Business-to-Business Internet Marketing, Fourth Edition - Lifecycle ...

214 BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS INTERNET MARKETING
customers to you as well. Use direct mail and telemarketing in combination
with e-mail and a customer-only portion of your Web site to
build an ongoing relationship with customers. These media should be
used in combination to inform customers first about new products or
services, make special offers, invite them to special events, and encourage
their feedback.
The Internet can help you put a large emphasis on customer service
and support and build real value into the customer relationship. Webbased
customer service can be open for business 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week, anywhere in the world. Just as important, by servicing existing
customers over the Internet and making it known on your Web site, you
demonstrate to prospective customers the value you place on customer
support.
2. Ask Customers What They Want—And Give It to Them
B-to-b companies that are responsive to their customers are companies
that listen to their customers. These companies provide easy ways for
customers to offer their feedback and opinions—via phone, fax, mail,
e-mail, and over the Web. They encourage their customers to interact,
they take customers’ recommendations seriously, and they act on them.
With one-to-one Web technologies available, those b-to-b companies
who not only listen to their customers but learn from their input
and needs will be the leaders in the Information Age. These are the
companies who will be able to respond quickly and give customers what
they want in real time.
IBM’s Focusing on You program, described earlier, was built on asking
customers what they want—and giving it to them. One of the
company’s key findings was that customers wanted to direct the dialogue
based on their own needs. IBM took the responsibility to reduce
the amount of information directed to the customer—giving him or her
the choice of what to receive. That choice made it easier for IBM to
provide the customer with the appropriate product information, based
on specific needs.
Because customers directed the relationship and were involved in a
meaningful dialog, IBM benefited from an important side effect of the
program: Customers also updated their own records. This aspect of a
customer relationship effort is just as significant, because database maintenance
plays a large role in its successful implementation. When a cus-