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.