Customer Relationship Management
3 words when they come together bring almost endless interpretations. I always begin the first day of CRM class addressing just the first word and do an open discussion asking the class to be a live thesaurus for substitutions of the word "customer". This word game is an effective way to get them to avoid underestimating the fundamental terminology and their responsibility in shaping the course. These early perspectives help me understand the contexts in which they frame customer scenarios and then allow me to customize the course helping them focus on customer types that they embody as well as those they may have to manage in their current or future careers.
The orientation towards the word customer, atleast in yesterday's session, came from culture and country of origin with language aiding or inhibiting responses as well as customers in relations to the places they are acquire products or services. Students are themselves customers of the college they attend; their parents if a funding source are also customers of the education but not the users. In this view the students can recognize that they will need to rethink casual associations with the word "customer" and become more alert to variations that would then impact the level of service delivered and received in customer transactions. Here is the start of the "customer alphabet" and their explanations:
Audience...like a group who watches or listens to a performance,live or pre-recorded
Addict...like someone who is driven to habitually crave and consume
Beneficiary...like someone who is a recipient of a benefit
Buyer...like fashion buyers or other retailers in a B2B exchange with a wholesaler
Consumer...like in mass consumerism across a multitude of channels
Delegate...like someone attending a conference and representing a larger group
Employee...like the internal customer of a company
Fan...like a supporter of a sports team, celebrity or Facebook page
Follower...like of a cult or a Twitter personality, person, entity or cause
Guest...like those staying in some form of accomodations and especially emphasized by Disney
Hackers...like computer experts who spend alot of time online
Investor...like someone who buys into a new business venture
John...like someone who uses the services of "massage parlor"
King...like male head of household
Lovers...like someone whose passion goes beyond simply liking some brand or other object of affection
Member...like someone who belongs to a group with similar lifestyles
Niche...like an emerging subset of consumers with special characteristics
Order...like someone who places an order to buy via phone, fax, mail,email, sms,etc.
Patient...like someone who requires health care
Queen...like female head of household
Reader...like those who consume texts in the form of articles, books, magazines, research and similar
Shopper...like someone who makes an effort to seek and find items to purchase
Subscriber...like those who repeat purchase patterns monthly or yearly to tv, magazines or other forms of entertainment
Tourist...like those who travel for pleasure
Unknown...like those who have yet to discover or be discovered
Undesirables...like those people who are using a brand and the brand would prefer not to be associated with that profile of customer (This one needs an example, Abercrombie&Fitch vs. The Situation(of Jersey Shore infamy)
Vendee...like someone who makes a purchase through a vending machine
Win back...like a customer who used to purchase from company, left for a competitor and then cameback again
X...like an anonymous consumer
Yearner...like those with an ambition for something, a drive, a striver
Zealot...like an extreme enthusiast or advocate
Have any others to add? Suggest additions and substitions in the comments.
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