Processes in Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing can be defined as the approach that integrates marketing with relationship building. Relationship marketing is the approach that deals with marketing practices that includes making and developing a connection with the stakeholders. It has later been connected to customer relationship management. Many researchers have been made regarding this topic. Integrating relationship in marketing has brought up many changes in the practices that have been conducted by the organisations these days (Osarenkhoe and Bennani, 2007). The changes are still going on and companies are very much concerned that how they can enhance their practices of marketing so that they can build better relationship with the stakeholders. In today’s era, market is very dynamic and thus the customers are becoming smarter day by day and they have many options to be informed about the products and the companies (Murphy, Laczniak and Wood, 2007). This requires the firm to develop reaction with the customers in order to retain them and make them loyal. Because of the challenges reaching the customers, it is required by the companies to make innovations in its marketing practices and relationship marketing is one of those practices of marketing that helps the companies to reach the market and retain the customers. Various researches have been conducted in this context.
The major aim of RM is to make long term relations with the customer. For thus, it is required by the companies to analyse and improve the process that are involves in the overall function of attaining RM goals. The major processes that are involved directly in developing relationship with the customers are marketing, Sales and services.
Marketing: It is the process that helps in making the people aware about the products and the services. The traditional marketing approaches can be upgraded by making a focus on developing relationship with the customers. Marketing process includes, analysing the needs of the customers, knowing the buying habits of the customers are all some of the activities that falls under marketing. These are the activities that also help the companies to develop relations with the customers (Osarenkhoe and Bennani, 2007).
Sales: In the RM framework, interaction of the sales person and the customer is an important part to be considered. This is because it is the process where the relationship between the customers and the companies can be made (Mendoza, et al. 2007). It is required by the companies to train their sales force so that they can interact properly with the customers and the clients and thus the long term relationship with the client can be made. Sales person are the representative of the company and the brand in front of the customers. Thus, it is very essential to have effective conversation between the sales person and the customers.
Factors Important for Building Relationships
Services: Services are the very important part of customer’s relationship management. This is because; it is not just the products that satisfy the customers but services that are given to the customers leave greater impact on them in terms of experience. If the products of the company is err good and the services offered to the by the company is not god then it does not create a better relationship between the customers and the company (Richards and Jones, 2008).
The major factor that is important in RM is to handle the relationship developed. For this relationship, the human factor is required. As far as the client is considered, it is required by the company to know about the value of the client, the needs of the client and finally it should know about how to retain that client to make him loyal to the brand. These are the aspects related to client that affect the relationship. There are some organisational aspects that also have impact on the relationship. When any of the change happens in the company, it also brings changes in the nature of the processes. Thus, the employees at the organisation also require changing their process of interaction with the customers (Tekin, 2013). When a product oriented company changes its nature to be customer oriented, their approach towards customer also changes totally.
Technology is one of the very important aspects that have its impact on the customer relationship marketing. This is because most of the organisations are making use of technological tools to develop some of the interactive portals that make use of online sources to reach the customers and have connections with them (Richards and Jones, 2008). Some of the software related to Information technology, Sales force automation, data warehousing, and software of CRM etc.
Bonnemaizon, Cova and Louyot, (2007) used Delphi technique or approach to analyse the aspects of relationship marketing. The results of Delphi approach suggest that relationship marketing is the concept that is implemented in the organisation in order to enhance the customer experience. It also suggests that IT is the very important tool in terms of developing customer relationship because IT tools are used to make interactions and connection with the customers. Customer experience is the only aspect considered as very important for relationship marketing. It has been suggested that CRM that is customer relationship management will evolve as customer experience management (Richards and Jones, 2008). The best approach to retain the customers and to enhance the value of the company in front of the customers is to provide them great experience whenever the customer comes in contact with the company.
Impact of Relationship Marketing on Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction
The major aim of customer relationship marketing is to keep the customers. As per the author, the relationship marking activities are all such activities that directed towards enhancing the customers loyalty. Customer loyalty can be defined as the aspect in which the customers tend to nu the products from the same brand or the company again and again without any major effort by the company (Alrubaiee and Al-Nazer, 2010). Loyalty is about tolerating even the inconvenient situations created by the company and this comes only when the customers has faith and trust on the firm. This is actually termed as customer loyalty.
There are various researches that suggest that relationship marketing has great impact on customer loyalty and thus on customer retention as well. When the customers are loyal to the company or the brand, the firm does not need to take so much effort in retaining the customers but have to make efforts in making new customers. The whole focus of the company remains on targeting the new customer range (Oly Ndubisi, 2007). If the relationship marketing of the company is strong enough then it provides a better customer loyalty and hence the performance of the company.
The market is changing and so as the demands of the customers. The customers’ these days are very much aware about the products and the services. Thus, it required the companies to make extra efforts in attracting the customers and earn their loyalty. The study of Taleghani, Gilaninia and Mousavian, (2011) suggested a research conceptual model that highlights the effect of relationship marketing on customer loyalty.
Trust: The author argues that trust is the basic requirement of long term relationships. It can be defined as the element that enables the one partner to rely on another one. Any kind of betrayal in trust can lead to defect in the relationship amongst the company and the customer. In business relationship, it is very much important to include the trust factor.
