Entrepreneurial Customer Relationship

When we do business, what we need the most is the customer. When we have a good product to sell but no customer who wants to buy, then it cannot be called business. In the real business world, there are lots of different types of customer that we are going to interact with and they can be classified into initiator, influencer, decider, buyer and user. In targeting the customer, we have to use different approach to suit the needs of different customer types.

Careful attention should be taken on building a relationship with customer because before purchasing the product, an expectation has already been created in the customer's mind and our job as business people are to reduce the gap between the customer's real experience with the expectation that they have. For sure, we cannot control the expectation created in every individual's head, however we can manipulate to increase this experience by applying these aspects to our business. The aspects are reliability, assurance, responsiveness, empathy and other tangible aspects like equipment and facilities.

In building good relationship with the customers, different strategies should be executed in different stages of customer development. For example, the strategy used in customer acquisition stage, satisfaction stage and loyalty stage should be different from the strategy used in customer retention stage. We have to go as far and as detailed about the customer's profile and interests to really satisfy the ones in the higher phase.

Lastly, there are lots of benefits that we will get from customer satisfaction. This may mean so much more than just repeat purchases, it may also lead to customer loyalty, good brand image, and customer fanaticism of a particular brand. All these benefits are the result of the deduction of customer costs to the customer value.

I am sure that everybody is familiar with the statement "customer is king". That statement is true, indeed, because customer is the most important aspect in business, without them profit and popularity cannot be earned thus may hinder the business from success. Customer satisfaction should be the company's priority, especially in the hospitality industry where service is the main subject. That is why we are taught about politeness and communication skills.