By M. Isi Eromosele

Frequently, Customer Relationship Management has little to do with customer relations. It is interactions between two or more people that create real relationships, not interactions between a computer and an individual. The key factor in any relationship is the heart and the emotional connections that are established.

Companies that create a buzz in their relationships are those that recognize this and put a lot of “love” into the way they deal with customers and employees alike. Motivation is closely linked with emotions and these have to be “stimulated” by applying the “stimulus factor”.

Most companies, when trying to improve customer relationships, focus mainly on systems, not only the technical aspects of e-commerce but delivery systems, equipment and processing of transactions.

This “systems” aspect of customer relationships, while essential is “impersonal”. In fact, e-commerce is predominantly impersonal. It is impossible for a customer to have a relationship with a computer database which sends him useful information about products or services which might (or might not) meet his needs.

E-commerce has little to do with customer relationships but more to do with the impersonal exchange of specified information between customers and computers coupled with an impersonal, albeit efficient transaction process.

Most human beings are social animals and actually do enjoy and value positive interactions with other human beings. This drive for social contact is not just confined to family and friends but extends to the whole world of e-commerce.

One of the reasons we go to certain restaurants is because we enjoy the social contact with the team of waiters and waitresses there.

Creating a Buzz

The key challenge in Customer Relationship Management is to make customers feel good. This is called “creating a buzz”. When you make customers feel good, you are actually creating positive relationships with them, relationships which arise from emotional connections between people.

In establishing this emotional connection, value can be added to the relationship. That value can take the form of a smile, an expression of genuine interest, some personal initiative or some friendly chat.

Companies should go to great lengths to make customers feel good. To achieve this, they must first make their employees feel good - such that they love coming to work and love serving customers.

If you make your employees feel good, the probability is that they will make customers feel good and you will establish excellent customer relationships. Such positive feelings come from the heart and radiate out from the Chief Executive, through the whole company to customers.

These are feelings of love, warmth, enthusiasm, delight, kindness, compassion and so on. Organizations that practice the above are driven by a deep-rooted sense of positive emotional value.

One of the most neglected areas of customer relations is psychology. Too many companies rely on systems to build relationships and the drift into e-commerce is exacerbating this.

In task-driven companies, this aspect of psychology is ignored and results in customer alienation and a perception of service deterioration. Conversely in people-oriented companies, much attention is given to motivation and making people, both customers and employees, really feel good. In these companies, there is a genuine interest in people and a sincere attempt to make them feel special.

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

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