The Power of Service

Today's marketing is not just about the product - but about the service offering you build around it.  And this goes not just for physical 'products' but even for services that are being marketed. What is the coating you can build around the core product or service offering?

A bank sells a Used Car Loan - can they also pack in the transfer of ownership paperwork and formalities at the RTO? So the customer walks in for a loan - and walks out with his car, all paperwork done, without having to move a finger. Except for the signatures that is!

An airline gets a booking for a senior citizen travelling long haul. Can they proactively offer wheelchair service at transit and allot a seat with more leg room?

A food products manufacturer offers a range of mouth-watering  recipes where their ingredients can be used. Two birds with one stone!

Who is willing to travel the extra mile to elicit the customer 'Wow"? No prizes for guessing where customer loyalty will lie. 

The Power of Cross-Sell

Think of yourself as a customer. How easy it is to do business with an organisation that you have dealt with before. I have bought my tickets through a travel agent. It is so much easier to get my travel insurance done through the same agent.. I am a long standing customer of a private bank. Any guesses whom I would like to deal with when I need a loan? I go to a department store for my weekly grocery shopping. How simple it would be if I could also buy my vegetables and my medicines there!  What's more, most often the customer doesn't even KNOW what else is offered by the organisations in question.

Why then is cross-sell not pursued by many marketers as a primary marketing initiative? Typical responses we hear - "My customer base is too small right now for cross-sell efforts to yield any results" OR  "Our focus currently is on customer acquisition". 

Start small, start now. Tie in your customer with multiple offerings before he/she has the chance to look elsewhere.  And start building a loyal customer base for the long haul.

The Power of Emotional Bonding 

All too often loyalty initiatives are measured and evaluated in terms of the financial outflow - inflow equation. If I have spent Rs X on rewards and points, have I got back X+ 20% in terms of a lift in sales?

However, loyalty is not always about the transaction and the return. It is also about creating a disposition. A very crucial ingredient of a loyalty initiative cannot be measured in tangible terms - the softer  aspect of relationship building with the customer and his family. I wish my customer on his birthday and anniversary, I invite him and his family for a Diwali gathering, I organise a cricket match for my key customers, I take them on a holiday with their wives and children, I send him flowers to congratulate him on an important milestone in his life.....

All these initiatives require outflows - from big to small. Can they be tracked and evaluated in terms of an immediate return on investment? No. Do they help create a positive disposition that will influence behaviour tangibly over time? You bet they do!

Sometimes you need to give before you receive. Invest in the relationship and it will pay in the long term. The trick is to be consistent and patient.  Relationship measures work better than anything else in terms of building a strong bond with the brand. And what's more, they cant be replicated by others in a hurry. Truly the best way to build fences around your key customers for the long haul.

In a typical survey, the success of the survey, is not really dependent on the responses to the survey, but largely depends on the entire survey design. The design of the survey needs to be given proper attention, so that the analysis and interpretation is correct. One of the challenges is to collect the relevant information in a precise manner.