Keep customers coming back with customized relationship management

Communication World, Nov-Dec, 2004 by Michele Fitzpatrick

With five best selling books about one-to-one customer relationships, authors Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph,D., rank among the few qualified to voice what it takes to keep customers coming back, No small risk takers, they offer more: a comprehensive framework for managing customer relationships intended to be useful to both academia and business.

This 15-chapter textbook, reference and guide will find space on the shelves of state-of-the-art corporate and university collections, In a world quickly digesting sound bites and info bits, prepare for a full course meal.

The authors argue that building customer value through managed relationships is impossible without first understanding relationships--and the core of a relationship is mutuality. Peppers and Rogers maintain that a relationship is mutual, interactive and iterative in nature. It must provide ongoing benefit to each party, will change the behavior of each toward the other and will, therefore, be both unique and lead to mutual trust,

The founding partners of Peppers and Rogers Group present their core concept in Chapter Three: "IDIC." That's an acronym for identifying customers, differentiating them, interacting with them and customizing for them. Ever mindful of the reader, the authors are quick to explain that the IDIC process is part of a larger framework, the mechanics that drive a broader endeavor, Generating a customer's trust is the objective. Here is the heart of the book: Relationships are built on trust.

Eureka? No. Few profound ideas are. It is the depth to which Peppers and Rogers mine the idea that satisfies, Their care to instruct via specifics is rewarding. For instance, Chapter 11, "Longitudinal Metrics and Short Term Gain" illustrates the shift in success measurement via a fictional magazine publisher who wants to build its subscriber base. Case studies are many but they are wrapped in context--another quality-content indicator,

Neatly, the authors mirror relationship building. They engage some 50 contributors, all who have something to say from diverse vantages, and they invite reader response throughout.

This element is an upbeat variation of the 19th-century "dear reader" approach that will annoy or charm, depending on the reader's predisposition, which, of course, is the point of customization.

There is a helpful "How To Use This Book" section that explains that gray-shaded pages house contributor essays. Boxed sidebars fence supplements. Chapters find closure in summaries, discussion questions and glossaries. I never quite grasped the function of tiny text boxes sprinkled throughout; but perhaps a second read will clear that up. Here, I also was invited to share my "how-to" suggestions with fellow readers,

Happy to. I elected the Index as a starting point, for a few good reasons. One, it's a fine way to nibble around the edges of ideas being presented by those whom I am confident are smarter than I am. Two, it's an easy means to absorb the peculiarities of topic language. Three, it's a fun way to engage in a relationship with the book.

Finally, any index is a place to flex my underdeveloped mental muscle by identifying what's missing. I can unearth gaps in structure, point to omissions and generally feel like a smarty pants. Alas, this proved an exercise in futility. Except for the single curiosity that "Listening" was relegated to a single-page reference in a tome riveted on human interchange, these authors address history, theory, methodology, metrics and specifics very well.

Throughout, two down-to-earth themes resonate with those trying to sustain relationships based on sound strategies that build value: One, Peppers and Rogers don't merely think prioritizing the customer requires crossing division boundaries, bridging organizational boundaries or challenging habits-of-thought boundaries. From experience, they know it.

Two, they understand that customers who buy things and people who sell them things are human beings. As such, both will absolutely do unpredictable things.

I, for example, will start reading their next book from the beginning.

Michele Fitzpatrick is a former Chicago Tribune newspaper editor/staff writer and educator, and now director of communication publications and resources at Learning Point Associates in Naperville, Ill., USA.