One of our 1to1 Customer Champions, Pete Winemiller, has this great thing his does to motivate his staff to improve their performance for each ensuing basketball season. Winemiller is the vice president of guest relations for the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. Here’s what Winemiller asks his staff to do:
For over a month we’ve been hearing about how retail is struggling this holiday season and sales are lower than normal. The reports are still coming out with the numbers to show whether there really was a huge drop-off from last year (I’m sure it’s something we’ll be covering extensively for the next few weeks), but I have my own theory why the outlook has seemed negative when it may not be.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year... or is it?
In an effort to help restore the shortfall in sales projected by The International Council of Shopping Centers that said holiday spending only increased 3.6 percent this season, many retailers opened doors earlier than usual today (before 9 a.m.) and all this week, and are offering deeper price cuts than last year.
But as shoppers rush in to make returns, redeem gift cards, and take advantage of stores' low prices and expanded hours, how is customer service prepared for this post-holiday rush?
Many stores boost staffing levels by hiring seasonal customer service that may not be receiving the deep customer-service training or incentives and bonusus that full-time employees receive throughout the year.
Consider this: According to a poll conducted earlier this month by America's Research Group, a consumer-behavior research firm, one in four shoppers said they walked out of a store because of poor customer service.
By bringing seasonal employees up to respectable customer service levels, retailers may avoid sending shoppers running for their doors this week.
Hopefully retailers this year are learning from holidays' past, applying that insight to the holidays' present, to bring increased profit and customers for the future.
Have any good or bad holiday customer service experiences that you'd like to share here?
Ah, the joys of the holiday season: a bevy of percent-off coupons, free shipping offers, and more sent directly to my inbox at a dizzying pace. And in case I forget about the offers at hand, there are all those handy follow-up emails reminding me that I have a limited time to take advantage of the fabulous offer I just received. Then there’s the ultimate reminder that I only have one day left—or else I’ll miss out. Until the next offer comes along, that is.
Continue reading "How Many Emails Does it Take to Make a Sale?" »
How close are we as a society to needing mobile addict anonymous programs? I’ve heard stories about “phantom vibrations” when people think their phone is ringing in their pocket when it isn’t, and statistics that say more than 1/3 of people are never more than an arm’s length away from their cell phone (even when asleep). I have to admit I fall into both groups, so when I read this story out of Korea it definitely caught my attention.
We all know that these days, friendly and accommodating in-store customer service is often hard to come by. How many times are we left combing the aisles for assistance or encountering rude clerks who can’t be bothered?
At Bed, Bath, & Beyond, though, that isn't the case. My experience there has been anything but exceptional, but lately it’s getting creepy. After getting married in October and registering for gifts there, I’ve spent some quality time in that store. That’s because Bed, Bath & Beyond is known for catering to wedding couples—the company devotes an entire area to wedding registries in its stores, provides a wedding registry consultant, and even offers customers coffee while they roam the stores scanning gift items.
Anyone else getting a lot of e-mails lately from merchants determined to lure you into their stores or onto their websites for BIG BIG HOLIDAY SAVINGS!!!! ? If you’re like me, you may find yourself confronted with an annual greeting from an obscure store you once did business with five years ago. Nobody wants to be inundated with come-ons, of course, but chances are if I haven’t bought anything from you since 2002, I’m not going to suddenly realize a pressing need for your wares.
While I now count on that experience as a bemusing bit of Yuletide tradition, however, there’s another one that I don’t particularly care for: cashing in on an offer, only to immediately be presented with an even better deal once the previous sale has been completed … and finding that I can’t apply the better deal to my just-completed purchase.
You’ve heard of Best Practices. If 1to1 ever starts a “Worst Practices” section, this has got to be near the top of the list.
It's a known fact -- Ford truck drivers hate Chevy people, and Chevy truck drivers hate Ford folks. Some people will only buy a Toyota or Honda, for example, even if other car companies have higher ratings or better prices. And in many cases, once you get a BMW or Mercedes, there's no other car for you.
Why do people love their cars so much? How can other car companies tap into that loyalty to improve their customer relationships?
