Sam Walton says: “There is only one boss. THE CUSTOMER. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
One of the most important elements in customer relations is “To Gain Prestige”. Prestige is the value given by customers towards employees and the organization. Prestige can increase when customers are satisfied and trust the organization.
Customer expectations in order to gain prestige are:
1. Reciprocity
2. Employees that are knowledgeable
3. Promptness
4. Keeping promises
5. Understanding
6. Trust
7. Follow-up
8. Consistency
9. Communication
10. Availability
11. One-on-one communication
Obviously, if a certain organization is preferred over the competitors, it shows that the customers respect that organization.
Elements for building prestige can be summarized as follows:
Customers should not be remembered only when sales events are taking place. It is not a difficult task to send them reminders regularly even in the absence of sales; nevertheless, this type of behavior will have an important and positive effect.
Sales are an important goal and effort for every commercial organization. The main condition for achieving this is being aware of “Customers' Requests and Characteristics”.
To be customer-centric should be considered as a habit of putting customer interests first. Thinking only about sales is sales-oriented thinking and practice rather than being customer oriented.
Who is the Customer?
• The customer is the most important person for us.
• We are dependent on the customer; the customer is not dependent on us.
• The customer is not the one who hinders our work, they are the focus of our work.
• The customer is not the one to quarrel with. Nobody will earn from this.
• The customer is the person who communicates their needs to us and gives us the opportunity to become our customers.
• The customer is not the one to sell a service to and then abandon. Our relationship should be positive and regular.
• The customer is a friend, a "partner".
When considering procedures, customer relations = human relations. There are positive and negative actions that affect relationships.
