In recent times, there has been a lot of research that has been carried out on services and clients, since in this area relationship management is of great importance. Faced with such a competitive and fickle environment, service companies and specifically those dedicated to professional jobs need to differentiate their service based on the quality perceived by the client and the interaction that develops between the two. The objective of this article is to carry out the theoretical review of the existing literature on relationship and service Marketing, and its application to a professional consulting services company.
In recent years, there have been great changes in the competitive environment that have created the need for a new approach to marketing, characterized by the deepening and strengthening of direct relationships with individual customers. This means that the evolution of marketing has led to its transformation, from a generic or passive marketing paradigm, to the relational marketing paradigm.
The new marketing paradigm determines its orientation to the development of care and cultivation of the relationship between the client and the organization, which requires the vocation of service as a corporate philosophy that comes to life in the daily practice of all workers and actions of the organization. Hence, the development of partnerships and strategic alliances with clients is strengthened through interactions that go beyond the narrow framework of traditional exchanges and commercial transactions to become the organizational behavior par excellence. The client, therefore, constitutes the essence of the life of the organization, which goes from being part of a discourse or corporate communication to becoming the effective way of working of the organization, developing the creation of value for the client.
There are different definitions of Relationship Marketing, some of which are mentioned below:
"Relational Marketing is the social and managerial process of establishing and cultivating relationships with customers, creating links with benefits for each of the parties, including sellers, prescribers, distributors and each of the fundamental interlocutors for the maintenance and exploitation of the relationship ”Alet, J.
"Relationship Marketing is therefore based not on the transaction but on the personal involvement of the company with the clients through the construction of consistent, lasting and relevant relationships with them" Alfaro, M.
«The different actions and initiatives developed by a company towards its different audiences or towards a specific audience or segment thereof, aimed at achieving their satisfaction over time, by offering services and products tailored to their needs and expectations, including creation of stable relationship channels for the exchange of communication and added value, in order to guarantee a climate of trust, acceptance and contribution of competitive advantages that prevents flight to other competitors ”. Reinares and Ponzoa
Analysis of the different definitions.
What all the authors agree on is that relationship marketing allows the fulfillment of the strategic purpose by cultivating a direct, permanent, relevant and fruitful relationship for both parties.
However, even today we continue to work with the classic mass marketing approach and the 4P's, pragmatically developed and widely disseminated in the world. The concept of the marketing mix was introduced by Neil Borden in 1953 at the American Marketing Association (AMA). Subsequently, some authors tried to facilitate the practical application of the approach and developed checklists of the variables that influenced the market responses, and of which the “McCarthy 4P's formula” survived as the only paradigm (1960). Since the 1980s, many authors, especially European and, specifically Swedish, have provided a more holistic and adequate conception of the "offer" and have differentiated,fundamentally for the activity of organizational and service marketing, between transactional marketing and relationship marketing. Grönroos
Kotler himself has pointed out that “The transaction is part of a broader concept, known as relationship marketing. Good marketing executives try to build it with long-term consumer confidence, through maintaining good relationships with customers, distributors, merchants and suppliers, by promising and delivering high-quality supply and offering a good service and reasonable prices to the other party over time…. And he adds: "Relationship marketing reduces transaction costs and time and, in some cases, allows us to move from negotiated transactions to routine".
For Kotler… «The end result of relationship marketing is to achieve what is called marketing networks, the marketing network is made up of, the company and the companies with which solid relationships and mutual trust have been established in business. Marketing is progressively shifting from minimizing the benefit of each individual transaction to maximizing the benefit of relationships with other parties. The underlying principle is: "Build good relationships and profitable transactions will follow."
1. Relationship marketing in professional service organizations.
Previously, Relationship Marketing was not a topic widely discussed in the academic world and there was little bibliography on the matter and its management was limited in the specific activity of professional services that in the opinion of the authors require this approach to Marketing.
Currently, at a time when organizations must be totally focused on the customer, the management of customer relationships (Customer Relationship Management) is a key and critical area for their competitiveness.
