CUSTOMER ACQUISITION | STRATEGIES | CUSTOMER SERVICE | RETENTION STRATEGY

Customer acquisition is the process of converting a person, who is not a customer currently, as a customer buying your products. This means that a person, who was not buying your product earlier, because he or she was not using that kind of product at all, or was buying an alternative brand of the products, starts buying your product. Customer acquisition requires focus on activities like creating customer awareness about your product and convincing the customer about its benefits through suitable marketing communication programs. It also involves providing motivation and incentive to the customer so that the customer will take positive action inform of decision in favour of your product and try to buy it.
The importance of customer acquisition varies according to the specific business situation of an organization. This process is specifically concerned with issues like acquiring customers at less cost, acquiring as many customers as possible, acquiring customers who are indigenous and business oriented, acquiring customers who utilize newer business channels, etc. The whole process should concentrate on the following considerations:
-              Primarily it is important to determine and focus on psychology of customers, like how the customers feel and think and then selecting the product segment to be presented to them
-               Concentrating on how the customers  are influenced by the surrounding environment like the business culture, technology, media, etc.
-              Analysis of customer behaviour and tendency while buying specific range of product.
-              Studying the customer’s limitation of knowledge processing power which influence the decision making power.
-              Finally it is very important to engage best strategies for effectively convincing new customers and improving marketing campaigns.
Acquiring a customers depends on how effective the organization is able to build a comprehensive relationship with that customers. When service providers have healthy relationship with customers, the revenue of the organization always increases as customers tend to patronize such firm. There is possibility that a satisfied customer seek to patronize the firm by purchasing special category of related service, apart from the regular ones from that particular provider. For instance, if a satisfied and loyal customer has a home insurance policy from an insurance company, then there are positive chances that the customer could also insure his or her property and car if he or she is fully satisfied with the services of that insurance company. This will, definitely, result in growth of business.
While acquiring, the nature of response provides to acquisition is the key aspect to create an impressive opinion in the customer’s mindset. Hence, the service providers should always have prompt, responsive and experienced executives to serve customers. For example if a customer calls and asks about some critical features of any service and the executive fails to explain it or being non-responsive to most of the customer’s questions, the customers could probably divert his or her attention and way to some other organization for better repose which could definitely result in end of the deal and relationship with that customer.
Improving customer acquisition is the primary challenge which an organization faces. Hence, it is important to identify critical approaches to enhance customer acquisition power this includes                                           acquiring more number of customers of more number of attractive.

