Loyalty programs have become a standard tool for attracting and maintaining repeat customers. Just about every industry and vertical market offers one -- retailers, financial institutions, airlines, hotels and more. The question lies in whether these programs really manage to build long-term, loyal relationships with customers or instead end up disappointing them.

Everyone knows the grocery store analogy in understanding merchandising; milk and core staples in the back and impulsive "extras" loaded at the front and just in reach. Grocers know they can up their line-item-value by moving product around in order to influence the consumer. However, what may be somewhat impervious to the consumer is the cost and "value" to each and every square inch of retail space. Your Web form should be constructed in a similar manner.

Social media is here to stay, and the smart e-marketer is already deeply involved, logically seeing social media sites as an opportunity for acquisition and monetization. But e-marketers can often be frustrated by the very nature of these sites, which tends to rely on community input rather than marketers' sales techniques. The very nature of social media sites-that same community-is the real strength they offer to e-marketers: a special sort of customer relationship marketing.

In the world of technology sales, there are many hurdles one has to overcome to be successful. In landing the big deal, any elephant hunter will undoubtedly tell you that many times along the way, you will be faced by the wild beast known as procurement. You have gotten through the door, you have pitched to the product people, bowed to the gods of IT and now you are faced with the nameless, faceless, ruthless, heartless procurement person, a person who wakes up every day shrouded in a cloud of indifference to everything and anything with the exception of price. …

Call it what you want. Customer Relationship Management. Trust Relationship Management. Experiential based marketing. Brand Advocacy. CRM is about delivering relevant experiences through interactions that sense and respond to the many ways customers want to engage and buy today. Yes, CRM has been around for a while. But the CRM as we know it no longer exists. Why? Because today we're in an environment where customers have a greater voice in how the brand is communicated and where potential relationships reside in a highly distributed environment.

Are your customers outpacing your ability to know what's going on?

Some say that relationships are part guesswork, part instinct and part schmooze. For marketers it's likely a good blend of all 3. P.T. Barnum famously said "every crowd has a silver lining..." but P.T. Barnum was no fool; he knew there was a bit of guesswork, instinct and schmooze to every fish they reeled in.

Sometimes, the unthinkable happens. You get dumped by a client. Now, there are many reasons for the break-up -- lack of communication, someone feeling unappreciated, growing apart and even a third party. Sound familiar?

A few weeks ago, I walked into a Borders store. What I experienced were the final days of a once-magnificent chain. Two stories, filled with beautifully organized books and music, were now condensed to a "garage sale" on a half floor. In hindsight, was the writing on the wall for this organization?

As the Righteous Brothers sang in their iconic hit, "You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips ... and there's no tenderness like before in your fingertips," what do you do when that loving feeling about CRM is gone ... gone, gone? (Whoa ... o-o-o-o)