Even as recently as five years ago, any potential customer who told a supplier - "...I know what I want. Deal with it!!..." would have been disregarded or dismissed as arrogant.
With the Internet-age and the proliferation of electronic avenues of commerce we have arrived in the almost science fiction like reality where consumers are the benevolent dictators sharing their favours and resources only with those suppliers that are seen to add value and enjoyment. Relationships are built and destroyed by one click, or the absence of one click. In building relationships in the e-commerce markets the major differentiators are the ability to provide a "customised" offering, and excellent customer service.
Organisations, playing in the e-commerce-based markets, live and die by their ability to tailor their services and products to their customers` needs. They rarely have the opportunity to sell a second time to a customer dissatisfied with their services and/or products. Any suggestion that the supplier cannot deliver, and the next supplier is two clicks away.
Excellent customer service is dependent not only on painless delivery of the offerings, but on how well the customer interacts with you. Interaction includes ease of use, stickiness (how long they linger on a web page) and that they are recognised, by name, when they interact with you. Providing the abilities and reacting on it, to feeding back problems, tracking progress, allowing customers to complain are crucial to building trust with the customer. These abilities are simultaneously the lifeblood and future map of your organisational development, since it will highlight the most effective interactions and problem areas.
Once these basic requirements are met you have to provide the next level of relationship management, which focus on customer preferences and cyber-behaviour. This can be used to predict future behaviour and allows you to recommend other offerings. Creating a comfortable environment, in which the customer can make decisions about your offerings without feeling threatened, or overloaded with information, will ensure that their lifetime value is extended and repeat business is guaranteed.
With the odds stacked heavily in favour of the potential customer, organisations are faced with the reality of systems expanding across and outside the boundaries of the organisation`s influence sphere. This implies that marketing and relationship abilities need to be adapted for and focused on the faceless customer, not only to sell but also to survive.
The customer is in charge. Deal with it!
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