STUDENTS' CORNER - 202
Relationship Management
In this session,
we shall move on to one of the most significant and popular statements:
Customer is the king. There is another one which goes ‘Customer is always
right’. Both the statements underscore the indisputable importance of the
customer since no business worth the name can exist without customers.
Customers are sure sources of revenue and revenue is the be-all and end-all of
any business. All activities that go on
in this world ultimately revolve round generation of revenue; the word revenue
is inevitable commercial jargon; it only means money and nothing more and
nothing less. Call it assets, mobile or immobile, property, investments too,
bank balance, the bottom line, shares, debentures, futures, bonds gold or govt–
all these words euphemistically expressed mean in the final analysis
money. Interestingly enough, it is Man
who has created the Money and now he has become a willing slave to his own
creation, this what the so -called structuralists
describe the man-money relationship. Ok Let us not divert our attention and now
we shall study the implications of the above two customer statements.
Customer is the
king because he decides the sustainability and survival of any enterprise; that
is, customer is the deciding force; the more customers a business has the
greater the opportunity for the business to thrive. It only means that success
of a business enterprise depends on the extent of retention of the customers;
that is, the business must focus on customer experience which simply means
satisfaction of the customer. Knowing
the customer is primary necessity of a business and there is no way so far to
know one’s customer thoroughly; however much, a business house might strain to
know its customers, it is a well-known fact that some customers leave the
business; that is, there will be some exit customers for any business, be it
well established with international repute. It implies therefore that a
business must also take efforts to acquire new customers for the business. In
marketing, it is common knowledge that acquiring a new customer is more
expensive compared with the retention of the old customer; all the same, a
company must not neglect the awesome task of getting new customers for the
company so that the customer base of the company does not diminish. Customer
base is a great asset to the company. It is said the resale value of a company
takes into consideration the customer base of the company. That is why all the efforts of a company are
directed towards transforming ordinary customers into loyal customers to the
company. An ordinary customer is your customer by chance; he buys your products
not by choice which means he can swift his loyalty without least disturbance to
his lifestyle; in a way he is not a very profitable customer. But loyal
customer is one who is your customer by choice; that is, he will use products
so long they are available in the market.
It is clear by now
that customer is the king of the marketing exercise.
Remember,
satisfaction is the beginning of loyalty and loyalty is the ultimate expression
of satisfaction.
We will see some
more facts about customers in our next session.
