The Power of Engagement with your Clientele

By: Tram Panaligan and Lorenzo Inciong

DMU Undergraduates were intent on listening to Ms. Nas Harrison, Senior Marketing Lecturer of De Montfort University, on the 2nd day of Enhancement Week. Ms. Harrison delivered a short lecture on Customer Relations Management (CRM) and its value to Millennial Managers.

Nas Harrison is a lecturer in Marketing with DMU's Faculty of Business and Law; is also the link tutor for SCOPE University in Hong Kong. Her experience covers marketing, consumer behaviour, and customer management. She teaches undergraduate degrees in business and leads the Retail Marketing module. She has experience supervising programs and placements at undergraduate level. Her level of expertise includes teaching professional accounting courses such as CIMA and ACCA to junior accounting managers. Ms. Harisson has also previously worked in the retail sector as a senior manager, responsible for training and development within the company.

The lecture was attended not just by SISFU-DMU students, there were other esteemed guests who joined the event: Business professors from San Beda-Alabang, Elizabeth Seton, St. Scholastica College, bustling professionals in the business world, government employees, and interested students from SISFU's sister school Southville International Schools and Colleges.

In her short lecture, she stated the value of a business’ relationship with their customers and the reason why strong relationships cause people to spend more. It is proven that most businesses and marketers still use the traditional 4Ps, wherein the foundation on how one makes the business noticeable to customers is simply through a standout product, competitive pricing, proper place, and aggressive promotion; however, in the last 15 years, successful businesses have learned to shift from the 4Ps to the 4Cs. This shift allows businesses to put themselves into the shoes of their customers, thus providing them with the goods and services they actually need and want.

Due to the fact that business are now becoming customer-centric, they now have the ability to get valuable customers who will actually spend more. The lecture highlights that retaining customers is more affordable with effective management of relationships. Providing top-draw service toward regular customers is more beneficial in comparison to finding new customers through the efforts of marketing towards newer ones. The business will spend a lot of money in terms of research, market study, and campaigning since the market will be happy to shift to a different business when they feel unappreciated and underserved.

Ms. Harrison also took note of the Customer Life Cycle & Lifetime Value making Amazon an example. Amazon has the idea on the measurement for multiple customer-related metrics; when analyzed for a period of time, indicating the performance of a business. This allowed Amazon to prosper greatly into the 21st Century thanks to their practices centering around their customers and valuing trust.

She also stressed in her talk that we need to build lifetime value and data of the demographic, taste, and demand of our prospective and current customers by utilising the most flexible platform: social media

Despite her time with the DMU undergraduates being ephemeral, she imparts them with an inspiring quote: “It’s all about engagement--how we try to UNDERSTAND and GET CLOSER to our customers.” Undeniably, becoming customer-centric opens avenues on how businesses should weigh things when it involves the selling of a product or service, the expansion of the enterprise and customer base, or the creation of a marketing strategy.

We look forward to hearing from you!