Introduction
Customer management is useful to learn more about customers’ needs and behavioral characteristics to develop strong relationships.
The most crucial feature of Customer management is to bring together all the information about sales, marketing effectiveness, and trends.
It emphasizes a good relationship with channel partners, employees, and stakeholders.
Attracting a customer is not only based on price and product differentiation.
The market is mature now, so do customers, and the introduction of globalization is increasing the trade among customers and companies on the international level.
Well-organized manufacturing and the inclusion of the Internet have completely changed the competitive scenario.
From a customers’ point of view, it all started with price only and product only differentiation. They want extra benefits.
In today’s time., what they are getting with that product as value-added is the deciding factor for the customer to purchase a product.
Presently, Customer management is the most promising factor for the simple reason that the relationship is in a prime position in the competitive area.
After implementing CRM, an organization should target an absolute win-win situation for customers, stakeholders, and employees.
These situations also exist in the hospitality sector.
The hospitality sector also includes Hotels, cruise liners, Resorts, Health Spas, and clubs.
The marketing expertise of large firms has created a competitive environment with this top-notch competition.
Most of the big players are taking a step further.
A customer is not happy with a generic product. Companies need to go beyond the expectations of the customers.
Companies have to increase the value of products along with the value-added services.
There was a time when companies used to be property-centric, but now they are moving towards customer-centric strategies. The hotel industry is fast adopting the latest technologies.
In the past, if anyone wanted to succeed, it was a common understanding that all they needed was a perfect location and good cuisine.
But in today’s competitive environment, a mistake as small as not taking the greeting the customers can prove to be very catastrophic.
There were very few options left with customers, so they had to choose between one or two hotels where they were the regular visitors.
Now things are completely changed. With international hotels, the number of travelers is increasing. It results in all the establishments in the hospitality industry are getting the benefit.
Why do Most of us love to book the hotel beforehand instead of having alternative options of the hotel offering almost the same facilities?
Customer relationship practices of the hotels should get the due credit.
Hotels with high customer loyalty grow almost twice as fast as those who are not practicing Customer retention techniques, and it is cost-effective as well.
The reason behind this loyal customer base is that they are willing to spend more, easy to serve, and attract other customers too with the power of word of mouth.
All the leaders setting their game on loyalty are above their competitors in growth and profitability.
Companies that can understand the importance of customer retention techniques have adopted it.
The total cost of ownership or customer experience.
Things are pretty evident, Customers will assure with theirs.
A presence that they will not move to your competitor if you reward them with an efficient service.
In short, customer satisfaction and good quality services lead to a loyal customer base.
With each passing time, these services are becoming more expected by the customers, so invitation with their
product or services is the key to retaining their loyal customer base.
But things are not as simple as they look the customer is keen on trying a new food or enjoying new services, so they can easily switch to others without any hesitation.
At times, customers like the product of your competitor more than what you are offering.
So organizations need to segment their target audience.
Sometimes it is ok to segment your audience according to your product and potential customers.
Organizations need to measure the ROI on Customer retention for a better view of the behavioral aspects of their customers.
Organizations have to be two steps further from their customers to gain customers’ confidence in their organizations.
Some companies found that security is the prominent aspect for their customers with up-to-date database and identification of their regular customer accounts.
Customer management can also increase the accuracy of businesses that were not that accurate.
One of the significant issues identified by organizations was that continuous, organization-wide competencies are required to increase the ambitious position of an organization and achieve an upper hand over the competitors.
Hospitality industries also found that the business process in the organization must also be simplified and combined well across the organization to enhance its alertness in responding to the changing customer demands.
Customer management is the key to these dynamic changes and a powerful tool over competitors.
With the availability of technology around the globe, Customer management is playing a significant role in all big chains in India and abroad.
At present, every big organization is making an effort by investing in its comprehensive system that stores complete profiles of their customers.
The moment a person enters the ecosystem, that customer has to fill out a form indicating various preferences, likings, and dislikings.
If the person is a regular client, the organization knows about what they like and then acts accordingly to serve that customer.
Almost every organization heavily depends upon its regular customers in terms of revenue. Organizations that identify this have settled Customer Information System to service the customer more comfortably.
A CIS helps the organization maintain a complete record of the customer and keep an eye on its customers’ preferences during their visits. CIS creates a guest-centric environment that is essential for customer retention.
The same database is prominent to offer loyalty programs to the customers.
Nowadays, Organizations provide different customers different services as per their profile. Earlier, this method was executed manually with no prior knowledge about customers’ preferences.
Now, the company is fully aware of the history of customers.
Organizations can serve a customer more effectively and efficiently. Some organizations take this process to a whole different level by providing a unique identification number to check their loyalty points, which they can use afterward.
Issues Involved in Implementing Customer Relationship Management:
Customer management is necessary, and many organizations are implementing it.
There are still many issues involved in implementing customer management.
Conclusion:
Now, some of the most important questions arise,
Who are your website visitors?
How are they finding your website?
Why are they visiting your site?
How often do they visit your site?
The answer to all these questions is how effectively one organization operates its Customer Relationship Management?
Hotels providing Internet and online reservation system with other services give themselves a slight edge.
In conclusion, it is safe to say that CRM would act as a soul for an organization finding it tough to sustain itself in the market and putting you ahead of your competition with the retention of your loyal customer base.
It is up to the organization how it looks at CRM? the one it interprets with strategic importance will be a driving force in the market, and those who look at it as technology will have success.
