Relationship Marketing For My Coffee Shop, What On Earth Is It?

Developing long-term relationships is as difficult as developing a long-term relationship with your partner. You need to always be attractive, comprehensive, attentive and caring your customers.

The biggest coffee shop chains typically invest the most in carrying out sophisticated relationship marketing campaigns, in a strategy that affects every department with a client facing purpose (sales, customer service, shipping, etc.).

But how can a corner, little coffee shop, compete with them?

Usually little shops prefer a human and personal relationship in a more traditional way, a method that can involve 2 or 3 clients at least.

Relationship marketing, which some call customer relationship management (CRM), is that part of marketing that focuses on long-term customer loyalty and engagement rather than shorter-term objectives. It creates strong connections between customers and brands that generate leads and spontaneous word-of-mouth promotion among customers.

Think about the online platforms that promise coupons with massive discounts: 50%, 60%, 70% off. The result is unhappiness for the clients (who often find a poor qualitative service or product) and the shopper (who believes he is getting some acquisition but he is just ruining his brand and spreading bad word-of-mouth).

On the contrary, relationship marketing means investing on clients, and it requires innovation, inventive, and a long-term perspective. It’s the contrary of one-shot or short opportunistic initiatives that have the objective to squeeze the clients like milking cows and leave them to their destiny.

What is your experience? How do you keep in contact with your clients?