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Customer relationships covers all parts of our business model in which we communicate with our customer. In this video, we break all of it down into three distinct stages of communication to focus our messages with our customer base.
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Once we have our channels established, we
need to start thinking about
0:00
the different ways in which we're going to
be communicating with our customers.
0:03
By communication, I don't just mean the
phone calls and
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emails, but all kinds of communication
with a customer.
0:10
If a person is interacting with our
company or our product or
0:14
service, whether it's for the very first
time or whether they've been a user for
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a while, we are establishing a
relationship with them.
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In this section, we talk about the various
kinds of
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customer relationships that our business
model will have to account for.
0:28
Customer relationship, in the scope of our
business model, defines any interactions
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with our customers and the strategies that
we have built around these interactions.
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In any business, there are three main
groupings of customer relationships.
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First, we build relationships when we
[SOUND] acquire new customers.
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The strategies that we build around these
activities are called acquisition and
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activation strategies.
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Once we acquire this customer,
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we work through a different set of
relationships to keep them happy.
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[SOUND] We call these actions retention
activities.
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Finally, we can maximize [SOUND] the
relationship with our
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existing customers through up-selling
activities.
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These activities should be carefully
considered and
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only offered to customers who have the
need for additional products or services.
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The ideas we develop in this stage will
help us fine-tune our marketing, sales,
1:23
and retention strategies.
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Depending on your value proposition,
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you can have different types of customer
relationships.
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Up first, you have personal assistance.
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This is where customers get he;p directly
from a customer representative during
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the sales process or at any time after.
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Self-service, where the company doesn't
maintain direct relationships with
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customers, instead offering all the
resources they need to help themselves.
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Automated services, where customers are
helped via automated processes.
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This might sound confusing, but think of
Netflix or Amazon.
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They offer movie or book recommendations
based on your personal preferences and
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past history.
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This type of relationship simulates
personal assistance to keep us happy.
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You also have communities.
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Companies can offer online communities as
a way to interact with their users and
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let users help one another.
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This is really useful because it allows
for quick problem solving and
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better interaction and thereby higher
engagement from users.
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Co-creation.
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A newer form of customer relationship is
where the company allows users to
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interact with the product or a service in
such a way that it betters the product
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while offering value to other customers
and increasing retention.
2:38
By allowing users to review books, Amazon
increases the value of
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its online stores and offers better
choices for customers.
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Similarly, by allowing user to create and
upload videos, Vimeo or
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YouTube greatly increases its content
library and keeps users more entertained.
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Since our service is a productivity tool,
the best type of customer relationship we
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can offer is self-service, and that should
solve most needs.
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We could do this by having a really good
user guide on the site,
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along with frequently asked questions and
a contact forum.
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This type of relationship mostly applies
to our retention activities, however.
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What about acquisition?
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Acquisition strategies can be simply
thought of as marketing strategies.
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These strategies are heavily dependent
upon first,
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the customer segments, and secondly, the
channels through which we reach them.
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Acquisition activities are closely linked
with the awareness stage of a channel.
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Now, we defined our customer segment as a
niche market and
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that we're using an owned channel.
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This means that we'll be marketing
ourselves using one message that
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applies specifically to our segments and
the difficulties they face.
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Let's look at some of the acquisition
strategies we could start out with.
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There's the old, traditional outbound
marketing.
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This includes activities where you reach
out to people via email blast to
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purchase lists, cold calling, traditional
advertising, and so on.
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These strategies seem to be getting less
and less effective, with people coming up
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with different ways to block out emails,
calls, and filter out ads.
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Instead, we're going to focus on inbound
marketing strategies and
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set ourselves up as thought leaders.
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When people find my website,
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I want to be seen as a thought leader who
contributes to the industry that I'm in.
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This will make it easier for my customers
to trust my brand and use my services.
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My main acquisition activities will be
content [SOUND] marketing, that is,
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blogging regularly with great productivity
tips and ways to enhance your workflow.
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[SOUND] Email marketing, building an email
newsletter and providing readers with
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actionable advice, [SOUND] social media
marketing and search engine optimization.
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Now, don't worry.
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We'll go in depth on a lot of these
activities later on in
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this series as we talk about marketing.
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Customer relationships are an important
part of your business model, so
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pay attention to all the areas where you
interact with your customers.
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Now that we're done brainstorming, let's
throw this up on
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our post-it notes to keep track of our
ever-evolving business model.
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Before we move on, let's recap.
5:17
Customer [SOUND] relationships cover any
communication we
5:20
have with our customers throughout our
business model.
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These [SOUND] relationships can be broken
down into three main groupings.
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[SOUND] Acquisition, [SOUND] retention,
[SOUND] and up selling.
5:30
Awesome, let's move on to the next
section.
5:33
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