Beyond 'Satisficed' Customers: Strategies That Build Trust April 12, 2007

Much has been written and discussed about building stronger customer relationships, especially in relation to trust and loyalty. The plummeting rate of trust in business is posing new challenges to customer relationships. By design or by default, the majority of businesses build only "satisficing" trust: sufficient trust to buy a product or service. "Satisficing" trust works in a transactional, commodity-based business, but does little or nothing for customer relationships and loyalty. At the NorCal BMA April eMarketing Roundtable, John Todor, will be bringing insights from his new book, Addicted Customers, about how leading-edge companies are using eMarketing to build customer trust that shifts the focus of the relationship from price and convenience to issues of commitment. You'll leave this session with an actionable framework for building and keeping the full trust of your customers.

John I. Todor, Ph.D., uniquely combines two perspectives for developing win-win relationships between companies and their customers. During his tenure as a professor and research scientist at the University of Michigan he investigated how people learn and make decisions.

He owned and managed a marketing firm with clients that included General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Domino's Pizza, held executive positions with technology companies, and worked as a CRM analyst. As the Managing Partner of The Whetstone Edge, LLC, he helps companies implement business strategies that strengthen customer relationships. Clients range from small entrepreneurial ventures to multi-nationals like Hewlett-Packard.

He received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and completed post-doctoral studies in cognitive science, clinical neuropsychology and marketing. He is co-director of the Association for the Advancement of Relationship Marketing's Customer Equity Initiative.

Free to BMA members, $15.00 for Non-BMA members.

Official Website: http://norcalbma.org