Relationship Marketing:
In the Online World, It Can Be Just One Click Away

By Lora Meisner
© 2001 E Com Communications

"The 1:1 enterprise, operating in an interactive environment, relies not just on information about customers, but information from them. Dialogue and feedback are indispensable elements of a customer relationship. Communication with the customer plays an essential, integrating role in the customer-driven dynamic of competition."
--Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D., Enterprise One to One

It's the Customer Stupid !

While not trying to emulate James Carville, the strategist behind Clinton's campaigns, I think many online services are struggling with ways to become more customer-friendly. As many e-commerce sites have found, price isn't everything. Customer service has to be part of business in cyberspace. Most e-commerce sites offer e-mail and phone support. But many times both are hard to find on some sites and actually reaching someone on the phone can be a challenge while waiting on hold for 10 minutes or more. I've read that e-mails can go unanswered for days. I guess I've been fortunate in that I've purchased many items online and have had good experiences.

They Know Their Customers

I'll admit that I'm an unabashed fan of Amazon, their site is http://www.amazon.com. But as a marketer and someone well aware of the importance of customer service, I find that they do things right. As an example, several months ago I purchased a book and used their one-click system. (The one-click system already has the customer's relevant data and literally completes the sale with one-click.) Right after I completed that transaction, I came across another book that I wanted to buy. After deciding to use the one-click system again, I immediately contacted Amazon's customer service via e-mail, to see if they could combine the two orders and save me some money on shipping. (Anyone who has ordered through Amazon knows that you get an almost immediate confirmation on any order.)

The customer service department responded quickly saying that both transactions were completed separately but Amazon would credit my account for one of the shipping charges. For me, that showed excellent customer service by responding quickly and giving me, the customer, a good-faith reduction on the shipping charges.

Just recently, I was on Virtual Vineyards site at http://www.virtualvin.com. While looking at their specials and their Wine of the Month recommendations, I decided to see if they carried any herbal wines, like dandelion wine. Not finding anything listed on their site, I sent a message to their customer service department inquiring about dandelion wine. The next day, I received a message that said that most of these wines are of the homemade variety and the person listed several search engines that had information on sites that described how to make dandelion wine. Needless to say, I was impressed for several reasons. I received a timely response as well as information that helped me with my original question. It was obvious that the customer service department had searched for this information. They went the extra mile. Will I return to buy more wine at Virtual Vineyards? Absolutely.

Now Just A Few More Words

Good customer service is the best way for any business, whether online or of the bricks and mortar genre, to build a loyal customer base. Both of these online businesses can now count me as one of their loyal customers. If a business is primarily e-commerce, good customer service can be more of a challenge for obvious reasons. But proper planning and dedicating the right amount of resources can ensure that any online business is reasonably responsive to their customers.

Many books have been written on how to develop good customer service practices. I've listed several of the basic strategies:

1. Customer recognition--develop a "most valued customer" program and let your customers know that they are valued by offering them a special discount or service.

2. Loyalty purchasing--Amazon does this with their book recommendations on their site which are personalized based on the customer's buying habits. Also recommendations are sent via e-mail as short e-newsletters to registered customers. The textbooks refer to this as cross marketing.

3. Product quality & customer satisfaction--delivering a quality product is an obvious element to any customer satisfaction program. Surveying your customers and asking for their feedback should be a universal practice but it is not used enough by online or offline businesses.

4. Customization and collaboration--building a learning relationship between the business and its customers. This requires a consistent stream of information that is developed over time.

Developing good customer service is essential to build as well as grow any business. This should be obvious to anyone but too many online businesses have jazzy sites with lots of graphics but have forgotten the basics--be available and responsive to your customers. Isn't this what basic marketing is all about?

As part of a good relationship marketing program, continuing to build a relationship with customers as well as potential customers is essential to building a business. One great way to do this is to offer your customers relevant information. A good and inexpensive way to deliver the information is via a newsletter---either in print or electronic format.

E-newsletters - Good Customer Relations

Any firm that has a Web site and e-mail can establish a relationship with their customers that offline efforts are not able to replicate. Customer relationship management helps firms to build barriers to competition, increase customer retention and learn to sell more goods and services to each customer - all while making it more convenient for customers to remain loyal.

My Own Experience

While I was researching how to develop my own business and my Web site, aside from "content is king", and quick downloading, among other features, having an e-newsletter (an ezine) was considered an important factor in getting traffic to a Web site.

