The consumer care landscape has changed. Today’s consumer knows more, expect more, demand first-class service, and are a lot less loyal. The digital technologies have transformed the way purchaser buy and share their experiences.
Today, consumers are driving the purchase process using social platforms, blogs and websites. By the time they enter a store or become visible in the sales funnel, they know what they want to buy and how much they want to pay. It doesn’t stop there. Once the sale is completed, consumer use the same platform to tag and share their experience. New technologies and channels cut through new opportunities that can make a company stand out from the rest of the crowd. Opportunities to build an ongoing conversation with consumers.
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This involves a greater degree of understanding of consumer behavior and investments in systems and strategies designed to service the consumer as they communicate and transacts across channels.
The whole premise behind multi-channel engagement is that the sum of experience delivered is more than its parts. Thus, if your understanding of consumers at a channel level (beyond transactions) level is not adequate, you will find it difficult to rollout a omni-channel experience which also places a huge premium on back-end front-end integration of systems and the ability to identify the consumer irrespective across channels.
The rules of engagement remain the same – service, satisfy and retain. But succeeding in an omni-channel world requires unified systems, data flows, analytics, cross-channel visibility, consumer information and knowledge management. In developing countries like India and many others in Asia, one needs to also keep traditional methods of customer service alive and intact since digital adoption is not as widespread as it is in the west. For the next at least 5 years, we need to keep the traditional approaches alongside the digital revolution. The capacity of the company to combine the 2 approaches and keep them working seamlessly will become paramount in their growth
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Consumers not only request help for product issues but also seek buying advice and comparisons with competing products. The consumer does not want to worry about whether a query should go to sales, service or marketing, they just want answers. A robust service strategy that is supported by trained employees backed by technology can take your service standards to a whole new level and also helps the consumer along the buying
Pelton, L. E., Strutton, D. & Lumpkin, J. R. 2002, Marketing channels: a relationship management approach. McGraw-Hill Irwin: Boston, p. 387.
Having prior knowledge of a customers needs, habits, and questions before or during every interaction and transaction can boost customer satisfaction. (Zueschner, Raymond. (1997). Communicating Today. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
First, customer centricity is important to channel customer centricity into their company strategy. It will get the whole workforce on track. Next, the collection should keep their customer data up-to-date. They would benefit from building a stable foundation by bringing all of their current customer contacts. The brand should also save all documents including minutes-of-meetings, emails, offers, contracts, and every payment transaction. Then, the company should establish healthy customer relationships based on their customer profile. It is always important to follow-up on customers and to make sure they stay satisfied with the merchandise. Finally, it is all about the customer. Their response is very important. It is viable to surprise and impress their customers, as well as plan and implement multi-phase marketing campaigns(CAS
First, when shopping, a big factor that will impact a customer 's experience is the customer service. Whether it’s from a simple “hello”, or an employee going out
Valos, M., Polonsky, M., Geursen, G., & Zutshi, A. (2010). Marketers' perceptions of the implementation difficulties of multichannel marketing. Journal Of Strategic Marketing, 18(5), 417-434. doi:10.1080/0965254X.2010.497845
In these challenging times where technology changes on daily basis, companies are striving hard to focus on customers’ expectations and needs. This has increased expectations from the managers who are constantly trying to come up with new ideas and innovation to survive in the retail business. The health of any business is dependent on the way they are different from their competitors. In order to increase sales the company is completely dependent on uniqueness and the best way to satisfy the customers. Best Buy is committed to provide customers with a unique experience. In order to serve the customers to their best ability, Best Buy has changed its business model from Product Driven to Customer Driven.
Over the last decade, product marketing and ways through which communication takes place between manufacturers and consumers has changed tremendously (Belch & Belch 2004). Due to the technological revolutions and the rise of innovations such as the mobile phones and the internet, control over information has shifted apparently from the manufacturer's hands to the hands of consumers (Belch & Belch 2004). The market environment has also changed due to globalization of marketing strategies, loss of confidence in media advertising, increased reliance on targeted communication methods, and media fragmentation and so on (Belch & Belch 2004).
The barriers to entry in this industry is quite moderate to low. Therefore there is a threat of new entrants. However customers wish to have quality goods and excellent customer service. By differentiating our business from competitors by offering durable products with high customer service standards this threat can be
-Customers: The company felt the importance of being customer-centric and innovate by adapting to customer
Conclusion Companies are better able to market their products to consumers if they have a good Understanding of the consumers and the basic purchase decision process. By understanding the consumer and the type of purchasing behavior associated with different products, marketers are more likely to create a marketing campaign that positively impacts the consumer’s purchasing decision.
