How to establish relationship with Customers?

Customer Relationship management is nothing new to the world, there are organizations who have implemented strategies and processes for managing customer relations, the concept is well explained in Management or Marketing related books and many people follow the principle. Here, I am also going to say about an instance which is again an experience that made me write and briefly explain the term customer relationship management.

Last week I happened to pass through a lane from Kennedymukku to Chembumukku, in Kochi. My purpose was to fill petrol in my car, otherwise I don't take that route usually. I noticed plantain hanging in a shop where I stopped as there was enough parking space to buy a KG of Plantain. I had a specific purpose to visit the shop otherwise the shop had no special appeal or deal that attracted me.

As soon as I entered the shop, the shopkeeper smiled at me and didn't ask me what I need. Instead I asked him the price of 1KG of Plantain for which he responded quickly and while he was engaged in the process of detaching a part from the bunch of Plantain hanging, he asked me subtly which model is my Maruti 800 that I had parked in front of his shop. To my response he said he likes this vehicle so enquired, that's it.

What I noticed here is that just by initiating a conversation with me, he related his interest to mine to establish a relationship and the secret I identified here is that while we spoke he maintained eye contact with me decently.

I visit at least one retail outlet every two days, some repeatedly and some others just once. Those places where we visit regularly are the ones where we find some sort of convenience or benefit in purchasing, others we may not remember at all.

This one I remember just because there is a relationship established. If I happened to pass through that route again it is obvious that I might visit that shop if I have to buy something and I am sure that the shop keeper will definitely remember me in my next visit which will comfort my repeat purchase.

This is appreciated because such things happen only at few places out of several ones visited and only after this instance I too noticed that so far no others bothered to look at a customer's face nor I did in return.

This is a simplified version of CRM which is practiced by a small street retailer. CRM is very important in Retail Management to stimulate repeat visit or to gain referrals.

#crm #customerrelationshipmanagement #retailer #customer #communication #customerrelation