争取大量客户可不是那么容易

[royl]

最近我一直在想, 如果找到具有策略性的英文文章不但可以用来跟网友分享英语部分的知识, 也可以用来增加我们对策略的认识, 希望能够达到双重的自我教育目的. 前一阵子跟网友分享几千年仍屹立不摇的"孙子兵法", 今天我们来看看这篇文章, 希望能增加我们管理网站事业或其他事业的知识, 并且跟网友剖析一个写作范例.

我们写英语文章时最重要是要找一个简短有力的标题, 美国人经常使用成语来达到这个目标. 网友您若是不相信, 您可以去找一大堆报纸与杂志, 看看他们的标题是否多数是以成语来作标题的主轴. 这篇文章也不例外地使用成语'don't grow on trees'. 这成语是什么意思呢? 可不是长在树上=可不是轻易取得大量. 所以整个标题可以这么说: "争取大量客户可不是那么容易".

看完这两位行销大师的文章, 希望网友发表自己的看法.

争取大量客户可不是那么容易
Customers Don't Grow on Trees
By: Don Peppers and Martha Rogers July 1, 2005
来源: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/96/open_essay.html

How do you strike a balance between customer needs and the bottom line? A new way to balance two potentially contradictory demands.
您如何取得客户的需求与底线的平衡? 一个平衡两件潜在地相互抵触要求的新方法.
解说:
strike a balance between, to: 在此strike不是打击之意, 而是取得或达成之意. 整个成语可以解释为: 取得两者之间的平衡.
bottom line, the: 我们都知道底线这个名词, 在商业上底线是何意义呢? 在商言商也就是: 纯收益; 收益净额; 净收入.
我以前常讲一句不雅话: Money talks, bullshit walks (有钱大爷说了算, 没钱的靠边站) 就是这个道理.

Repeat after us: The only value your company will ever create is the value that comes from customers – the ones you have now and the ones you will have in the future. Businesses succeed by getting, keeping, and growing customers. Customers are the only reason you build factories, hire employees, schedule meetings, lay fiber-optic lines, or engage in any business activity. Without customers, you don't have a business.
跟我们一起念: 你们公司唯一创造的价值就是从客户群所取得的价值– 你现在拥有的价值与你未来将要拥有的价值. 生意的成功是由取得, 保住, 成长客户群. 客户群是你建立工厂, 雇用员工, 安排会议, 埋设光纤缆线, 进行商业活动的唯一理由. 没有客户, 你没有生意.

But that's not how many companies behave, is it? The demand to satisfy Wall Street on a quarterly basis drives executives to pursue contradictory business goals. Most believe, intellectually, that customers represent the surest route to long-term growth and value – yet in practice, they're quick to compromise that belief in the rush to generate current revenue.
但是这不是许多公司所应有的表现, 是不? 为了满足华尔街每一季的要求, 驱使主管追求与商业背道而驰的目标. 大部分人相信, 学理上说, 客户代表长期成长与长期价值的最确保的路线, 但是在执行上, 这些主管马上妥协这个信念而急着去创造眼前收益.

We propose a new metric, Return on Customer, that reflects the cost of that compromise. It acknowledges that capital isn't necessarily a company's scarcest resource; that customers don't, after all, grow on trees.
我们提出一个新的衡量标准, 客户报酬率, 来反映妥协的损失. 我们要认知资本并不一定是一家公司最缺乏的资源; 毕竟客户群也不是轻易取得.

Return on Customer is a twist on return on investment. The essential equation: a firm's current-period cash flow from its customers, plus any changes in the underlying customer equity, divided by the total customer equity at the beginning of the period. Customer equity is the net present value of all the cash flows a company expects its customers to generate over their lifetimes.
客户报酬率也是投资回报的另类方式. 基本公式= (一家公司当期从客户来的现金流动+ 任何客户潜在价值的变化) / 初期客户价值总额. 客户价值是一家公司期望从其客户终身所产生的全部现金流动的净现值.

Return on Customer explicitly takes into account the two different ways customers create value for a business – by increasing the company's current-period cash flows and by increasing its future cash flows. When a customer has a good (or bad) experience with a company and decides on the basis of that experience to give more future business to it (or less), the firm gains (or loses) value that instant. This change in value is analogous to the immediate change in stock price a company experiences when it announces a change in its expected earnings.
客户报酬率明确地把两个客户创造价值方式列入考虑, 增加公司当期现金流动, 以及增加其未来现金流动. 当一位客户对一家公司有好(或坏)的感受, 并以此感受作为决定基础是否给予这家公司更多或更少的生意, 这家公司当时就会增加(或损失)价值. 公司价值的变动有如一家公司所经历当它公布它的预期收益的更变所遭受到的立即股价变动.

