Relationship based marketing goes beyond intrusive advertising and sales promotional messages. It relies heavily on developing long term relationships with customers to understand their needs in order to fulfill them. For companies to succeed, it is essential for them to focus on this concept. After reading Karen Li blogging about airline companies, I realized that they rely heavily on relationship based marketing to capture their part of the market share. I feel that West Jet especially uses this approach by offering frequent flier programs, elite membership perks, airport VIP lounge areas, and first class upgrades. The frequent flier programs helps the company track down who the big spenders on travel tickets are. By doing so, they know which consumers are the business travellers that don’t care about price and the leisure travellers who do care. This allows them to target both their consumers in different ways in order to satisfy both of them. Their marketing strategy of providing customer excellence is proven from their efforts to ensure customers to have the best experience while they’re travelling. So, we’ve learned that relationship is key when dealing with customers and it’s the best way to turn them from new customers, to become loyal to the company, and eventually to turn them into an advocate for the company as well. Word of mouth is the best free advertising if customers spread good things about a company. If customer satisfaction is achieved, it is guaranteed that they will spread the word about their pleasant experiences. However, word of mouth can definitely hurt a company if a customer experiences one bad experience with the company. Therefore, it is essential for a company to develop good, positive relationships with their consumers.
