Start networking and exchanging professional insights

Register now or log in to join your professional community.

Follow

Does Customer Relations Management mean building friendships with your clients, if necessary?

user-image
Question added by Khatim Abbas Seed , BUSINESS CONSULTANT , Google
Date Posted: 2014/03/15

Being a friend with the client is not e prerequisite but having an open and friendly relationship is always useful. In fact, being a friend with somebody depends on the person's own definition of the relationship. However, in my definition business communications are not a foundation but an opportunity to meet someone and then create a relationship outside of the work environment where you can now each other share personal information and experience. 

    In my opinion the relationship between you and the coustomer is a special one and it is not a friendship but something else that can grow into a friendship.

       

Divyesh Patel
by Divyesh Patel , Assistant Professional Officer- Treasury , City Of Cape Town

Human beings are naturally social creatures – we crave friendship and positive interactions, just as we do food and water. So it makes sense that the better our relationships are at work, the happier and more productive we're going to be.

Good working relationships give us several other benefits: our work is more enjoyable when we have good relationships with those around us. Also, people are more likely to go along with changes that we want to implement, and we're more innovative and creative.

 

There are several characteristics that make up good, healthy working relationships:

  1. Trust

  2. Mutual Respect

  3. Mindfulness

  4. Welcoming Diversity

  5. Open Communication

Yes, CRM necessitates that organizations should produce data about its customers (even on a personal level), that will help in building a lasting relationship with them because the more variables you find out about your customers, the more factors you can derive to support your drive towards fulfilling the customers demand (needs or wants) .. CRM is all systematic, so all a person has to do is be analytic and know how the software works (a little market knowledge will be better in this case).

Youssef El-Rewainy
by Youssef El-Rewainy , Materials and CAPEX Manager , Andalusia Group for Medical Services

While there is not general rule, but I believe that most will find that engaging with clients on a personal level may prove counterproductive in the long term, since it gives room for personal relations to interfere with work. What if you had a fall out on the personal level, can you say this will not affect your professional relationship?

More Questions Like This

Do you need help in adding the right keywords to your CV? Let our CV writing experts help you.