The growth of the service sector in recent decades has been referred to as “a wonder of human history” and commensurate to both the agricultural and industrial revolutions alike (Spohrer and Maglio 2008, p19). It cannot be denied that technological advancements have played a vital role in this dramatic evolution. Technology has not only transformed the nature of services but also the means in which firms connect with their customers (Zeuthaml and Bitner 2000). It has enabled the development of new services, created new means of delivering services and has facilitated customers and firms to receive and administer improved, more accessible, efficient and customized services (Wang et. al 2013). Developments in communication technologies and most notably the internet have removed the traditional boundaries of geographical location and time and even created a whole new previously unimagined virtual marketplace; “the marketspace” (Bhakkad and Patil 2014). Although these vast technological advances have undoubtedly had a positive impact on the service industry, one must not be oblivious to the negative, downsides that also exist. This paper will elaborate further on the positive impacts looking at some emerging trends and also look at some of the negative impacts and how firms must be aware that technology is not an automatic recipe for success. The paper concludes with a quote from American writer Irene Peter “just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed” looking past these technological advancements and the transformation of the service sector, one thing remains unchanged; customers still want their needs and expectations to be satisfied from their service encounters in whatever form they come (Bitner 2001).
We can’t assume consumers will remain loyal if we don’t adapt and learn and you can’t assume brand strength alone will keep them or attract new consumers. The market will change and new will enter the market. I realized that the 5 D’s (Discovering, Defining, Developing, Doing, and Directing) in the marketing process is a continuous, an ongoing evaluation of the market conditions and the continued adaption. For Digital Channels, that means we must have the best feature rich products and service that our customers value. We can’t assume they will stay with us because they have for years. The moment a company becomes complacent, they become
407). Digital media allows connecting and identifying each individual needs and preferences even if there are millions of people with different devices. Addressable media gives the opportunity to both interactivity and individuality (Wertime et al., 2008, p. 34-35). As an example, Amazon and many other companies uses cookies that save the customers’ data and allows the identification of a customer when he or she returns to the website. Digital marketing is fostering interactivity and encourages a two- way communication between brand and consumer (Chaffey et al., 2009, p. 31). The customers participate in a constant dialogue where they express their preferences, needs and interests or also give feedback about products and services directly to the company. Hence, companies can response immediately to customers’ comments and establish a valuable relationship with them Ferrell et al., 2013, p. 407). Connectivity is expressing the ability for marketers as well as consumers to connect with each other facilitating by various social media platforms. Moreover, digital media enables customers to networking with other like- minded people and building virtual communities where they share real- time information a company can make use of Ferrell et al., 2013, p. 407). In the digital age, accessibility to information is limitless. Not only the consumers are better informed but also marketers can obtain information about the consumers’ preference and needs. By using digital marketing communication consumers have a greater access to a variety of products and its quality (Ferrell et al., 2013, p. 407, 422). Lastly, control is related to the consumers’ power to consume only information that matching their interests and to create their own content to share it with the global market. For example, blogs give consumers the power to create UGC about the brand whether
Nevertheless, one of the most important constants among all of us, regardless of our differences, is that, above all, we are buyers. We use or consume on a regular basis food, clothing, shelter, transportation, education, equipment, vacations, necessities, luxuries, services, and even ideas. As consumers, we play an essential role in the health of the economy; local, national and international. The purchase decision we make affect the requirement for basic raw materials, for transportation, for production, for banking; they affect the employment of employees and the growth of resources, the successfulness of some industries and the failure of others. In order to be successful in any business and specifically in today’s dynamic and rapidly evolving marketplace, marketers need to know everything they can about consumers; what they are want, what they are think, how they are work, how they are spend their leisure time. They have to find out the personal and group influences that affect consumer decisions and how these decisions are made. In these days of ever-widening media choices, they need to not only identify their target audiences, but they have to know where and how to reach
In today’s increasingly service driven markets and with the increase of multiple providers for every type of product or service, moments of truth have become an important fact of customer interaction that marketers need to keep in mind. They are critical as they determine a customer’s perception of, and reaction to, a brand. Moments of truth can make or break an organization’s relationship with its customers.