In business-to-consumer relationships, businesses are increasingly focused on meeting customer needs in a successful way so that links are created for the future. McKenna, R. and Berry, L… A satisfied customer will repeat their buying behavior until they become a loyal customer. Therefore, to achieve such satisfaction, organizations develop relationships with clients with formal and informal content, which means offering value to the consumer through the service and the relationship established between the first-line professionals who serve organizations that require their services. professional services.
In professional services, relationships with clients are based not only on the contract, signed by the parties, but on personal interaction, on communication between both, on the attributes and individualized or personalized advantages that are incorporated into the service, this being The latter is the one that exerts the greatest influence on the client's continuity with the organization.
In the professional services sector, the peculiarities of relationship marketing are fundamentally based on:
- Formal elements related to the quality of the service provided, the perceived value of the offer by clients Informal elements related to the interaction between the client and the professional services provided to them through the organization, and that promise and first impression is what counts in the actual positioning of the organization.
In the service activity, the repeated contacts between the client and the company have made possible or facilitated the continuous practice of relationship marketing.
The customer who hires a service for the first time is afraid of buying an intangible item because he is totally unaware of the benefit that he can achieve, this perception of risk being the basis that generates a competitive advantage for organizations that obtain the trust of their customers with services accurate and reliable. In this way they achieve a long and recurring relationship because customers again require new services, since they perceive in the promise of the entity an offer of greater value in relation to other organizations.
The client may be unable to adequately evaluate the technical work performed by the provider, but can nevertheless evaluate the service based on the interactions that take place during the provision of the service, Grönroos states that creating this type of relationship is difficult to imitate and gives the company an advantage difficult to be surpassed by competitors.
Despite its generality, relationship marketing makes more sense and depth in the service business than in other spheres. Because the interaction between the organization and the client is more interactive and prolonged in time, from the moment the client comes to the company until the completion of the service process and maintains permanent links with the organization that strengthen the relationship.
In such a way, that each client perceives that they receive an exclusive, unique treatment and a special solution to their problems from the organization and each of its employees.
Considering that relationship marketing is suitable for organizations that provide professional services, it is important to consider two fundamental elements to achieve customer loyalty:
- Quality of the service provided Relationship - interaction / client - organization
All of the above implies that the actions to be carried out are multiple and varied and will have incidents in almost all areas of the organization.
To do this, each of the elements considered essential to achieve relationship marketing in an organization that provides professional services will be detailed below:
Quality of the service provided.
For customers, the quality of service is what they perceive and want, with this they think to meet their expectations, so this can cause or produce a competitive difference for the organization.
According to the literature, the quality of service perceived by the customer is reflected in five components: Tangibles, Reliability, Responsibility, Security, Empathy.
Organizations that are dedicated to professional services must generate an image in the market about the quality of their service, so they have to make efforts aimed at training and training front-line personnel, providing information and advice to the client, in developing a variety of services offered, in the creation of a database with the client's history, for their better knowledge and to be able to offer a personalized service. And in an organizational culture of customer service that guarantees a comprehensive behavior of each member of the organization.
Relationship - interaction / customer - organization
The relationship established between the client and the front-line personnel is initially decisive, because by having a clear explanation of the service process, the client can gain confidence and assurance that the results they will obtain are as expected and, subsequently, With the personnel that provides the basic service, you will achieve a better image of the organization by verifying the professionalism and cordiality in solving the problems that may occur in the execution of the service.
The elements mentioned above are those that define quality in an organization that is dedicated to professional services, it is a set that can achieve the value sought by the client This increased value for the client is one of the purposes of relationship marketing, since that by obtaining greater value for the customer, the company also achieves greater benefits.
In such a way that relationship marketing is effective, when the set of elements that have been mentioned for a professional services organization seek to maintain and strengthen relationships with clients that complement and converge in the achievement of three purposes:
- Image in the market (reputation in the market of prestigious professionals) Satisfaction (perceived treatment in the relationship) Customer commitment (continue with the organization that knows their needs and feels dependent).
Next, the application of relationship marketing to a Cuban organization is briefly developed.
