When it’s down to the bottom line, wholesalers, manufacturers and chain retailers, as well as auction power sellers and small e-commerce storefronts, focus on hard numbers by default. They’re more comfortable with ROI metrics: price points, margins, inventory costs, returned merchandise offsets, return on ad spend, operating overhead, etc.
Softer and less quantifiable areas like Customer Relationship Management don’t get the same attention from the business side of an entrepreneur’s brain.
In the B2B marketplace, it costs 10 times more to find a new
customer as it does to keep a current customer satisfied.
That’s the conclusion of CRM Specialist Nadjii Terani with Customer Inter@ction Solutions. She backs that bottom-line claim with experience from telemarketing and database marketing campaigns. But it’s not just CRM types anymore: Business research is uncovering the same cost-benefit results from paying attention to customer preferences and needs.
Here is some advice from the customer relationship end of the profitability equation.
Talk One-to-One.
The above statement -– Customer Acquisition $ = 10X Customer Retention $ — talks directly to the B2B marketplace of industry, trade, wholesale and retail buyers and sellers. The cost is lower in B2C or Consumer World (where acquisition costs a mere 5 times retention). That’s because the pool of prospects in the industrial/trade B2B marketplace is not as populous as in the big wide consumer market. And the decision-making chain — from search-to-bid-to-purchase-order — is far longer for wholesale and reseller transactions.
That’s one reason CRM Specialist Terani advises personalizing customer communications, rather than approaching Customer Support as a technology problem that can be solved with better software or automated scripts that are One-Size-Fits-All.
Tailoring the message and the response to B2B customers is pure one-to-one marketing.
Customer’s Call.
This tip is about customers choosing how they want to communicate with you, rather than the “call” by landline or cell phone, whether the call is on excess minutes or toll-free.
Terani points out that it’s too easy in the age of online product directories and virtual eCommerce storefronts to hide behind email for all customer communications. Submitting problems through a “Contact Us” web form and then waiting for customer information or account resolution by email may be the preference of the enterprise … not its customers.
From a customer relationship POV, Terani suggests learning how customers want to interact with you: By Email? By Hardcopy Fax? By Telephone? And is that direct to a Sales Rep’s extension? Or, does your customer prefer Automated Phone Tree Menus?
(Trick question, above. If you own more than four televisions, Press 4. If you hate robotic phone messages, hang up and don’t bother us again.)
Twitter Me?
A recent issue of CRM Buyer suggested the messaging contact channel Twitter is a lifeline for customer communications. Author Louis Columbus found Twitter’s immediate attention and personal responsiveness are what good marketing is all about because it “walks the talk” of being a customer-driven enterprise.
CRM Is Being Person-able.
Retailers and online eCommerce business owners can do customized relationship marketing simply by staying in touch with prospects and customers. Such personalized communications include thanking customers and notifying them about Special Sales; sending personal, birthday or holiday wishes; and notifying customers about new products or special events.
An example is Customer Marketing from Buy Wise, a web-based program that sends personalized greeting cards and gifts (cookies, books, magazines and major gift cards) right from the retailer’s own computer and customer lists, with automatic delivery by the postal service. The card and gift mailings include the retailer’s information, plus images of a business card or new product. Sample cost: Less than $1/personalized card mailing, after a one-time fee for unlimited access to the Buy Wise system. (www.customgreetingcards4less.com)
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The internet has made it even more important to treat customers like gold as the business world is now so much bigger. Choice gives the power to the customer/client, which is how it should be. The B2B / B2C difference is interesting. In some industries 10x might be a conservative number.