Every company that has sufficient clarity about the conditions in which the market faces today, has understood that the dynamics that sustain the productive activity are centered on the adequate management of the relationships established with all the agents present in the market.
Thus, the vision that the managers and leaders of the organizations have acquired in this new context has led to understanding and evaluating the relationships established with customers and the different categories of marketers, to select the most appropriate strategies based on the retention, loyalty and empowerment of this type of buyers.
However, this new perspective has been transcended to the extent that it has become aware that the company can count on the support of economic agents who until then had been undervalued in their functionality and responsibility towards customers: suppliers.
Concepts such as “supplier development” and others with a similar connotation have reflected the new dynamics of these relationships established between suppliers and companies, beyond those agreements that affect product quality standards or their cost structures., to be located in an integrated set of actions and measures that, by stimulating consumption, stimulate production, in a series of events that benefit the entire production chain and the economy in general.
At this moment, when the organizations have efficiently and fully carried out their articulation with customers and suppliers, the same inertia of the established and consolidated relationships causes a third cycle to emerge in the interaction of the company with its environment: the generation of a favorable public opinion, supported by parameters of social management and civic responsibility, which complete the sphere of business integration to guarantee its growth, consolidation and permanence, consistent with the sphere in which it carries out its productive and commercial work.
However, and despite the evident benefits of carrying out the phases listed above, entrepreneurs have encountered different difficulties and inconveniences that have not allowed them to either become aware of the problem or to design and implement strategic programs that aim to to an efficient management of relations with the components of the market structure: consumers or users, competition, marketers, the productive sector and suppliers.
Thus, there are different stages of awareness regarding the issue, which can range from absolute disregard for this management, to companies with a high level of commitment and evolution in it, being common that the vision of senior management marks the difference between one instance and another, beyond the eventual limitations of resources, the characteristics of the productive activity or the factors linked to the organizational environment.
At this point, when going into the causes for which no concrete actions have been taken to establish or strengthen the relevant strategies, it is discovered that many companies focus their efforts and resources on strictly commercial events, without involving other facets that They can achieve great impact and remembrance before different types of external clients.
Many organizations do not sufficiently size the return on investment made and assume any retention and loyalty activity as an unnecessary expense, which constitutes a strong obstacle to the implementation of these strategies.
Likewise, a significant number of companies do not carry out any activity of this nature, either because they do not have the technical and financial human resources, or because of the absence of strategists who have a good degree of knowledge and experience on the best way to propose and operationalize relationship marketing formats.
Another discovery that is made when studying the measures adopted by the different entities is that some discrete, isolated and disjointed actions are implemented that, normally, are taken by different members of the commercial teams and whose origin dates back to conjunctural provisions to face some type of contingency related to the fall of the indicators or to the increasing number of complaints and concerns that customers or public opinion may have, regarding a specific situation.
For these series of reasons stated so far, it becomes visible that companies have not given sufficient weight to the management of relations with external customers, or they consider themselves satisfied with the few measures adopted in this regard, without realizing Account of the great potential and of the wide benefits that loyal and productive clients report, for a company with a favorable image in the market.
The obligatory question arises regarding what should be done to properly channel the company and achieve profitable and long-term impacts, which can be answered by analyzing the following parameters:
1. Loyalty programs must have the clear and decisive support and commitment of senior management, in a series of measures and guidelines that must be reflected in the strategic direction of the organization and that involve the adoption of the necessary guidelines to guarantee the appropriate response to the satisfaction of the needs and expectations of external customers, integrating all management areas around that common objective.
2. Each program defined by the company must be consistent with the nature of the clients it serves, the type of goods or services with which it goes to the market, the environment in which its activities are carried out, the geographical coverage it covers and, in Finally, all those elements that make it unique and that define its "personality" in terms of customers and public opinion in general.
The generation of the strategies and their mode of operation must be a highly participatory process that links both internal and external clients to structure really attractive activities that summon and stimulate the different categories of consumers or users and the other target population..
3. An essential prerequisite for any project structured according to external clients is to have trained, motivated and stimulated managers and officials to provide the best possible response to all the requirements that loyalty activities demand.
4. The guarantee of success of loyalty plans also has to do with the modularization of the stages that can be implemented within the organization, over periods of time defined by the response provided by customers, so that, according to the impact achieved, it can evolve to the next phase that has been planned, which minimizes the risk of mounting a complex structure that does not guarantee the profitability of the investment and, simultaneously, the required adjustments can be made to customize the working scheme.
5. The proposal must be flexible enough in its format and generous in its results to allow significant growth linked to a customer base that potentiates its purchasing capacity, with which the market participation percentages are improved. It displaces the competition and a strong and transcendent corporate image is generated.
Then, a corporate objective could be set that may well be expressed as: “design and implement a strategic plan for the retention, loyalty and empowerment of relationships with external customers, consistent with the strategic direction of the company, articulating all the areas of management to promote the satisfaction of the needs and expectations of these clients, correspond to consumers or users, marketers, suppliers or general public opinion ”.
Once this strategic clarity is achieved, it becomes easier to start harmonizing the different actions and measures that can be implemented and that will always have the support of direct marketing instruments, to communicate interactively with particular groups of customers, obeying criteria that they recognize that each segment will be approached in a differentiated way.
Under this scenario, the company can couple and interleave telemarketing campaigns, teleconsultation, direct mails, web marketing, e-mailing, etc., to demonstrate at different conjunctural moments with customers, as well as to link them to social, cultural and recreational programs that be structured with the clear intention of maintaining dynamic communication, beyond the messages transmitted in advertising and promotional campaigns and the language established with the commercial teams, thus giving sustenance and relevance to the assembly of eventual loyalty clubs.
As you will have noticed, absolute priority must be given to the strategic design stage of the programs, so that their operation and implementation is expressed in the optimal use of the, always scarce, technical and financial human resources, that will guarantee the viability of the effort assumed.
Finally, for all it must be clear that an organization that is not aware of the way in which the behavior of its external customers and the perception that it is generating in the market evolves, will begin to feel the obsolescence of programs that require permanent renewal and change to adapt competitively to the environment you want to impact and thus ensure compliance with corporate achievements, in the short, medium and long term.