The actions a company takes to achieve either of these outcomes – increases in current cash flow or increases in customer lifetime value – can have costs and trade-offs. If a long-distance phone company makes thousands of telemarketing calls to its customers to stimulate current sales, it may also erode people's willingness to buy in the future, or even to pay attention to future solicitations. The harm to customer lifetime values might actually exceed the boost in current sales. At the other extreme, a firm that concentrates solely on increasing lifetime values may find it isn't producing enough profit on a current basis. It's good to invest in customer satisfaction and loyalty, but how much is too much?
一家公司采取行动想要达成这两者其一的结果, 增加眼前现金流动或者增加客户终身价值, 会有损失以及折衷. 假如一家长途电话公司做了几千个电话推销工作给它的客户来刺激现期销售, 它可能会消磨去人们未来的购买意愿, 或什至注意到为来的电话推销. 这种对客户终身价值的伤害其实可能会超过现期的销售增长. 在另一个极端上, 一家公司专注于增家客户终身价值可能会发现它无法创造眼前足够的利润. 投资在客户的满意度与忠诚度固然不错, 但投资多少才算是过量呢?

To maximize Return on Customer, a company needs to optimize the mix of short-term profit and long-term value created. But it's difficult for most firms to think like this because they're so focused on acquiring new customers – any new customers – and protecting quarterly revenues. (An example: A video store refused to accept the return of a damaged DVD from a friend of ours, a longtime customer, without a receipt -- even though its own electronic records confirmed her purchase. Result: It saved the cash it would have had to refund on that purchase but lost perhaps a hundred times that amount in customer lifetime value.)
追求增加最大的客户报酬率, 一家公司必须意要尽可能地兼顾增加短期利润跟创造客户终身价值. 但是对大多的公司有困难作如是想, 因为他们太专心在取得新客户以及保护每季的盈收. (举个例子: 一个影视店因为客户没收据拒绝接受我们一位朋友, 该店老主顾, 退货一片受损DVD, 虽然该店自己的电脑资料证实她的购买. 结局: 该店虽然省下了那一片DVD的退款现金, 但是它可能损失了百倍于退款现金的客户终身价值.)

The antidote, of course, is to treat different customers differently. Businesses of all sizes and shapes are now technologically capable of doing this, and some are brilliant at it. Tesco, the British supermarket chain, sends out a mailing each quarter to 11 million households -- but it produces some 4 million different versions of the pitch, tailored to the interests of its diverse customers. Similarly, electronics retailer Best Buy has trained its store employees to recognize and consider the needs of five distinct types of highly valuable customers - - and to change merchandising and store designs accordingly.
当然矫正方法是以不同的方式对待不同的客户. 各式各样的商家现在在技术上可以如此做, 有些商家还做得还灿烂亮丽. '铁思科', 英国超市连锁店, 每季发信给一千一百万户人家, 但它制造大约四百万套不同版本的广告词, 专为适应变化多端的客户口味. 同样地, 电子产品零售商'百思买'已经训练店里员工识别及考虑五种截然不同类型高价值客户的需求, 并依此改变商品与店面的设计.

Why don't more companies act like this? The problem is that treating customers as a scarce resource is an incredibly subversive idea, undermining one of the most tried and true business premises – that capital is the scarce resource. When capital is the scarce resource , then aggressive telemarketing makes a lot of economic sense: As long as the return on investment is positive you can just keep the marketing engine churning through more and more customers and prospects.
为什么没有更多的公司也如此做呢? 问题是把客户当成稀有资源乃是一个非常颠覆性的概念, 这不就破坏了最经得起考验的商业前提, 也就是资本是稀有资源. 当资本是稀有资源, 积极的电话推销工作才极为符合经济意义: 只要投资回报是正面的, 你可以继续让行销引擎不停地转动, 搅乱更多的客户与潜在客户.

The fact is, however, that customers are not unlimited in number at all. Customers actually are scarcer than capital. After all, as long as you have a customer, you're pretty much assured of getting the capital you need to serve him. But having capital is no guarantee of getting a customer. Because customers are scarce, your positive telemarketing ROI(return on investment) will last only as long as it takes to chainsaw through the customer base. By then, your business's future value will have been sacrificed to maximize current earnings.
可是事实上, 客户根本不是无限的. 客户事实上比资本还更稀有的. 毕竟, 只要你拥有一位客户, 你非常确定可以取得服务他的资本. 但是, 拥有资本并不保证你能取得一位客户. 因为客户是稀有的, 你的赚钱的电话推销投资回报只能撑持到你在客户群里还有机会杀进杀出. 到此时, 你生意的未来价值将已经被牺牲给追求最大的眼前营收.

So, repeat again: The only value you can ever create must come from customers, your scarcest resource. It's time for companies and their managers to behave accordingly.
所以, 再一起念: 唯一你能创造的价值必须出自客户, 也是你的最稀少资源. 此时正是所有公司与其经理应该依此道理来经营.

Don Peppers and Martha Rogers are founding partners of Peppers & Rogers Group, a Carlson Marketing Group company. Their new book is Return on Customer: Creating Maximum Value From Your Scarcest Resource (Currency Books). "Return on Customer" is a registered service mark of Peppers & Rogers Group.

OK, now then you have read the article, tell me what you think?
How do you maintain a balance between customer needs and the bottom line?
Don't tell me you don't have any idea.