Selling books is a hotly competitive business these days, with all of the major players and many of the local retailers creatively vying for customers. (Watch for an upcoming article about all the goings on in our January/February issue of 1to1 Magazine). We recently wrote an article in 1to1 Weekly on Borders' updated loyalty program, and then blogged on the topic of whether there's a reward in using reward programs.
Interestingly, the article prompted a note from reader Bob Lang on another one of Borders’ retention strategies: Borders TV.
If you’re in the market for a new computer, are you excited that you’ll get to try out Windows’ Vista operating system? If not, don’t worry you’re hardly alone. Lately those Mac/PC ads that Apple runs on television have focused on the fact that many people who did upgrade to Vista ran into big problems, and that the ones who didn’t upgrade are now scrambling to figure out how they can avoid doing so.
Two of the longest-running, family owned amusement parks in the country announced today that they will be bought by a European hedge fund.
Madrid-based Parques Reunidos, which owns 65 amusement, animal, and water parks in the U.S. and Europe, announced that it intends in March to complete its purchase of Kennywood Entertainment in Pittsburgh, PA, which operates 129-year-old Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh; and 161-year-old Lake Compounce in Bristol, CT.
Although the current owners insist that the sale shouldn’t spur cutbacks or corporate changes, long-time customers worry that the move doesn’t serve customers’ best interests. Companies like the British private equity firm Candover, which operates Parques Reunidos, are notorious for buying up investments, cutting the costs that may affect customers, and then selling at a higher profit.
What is God? Not the kind of question that one usually finds himself addressing in the office, and certainly not with coworkers, but with Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa all in the air at this time of year, thoughts about God are perhaps natural.
Is God an actual entity, or more of an abstraction of varying degrees of hypothetical reality? Is God, as John Lennon once put it, a concept by which we measure our pain? Is God dead, as Friedrich Nietzsche put it? (Nietzsche, of course, is dead. As is Lennon. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.)
According to the title of a forthcoming book by marketing CEO Mark Stevens, God is a Salesman (Center Street). By this, Stevens doesn’t mean God’s shuffling door to door with a samples case, or wearing a Santa Claus hat at the local Try-n-Save attempting to cajole you into buying a new refrigerator.
If your stylist left the salon to go into private practice, would you follow her? If your financial planner called and said he was moving to another company, would you stick with him? If that Ann Taylor employee who always helps you find the right outfit moved to Banana Republic, would you start shopping there? Chances are the answer is yes, and it's a scary proposition for companies who want to build loyalty, but don't want to take it too far.
A little customer acquisition never hurt anybody. Yet, you would think from the recent plethora of warnings (this blog included) about the importance of customer retention and the prohibitive costs of buying customers that acquisition is toxic. It's not.
Every month I get dozens of emails from companies offering sales, exclusive deals, and rewards. At least 90 percent of them I delete immediately, and judging from some of the campaign numbers I’ve seen writing about marketing, the fact that I open even 10 percent of them is high. Why do I ignore so many marketers’ messages? I think the bigger question is, Why do they keep sending me irrelevant information that I’m likely to ignore, rather than communicating to me based on my needs? I tried to address the latter question with “Will the Real Customer Please Stand Up?” in the most recent issue of 1to1 Magazine. To demonstrate how companies should look at customers, I provided a few facts about myself in the story:
Continue reading "Purchase Decisions Don’t Happen in a Vacuum" »
At SAP’s 5th annual Influencer Summit in Boston yesterday, the business software provider announced the launch of its next evolution CRM solution. With new capabilities, such as trade promotions management, business communications management, and pipeline performance management, SAP says the new release will give users easier access to information and the speed to go to market faster.
The release is significant in that the product was co-developed with the company’s customers and partners with a focus to solve real business problems. “It’s been a journey,” said Bill Wohl, vice president of global CRM at SAP.
That’s because, as Bob Stutz, senior vice president CRM global strategy and development, at SAP, explained, until a couple years ago, “Buying SAP CRM was like buying a dump truck full of Legos, dumping it into your front yard, and then needing an army of consultants to put it together.”
