Dealing with the negative reviews
On the one hand, dealing with negative reviews is an emotionally unpleasant task. On the other hand, from a strategic point of view, the complainants of customers reduce the effectiveness of marketing through word of mouth (Berkowitz, 2016). When I worked as a physician in the hospital in Miami, one customer (the name is omitted for ethical reasons) shared his negative experience of care provision from my colleague with numerous customers in person after leaving the hospital and on social media as well.
The situation was repetitive because the customers were dissatisfied with the fact that they could not share their experience with the customer service, which identified that the hospital had a poor customer recovery strategy (Berkowitz, 2016).
It should be noted that dealing with customer complaints requires significant financial and time costs. In addition, complaints can demoralize the contact persons from the staff who are not prepared to cooperate with the dissatisfied customers. An analysis of consumer complaints allows the company to understand what the problems in the course of service provision are and allow saving the budget on the external consultants.
As per the described case, it is necessary to administer the appropriate customer recovery processes and implement the corresponding practices (Berkowitz, 2016). For instance, an effective complaint management system would enable addressing the needs of clients better and use their responses as feedback (Berkowitz, 2016). The company would benefit from this approach as it will allow retaining its customers and enhancing the service provision. It can be stated that customer experience will be boosted in the case of poor health care provider if clients have an opportunity to share their experiences.
Relationship marketing
It should be noted that the renewed perspective in terms of looking at the customer base of referrers implies a new approach to the company strategy. This approach means a shift to relationship marketing, which is the building and managing of long-term mutually beneficial relations with key partners cooperating in the market (Christopher, Payne, & Ballantyne, 2013). It is strategically aimed at making long-term bonds and keeping customers and partners loyal.
In this case, long-term relationships will be a decisive factor in competitiveness. Relationship marketing aims to establish the relations of personal preference. In general, this approach is to promote closer economic, technical, and social ties with partners that will improve the performance of the company’s commercial activity in the market; thus, reducing the transaction costs and saving the resources (Christopher et al., 2013).
Keeping the existing customers as opposed to attracting the new ones is the aim of relationship marketing. It implies the manifestation of interest in facilitating long-term relationships with clients and the desire to understand and furnish care for each customer. In addition, it will be possible to demonstrate the relevance and value to consumers, which is not the same for everyone, and take into account the characteristics of each client by creating a real superiority of the proposals. In addition, relationship marketing will provide an opportunity to identify the key customers, navigate in the current market, and create an individual approach to each client, thereby winning customer loyalty (Christopher et al., 2013). The essence of this strategy is to identify the key and loyal customers and to choose the future direction of the development of the internal and external company relations.
References
Berkowitz, E. (2016). Essentials of health care marketing. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Christopher, M., Payne, A., & Ballantyne, D. (2013). Relationship marketing. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.