HSM E-briefing Series
on Customer Retention and Loyalty

"HOLDING ONTO YOUR CUSTOMERS"

March 2002

Welcome to a new monthly e-briefing with two minutes of tips that could be worth millions to you in customer retention and loyalty. It's brought to you by The HSM Group, Ltd., a longtime leader in health care marketing. In working with health care organizations of all kinds, we frequently see opportunities to improve retention and loyalty. We hope the following information helps you, our valued clients and friends, in your efforts to build better relationships with your customers.

GET TO REALLY KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS

Expanding options in products and services means that customers face fewer barriers to switching providers and payers than ever before. When it comes to retaining customers and growing your business through relationship-building, knowing and understanding your customers' needs, values, and desires is required to effectively and competitively serve them.

HSM has teamed with Symmetrics Marketing Corporation, a research and consulting firm specialized in the fields of customer loyalty, employee commitment, and organizational performance improvement, to bring state-of-the-art strategies to our clients. Lawrence A. Crosby and Sheree L. Johnson of Symmetrics share insights to better manage customer relationships in "Customer Relationship Management," from Marketing Management. The following are highlights from the article.

New technological advancements have made low-cost methods available for collecting, capturing, processing, and deploying customer information into a single system - leading to the popularity of 1:1 marketing, or the ability to manage customer relationships at a new level of intimacy and understanding. More than 1:1 marketing is needed, however, to take the next step and improve the customers' product or service experience and, consequently, improve customer loyalty.

Remember these key guidelines when designing your company strategy for managing customer relationships:

• Know your target customers precisely.
  Identify where the decision-making power resides in the customer organization and who actually uses the services or products purchased.
  
  
• Follow with an appropriate customer strategy.
  Determine the technology, process, and people enablers for 1:1 marketing and customer-relationship management. Market research can help in the development of this strategy by providing a clear understanding of the characteristics, motivation, and behavior of these customers.
  
  
• Develop a business model with a long-term relationship-based orientation.
  Customers should be loyal to your company, not just its current offerings. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is about developing proactive customer-relationship strategies that support the desired customer experience and build profitable customer loyalty for the organization.

To read the entire article, or for more information on Symmetrics, visit http://www.symmetricsmarketing.com/results/library.asp# .

For more information on customer retention and loyalty, visit http://www.hsmgroup.com/. If you would like us to address a specific customer loyalty challenge in "Holding Onto Your Customers,"email ebriefing@hsmgroup.com with your suggestion.

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