Stutz, who came to SAP in 2005 from Siebel, said he was disappointed when he first went through the company’s CRM product. And the customer feedback was brutal. Many told him, “It’s hard to use—it has a lot of good deep functionality—but very difficult to use.” That’s when he set out on a journey to work with the company and its customers to create a dynamic and easy-to-use solution.
Continue reading "SAP is on Track to Elevate CRM. But are Customers Ready?" »
Did you brave the stores this weekend in search of the perfect holiday gift? Did you go online? Chances are you did both. I did. Personally, I've noticed more of an integration between the offline and online experience this year compared to last. For example, Sears will have any online order ready in the store for pick-up within five minutes of placing the order. The customer experience is improving this holiday season, but have retailers gone far enough?
For customers, what’s the value of employees that offer great service? One man in Missouri thought it was $15,000. He left a grocery store employee that amount when he passed away as a thank you for years of helping him shop, and even visiting him when he was ill. As more companies turn to automation and phase out actual people, they could learn a lesson from this story: customers want someone there to help them.
Tonight, viewers who tune in to the annual tree lighting at Rockefeller Center won’t only be treated to performances by Carrie Underwood or High School Musical crooner Ashley Tisdale. Viewers also will be witnessing the first-ever “green” tree lighting.
The Norway Spruce is sharing center stage this year, not just with singing sensations, but with the energy saving environment in which it’s displayed. On the tree will hang 30,000 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) strung on the five miles of wire that officials says will save as much electricity per day as a single family in a 2,000 square-foot home uses in a month.
The tree itself was cut down by a handsaw and its lumber will be used to build homes for Habitat for Humanity. Next year, Rockefeller Center plans to install a green roof for insulation and an ice chiller that makes ice at night when demand for electricity is less. Currently, Rockefeller Center has the largest installation of solar-electric panels in New York City.
Here on Oxygen Tuesday (so named for its falling just after Cyber Monday and Black Friday, allowing frenzied holiday shoppers the opportunity to catch their breath), I’m taking the time to wade through the stack of loyalty cards I now have perched near my computer, as they’ve become too numerous to fit into my wallet.
It seems like practically every company has a loyalty card these days. Barnes & Noble, Borders, Circuit City, Staples, and Virgin Megastore are my own personal top five, listed here in alphabetical order like the cast of an all-star disaster movie.
Most of these cards allow for a discount, either in the way of an advertised sale (“For card-holders only!”) or in a cumulative manner, as in “Once you’ve spent $1,000, you can take another 5 percent off!”
There’s just one problem: I don’t feel particularly loyal to any of these companies.
Next month in The Marketing X-Factor, we’ll be running a story about how wikis can create buzz, drive customer engagement, and encourage online participation. Like most of the other social media technology (blogs, social networks, and the like), interest from businesses in wikis is growing, but many companies don’t see the need for one. To demonstrate how wikis function, we’ve created one for 1to1 Media readers at 1to1media.wetpaint.com. Since our blog readers are already actively participating online, I’d like to give you the opportunity to join before the story is published and help create a working wiki so that X-Factor subscribers who visit the site will see more than a blank slate.
Continue reading "What’s This Wiki Thing I Keep Hearing About?" »
What is today besides the day-before-Thanksgiving day? It’s the 35th annual World Hello Day, which is observed by people in 180 countries and used as an opportunity to express their concern for world peace.
Anyone can participate in World Hello Day simply by greeting 10 people. This demonstrates the importance of personal communication for preserving peace.
Aside from preserving world peace, I think that World Hello Day can serve to remind us about the importance of keeping communications open on a local level. When is the last time you came out of your office to visit people in the contact center? Have you greeted your customers face to face in the stores lately?
Everybody’s thankful for something this time of year: family, friends, health, a couple days off work, the news that there’s still eight episodes of Cavemen in the hopper, strike or no strike.
But the 1to1 crew is particularly thankful for a different kind of turkey: those events of the past few months that revealed companies and/or individuals who forgot/ignored/actively worked against the whole concept of “service”…and sometimes of “customer” as well.