Commitment: it is another factor that determines the strength of the marketing relationship between the customers and the company (Ngai, Xiu and Chau, 2009). Commitment is the element that refers to the desire to maintain the promise that has been done at the time of making the relationship. Companies have to commit and maintain that commitment with the customers in order to develop a long term relationship.
Communication: communication is generally defined as the interaction between the two parties but in context of relationship marketing, it deals with the extent of which the company interact with the customers. There are several stages at which the company needs to interact with the customers. The stages are pre selling, selling, consuming and post consuming (Buttle, 2009).
Conflict handling: conflicts can be raised in any of the relationship. Thus, in making marking relationship with the customers, the marketers or the companies have to handle the customers with care. That means they have to resolve each and every query of the customers (Ndubisi, Malhotra and Wah, 2008). Handling the customers efficiently helps in attaining trust and thus building great relationships with them.
Bonding: It is the element of a relationship as per which the two parties in a relationship put their efforts to achieve the desired goals (Brink and Berndt, 2008). It has been analysed that bonding is said to be progressive in nature if any other negative factor does not interfere in between. Binding is most important driver of customers loyalty.
Empathy: Empathy can be defined as the process in which the person sees the situation from the perspective of another person. Empathetic marketers market their products by the perspective of the customer.
Reciprocity: It is the behaviour of one of the parties in the relationship to return the favour to another party. It is also very important to do the same in order to build a string and long term relationship (Gummesson, 2011).
Lo, (2012) has conducted a qualitative research in which many researches and articles have been studied in regards with the effect of relationship marketing on customer satisfaction. Most of the theories of relationship marketing suggest that there is a great role of trust and commitment in affecting performance outcomes. When the company use relationship marketing as the strategy of marketing of the products, it develops a feeling of gratitude amongst the people and this provides a long term effect on the customer experience and satisfaction.
Relationship marketing is basically about building the relationships. It is the mutual interact of the customer and the company and thus provides mutual benefits to both the parties. The company tries to find out the factor that can affect the customer satisfaction in order to build relationship with them.
It has been analysed that the company can enhance its sales and performance only when it develops a psychological relationship with the customers. The company also tries to produce the products as per the customer preferences (Hollensen, 2015). In earlier times, the companies make the products and then market it to the customers but now the companies try to analyse the market and needs and the make the products as per the market requirements. Thus, the market requirements are very dynamic; the companies have to make innovations in their products now and then. This is because customer satisfaction is more important for the companies.
Conclusion:
This report concludes that relationship marketing is the function that involves marketing practices which helps in developing relations with the customers. There are various aspects of relationship marketing. There of the major aspects are technology, processes and human factor. Relationship marketing provides various benefits to the company; it does not only enhance the performance of the firm but also helps in developing customer’s satisfaction and loyalty. Various researches have been conducted in this aspect and it has been analysed from the study that the organisations who wants to retain their customers and make them loyal has to develop relationship with the customers. Customer’s satisfaction can also be attained by developing the relationship with the customers.
References:
Alrubaiee, L. and Al-Nazer, N., 2010. Investigate the impact of relationship marketing orientation on customer loyalty: The customer’s perspective. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 2(1), p.155.
Bonnemaizon, A., Cova, B. and Louyot, M.C., 2007. Relationship marketing in 2015:: a Delphi approach. European Management Journal, 25(1), pp.50-59.
Brink, A. and Berndt, A., 2008. Relationship marketing and customer relationship management. Juta and Company Ltd.
Buttle, F., 2009. Customer relationship management: concepts and technologies. Routledge.
Gummesson, E., 2011. Total relationship marketing. Routledge.
Hollensen, S., 2015. Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.
Lo, S.C., 2012. A study of relationship marketing on customer satisfaction. Journal of Social Sciences, 8(1), p.91.
Mendoza, L.E., Marius, A., Pérez, M. and Grimán, A.C., 2007. Critical success factors for a customer relationship management strategy. Information and software technology, 49(8), pp.913-945.
Murphy, P.E., Laczniak, G.R. and Wood, G., 2007. An ethical basis for relationship marketing: a virtue ethics perspective. European Journal of Marketing, 41(1/2), pp.37-57.
Ndubisi, N.O., Malhotra, N.K. and Wah, C.K., 2008. Relationship marketing, customer satisfaction and loyalty: a theoretical and empirical analysis from an Asian perspective. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 21(1), pp.5-16.
Ngai, E.W., Xiu, L. and Chau, D.C., 2009. Application of data mining techniques in customer relationship management: A literature review and classification. Expert systems with applications, 36(2), pp.2592-2602.
Oly Ndubisi, N., 2007. Relationship marketing and customer loyalty. Marketing intelligence & planning, 25(1), pp.98-106.
Osarenkhoe, A. and Bennani, A.E., 2007. An exploratory study of implementation of customer relationship management strategy. Business Process Management Journal, 13(1), pp.139-164.
Richards, K.A. and Jones, E., 2008. Customer relationship management: Finding value drivers. Industrial marketing management, 37(2), pp.120-130.
Taleghani, M., Gilaninia, S. and Mousavian, S.J., 2011. The role of relationship marketing in customer orientation process in the banking industry with focus on loyalty (Case study: Banking industry of Iran). International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(19).
Tekin, M., 2013. Critical Success Factors for a Customer Relationship Management Strategy. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 4(10), p.753.
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