NIKE CRM PROGRAM
Looking at the great number of Nike’s fans, it is obvious that there is something deeper than just successful applying of the classical marketing strategies. Before anything else, it is a great example of true content marketing strategy. It is a real success story, at the heart of which lies real customer value and the brand’s great management of customer relationships.
Before examining Nike’s customer relationships management, let’s define the term: customer relationships management (CRM). To explain this term in a short way, CRM means “putting your customer at the heart of your business” (“CRM Best Practices – Customer Relationship Management,” n.d.). Moreover, as Stokes (2013) defined, CRM is a long-term process of a business’s building a strong relationship with a customer to get his/her loyalty as a lifetime value (p. 202). Nevertheless, in this era where everybody has been engaged in social media world, to establish bouncing relationships with a customer and keep his/her loyalty have become more crucial and harder than ever (“CRM Best Practices – Customer Relationship Management,” n.d.). By the means of different social network tools, customers can easily get information about a brand, its success, or failure. Like a bat out of hell, a customer can spread out his/her bad or good experience with a brand; he/she can advocate the company in case he/she is loyal, or hit its bottom indeed. So that, CRM’s role is not just to establish a meaningful and profitable dialogue with a customer, but to create an emotional connection and sense of belonging to one big family as well.
As a brand with a huge number of followers and fans, Nike is very ambitious about interaction with its customers. At the heart of its customer relationships management lies creation of a community, or in other words, the lifestyle for the brand’s customers, whereby figuring out their needs it tries to help them to be better at what they love to do. Nike has established some CRM programs as Nike Fuel and Nike +, by the means of which Nike is able to collect and store data relating to its customer trends, needs, and other personal info. For instance, throughout Nike’s Fuelband, the brand is able to gather such information as where his user is, how far he/she walks, how often he/she works out, or even what his/her heart rate is. By the means of NIKEiD, the brand can store the data on the customers’ preferences and style. There are a lot of similar examples. Creating textured consumer profiles, Nike has been able to communicate effectively with its customers on the individual basis. This approach works, as it has succeeded to establish an emotional connection with the brand’s users. Besides, Nike has interactively engaged in social media including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and its own social network Nike+(plus) where it can collaborate with its customers, get insights, answer the questions, monitor debates etc.
CUSTOMER SERVICE POLICIES
Nike provides its customers with clear, very defined, and excellent structured customer service policies on its digital platforms. That is, a customer can easily get information on its website page in “GET HELP’ section on such subjects as order status, size charts, shipping, launch calendar, returns, app & device support (“Nike Customer Service. Get Help With Returns, Ordering & Products,” n.d.). On the same page, a customer can easily get support by directly contacting via online chat or phone (“Nike Customer Service. Get Help With Returns, Ordering & Products,” n.d.).
WEBSITE NAVIGATION
Nike’s website has the user-friendly navigation system. The visitor is provided with direct links to the brand’s social media sites placed on the right side of the landing page. On the left upper corner, there are also direct links to Nike, Nike+, Hurley, and “Jordan” group products (“Nike. Just Do It. Nike.com,” n.d.). The brand’s website language is clear and easy to understand. The website’s menu is well-structured, and when a site visitor clicks on the menu, the subcategories are immediately displayed and easily navigated. Generally, Nike has an excellent navigation structure.
CUSTOMER-FACING BUSINESS PROCESSES
Nike customer-facing business process can be observed in many ways. As it was mentioned before, Nike has always tried to approach its customers in an individual way. The brand has created the world where an individual is able to add something unique to the design and style (NIKEiD). Moreover, the brand has responded in any way a touch point occurs. Nike has created different platforms to interact with its customers and get the feedback as well. What is more, Nike has always informed its customers on different campaigns, sales initiatives such as a discount, new product, or new service by the means of a newsletter, website, apps, or other social media channels.
5 Easy Ways to Improve Client Retention
Two days ago I found an interesting article named “5 Easy Ways to Improve Client Retention” written by Jayson Demers, the founder, and CEO of AudienceBloom. It was about “easy-to-adopt strategies to improve client retention in …… business” (“5 Easy Ways to Improve Client Retention,” n.d.). In the article. The author suggests that any business should communicate constantly to its customers as “most client relationships break down when there is some lack of communication” (“5 Easy Ways to Improve Client Retention,” n.d.). The other interesting point that caught my attention was a suggestion to add personal touches to writing special notes or additional discount on special dates.
To view the full article, click on the link below:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271906
Actually, there were many other ones to be discussed. These ones kept especially my interest because of the experience that I have had with the brand. I have been a customer of Nike for a long time. However, I have never got any special offers or notes on my special occasions. I would recommend the brand to revise its strategy towards this subject to keep its customers loyalty as well.
Regards
References:
CRM Best Practices – Customer Relationship Management. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.crmtrends.com/crm.html
Nike Customer Service. Get Help With Returns, Ordering & Products. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://help-en-us.nike.com/
Nike. Just Do It. Nike.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/
5 Easy Ways to Improve Client Retention. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271906
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