But it’s not all one-sided. Sometimes, it may not surprise anyone to hear, the customer isn’t always right. Presenting the 2007 Turkey Shoot…
I don't know about you, but I get overwhelmed walking into Home Depot. To me it's a necessary evil. If I need a new extension cord or door hinge, I have to take a trip over there. Good luck finding anything that's not as big as your house.
Many times I've gone there, the employees seem overwhelmed too. If you can find someone to help you, they may not know the answer, and usually have trouble finding an answer. Now the company has a new strategy to create an atmosphere that's more helpful and easier for us non-handymen. Will it work? Is it the right strategy?
In a recent email conversation with reader Malcolm Wicks about whether companies can successfully “operationalize” word of mouth, Malcolm made a comment that caught my attention. He said:
“I’ve been getting increasingly pragmatic about the impact of marketing recently as I’ve been doing more work in the area of customer and employee surveys. Discovering what customers and employees really think of you, rather than if they are 'satisfied' or not, can be a very salutary experience. I’ve even been thinking if the name of the department should be 'Understanding' rather than 'Marketing.' Doesn’t seem to have the same ring though.”
That got me thinking.
Last week at the Sage Summit in Chicago, Sage announced they would be offering a service to employers in conjunction with Visa. Companies can now choose to pay their employees through debit cards instead of printing checks, and the PayCards, as they're known, integrates directly with payroll software. It's certainly an interesting idea, especially when you look at the benefits to both employees and the companies they work for.
Mona Shaw, a 75-year-old woman from Bristow, VA, recently did something that many dissatisfied customers only dream of doing: She took a hammer to her local Comcast office and smashed customers service reps’ keyboards, monitors, and phones.
This came after the cable company failed to show up on the appointed day to install its Triple Play service, then came two days later and left with the job half done, and in another two days, cut off all service. After she and her husband went to their local Comcast store to speak to the manager, they waited for two hours on a bench outside before being told that the manager had left for the day.
This prompted “The Hammer,” as The Washington Post has affectionately dubbed her, to go on her now infamous rampage. 1to1 doesn’t excuse this behavior, but we wonder how many people have dreamed of taking out their rage in this age of incompetent service reps.
It’s a pretty good time to be Jack Noonan, president and CEO at predictive analytics software company SPSS.
The company recently reported record third-quarter revenues of $72.3 million, a 12 percent increase from the $64.7 million announced for third-quarter 2006, with new license revenues up 15 percent and operating income up 29 percent. Revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2007 totaled $211.4 million, an 11 percent increase from $190.4 million in the same period last year.
The financial news was good enough to lead an analyst at Roth Capital Partners to upgrade the stock yesterday from “Hold” to “Buy.” Coming off the by-all-accounts successful SPSS Directions conference in Orlando last month, Noonan’s riding pretty high.
Continue reading "High Noonan: SPSS Paints a Rosy PA Future" »
Much time is spent trying to sell the benefits of a rewards program to consumers. Earn points to get free or discounted products, or get treated to special sales or other events. On the flip side, the benefits to a company can be enormous. Understanding how individual customers shop at a store or experience a brand can completely change an organization's strategy.
In September, Chase Grover wrote about Prince in The Marketing X-Factor because he chose to distribute his newest CD by including it in every copy of a London newspaper for free. Lately “his purpleness,” as he’s sometimes called, has been in the news for an entirely different reason, which may undo some of the good publicity he received for his earlier populist gesture.
Continue reading "The Artist Formerly Known as Customer-Centric" »
Most contact center professionals know and understand that customer satisfaction and customer engagement are critical components of effective customer service. And the way to improve upon them is to continuously anticipate and accommodate customers’ needs.
But if a company’s communications channel is not integrated with the rest of the organization, then customer loyalty is at risk. Without integration, companies cannot deliver an experience to the customer that is tailored and one that they’ve come to expect.
I’m currently attending Frost & Sullivan’s Customer Contact West in Huntington Beach, CA, and have realized, after speaking to a number of contact center executives, that cross-channel integration is a common challenge among many companies across a variety of industries. Challenges are ubiquitous: from unsuccessfully disseminating information and not achieving a holistic view of the customer, to not obtaining cooperation in the culture and having the inability to optimize customer information from outside the organization.
