Marketing appraisal

According to Nykamp (2019), CRM could be defined as the comprehensive strategic process to acquire, retain and utilise selective customer information for the purpose of formulation of superior value for both the business organisation and the customer. The objective of effective CRM is to gather customer related data effectively to identify the valuable customers and utilise the gained information to increase brand loyalty of customers through designing customised products. Kaul (2017) has observed that this encompasses aligning the business processes with customer management strategies for the purpose of incremental profit acquisition over the long term on the basis of customer loyalty management. To this effect, the elements underscoring the establishment and nurturing of enduring customer relationships are as the following:

1: Identification of the customers through market research.

2: Collection and integration of customer data.

3: Analysis of such data to differentiate between such customer segments.

4: Identification of customer preferences and requirements.

5: Customisation of products and services accordingly.

On the other hand, Customer Relationship Marketing could be comprehended to be the strategy through which long term relationships with the most prospective customers could be established and retained through laser focussed campaign of brand improvement for the customers. This approach is completely divergent from that of the traditional transaction based marketing approach which emphasises upon the expansion of numbers of sales. According to Phelps (2019), the factors which constitute an effective Customer Relationship Marketing strategy are as the following:

1: Communication of the organisational value to the customers through individual interactions.

2: Responding to the queries, concerns and complaints of customers through various monitoring tools.

3: Sharing of organisational content (related to products and services) with the valued customers in a proactive manner. This involves heightened frequency of communication.

4: Expansion of loyalty rewards programmes consistently (this includes unexpected perks such as complementary shopping vouchers).

2.2 Customer retention practice of different industries

The value of customer retention

The value of customer retention has been highlighted by Jain and Patel (2016), in the following manner:

1: Customer retention fosters greater conversion rates due to brand loyalty and product familiarity.

2: Customer retention through loyalty facilitates less marketing resource application.

3: The scope for customer satisfaction increment through customer feedback based product customisation is also high.

Gallarza, Ruiz-Molina and Gil-Saura (2016) have argued that practices to retain valued customers could be constituted through the following:

1: Reduction of customer attrition through consistent efforts towards enhancement of customer loyalty.

2: Increment of reselling since retention of customer bases could stabilise the product performance acceptance parameters as the preferences of existing customers could be ascertained accurately.

3: Emphasising upon extraordinary customer management methods through frequent follow-on services at post-sales scenarios.

4: Development of an effectively recurring communications calendar on the basis of products/service launches for the premium customers.

2.3 Demonstration of the concept of ‘adding value’ to customers

Added value consists of the difference in between the acquisition costs of raw materials and the offered goods/services. With incremental adding of value, any business organisation could charge the customers with greater cost prices which could contribute to enhancement of greater revenue. The process of value addition to existing customer services consists of the following sub-factors:

1: Brand identity formulation through emphasis on quality and status of the brand. One example is the greater cost price of Nike products than Puma in spite of the similarity of products.

2: Multimodal advertising campaigns to enhance brand loyalty.

3: Putting the customer preferences at the centre of the product concept formulation so as to maintain greater customisation services to suit the needs of customers.

4: Provisioning of additional features to the existing product could entail generation of extra payment from consumers. One particular example is the Innova model of Toyota which is offered in 12 distinct versions through inclusion of additional features.

3. Exploration of examples of customer cantered organisations and the benefits of such an approach

3.1 Customer centred organisations across different industries and their approaches

Benefits

Customer centricity of business operations could foster greater innovativeness in the organisations which concentrate on such services in their customer management policies. The emphasis is on provisioning of enlivening experiences for customers. Kumar and Reinartz (2016) have stated that the outcome could be measured in terms of greater growth and increment in revenue for the customer centric enterprises. This becomes a direct outcome of the superior customer experiences which translates into greater revenue generation.

Customer centred organisations of different industries

Retail

Amazon: This e-commerce retailer consistently hosts customer solutions such as 1 day shipping, creative physical locations and ease of returns. These constitute integrated singular channel experiences for the customers.

Finance

Charles Schwab: This financial operator leverages customer data to better profile the customers, track the emerging financial trends and develop the most advanced, forward thinking perceptions related to financial services.

Healthcare

Acxiom: This healthcare service provider consistently tracks health attributes of in excess to 44000 patients so that proactive connection with them could be maintained so that referrals and check-in systems could be streamlined.

Software

Google: It boosts of the highest of ACSI score amongst the various software companies since employees are closely integrated to the product offerings and could assist the customers as per their necessities.

3.2 Recommendations for a specific organisation regarding customer management approach betterment

To this purpose, the selection of the leading global automobile manufacturing company of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) has been performed. In terms of development of the customer management approach, the necessary recommendations are the following:

1: In case of purchase of automobiles, customer preferences could range from practicality of purpose to reliability, from economic fuel consumption to effective ergonomics (physiographical stability) and safety. For marketing units of BMW, information pertaining to the preferences of customers could outline the actual utilisation of the product by the customer. Thus, versatile products could be designed with extensive ranges of utility so that different customer segments could be persuaded regarding the efficacies of the offered products.

2: Renewed focus on the development of Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) to total up the scores on a monthly basis and then ideate methods to respond to the scores through introduction of effective modifications in the manufactured products.

3: Utilisation of customers experiences through gaining the same from multiple feedback loops, such as the online based services of Qualtrics, could be recommended.

4: Building of the most effective business process around the existing technology is necessary so that measuring of sentiments could be followed on by the betterment of customer service experiences.

Conclusion

The study would be formulated on three different segments pertaining to conducting research across different business industries so as to evaluate the customer centric approaches regarding customer relationship management and to deliver pertinent recommendations in this context.

Reference List

Fuentes, I., Nápoles, G., Arco, L. and Vanhoof, K., 2018, September. Customer Segmentation Using Multiple Instance Clustering and Purchasing Behaviors. In International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (pp. 193-200). Springer, Cham.

Gallarza, M.G., Ruiz-Molina, M.E. and Gil-Saura, I., 2016. Stretching the value-satisfaction-loyalty chain by adding value dimensions and cognitive and affective satisfactions: a causal model for retailing. Management Decision, 54(4), pp.981-1003.

Gilliland, D.I. and Kim, S.K., 2019. Building customer-centric marketing channel relationships: a model of reseller motivation and control. In Handbook on Customer Centricity. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Jain, Y. and Patel, N., 2016. Analysing impact of online CRM practices on companies productivity and customer retention. International Journal For Research In Business, Management And Accounting (ISSN: 2455-6114), 2(12), pp.25-35.

Kumar, V. and Reinartz, W., 2016. Creating enduring customer value. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), pp.36-68.

Preikschas, M.W., Cabanelas, P., Rüdiger, K. and Lampón, J.F., 2017. Value co-creation, dynamic capabilities and customer retention in industrial markets. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 32(3), pp.409-420.

Sarvari, P.A., Ustundag, A. and Takci, H., 2016. Performance evaluation of different customer segmentation approaches based on RFM and demographics analysis. Kybernetes, 45(7), pp.1129-1157.

Singh, D., 2018. Comparative Analysis of Clustering Techniques for Customer Behaviour. In Soft Computing: Theories and Applications (pp. 753-763). Springer, Singapore.

Wong, E. and Wei, Y., 2018. Customer online shopping experience data analytics: Integrated customer segmentation and customised services prediction model. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 46(4), pp.406-420.