CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT

In the past few years, customer relationship management (CRM) has made huge strides. It has become an integral part of all kinds of business, across sectors and domains. As a matter of fact, CRM has evolved as a customer satisfaction system.

Businesses have started to realize that winning the first order is only a fraction of the profit potential from a customer. The full potential of the customer can be maximized, via careful management of each customer interaction throughout the lifecycle. In the end, careful management of customer relationship will not just reap financial rewards, but customer loyalty, as well.

CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT: WHAT IS IT?

Your customer’s interaction with your business happens several times during the life of your relationship – when they visit your site or store to get information about you, talks to your sales person or makes a query for more detail, attends a webinar or product demonstration, talks to your support team for questions or problems and so on. Each one of these is an opportunity for you to build loyalty and to gain more revenues.

The importance of customer lifecycle management mainly lies in the fact that it is a lot easier to build revenues from existing customers than to attract new customers. Moreover, selling an upgrade or a replacement to an existing customer is obviously easier because you know what they want and expect from you.

For better revenues and profit margin, you need to invest in proper customer lifecycle management. However, if you have your hands full, you can always outsource it to call center services in India. They will handle queries, offer support over the phone and also make after-sales and follow-up calls to make sure that your customers are always thinking about you!

What does a typical customer lifecycle look like?

Here, take a look at the typical customer lifecycle…

• Attract audience: This includes all those things that you do to attract the attention of your targeted market, such as advertising, email campaigns, webinars and so on.
• Capture leads: The moment you have got the attention of your target audience, it is time to get hold of their contact information. For getting their contact details, you need to offer them something in return that they cannot refuse like, discounts.
• Nurture potential customers: Once you have their contact information, it is time to lead them towards a sale. This is where call center professionals can help you achieve your goal. They will work on your behalf to walk the prospects towards making a sale.
• On time delivery: Once the deal has been closed, you need to make sure from your end that the product or service requested by the customer will be delivered on the promised date and time.
• Up-sell customers: As already mentioned before, selling products or services to existing customers is a lot easier than selling it to new customers. So, it is important that you make follow-up calls to check whether your customer is satisfied transacting business with you. If they are, you can go ahead and ask them to try something else. Availing the services offered by call centers will again prove beneficial to you because making hundred call everyday is no mean feat. Also, if you were to bring the calling team in-house, your day-to-day business operation cost would skyrocket.
• Keep customers updated: A great way to maintain customer relationship is by keeping them updated about the latest happenings with your brand or business. It could be a new product launch or a sale coming up. Irrespective of what the news is, your customers need to be informed about it. This will make them feel that you care.

HOW DOES CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT HELP YOU WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS?

Customer satisfaction is the end all and be all for any type of business. If you want to carve out a niche for yourself and achieve success, you simply have to maintain a fantastic relationship with your customers. This is where customer lifecycle management comes in. When you have all the required information about your customer, you will be able to serve them better. It will provide you with the competitive edge you require to stand apart from your competitors. If customers realize that you care about them and working hard to meet their expectations, they will become loyal to your brand.

Why should you outsource customer management to call centers?

The primary function of a call center is to manage the customers of their clients. Since most businesses are today web-based, it becomes extremely difficult to take calls and emails of customers from around the world, especially since all of them expect a prompt response. The only way to survive is call center outsourcing.

Given below are some of the reasons why companies outsource their customer lifecycle management requirements to call centers.

• The inability to handle customer demands in-house owing to lack of human resource pushes business to hire call centers.
• Outsourcing is a much more practical and cost-effective solution that creating a team of callers. Affordability is the main reason why small to big companies are outsourcing to call centers.
• Call centers have a dedicated team of calling agents who are trained specifically for that purpose. They have the required knowledge of troubleshooting and are able to answer all questions of the callers.

Communication and quick resolution power boosts customer satisfaction. Call centers offer all that and much more. If you hope to maintain a rewarding relationship with your customers, it is best that you let the professionals at call centers handle customer lifecycle management on your behalf. Since customers decide the future of your business, do not take any risk of upsetting them!

What do you think about customer lifecycle management? Do you think it is important for businesses to adopt measures for building long lasting customer relationships? Do you think call centers can help in maintaining your business’s relationship with your customers?  Please feel free to share your thoughts, suggestions and experiences in the comments below.