Continue reading "Don't Get Caught on the Tail End of Service" »
“Business intelligence is usually about the past. We need more causal, predictive approaches.”
So said management authority Thomas Davenport, author of Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning (Harvard Business School Press) during his keynote address last week at SPSS Directions in Orlando. A handy viewpoint, given that SPSS has built its reputation on predictive analytics, but Davenport takes a somewhat wider approach than what most of us think about when talk turns to PA.
I love Frosted Flakes. It's one of the staples of my childhood, and I indulge myself every so often. But does that mean I love every other Kellogg's cereal? No. At the same time, I love what Apple does with all its products, and I'll be interested in just about any product it puts on the market, because it's Apple. For some companies, the idea is to create a loyalty strategy around certain products, while for others, it's about a larger brand umbrella.
I spend probably too much of my spare time thinking about all things customer strategy. In fact, as I strolled home from a trip to the grocery store last weekend I got to thinking about spiffs. What I wondered was, is it possible to make spiffs customer-friendly?
Continue reading "Spiffs: Good for Reps, Bad for Customers?" »
When I was in San Francisco in September, I stayed at the W Hotel (a Starwood brand). I have nothing negative to say about the accommodations, service, and otherwise excellent treatment I received, but that’s not enough to warrant a blog posting. Like too many consumers, I ignored the questionnaire which accompanied my bill and asked me to rate my stay. A few days ago I happened to pick up the survey and take a look at it, and had I opened it when I was in San Francisco I would have been likely to fill it out because of how unique it was.
An increasing number of consumers are becoming bewitched with ghosts and goblins which is leading to greater spending. According to a new survey from the National Retail Federation and BIGresearch, consumers are spending much more on Halloween than they used to just five years ago.
The National Retail Federation’s 2007 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey revealed that Americans now spend $5 billion on the holiday--up 58 percent since 2002.
Who in their right mind would want to be an airline right now? That's my initial thought when I read about some of the new players entering the airspace race. But while some see the situation as terrible, others see opportunity.
In my post yesterday on the CIM Forum blog I talked about my tribulations on a Halloween costume website. I needed information on what seemed to be erroneous sizing and didn't want to call the contact center. What I wanted--and what the site lacked--was chat.
Continue reading "Is Cross-Channel Service Ready for Prime Time?" »
The New England Patriots are an undefeated 7-0 on the field and 1-0 so far off the field. The team sued online ticket seller StubHub.com last year, alleging that StubHub encouraged fans to sell tickets on the site at inflated prices, which is against team policy. StubHub lost the case and complied with a judge’s order to turn over information on more than 13,000 users who bought or sold Patriots’ home game tickets. Illegality aside, both the Patriots and StubHub have huge customer bases, and this battle could have adverse effects on loyalty for both parties involved.
Continue reading "StubHub (and the average fan) Defeated in Court" »
One panacea of CRM -- both the strategy and the technology -- is said to be the single view of the customer (though many companies are still working on achieving it...). No longer is there J Smith and Jon Smith and Jonathan Smith. They’re all one person, and you know all about the business he does with your company. The question I’ve come upon recently is, should you?
Renee Evenson is on a mission. A customer-service mission, that is.
Evenson has worked in the customer service management field for three decades, and has published several books on the subject. Her latest, Award-Winning Customer Service: 101 Ways to Guarantee Great Performance (AMACOM Books), closely examines why customers might take their business elsewhere – often without even complaining – and offers up some timely and sometimes eye-opening solutions.
Continue reading "Writing the Book(s) on Customer Service" »
Each September, Electronic Arts releases the latest video game in its Madden Football series. And a large majority of customers pay $59.95 for the new one every time. These gamers are dedicated to the game and loyal to the franchise. Why? Because they know that EA has taken the time to understand what a gamer wants in a video game. For the company, it's not technology first or cost first. The vision is simply, "customers first."
Earlier this week at The Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) annual conference, the association announced its new Commitment to Consumer Choice (CCC) guidelines on using mail to communicate with consumers. This initiative is part of DMA’s efforts to get marketers to self-regulate, so government agencies won’t step in and create laws that could hinder marketing effectiveness.
