KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMERS 1 BUSINESS VOCABULARY IN USE (ADVANCED)

 

BUSINESS VOCABULARY IN USE (ADVANCED) 24. KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMERS 1

 

A Data and databases ‘Hi, I’m John. I’m head of data management at a big supermarket chain. Customers can get money back by using our loyalty card when they go shopping. Loyalty cards allow customers to collect points that can be redeemed against future purchases, either with us, or with other retailers in the same scheme. This gives us massed of data about our customers, which we then hold on our database. We can follow what each of our customers buys, and enrich the database with this information. B Data mining ‘Of course, with all the information we have on our computers in our data warehouses, powerful computers are needed to analyse it. This analysis is called data mining. We look for particular patterns in consumer behaviour. The data can be used to target particular types of customer. We build consumer profiles. For example, if someone has bought wine in the past, special offers are sent to them so they get reduced prices on future purchases of wine. C Customer relationship management ‘All this is part of the wider picture of customer relationship management (CRM) – getting to know your customers. Dealing with them as individuals is our ultimate goal, but we are still a long way from this ideal of one-to-one marketing. EXERCISES 24.1 Read the article relating to the ideas in A and B opposite. Then complete the sentences below with expressions from the article. INTELLIGENT TILLS THAT CHECK YOU OUT ALONG WITH YOUR GOODS ARE NOW PART OF OUR DAILY LIFE Have you ever wondered what the real motive is behind supermarket loyalty cards? They are a front for tying you up with the things that you buy. Till records are no longer lists of anonymous purchases, but preferences attached to real, reachable people. One day you will turn on your Internet terminal, log on to your customary grocery supplier and will be greeted with a personalised message such as: ‘Special offer on Chateatneuf du Pape’   1. Retailers learn about customers’ buying habits by looking at _______ _______, the information stored on computer as customers check out with their purchases. 2. These can be matched to specific individuals: they are not _______. 3. The amount you pay for a particular type of goods is your _______ on these goods. 24.2 Match the two parts of these extracts containing expressions from opposite C. 1 Citizens’ rights organizations are becoming more and more concerned a ‘identifying, attracting and retaining the most valuable customers to sustain profitable growth’. 2 One expert has defined customer relationship management as b one-to-one relationships. We have to offer our customers sets of services tailored to their needs.

ANSWER KEY