Let's talk about the advantages and disadvantages of relationship marketing
because you better believe there are pros and cons to it. Let's dive right in
so I have some really cool content I want to share with you.
Let's look at the pros of relationship marketing. We are all told that we need
to include relationship marketing in our business but why? Why is relationship
marketing so important? Especially nowadays. You know, we've got computers
and monitors, there's a screen between you and me right now but there is also a
relationship being formed, there's a relationship that determines whether or
not you subscribe and watch more videos, there's a relationship that determines
whether or not you determine whether this is valuable to you or not. We are
building a relationship right now, you and me, right through this screen right
here. Every business and every interaction that you have or that your
clients have with you is building or tearing down your relationship and your
relationship is the foundation on which your customers determine whether or not
they're going to come back to you. Now most businesses, they lose on average
about 30% of their customer base each year. Why? Because they don't have a good
relationship. Maybe they had a bad customer service call and the word got
out, maybe they had some not so good experience and they let their friends
know.You know, that's what's going to cause that turnover in your customer base so
let's get into the pros and cons of this. Building customer relationships brings
more customers to your business. Everything is word-of-mouth marketing
right now. Think about it. How many times do you recommend a book or movie? How
many times you hop on Facebook and ask for a recommendation? People will only
recommend something if they had a positive experience with that product or
service so that's what's so important is that word-of-mouth marketing. So a pro to
building that relationship is causing great word-of-mouth to happen in your
market. Remember that you're selling quality instead of products. If you think
you're selling a product, you've missed it. You're not selling a product even if
you are having products go out the door. You're selling quality and when you sell
quality, you're actually selling the customer experience with that product
however long the product lasts, whether the product is reliable. Again, think
about Apple. Apple is a product based business but if their products were not
quality, they would not have gone anywhere because their products are top
quality and because there's summer service is top quality, that's the
experience the customer is buying so build quality relationships by building
quality products. One of the cons of building through relationship marketing
is that it does take extra time, it takes extra time to build surveys and send
them out to your customers, it takes extra time to analyze those surveys when
they come back, it takes extra time to augment your business based on the
results of those surveys, it takes extra time to implement those changes and send
them out to your customers. So yeah, it's going to take some extra time and that
could be considered a con but if you consider the time that you're investing
right now and the time it's going to save you later in customer complaints, in
customer calls and customer service hours. If you are willing to invest a
little bit of time right now, it's going to save you a lot of time on the back end.
So yeah, it's going to cost you time but it's going to save you more later. A pro and
a con to relationship marketing is that word of mouth we talked about. People are
going to share their experience of you whether they liked it or whether they
didn't and let's face it, in the culture that we live in people are more
interested in complaining than they are in praising, it's just what sells,
that's what news is. If you ever tuned in to a news station, you're probably going
to see negative negative negative negative over and over and over again
and maybe a little bit of a positive here and there but news stations, they
don't thrive on positive news, they thrive on conflict and controversy and
all of those negative ideas so behaviorally, we as a culture are
designed to do the same thing so if there's something we don't like about a
company, you're probably going to get 10 times more feedback about what doesn't
work than about what does so that can be a con when it comes to relationship
marketing but the pro of that is if someone has something sparkling to say
about your business, that review will also count toward your business and you
can be strategic about collecting those reviews. If you're in business for
yourself or even if you work for company, one of your primary jobs is to have your
finger on the pulse of how the customers are reacting to your business and if you're in
the customer service department, your job is to collect the feedback and guess
what, if you're in business for yourself, you're wearing all the hats so you're in
the customer service department so collect all of that feedback, ask your
customers to leave feedback on Google reviews, ask your customers to leave
feedback on TripAdvisor, ask customers to leave feedback on all of these consumer
platforms where other customers and going and leaving feedback because them
better the feedback, the more likely you are to have more customers come to your
door and if you have a quality product then you're just going to create more
and better word-of-mouth marketing. Another pro of relationship marketing is
good customer relationships will lead to greater business. Good customer
relationships through word of mouth, through marketing, through everything,
it's going to lead to growth in your business. Now conversely, if you give up
some of that customer service right now, it's going to bite you later
so this relationship marketing, you've got to be willing to give a little bit
of time now for a greater time investment later on down the road.
Meaning if you're willing to put in some time now to solve problems, if you're
willing to put in a little bit of extra effort now to increase the customer
experience, it's going to pay you back later. Let me give you an example. I was
working with in one of my clients back a few months ago, probably about four
months ago who purchased one of my programs and then exercises three-day
right of rescission to actually get a refund now we could have battled and
gone back and forth and fought for that sale looking at our bottom line or we
can look at what the customers needs actually are. You know if the customers
needs are actually our product and service then we'll share that with them
but if the customers needs are not then we're going to get a customer what they
need most. Now we talked to this customer, discovered that their financial
situation was such that that three-day rider position was a really good idea
for them and that maybe they would come back later on, who knows.You know, think
about that movie. If you've ever watched the Miracle on 34th Street, you know
about the Santa that you know said that if you buy the toys here, yeah, it's going to
be great but they're actually cheaper across the street, they're sacrificing a
short-term gain for a long-term relationship of trust so with this
customer that called me four months ago wanted to return on their investment, we
happily gave that to them, that was their right, that was
perfect for them. That customer called me back just last week and they said, I
talked to my wife, it looks like we are ready to go on this and I got an email
from my customer service representative that says look, this is the perfect
example of what positive customer relationships are all about. Again, if
you're distracted by your bottom line, you're not going to have a good
relationship with your customers because your customers are what makes your
bottom line. Your focus must be on the customer experience and what's best for
them and that's what's going to set you apart as a business owner, having the
focus on what's best for the customer rather than the bottom line so when you
weigh out all the pros and cons of customer relationship marketing, the cons
you know, yeah, they take some more time, they take some more energy but
their cons are really an investment rather than a negative when it comes to
relationship marketing. If you're willing to invest a little bit of time, a little
bit of effort in creating a positive experience,
it delivers huge returns and long run and contributes to the longevity of your
customers and your business. Alright, I hope you loved this video in fact, if
there's anything you have more questions on, drop a comment below because we've
just might make a video based on your suggestion. Remember to hit the subscribe
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