Customer Loyalty

Customer Loyalty should be underlying the CRM vision of any company. You don't have the system to lose customers, obviously. I found two interesting points in an article by Mila D'Antonio

First, she says that a hotel is a place to expect great service, because they can make face-to-face contact with the customer and have plenty of data. This is true. I often wonder when I receive newsletters and the like on my private account, how the service "offline" and "online" can be so different. I think that for most companies who deliver services in contact with customers, a large part of their communications happens out of their premises. So the footprint of their communications through E-Mail, phone calls, advertising etc. is actually huge.

Second, putting yourself in the situation of evaluating every customer experience you have in a certain period is a great idea. You get to evaluate many different companies and it's hard to judge in advance what kind of products and services you will use on e.g. a business trip. It should also give you a good view on service provided online (bookings -> use of CRM after that) and offline (cabs etc.). 

Edit Thursday, 2 April 2009: Great post about this topic on CustomerTHINK