What is the importance of relationship marketing?
Importance of Relationship Marketing can be summarized as follows:
(i) Customer relationships are the lifeblood of every good company. Relationships between a company and their customers, distributors, employees, referral sources, are vital to continued, sustained growth and stability.
(ii) Loyal relationships with these valued individuals make for a strong bottom line. With well- planned relationship marketing efforts, like a greeting card campaign using system that can impact retention and will impact the bottom line.
(iii) According to customer relationship management experts, companies can increase revenue by 50% if they retain only 5% more of their customers. Business owners tend to be driven, both financially and philosophically, to make cold calls, pursue new contacts, and acquire new customers.
(iv) Regardless of how effective the customer retention efforts are, some relationships will inevitably break down. For various reasons, certain customers will suspend their relationship with business.
(v) Repairing a broken relationship is more efficient than trying to build one from scratch. But many companies make the mistake of attempting to re-acquire lost customers in the same way that they acquire new ones.
Today, most marketers are seeking more than just a one-time exchange or transaction with customers. The focus of market driven companies is on developing and sustaining relationship with their customers.
This has led to a new emphasis on relationship marketing, which involves creating, maintaining and enhancing long-term relationship with individual customers as well as other stake holders for mutual benefit.