A few months ago I was in an editorial meeting and tried to pitch some new ideas for our 1to1 Media website. I suggested things like an updated blog, added user feedback features, wikis; essentially Web 2.0 technology. At the time, most of what I came up with was dismissed because I couldn’t answer the question “Why should we implement those, other than because everyone else is experimenting with them?”
About a month later I was in another meeting, when we were discussing how to keep track of reader feedback in an organized way. The eventual solution was to use a white board that everyone could write notes on and keep a record of the insight we learned from talking to our customers. I came out of that meeting thinking, “Isn’t a white board that everyone can write on and read at any time the same thing as a wiki?” That’s when it hit me: don’t pitch this new technology for all the cool features and new things we can do, focus on how it can make what we already do more efficient.
If you want to create a great customer experience, you have to know how to manage people’s energy. So says best-selling author and leadership guru Ken Blanchard.
During his keynote presentation at the recent NACCM event, Blanchard discussed four elements integral to customer and employee engagement: setting the right target, treating customers right, treating employees right, and having the right leadership.
Continue reading "Leadership and the Customer Experience " »
A European colleague has asked me whether it isn’t possible to drive customers away by simply asking them to complete a survey about customer satisfaction. That is, can the act of soliciting for a survey actually be a turn-off for customers all by itself?
Continue reading "Can Surveying Customers Drive Them Away?" »
Pity the poor TV networks.
An article in yesterday’s TV trade magazine Broadcasting & Cable notes that the increasing probability of a strike next month by the Writers Guild of America against the major TV and film studios means that the networks will probably stick longer with series that otherwise would have been canceled by now.
The article quotes Fox head of program planning and research Preston Beckman saying, “If I cancel a show now and put something in its place, I have eight unaired episodes of that show. We would rather stick with what we have and have [a potential replacement show] to hold on to for a strike. Otherwise, if there is a strike, I net out with eight fewer original hours.”
Good news indeed for the 12 people watching the likes of Cane, K-Ville, and Big Shots, but for those of us who aren’t interested in the high-stakes world of rum production, a buddy cop show set in New Orleans, or an attempt to clone Desperate Housewives with guys, we’re still stuck on the couch flipping through channels, running across Jimmy Smits glowering with a cigar, and saying, “Wait – that’s still on?”
So, forget the networks: Pity the poor viewer.
According to a recent Nielsen Internet survey, 78 percent of consumers say they trust other consumer’s recommendation over all advertising/marketing avenues. Marketers these days seem to be chomping at the bit to encourage word of mouth and viral marketing. But do they work? So far, the answer is disappointing.
Continue reading "A Cure for the Common Viral Marketing Program" »
Picture this: You enter a retail store and find a pair of pants perfect for those business casual days in the office. They’re an interesting color; like tan but not quite. Maybe beige or taupe or perhaps sand? So the challenge now is to find a shirt to match. No worries; you hold up the pants to the mirror on the display floor and not only does it give you the low-down on the trousers—fabric, size, designer, etc.—but it also suggests the perfect shirt and shoes to match. It doesn’t stop there. No… It asks whether you would like an associate to bring you the other items and in what size.
Sound like a far off future fantasy? Or perhaps a bit like the fairy tale mirror in Snow White?
Every year, usually just before the Super Bowl, without fail you can turn on your television and see a countdown of the “world’s [insert superlative here] commercials.” I have no doubt every one of the Sony Bravia commercials made in the last two years would make the list of the most eye-catching, creative, and expensive. But in the end they’re advertisements, not pieces of art, because last time I checked Sony was a for-profit company. The spots grab viewers’ attention, but they’re all missing one very key element.
Social networking is clearly on the minds of marketers these days, as an increasing number of vendors are launching solutions that offer brands the ability to send targeted advertising to sites. The niche audiences on social networking sites offer a wealth of potential for brand marketers. And vendors are looking to leverage that opportunity.
