Overall, successful relationship marketing depends upon selecting and targeting the customers you wish to retain, and identifying sales areas where the investment and effort will be worthwhile. Many organizations have found the approach to be very rewarding in terms of customer retention and related profitability, but relationship marketing is still a developing field and is neither cheap nor easy to operate. It involves an integrative approach which draws marketing, quality and customer service together; it also depends upon developing the capacity of every employee 每 particularly front-line staff 每 to market the goods or services of the organization in a customer-focused way; and finally, it can require heavy investment in appropriate information technology.
15. In the first paragraph, the writer describes relationship marketing as
a. an idea that has passed in and out of fashion over the last few years.
b. a term used for an activity that used to exist in a more basic form.
c. a way for a company to advertise to its customers.
d. a way for a company to analyze its profitability.
16. Why are small shopkeepers used to illustrate relationship marketing?
a. Their success depends on their relationships with their customers.
b. They keep information about their customers on computer.
c. They were the first to use the term relationship marketing.
c. Their relationship with customers has started to change recently.
17. One reason why large companies didn＊t use relationship marketing in the past is that
a. they underestimated the true value of customer loyalty.
b. heir customers didn＊t want them to collect information.
c. they didn＊t need to find out about individual customers.
d. they didn＊t think they could justify the expenses.
18. One advantage of relationship marketing for large retailer is that
a. they can become more widely known
b. they can respond to suggestions form customers.
c. they can increase their customer base.
d. they can identify the shopping habits of customers.
19. According to the writer, what kind of customers are unsuitable for relationship marketing?
a. people who only make cash purchases.
b. people who don＊t shop very often.
c. people who have had bad experiences with shops.
d. people who want to shop as quickly as possible.
20. The writer concludes that relationship marketing is most likely to work if
a. the customer co-operate.
b. it is applied in small sales areas.
c. the right customers are chosen.
d. front-line staff learn to use computers.
Useful Words and Expressions:
Deliberate; profitability; foremost; manipulation; amass; differentiate; justify; demonstrable; integrative;
Have you ever noticed the following sentences in your reading? If not, read them through and pay attention to the bold parts.
15. The information gathered forms the basis of highly technical analyses of customer purchasing and profitability, which can be used to increase sales.
