The Container Store
Dallas-based specialty cftain Hie Container Store reaps liie benefii of using live customer service personnel to augment its online orders. A Container Store representative speaks on the phone will) each customer who siftmits an online request lor r.us'c.'ri closd planning. More importantly, phone calls don't end at the order initialiafl stage. An individual careWly reviews every Internet order before >t is MfiltetJ. If it seems thai certain parts of an order don't fit together, me customer representative calls to make sure thai vrtut is ordered is what the customer wants. In this way, The ConLiiruit 51ore catches many mistakes Ihat customers have made unknowingly long before orders are ■ snipped. Tnis both saves on returns and gives customers a more positive overall experienced
Not all customerservice features involve live.' personnel, lioili Macys.com and gap,com offer prerecorded customer service Information. Gap's Web site includes a "zoom" feature, whir!i shoppers can use lo gel a close look at every detail of a garment, from elastic waistbands to fabric prints. Lands' End hive allows customers to "try on"1 Clothes online usirlg virtual models based on measurements supplied by customers.
The company may supply customers with special equipment or computer links that help customers manage orders, payroll, and inventory. A good example is McKesson Corporation, a leading pharmaceutical wholesale]1, which invested millions of dollars in l:PI capabilities to help independent pharmacies manage inventory, oider-entrv processes, and slielf space. Another example is Mill ¡ken ff? Company, which provides proprietary software programs, marketing research, sales training, and sales leads to loyal customers.
Lester U'underman. an astute observer of contemporary marketing, thinks talk about "loyalixLrlgf Customers misses the point.7*'People Can be loyal to country, family, and beliefs, hut less so to their toothpaste, soap, or even beer. The marketer's aim should tie to increase the consumer's proclii'ity to repiircliaseXhe eompany's brand,
Here are his suggestions for creating structural lies with lhtL customer:
t. Create long-term contracts. A newspaper subscription replaces the need to buy a newspaper each day, A 20-year mortgage replaces the need 10 re-borrow the money each year. A home heating oil agreement assures continuous delivery without renewing the order.
2. ( 'Marge a tower price to consumers wh o buy larger suppties. < Hfer I <iwer p rice s to people who agree to be supplied regularly vvith a certain brand of toothpaste, detergent, or beer.
3. Turn the product into a long-term service. DalmlerChrysler could soil "miles of reliable transportation" Instead of cars, with the consumer able to lease different cars at different limes or for different occasions such as a station wagon for shopping and a convertible for the weekend, (iaines, tin1 dog food company, could offer a 1'et Care service thai Includes kennels, insurance, and veterinary CatV along with food.
Customer Databases and Database Marketing
Marketers must know their customers. And in Order 1o know the en stonier, the company must collect in for mat ion and store it in a database and do database marketing: A customer database is an organized collection of comprehensive information about Individual customers or prospects thai is current, accessible, ami actionable for such marketing purposes as lead generation, lead qualification, sale of a product or service, or maintenance of customer relationships. Database marketing is the process of building, maintaining, and using customer databases and other databases (products, suppliers, resellers) for ihc purpose of corn acting, transacting, and building customer relationships.
Customer Databases
As the former chief marketing officer of Amazon lilted io point out, when you walk through the door at Mary's, the retailer has no idea who you are. When you log on to Amazon, how-
CREATING CUSTOMEft VALUE. SATISFACTION, ANI3 l,OYA',TY CHAPTER 5 163
ever, you are greeted by name, presented a cusinmi/cd set af product purchase suggestions based on your past purchase choices, and offered a ti accompanying series of frank customer reviews. 4s you log off the site, you are also asked permission to bee-mailed special offers."
Many companies r on fuse a customer mailing list with a customer database, A cue Comer mailing list is simply a set of names, addresses, and telephone numbers. A customer database contains much mure information, accumulated through customer transactions, registration information, telephone tjueries, cookies, and every eusttuner contact.
Ideally, a customer database contains the consumer's past purchases, demographics (age, income, family members, birthdays), psychographics {activities. Interests, and opinions), media graphics [preferred media), and other useful information. The catalog company Fingerhut possesses some MUO pieces of information about each nf thi: million households in its massive customer database.
Ideally, a business database would contain business customers' pa si purchases: past volumes, prices, and profits; buyer leam member names (and ages, birthdays, hobbies, and favorite foods); status of current contracts; an estimate of the supplier's share of the cus-tojiier's business; competitive suppliers; assessment of Competitive strengths and weaknesses in selling and servicing the account; arid relevant buying practices, patterns, anil policies. For example a Ijtin American unit Of the Swiss pharmaceutical firm No varlis keeps data on lOU.OOO of Argentina's farmers, knows their crop protection chemical purchases, groups them by value, and ireals each group differently.
1 ri giire fi d i spl ays a me t hod for sol actively gaining grea tor sha re of a cu stome r's business, based on the presumption that the firm has gained a deep understanding of the customer.
Data Warehouses and Data mining
Sawy companies are capturing information every time a customer conies into contact with any of its departments. Touch points include a customer purchase, a customer-requested ■service call, ;m online query, or a mail-in rebate card. Ranks and credit card companies, telephone companies, catalog marketers, and many other com pari ies have a great deal of in formation about their customers, including noi only addresses and phone numbers, but also their transactions and enhanced data on age, family size, income, and oihcr demographic information.
Shars of customer needs by mailet offerings awt by location^) supplied
Jwilability fli sijmlicafii incremental snare of me altering
FrcuseB s^re building
Atlaincd vs. targeted gain in snare or altering
Shars of customer needs by mailet offerings awt by location^) supplied
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