CUSTOMER ACQUISITION STRATEGIES
Customer acquisition is a broad term that is used to identify the processes and procedures used to locate, qualify and ultimately secure the business of new customers.
There are many different strategies used as part of the acquisition process, with some methods being more effective with specific types of potential clients. In spite of the many and sometimes contradictory ideas that surround the central idea of how to ear a customer, there are few essentials that are included in just about any type of customer acquisition plan.
One of the basics of customer acquisition effort is to identify and qualify potential customer. This is sometimes accomplished with the use of telemarketing as a means of locating individuals and business who either express interest in or already use services similar to those offered by the organization. From this initial list, these leads are then qualified a little further, using various research methods to determine if there is any solid chance of making a sale with a given lead. If there is a good chance, and the contact is interested in learning more about the services offered, his or her status is usually upgraded to that of prospect, and assigned to a sales person for further interaction.
Establishing rapport with the prospect is essential to any successful customer acquisition effort. Here, the salesperson finds ways to identify with the stated wants and needs of the prospect, and how the services offered can relate to those wants and needs.
At the same time, the salesperson will go further and attempt to identify unstated needs, based on data provided in ongoing conversations with the prospect. This type of activity can lead to identifying additional wants that can be met by other services that the salesperson has to offer, or inspire additional ideas of how the prospect can obtain a greater value from purchasing the services he or she already is considering.
Key to the customer acquisition process is understanding the role of customer perception throughout the process. A successful salesperson knows how to how that prospect feels about the potential of the services offered for sale. Secing the relationship from the prospect’s point of view makes it possible to proactively deal with possible objections raised by the prospect before they are voiced or heard. In addition, the added perspective can help the salesperson connect with the client in a manner that is rarely possible otherwise. The end result is that understanding customer perceptions makes it easier to forge a relationship that not only results in a sale, but also in strong customer loyalty, provided the services live up to the claims presented during the sales cycle.
Customer acquisition provides a key response to the challenges of competition. At every point, companies face the demands of keeping current customers balanced with using tactics to find new customers. In general, three basic forms of customer acquisition are:
1.         Developing existing or new markets,
2.         Developing existing or new service and
3.         Branding programs.
Customers are acquired through the analysis of existing markets and new markets. New customer can be located in existing markets some may be found through the efforts to increase brand switching. Others can be identified when new needs arise as situations change, such as when ATMs are used to dispense cash to bank customers as against the conventional method of cash withdrawal by customers at the counter, inside the banking hall. Further, a service may be featured as being different and better, which is another way to attract new customers in existing markets. Finding new markets, the second approach to identifying markets, consists of geographic expansion into domestic markets and international markets. When a company does not operate nationally, domestic markets are assessed to see which will be the most viable for entry. International markets require careful study prior to setting up any kind of export arrangement.
Acquisition of new customers often results from the implementation of service quality. Services attract new customers by offering new features, elimination old problem, and solving different needs. Service will be matched with viable market segments.
Branding programs are an other source of acquiring customers. A strong brand can influence the acquisition of a customer.
A brand is the name given to an item or, is some case, an organization. Brands are assigned to individual products, lines of products, companies offering products individual services, and companies that offer services. The term used to identify an entire company is the corporate name, which may or may not also be a brand. 

CUSTOMER ACQUISITION AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
Perceptions of excellence will be not only based on tangible product features but also emerge from in tangibles. To acquire customers, service providers must go beyond offering superior services and make sure the services are delivery on time, in accurate amounts, with correct billing procedures, and with quality service after the sale.
The importance of a brand reaches a premium for companies that vend services. Services are intangible, which makes the name the primary means by which a company and its services are identified.
A connection also exists between pricing and company services. Customers paying higher prices expect the best service. In general, any time a customer considers a new company, product, or service, several factors influence the final choice. The one common denominator for markets, products, brands, and prices is the connection to customer service. The company that delivers the most memorable quality service automatically has an advantage.

CUSTOMER RETENTION
Customer retention refers to keeping an existing customer happy so that he or she continues to buy your product. On the hand, customer retention requires focus on ensuring that the customer is satisfied with the service quality provided by a company. Here the stress is on service quality. The focus of marketing communication function shifts from creating awareness and providing information about the service to assuring the customer that the choice made by him or her to buy or Purchase the service is the right choice.
Customer retention also requires attention to cantering the actions of your competitors to win over your customers.

CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY
Many companies have adopted customer relationship management (CRM) systems that can support both acquisition and retention by gathering data from every contact with prospects and customer. Just collecting data should not be an end unto itself, however. The real focus should be on developing a data strategy and tuning the CRM system to help your company acquire and retain the right types of customers.
While looking at data for individuals can help you better understand their needs and interests, analyzing data in the aggregate can show which groupings or classes of customer respond best to your company’s. This step can help you to develop services that meet the needs of specific groups of customers or prospects.
As the focus of a company’s program shifts from acquisition to retention, the goals become those of establishing loyalty, advancing the relationship and building sense of community, participation and affinity. As with prospecting, however, the data strategy should help determine whether customers do or do not meet the company’s criteria for retention.
The development of the data strategy as it relates to retention issues should address questions such as:
-              What characterizes our best customers, and what keeps them loyal?
-              How do the information and service needs of new customer differ from those of established customers?
-              Is it necessary to keep all prospect information once a customer relationship is established?
-              What changes does the organization need to make as the relationship goes along?
-              Were any service rejected and why?
-              How many service calls did customers place?
-              How were they resolved?
-              What was the time to resolution on those calls?
-              What is the potential for developing other customers such as these?
-              Why does one group or class of customer respond to opportunities when another does not?
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