Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

What takes place between consenting
adults is everybody's business

When a customer consents to do business with you it’s a liaison that deserves more than a peck- on- the cheek “Thank You.” It’s another opportunity to show that you’ll still love him or her in the morning. Good customer relationship management programs can help foster fidelity. But these programs can’t automate good judgment. And that’s why what takes place in this relationship is everybody’s business.

In the July/August issue of Sales & Marketing Management, Scott Hornstein, president of Hornstein Associates, Redding CN, presents a powerful case for treating customers as individuals rather than as a group, and that requires good judgment.

The author says, “Interaction with the individual is widely viewed not as an opportunity, but as a cost to be driven down.” That’s a dangerous viewpoint that can evolve from looking at customers as a group rather than as individuals. This attitude or lack of attention to individuals presents an opportunity for sensitive marketers who have empathy for their customers.

Permission marketing seeks a conversation with customers. And this requires thinking of them not as a group, but as individuals. Every contact should reinforce the relationship. Every contact is an opportunity to continue to woo and wow and make each one feel special. CRM is everybody’s business

Scott Hornstein is coauthor of Opt-in Marketing: Increase Sales Exponentially with Consensus Marketing. He can be reached at: edit@salesandmarketing.com