Las Vegas–The most valuable thing a company can manufacture these days isn’t product but rather a relationship with its customers. So said Martha Rogers, founding partner of Norwalk, CT-based management consultancy Peppers & Rogers Group, during her keynote presentation here at the 13th Annual Call Center Las Vegas Conference and Exhibition.
Put in this context, customer relationship management is simply using information to make each customer more valuable to the firm and the firm more valuable to each customer. “The customer relationship must be iterative by nature,” Rogers said.
To that end, a company must document and remember each of its contacts with the customer so that the customer never has to “retell his story.” Random acts of kindness by CSRs are not enough to succeed, according to Rogers.
For example, suppose your customer asks to be invoiced on a certain day. By fulfilling the customer’s request, you make your relationship with the customer unique, satisfying, and that much stronger. “It’s in the customer’s best interest to stay loyal,” Rogers said.And even discounts from your competition are less likely to woo that customer away.