Marketers place greater emphasis on building repeat customers. Research has shown that it is as much as 6 times less expensive to make a repeat sale than it is to make a sale to a new customer. Repeat sales are often the result of loyalty - a willingness of the buyer to purchase from the seller without an extensive evaluation of alternatives. Loyalty requires a high level of trust of the buyer. The process of moving toward long-term, cost-effective, mutually beneficial trust with selected customers is known as relationship marketing, and its implementation is called customer relationship management (顧客關係管理).
CUSTOMER. RELATIONSHIP.MANAGEMENT. Those three words together resonate with marketers. But, what does customer relationship managementmean, exactly?
In broad terms, customer relationship management—CRM—is the idea that businesses can improve the way they interact with customers over time, strengthen existing relationships and manage those relationships on a day-to-day basis.
“CRM is a philosophy and business strategy supported by a system and technology designed to improve human interactions in a business environment. The value of CRM is that it attempts to take the art of life and turn it into a science of business,”says Paul Greenberg.
Adds Denis Pombriant, [From a technology standpoint, CRM] is automation technology that supports sales and marketing services. It's also a business strategy that focuses on aligning a business with customer needs [in order to] do a better job of providing solutions that are timely, efficient and accurate.”
Source: Marketing, Michael Etzel, Bruce Walker, William Stanton, Mcgraw Hill 13th e.
marketingnews 15 Sep, 07
