Customer management

Stages in approaching clients

Once there has been sufficient clarity about the need and importance of clientizing the organization and such intention has been put into effect, a marketing offensive begins that is addressed by giving priority in the first instance to current clients, seeking their loyalty, and then try to recover lost customers and, later, define strategies to conquer potential customers.

Consolidation and maintenance of current clients

In this order of ideas, the marketing strategist must start his marketing work with a clear awareness that his first priority must be focused on sustaining and consolidating the company's relationship with its current customers.

Sustaining the total number of clients who purchase our products implies adopting measures to prevent them from going to the competition, while consolidating the relationship refers to the strategies that must be adopted so that our clients acquire the greatest number and variety of goods or services offered. by the organization.

To carry out this task, it is necessary to start from the identification and classification of the clients listed in our databases, determining who are those who acquire the connotation of Pareto clients, that is, the number of clients (20%) that generate the highest turnover volumes (80%), given that they will be the ones that should be prioritized in any strategy that the company adopts, to the extent that these constitute the support of the profitability of the organization.

It is easy to understand that if a loyal customer base is maintained, a minimum level of economic survival can be guaranteed, on which other strategies that propitiate the expected profitability can be sustained.

To this end, it is possible to resort to measures derived from relationship marketing, creating a series of incentives for linking with the company, in addition to rewarding purchase volumes and rewarding its continued growth.

One of the first measures to be taken in this regard must be the clear identification of the characteristics of the clients, as well as their purchase record, to facilitate access to the discounts offered.

This task supposes the identification of the clients, from the very moment they are configured as such, creating differential categories according to the volumes and frequencies of purchase, to facilitate staggered access to the prize plans put to the client's consideration.

Here it is important to consider that although the best clients are prioritized, this does not mean that non-paretos will be neglected, towards whom measures will be directed that stimulate their promotion to acquire parental status.

In order to carry out this work, it is important to build a reliable source of information that guarantees that records of customer movements are made in a timely manner, as well as the need to generate interactive mechanisms for communication with customers, using the tools available to you in integrated direct marketing.

In this sense, it is sought that through telemarketing, the use of direct mail and the internet, communication channels are established, Inbound and Outbound, that without putting pressure on the client, guarantee adequate information dynamics.

Recovery of lost clients

Once the previous strategy is advanced, the task of trying to recover the customers lost by the company will be given, under the premise that their loss has been caused by deficiencies in our organization, where actions or omissions that led to to the non-continuity of the commercial agreement.

The work can start from the verification of their status as lost customers, from the reports and statistics that indicate so, since on many occasions the organization has not clearly identified those who have had continuity in their relationship with the company.

Once the customer database with this feature has been consolidated, a follow-up of the customers begins, trying to attract them back to the company, or in the worst case, seeking to identify the causes of their temporary or permanent withdrawal.

With the information obtained from those clients who have indicated their intention not to acquire the company's goods or services, the internal deficiencies or anomalies that have led to such determination can be identified, or the measures or strategies that have led to hold the competition to attract them.

Of course, this information must lead to the adoption of corrective measures, both on internal management and on the marketing and sales strategies that need to be adjusted.

At this stage of the process, it is quite certain that the marketing strategies that have been implemented have been validated, which already constitutes a profit to the extent that they will be the same with which we try to conquer new clients.

Identification and conquest of potential clients

Another advantage that the strategy must have already reported is related to the level of knowledge of the characteristics, needs and expectations of our clients, given that they will be the same that potential clients should have, since the fundamental difference between the clients we have and new customers, is related solely to the fact that the latter are being served by the competition.

The primary task that must be carried out will be the identification and quantification of that potential market made up of the group of clients that have not yet accessed our products, given that the creation of a database of them will facilitate any contact the company wants. advance their intention to attract their attention and achieve their subsequent conquest.

In the formation of the database, the preliminary classification of the current clients of the company will be of great help, since as mentioned above, the new clients will be located in the same productive activities and will have similar characteristics, with which the step The next step will be to exhaust all possible sources of information to identify them.

First of all, specialized directories, telephone directories, union listings, magazine and press publications, as well as any other possible source of written information will be consulted.

In the second instance, the database can be built from the references provided by current clients, by physical observation or by means of record capture mechanisms that the company can implement.

The important thing is that, whatever mechanism is adopted, all possible sources of information are exhausted, within the company or from other organizations, public or private, present in the media, managing to quantify the potential market to be conquered.

Here it is necessary to point out that during this marketing offensive the various actions with which the company approaches its market have been reviewed and validated and the entire strategy will have been documented, to guide future measures according to market dynamics.