My grandmother would say of anyone who called themselves a customer relationship manager (CRM): ‘You want to watch that one.’ A suitably vague condemnation for a suitable vague title you might think.

The post is all about retaining customers and realising their potential, a vital role in any company. For those engaged in direct email marketing they are essential as acquiring online customers is the one aspect where it is more expensive than traditional methods.

There are a number of benefits from keeping customers rather than targeting new ones over and above acquisition costs. Customers who have bought regularly from you are less price sensitive so are more likely to buy premium priced products. There is less need to incentivise your offers. There is always the possibility of word of mouth. Most importantly, it costs much less to service the customer compared to traditional methods so profits are higher.

Often overlooked is the detail email marketing software allows you to obtain on each individual customer allowing you to predict their probable lifecycle. The details and limits of this norm will be refined as more data is accumulated. As your customers stay with you longer so the amount of information increases, enabling you to retain more customers. And so it goes on.

The CRM will be able to compare a customer’s performance against the norm. A sudden deviation indicates that some action should be taken. It might be that there is an increase in total value of their buying. This could suggest that they are in an expansion phase and perhaps would benefit, as you would, from certain offers.

Any unaccounted decrease in comparison to the norm or other customers should be investigated. Perhaps a rival is undercutting you or the market is changing. The CRM needs to respond to these warnings.

By assessing the data supplied by email marketing software, the customer relationship manger’s role is made far from vague. They will be able to specify your customers’ need, their potential and when it is time to take steps to ensure they continue with you.