I also took advantage of subscribing to newsletters that covered online marketing, email marketing, as well as other issues that were important to developing my business. I found that receiving consistent and up-to-date information helped me to more effectively market my business. But more importantly, this information helped me to help my clients--making their businesses more effective. One very effective tool in establishing ongoing relationship with your customers is an e-newsletter. Why is the e-newsletter such an effective tool? It's easy, cost effective, and it delivers. How does it do all of this? Let me give you some examples.

Some of the Benefits

75+ million people communicate via e-mail today. Many polls (both online and offline) have found it to be the most popular form of communication among regular users. An estimated 2.6 trillion e-mail messages were sent last year alone in the U.S. But the challenge for marketers and e-newsletter publishers is to make their messages targeted, relevant and compelling. The e-newsletter has to give the reader something they can use, not a lot of advertorials.

E-newsletters assume several functions--sending relevant information and messages, driving traffic to Web sites, replacing paper mail (cutting the cost of marketing), as well as the ability to promote special discounts, sales or services. E-newsletters while driving traffic to your site can also generate their own revenue by selling advertising/sponsorships within the newsletter itself. My own newsletter accepts reciprocal advertising.

These wonderful communication tools are also extremely cost effective. E-newsletters eliminate printing and postage fees while making it easy to distribute them. Additionally, increasing your subscriber base involves no additional distribution costs.

E-newsletters foster regular communication with customers and potential customers, creating familiarity and building trust with your brand. By including timely information, your subscribers will begin to look to you as a source of information--one of the most important aspects to building any business in this Internet-led information age that will continue to challenge us for at least the next 50 years. Here are a few examples of Web sites that offer free subscriptions to e-newsletters:
www.thetrip.com
www.1to1.com
www.amazon.com - offers individual newsletters on books covering various subjects

There are numerous directories for e-newsletters:
www.lifestylepubs.com
www.ezinesearch.com
www.ezineseek.com

Now That You Have Their Attention, Ask Their Permission

Once a company has built up a database of customer (and potential customer) e-mail addresses, there are other ways to make use of this information in relationship marketing. It's called, "Permission Marketing." The nature of the Web lends itself to building one-to-one relationships through permission marketing.

Unlike static brochures and printed sales materials, the Web provides a medium through which you can easily interact in real-time with prospects and clients. A well-executed permission marketing program can help turn your web site visitors into online clients. Over time, those one-time customers can develop into loyal clients if you consistently identify what your clients want and notify them when you can meet those needs.

Permission Marketing

To practice permission marketing on the Web, you would typically start by making an offer via your Web site, banner ad or opt-in email lists. The prospect would then respond to your offer and give a formal consent to receive that information or incentive from you. Permission marketing utilizes opt-in email which is not spam, as it has been requested by the subscriber.

How do you integrate permission marketing into your online efforts? Identify your target audience and obtain opt-in email addresses of prospects in the target market. Communicate offers to your audience regularly in order to nurture the relationship via ongoing email that's informative and educational.

Ask The Right Questions

So how do you measure the success of your permission marketing campaign? By recognizing that your are building loyal and trusting client relationships. Are you learning more about them and serving them better? Has your repeat business increased? The more information you gather from your clients, the more effective your permission marketing programs can be.

By utilizing permission marketing, you get more "bang for your marketing buck" because you're interacting with each client more efficiently. You can eliminate redundancies and utilize your marketing dollars more cost-effectively on a target audience who wants to hear from you.

What are client concerns when your firm uses permission marketing? Don't send hard-sell solicitations or be too insistent and don't send your messages too often. Of course, good business practices also prevail on the Web--don't exaggerate product size, performance claims or the "retail price." Last, and most important, don't invade your clients privacy. This means no reselling of their names or information or offering their information to another party without their express consent beforehand.

Where's the Fit?

Which industries are successfully using permission marketing? The travel industry--airlines are selling more seats with last minute special low fares sent to target audiences. This quick turn-around time allows the airlines to fill seats that normally would have been empty.

The software industry, financial services, industrial products, and the medical industry--all have lowered marketing as well as operating costs. As a result, they can use the dollars they have saved to do additional marketing to their target audience online.

So when are you beginning your permission marketing campaign? It's a great way to grow your business and build that very important relationship with your clients. Tomorrow would not be too early to begin designing your program.

Building relationships with your customers and potential customers does not have to be expensive or time consuming, just well-planned and continuous. Once a good relationship is built, it takes more than mere competition to break it.