Cherished relationships. Customer Relationship Metrics.

Some say that a relationship is like a flower, how long it lasts nobody knows. Others believe that we control fifty percent of a relationship and influence one hundred percent of it. So this is the question. Is a relationship a spontaneous happening or is it something we can guide and direct"

You invest money to make the plan of a prosperous business in your head take a material shape. You invest into market research and pay scrupulous attention to the slightest details. You organize a dashing marketing campaign and start waiting for them. In the end, they are the target of all your efforts and sleepless nights. Without them all this has no meaning. Who are they" Customers. They will show up, no doubt. After all, curiosity killed the cat and never caused too much harm to a human being. But will they stay" Will they come back again"

Have you ever noticed that in a busy downtown street all packed with small and large restaurants there are two distinctive types of eating places. The first type is flooded with customers. There is ever a single vacant table and eager clients may be standing in line waiting patiently for their turn. And there are restaurants just round the corner with apathetic idle waiters that hardly ever have an opportunity to say "Just a minute, madam, I will try to find a table for you". Is this place under a bad spell" No. It is a dramatic example of broken relationships with their customers.

If you intend to stay on the market for a long time, you have to learn and train to build relationships with your customers. A balanced scorecard will help you to scrutinize the strong and the weak points of your business's customer relationships. The first group of metrics your business should have is to evaluate how well you are conquering the market. Is your business using the right techniques when searching for new customers" Will the clients that you managed to lure stay with your company ten years from now" If not, how many will leave" These are all important questions to ask yourself if you want to do a check-up of the market invasion capability of your company. Moreover, sheer numbers will say little truth to you unless subjected to a comparative analysis. For instance, 500 new customers a month may be both a large and a small number depending on the number of potential customers that exist on the market. Thus, measure, estimate and compare, then you will have a real-life picture of your busine ss'

s competence in establishing new relationships.

If you aspire to prognosticate your business's performance, you have to predict your customers' behavior which means to know them well. No proficient knowledge comes easy. Only thorough and continuous analysis of customer conduct and psychology will arm you with knowledge and competence to build strong, long-lasting and profitable relationships with them. Accidents may still happen, of course. The success of any business is dependent on coordinated work of many constituents. However, keeping customer relationships under control will allow you to find a way to fix it if something goes wrong.

Thus, customer relationships par excellence does not differ from any other kind of relationship. A relationship is subject to spontaneity; therefore its out-of-control nature becomes predominant whenever given a chance. When cherished and supervised it serves us and satisfies our expectations.