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Business Fundamentals: Customer Engagement

Learn how to engage customers through relationships instead of one-off sales with The Open University Business School’s online course.

Duration

4 weeks

Weekly study

3 hours

100% online

How it works

Unlimited subscription

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Accreditation

More info

Established

1969

Location

Milton Keynes, UK

World ranking

Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020

Discover how to engage customers through relationships

When did you last do business with someone you didn’t trust? Or who broke a promise? Building a relationship with your customer involves time, communication and commitment, but the benefits are a sure way to help your business succeed and grow.

This online course introduces the principles of relationship marketing, revealing long-term relationships as the way to unlock value for marketers, customers and other stakeholders.

Even if you have never considered marketing to be relevant to you personally, the ideas shared in this course will reveal how you can benefit from it – at work or elsewhere.

Week 1
An introduction to relationship marketing
- Customers and other stakeholders
  Learn more about who your customers are and carry out a stakeholder analysis.
- Understanding the concept
  Learn more about the potential benefits and drawbacks of adopting a relationship marketing approach.
- Relationship marketing in practice
  Explore examples of relationship marketing and discuss the concept in practice.
Week 2
Developing and sustaining relationships
- Developing the product or service
  Explore how to take a customer focused approach to the marketing mix in order to meet the needs of your customers.
- Looking at the customer
  Learn to how to look at your customers more closely, assess these relationships and develop them further.
- Maximising engagement
  Explore how to maximise engagement in order to maximise sales and customer satisfaction.
Week 3
Designing a relationship marketing programme
- Who should the relationship be with?
  Learn about segmentation with a relationship marketing focus, and learn how to target the right customers to engage with.
- How to encourage good customer relationships
  Explore brand loyalty and how to get your customers to engage and stay loyal.
- Evaluating success in relationship building
  Evaluation is one of the most important parts of any strategic approach.
Week 4
Does digital make a difference?
- What’s the online equivalent of the way we’ve always done things?
  Learn about the benefits and limitations of online relationship marketing and how going online can enhance customer engagement.
- The opportunities that digital opens up
  Explore the tools available for online customer engagement and how to get the most from these tools
- Maximising the potential
  Reflect on the effectiveness of your online relationship marketing efforts, identifying how you can make improvements and how to deal with negative aspects such as complaints.