Marketing: Part 3
Building Customer Relationships
Doing a good job with the first three steps in the marketing process sets the stage for step four, building and managing lasting customer relationships.
Customer Relationship Management
The overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction
Customer Value, A customer buys from the firm that offers the highest customer-perceived value which the customer's evaluation of the difference between all the benefits and all the costs of a marketing offer relative to those of competing offers.
Customer Satisfaction, the extent to which a product's perceived performance matches a buyer's expectations.
Product's performance low, customer dissatisfied
Product's matches expectations, customer satisfied
Product's performance exceeds expectations, customer highly satisfied and delighted.
Customers often do not judge values and costs "accurately" or "objectively". They act on perceived value.
Case Study: iRobot's Roomba
higher levels of customer satisfaction lead to greater customer loyalty, which in turn results in better company performance.
Function and Role
Overview
iRobot began in the 1990s, building devices for the US military small robots called PackBots now used to diffuse improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq or explore cave in Afghanistan
Roomba is a vacuuming robot
Owners spend more time watching their little petlike robots than they would spend vacuuming a room themselves
iRobot does all it can to involve its customers in everything from product development to technical support
This company introduced first Roomba in 2002. Made up of more than 100 plastic parts, motors, controllers, sensors, brushes, and a dustbin.
Background
In the summer of 2002, iRobot began getting calls from major American chains such as Target, Kohl's, and Linens 'n Things. iRobot's factory churned out 50,000 units on that year.
Rather than selling just a high-tech household appliance, it seems that iRobot had invented a new kind of family pet. They also referring to them by name and gender. The most popular name was Rosie.
Soon after that, Roomba became iRobot's best marketing partners. An independent Web site sprang up, myRoomBud.com which customer could customize their Roomba even Roomba also have official-looking birth certificates.
Advantages
Roomba's big fans created the Roomba Review Web site (www.RoombaReview.com), which features news, chats, product news, and hacker information.
All of this customer customer enthusiasm and delight, iRobot developed programs to strengthen and organize the growing sense of community among Roomba owners
it opened its programmatic interface, encouraging owners, amateur robotics enthusiasts, and others to develop their own programs and uses for the Roomba (www.irobot.com/create/)
These actions turned Roomba owners into a community of amateur tinkerers and hobbyists.
Because of that, iRobot was able to discover product problems and additional customer needs such as Scooba floor for floor mopper, The Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot for cleaning gutters, and The Verro Pool Cleaning Robot for cleaning pools deepdown clean.
Conclusion
iRobot has sold more than 2 million Roombas. on 2010, iRobot's sales reached nearly US$250 million, up 75% in the only on 2008 and 2009. With the help of its delighted customers, iRobot is filling the vaccum and really cleaning up.
Case Study: The Ritz-Carlton's Credo
Overview
Services
Conclusion
An operator of luxury hotels in more than 20 countries
ranks at or near the top of the hospitality industry in terms of customer satisfaction.
In the company's Credo says "enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfils even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests"
Without ever asking, they seem to know that you want a king-size bed, a nonallergenic pillow, and breakfast with decaffeinated coffee in your room.
Each day, hotel staffers from those at the front desk to those in maintenance and housekeeping discreetly observe and record even smallest guest preferences
To serve the needs of a guest with food allergies, a Ritz-Carlton chef in Bali located special eggs and milk in a small grocery store in another country and had them delivered to the hotel
When the hotel's laundry service failed to remove a stain on a guest's suit before the guest departed, the hotel manager traveled to the guest's house and personally delivered a reimbursement check for the cost of the suit
95% of departing guests report that their stay has been a truly memorable experience
More than 90% of Ritz-Carlton's delighted customers return