The entity Conavana SA is an organization that is dedicated to providing professional consulting and appraisal services. This is a service where the personal bond between the consultant and the client is unquestionable, the service is closely linked to the professional and there is great contact between the consultant and the client and vice versa since the information is proactive by the company or by the client.
This category of professional services that contain a credential quality that is difficult to evaluate beforehand, what counts is the promise and the way it is perceived, for which they are services that require great involvement on the part of the client. Since the quality in the consultancies and technical consultancies does not only mean supplying specialized knowledge in the technical sense, but in the personal sense, for its final evaluation.
The entity has a portfolio that includes several lines of professional services, which are presented below:
Conavana SA Portfolio of Services
|
Service lines |
Service |
Performance criteria |
| Appraisal Group |
|
They integrate the Service to other consulting groups. |
| Economic Consulting Group |
|
Diagnosis at the beginning of each job, involvement in customer management. |
| Business Management Group |
|
Being convinced of what is offered is what the customer really needs |
Source: self made.
The company has a client portfolio and a database that allows it to establish a relationship with them and find out their satisfaction through surveys, phone calls, e-mail contacts and direct contacts.
Conavana SA has integrated information on important clients and therefore offers and solid communications are developed with the client, which allows the offer to be tailored to their needs and expectations and to satisfy it by solving their problems. The issue is not so complex, it only requires a customer-oriented culture that in daily practice fulfills the promises of the service to obtain satisfied customers.
All of the above leads to the knowledge of the client, the development of a personalized offer, which entails an orientation to in-depth knowledge of the client and their needs, to the development of tailored offers and subsequently to the evaluation of the level of satisfaction of their expectations and to the constant monitoring and promotion of their commitment to the organization.
At present, the organization has nineteen loyal clients since the creation in 1996, of Conavana SA who have requested different types of services and their repetition for their updating. It may seem an insignificant number but these clients move values and have a decisive impact on the country's economy and have preferred our entity despite the fact that there are 24 competitors that provide the same types of consulting services, which denotes a fragmented sector and with high competitive rivalry.
This portfolio is updated, planned and developed with a systematic, proactive communication with loyal customers and value potentials with which personal relationships and specific attention are maintained for their guidance and advice and for significant dates for their organizations, their managers. and national dates.
All of this has led Conavana SA to create the organizational capacity to respond to the needs and expectations of the client, which for the selected “faithful, prioritized” organizations has become their sole supplier, developing solid and permanent structural obligations. Hence the importance of Relationship Marketing in the entity Conavana SA
Conclusions:
- The reasons that justify that relationships are the basis of the structure of the professional services market is given by current environmental circumstances, such as: uncertainty, information technology and intense competition The quality of professional service and creation Solid ties with the Client leads to the humanization of the offer and effective and affective contact, which facilitates the creation of personal and social relationship. Only in this way does the trust arise between the organization and the client, their dependence and, therefore, their loyalty.This article collects the characteristics and convenience of relationship marketing in professional services companies since the main reason for the existence of lasting relationships, is the knowledge and sustainability of the organization.
Alet, J.: “Relationship Marketing. How to obtain loyal and profitable customers ”. Ed. Gestión 2000, Barcelona. 2001. P. 35
Article on "Relational Marketing from theorization to practice" by Manuel Alfaro.
Reinares, P. and Ponzoa, MJ: “Relationship Marketing. A new approach to seduction and customer loyalty ”. Ed. Financial Times-Prentice Hall, Madrid. 2002.
Grönroos, C.: "Marketing and management of services". Ed. Madrid, Díaz Santos 1990, p. 19
Kotler, P.: Article “Marketing of services”. Msc. Alma Hernández Ruíz. Master in Management. CETED. School of Accounting and Finance. University of Havana. 1999
McKenna, R.::Relationship Marketing. Bem-succeeded strategy for the client ”. Editora Campus Ltda. 1992
Berry, LL: “I discovered essência do sevico. Qualitymark ”. Editora Ltda. 2001.
Grönroos, C.: ”Marketing and management of services”. Madrid, Díaz Santos. 1994.
