 |
||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||
The start of a beautiful relationship PR and marketing often merge,
especially when it comes to building positive relationships with customers and clients. Marketing News
(September 9, 1996) offered four tips for charting that relationship: awareness, credibility, trust and chemistry. Awareness is created through the usual marketing activities, and chemistry either exists or it
doesn't. But businesses need to look beyond marketing and PR to build credibility and trust. An impressive list of testimonials borrows other people's credibility, but as a business relationship evolves, your own
credibility and trustworthiness will depend on your ability to carry through on your promises. By keeping your word, and by bending over backwards when things go wrong, you encourage your clients to trust you. But for
70 per cent of customers who switch suppliers, mere satisfaction is not enough. To keep these customers from switching, businesses need to build a more emotional relationship with them. They need to show their
appreciation by giving long-time customers extra service and benefits. Clubs, such as Club Z at Zeller's, are one way of doing this. Benefits of clubs do not always need to be directly related to the product, but they
must be valuable to the members. Clubs can often cost a company as much as $50 per member, but more loyal customers buy more products, and the clubs themselves are a source of valuable data on customers.
Cornerstone is a writing and editing firm that uses marketing and PR principles to create "words you can build your business
on." Call us from anywhere in the world for rush work.
|
|||