顾客是上帝吗?——零售企业“视顾客为谁”形成机理的多案例研究

Are Patrons Our God? ——A Multi-case Study on Mechanism of Retailer's Symbolism for Patrons

中文关键词:  视顾客为谁  顾客导向  顾客满意度  营销定位  零售企业

英文关键词:symbolism for patron  customer orientation  customer satisfaction  marketing positioning  retailing enterprise

中文摘要:

      当前企业界对顾客是谁的回答众说纷纭,最为流行的说法为“顾客是上帝”,但在中国零售企业实践中这一答案成立吗？文章运用多案例分析方法对三家成功的零售企业进行研究后发现,成功的中国零售企业将顾客视为“家人”或“老板”而非“上帝”。其形成机理如下:企业领导选择一种关系符号(如家人)并对其进行诠释,然后带领员工建立“家人式”的企业文化,让员工对企业产生依赖和忠诚并开心、努力地工作；企业同时编制员工手册,告诉员工相应的工作标准并给予个性化的工作权利,鼓励员工成为服务专家,惩戒和淘汰不达标的员工,以此提高员工的服务标准,从而形成家人式营销模式,即以服务出色为主要定位点,以产品优秀为次级定位点,其他要素定位也不低于行业平均水平。通过这一过程,企业和员工将“视顾客为谁”的关系符号由抽象认知转变为具体行动,最终达到提升顾客满意度的目的。

英文摘要:

      The common wisdom varies in business circle as to retailer's symbolism for their patrons, which is embodied most popularly in the metaphor of God. The question is whether this wisdom matches business practice in China. In this paper, a study made on three successful retailing enterprises shows that other than God, “family” or “boss” are the metaphors adopted to articulate the meaning of patrons. The mechanism involves the following steps:leaders pick and explain a metaphor symbol (eg. family) for their enterprise; a “family-style” culture is created in which members are loyal and hard-working; standards and norms are set up to encourage and empower members to develop into role-specific expertise as well as discipline members with unqualified members punished or phased out, in which member's services would be improved; the model of family-style marketing is established, which features outstanding services, excellent products and other elements abreast with the industry average. Through these processes, it becomes members' second nature to put what symbolizes the patron-retailer relationship into real practice from abstract recognition. Ultimately, customer satisfaction is achieved. 