Fournier S, Dobscha S, Mick D G
Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA.
Harv Bus Rev. 1998 Jan-Feb;76(1):42-4.
Relationship marketing is in vogue. And why not? The new, increasingly efficient ways that companies have of understanding and responding to customers' needs and preferences seemingly allow them to build more meaningful connections with consumers than ever before. These connections promise to benefit the bottom line by reducing costs and increasing revenue. Unfortunately, a close look suggests that the relationships between companies and customers are troubled ones, at best. Companies may delight in learning more about their customers and in being able to provide features and services to please every possible palate. But customers delight in neither. In fact, customer satisfaction rates in the United States are at an all-time low, while complaints, boycotts, and other expressions of consumer discontent are on the rise. This mounting wave of unhappiness has yet to reach the bottom line. Sooner or later, however, corporate performance will suffer unless relationship marketing becomes what it is supposed to be--the epitome of customer orientation. Ironically, the very things that marketers are doing to build relationships with customers are often the things that are destroying those relationships. Relationship marketing is powerful in theory but troubled in practice. To prevent its premature death, marketers need to take the time to figure out how and why they are undermining their own best efforts, as well as how they can get things back on track.
关系营销正流行。这有何不可呢？公司了解并回应客户需求及偏好的新方法越来越高效，这似乎使它们能够与消费者建立比以往任何时候都更有意义的联系。这些联系有望通过降低成本和增加收入来提升利润。不幸的是，仔细观察就会发现，公司与客户之间的关系充其量也只是问题重重。公司可能乐于更深入地了解客户，并能够提供各种特色和服务来满足每一种可能的口味。但客户对此并不买账。事实上，美国的客户满意度处于历史最低点，而投诉、抵制以及消费者不满的其他表现却在增加。这股日益高涨的不满浪潮尚未影响到利润。然而，迟早企业业绩会受到影响，除非关系营销成为它应有的样子——以客户为导向的典范。具有讽刺意味的是，营销人员为与客户建立关系所做的事情往往正是破坏这些关系的事情。关系营销在理论上很强大，但在实践中却问题多多。为防止其过早夭折，营销人员需要花时间弄清楚他们是如何以及为何在破坏自己的最大努力，以及如何才能让事情重回正轨。
