Using New Media for Customer Interaction: A Challenge for Relationship Marketing

Direct interaction processes, geared towards contact maintenance and repeated transactions, are an integral part of the relationship marketing concept. New types of communication now available through the internet offer a number of new and promising opportunities for the intended dialogue. This applies in particular to company-controlled communication. This gives companies the ability to customize information with regard to the individual needs of a particular customer and to optimize the customer’s feedback opportunities. To achieve this, however, companies must satisfy demanding preconditions related to technology, personnel, organization and co-ordination. Companies also face a completely different challenge arising from customer-controlled internet communication. When customers publish their criticism of products and companies online and make their individual criticism the subject of global word of mouth, customer-customer communication becomes a real threat. In order to prevent serious damage to customer relationships, managers must monitor these communications carefully, analyze them, and react appropriately.