OTHER PAGE

Relationship Marketing in the 21st Century

In the 21st century, a customer service representative will have to be much more than a paper pusher or order taker. Marketing responsibility will be integrated throughout the organization. And soon, relationship marketing will be the norm and we will intelligently use the information we have on customers to make offers that are timely, relevant and don't disturb their privacy (as they define it).

Here we are in the beginning of the 21st Century. A time of unprecedented change, a time of unprecedented choice, and, opportunity. The enormity of changes occurring in the last century and the impact they have had on every aspect of life should give us cause to pause, and think.

We've seen the industrial age come, and (almost) go. We've ushered in the information age, not quite sure where it is leading us, to interconnectedness, or further separation? We have disassembled the social structures that traditionally held societies together and are paying a high societal price for our mobility and freedom. The role of the corporation has and is changing. Smaller, flatter, more flexible, more responsive business structures are emerging and managers struggle with trying to create customer loyalty while employee loyalty is facing extinction. Business in the 21st century will demand a different kind of leadership, a different kind of outlook, and very different managerial thinking and behaviors.

In the recent past it was relatively simple. A manager figured out what needed to be done, told people what to do (and often how to do it) and if it didn't get done they searched for someone to blame (and sometimes fire.) Now, in our changing world, rather then telling people what to do, managers (no, leaders!) are expected to help create consensus around the shared vision, mission and goals of the company. They are expected to transcend the pettiness of ego and internal competition and find win/win solutions for all. Every employee is expected to be a leader and make decisions, on the spot, for the good of the customer relationship.

In the recent past, marketing was something done by a department, which was removed from sales and from production and from customer service. Usually, based on marketing's perceptions of what was needed in the marketplace (or on engineering's latest discovery) a strategy and platform was developed and executed without much communication or interaction with other departments. (And certainly without much input from the customers themselves.) Marketing and advertising "created a need" more often then they sought to understand and fill a need.

Now, ideally, the marketing responsibility is integrated throughout the organization with open feedback channels from the customers and employees, and uses a central database system to collect and disseminate up to the minute information on both the customers and employees changing expectations and perceptions.

And soon, relationship marketing will be the norm and we will intelligently use the information we have on the customers to make offers that are timely, relevant and don't disturb their privacy (as they define it). And, of course, the marketer of tomorrow will be able to anticipate need.

So how is it we will get from here to there? The first step is to develop a "21st Century Mind." In order to make these fundamental changes in the way we do business (versus the way we talk about doing business) we first need to have a fundamental shift in mind.

Frederick Taylor, early in the industrial age taught us that we should break work down into discrete elements, break a large task into many small tasks and assign only one task per person. This "pieces and parts" mentality had its place in the industrial age, allowing us to produce a large quantity of products. While this methodology did wonders for quantity production, it didn't do much for quality. Many of today's existing managers were schooled, directly or indirectly in the methods that Taylor prescribed. In this model managers did have to do all the thinking, since no one else saw more than their piece of the process. How rapidly that is changing.

In the 21st century, everyone needs to see the whole and the business as a system. In a systems thinking view, it is understood that a change in any one part of the system affects other parts of the system. "So", you might be saying, "What does this have to do with relationship marketing?" Everything.

Relationship marketing in the 21st century will be holistic. It will take into consideration the expectations, perceptions, capabilities, interest, desires and feelings of all those in the system, all of those part of the relationship. And it will challenge all involved to think differently then they have thought before.

The 21st century mind will be whole-thinking, systems oriented, able to live with (and actually begin to enjoy) chaos. The 21st century mind will be intuitive, organic (non-linear) playful and curious, and embrace change. The 21st century relationship marketer will understand that marketing needs to be an inclusive process. She or he will spend a good portion of their time gathering and understanding feedback (not just "data") from customers, employees, suppliers and the community or industry they are a part of. The 21st century relationship marketer will be continually attempting to master the relationship skills of trust, respect, and communication. They will be generous and considerate with their praise and appreciation and will treat people internal to the organization as care-fully as those that are external to the organization.

The 21st century marketer will understand that people bond with people, they will give their companies personalities, and create more pleasure and fun in business. They will encourage even "back office" people to get out to meet the customers to understand what they want and need. They will be long term thinkers and not be ruled only by this quarter's profit margin, knowing that some things take time, and nurturing (like relationships).

And of course one of the defining qualities of the 21st century mind is that it is visionary. It can see ahead and imagine the future. Often it will see ahead and then create that future. The 21st century mind, what are you doing to develop it? What are you doing to question your beliefs and your values and your assumptions? What was the last "old belief" you tossed out? What was the process you used to evaluate the belief or value that you tossed away? Can that process be duplicated to question other beliefs or assumptions? How do your assumptions affect your attitude and behavior?

Catch my thinking here? Think. Challenge. Re-think. Make new choices. Imagine. Dream. Question. Play. Develop a 21st century mind, become a 21st century relationship marketer - be bold enough to deal with real relationship issues - Dare to Care!

JoAnna Brandi is Publisher of the Customer Care Coach® a weekly training program on mastering "The Art and Science of Exquisite Customer Care." She is the author of books such as "Winning at Customer Retention - 101 Ways to Keep 'em Happy, Keep 'em Loyal, and Keep 'em Coming Back" and "Building Customer Loyalty - 21 Essential Elements in ACTION."

A Speaker and consultant, she is publisher of the bi-weekly Customer Care Tips Bulletin. To receive her free bi-weekly tips bulletin, sign up at www.returnonhappiness.com. You can also reach JoAnna at 561-279-0027 or e-mail joanna@customercarecoach.com.