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BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AND NEED FOR DATABASE
Any business’s success is based on its customers and how to influence more new customers to make purchases from such a business. Most organizations have, therefore, decided to establish a mission and vision that focuses on satisfying customer needs like the Coca-Cola and Amazon companies. However, satisfying customers need a business to create an environment that every customer feels secure, recognized, and satisfied. This cannot be achieved from a mere observation of customers and rivals. Organizations need to involve a customer database that stores the customers’ and clients’ data and provides it when required. Customer database does not only keeps the business updated about its customers but also creates an environment that allows access to customers, builds their loyalty, and encourages them to continue transacting with such an organization due to the utility provided.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) databases are significant in storing customer data for future considerations and services (Buttle). Customers are issued with bonuses and discounts based on the number of purchases they make from a particular organization. This is achieved through a database without the storage of such information. Company systems are not able to recognize frequent customers. Amazon is one of the most complex customer databases that enable customers to create a customer-satisfying environment. The details include the number of orders, personal information and accounts, preferred payment methods, and personalization opportunities.
Customer databases help in establishing a relationship environment between the organization and its customers. This helps to satisfy the customer needs so that they can be retained for more extended periods and future transactions (Coussement & De Bock). Customers considered as frequent buyers of the organization products by the database can receive more post-sale services and can still be offered with credit services. This is a way of creating an environment that satisfies customer needs even when they do not have enough money to pay in the future. Also, organizations like banks can observe a customer’s behavior and decide whether to give mortgages, pensions, or car loans to a new customer. Lending organizations, for instance, can access further customer information from databases to understand whether the customer is a defaulter or has good credit payment records (Miller et al.).
Consequently, customers have different preferences regarding the methods of payment. Some prefer paying on through cash, others through bank accounts, among other means of payment. Customer databases can recognize all these payment options, and thus customers can pay through their most convenient methods.
Marketers and decision making organs of an organization also need a customer database to determine the most current products that customers need. This helps in satisfying the selected market segment as some products are seasonal; thus, customers may not need them at some point. Also, some products need frequent developments, and therefore organizations can receive instant feedback from customers to understand the level at which such customers need those goods. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos still looks on the customer databases to view customer needs and suggestions. This helps the organization to make adjustments that satisfy customers in the future and thus retaining such customers.
Similarly, databases can monitor the stocks of the business through integrated bar codes and scanners (Chakraborty). When the stock is less, such databases provide an alert on the need to restock. This helps the organization to be updated on its inventories so that customers are always satisfied in terms of quantities, and there are no shortages. Therefore databases are an essential factor in monitoring and creating an environment that meets all customer needs.
Works Cited
Miller, Naomi, Robert E. Dixon, and Nii-Kwashie Aryeetey. “System and method for generating and implementing a household customer database.” U.S. Patent Application No. 15/839,721.
Coussement, Kristof, and Koen W. De Bock. “Textual Customer Data Handling for Quantitative Marketing Analytics.” Advanced Database Marketing. Routledge, 2016. 63-87.
Buttle, Francis, and Stan Maklan. Customer relationship management: concepts and technologies. Routledge, 2019.
Chakraborty, Moonmoon. “Supply Chain & Inventory Management.” Available at SSRN 3413725 (2019).