Last week I spoke with two vendors—FAST and Inkriti—which both offer the ability to collect and analyze customer data from social media to either enhance products and services or create and send targeted advertising to the audiences on those sites.
Vinod Pabba, CEO of Inkriti, told me that a company which manufactures baseball caps in China, recently started aggregating social media to collect feedback on its merchandise. Because of that, the company was able to correct a sizing mistake on thousands of caps. Pabba explained: “Aggregating social media in real time helps to find problems in areas where you don’t even think you have problems. It doesn’t take away the need for service, it just complements it.”
On November 6, Loop’d Network, a social media platform for online sports communities, will debut. The company will help businesses match their brands to their target demographic through viral marketing thus “blending” brands into the online sporting social community experience. Monster Energy is a customer.
“Bad customer service is like the weather. Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.”
So Mark Twain never said. (Then again, he had to issue a denial that he was dead. The lesson, as always: Keep moving.) But my blog post of last week, detailing the waking nightmare of dealing with incompetent and/or apathetic customer service at a couple of drugstore chains, resulted in a great many online and offline comments, many revolving around similar horror stories.
This summer our office decided not to have a company picnic. Instead, we all volunteered at a local community center to prepare it for the upcoming after-school program. I spent the day sweeping floors, painting walls, and cleaning bathrooms. I also spent some great quality time with my co-workers and ended the day feeling good about the work I'd done and the company I work for. A socially conscious workplace helps employees feel good, and it can also show customers that the company has integrity.
Earlier this week I attended NACCM in Orlando. I hosted a dinner for several of our 1to1 Customer Champions, who had joined me at the conference to participate on a panel about how creating customer engagement positively impacts the bottom line. How ironic.
Earlier this year I wrote a story in the Best Practices section 1to1 Magazine about how iRobot’s (the company that manufactures the robots, which perform tasks from vacuuming to scrubbing kitchen floors to performing reconnaissance for the military in Iraq) contact center agents were “living the brand” by learning about how Roombas work and connecting with the customers who called with problems. A group of researchers at Georgia Tech studied the Roomba phenomenon and came up with a few more reasons iRobot is successful and why customers are so happy with the product.
Americans love getting a deal, and the renowned U.K. band Radiohead has taken unconventional steps to give them what they want.
When the album In Rainbows is released on October 10, fans will be able to pay as little or as much for digitally downloading the album, telling fans “It’s up to you” what to pay.
Radiohead can benefit from this tactic in two ways: The customers who pay nothing but will register their information will become targets of future Radiohead concert promotions and marketing campaigns. In addition, giving away free items creates demand. Take Prince, who in July, gave away his album 3121 in the U.K. and sold out all 21 tour dates in London as a result.
Continue reading "From Albums to Burgers: Freebies Create a Buzz" »
Does poor customer service drive you crazy?
Yes, of course it does, why wouldn’t it? But what about customer service with an attitude?
That’s been the issue for me and my family for a couple of years now, at least when it comes to getting prescriptions filled at our local CVS drugstore. When our son began attending daycare a couple of years ago, you can imagine how many trips we had to make to deal with the various viruses and sundry sniffles that were being brought home along with his artwork.
The CVS seemed to be in chaos no matter what time my wife or I showed up there; misplaced orders and, once, a wrong refill seemed to be the norm, and the general air of frantic turmoil behind the counter didn’t exactly inspire customer confidence.
(For those of you unaware, CVS stands for “Consumer Value Stores,” though the company’s CEO, Tom Ryan, said in a 2006 interview that he prefers “Convenience, Value, and Service.” A rose by any other name…)
The role of CEO is evolving. What used to be a numbers-driven, locked in the corner office job now requires many hats -- brand steward, Wall Street maven, publicist, and customer advocate. While in the past the last one was usually the one pushed off to the lower ranks, there's a sense that customers are working their way into the boardroom agenda.
Gartner’s CRM Excellence Awards was a major highlight of the recent Gartner CRM Summit. There were three finalists: Electronic Arts, Lennox International, and Shaklee. Each shared their success story, based on a winning customer strategy that gives customers choice and gives front-line staff the information and support they need to deliver a compelling customer experience.
Last month I was in San Francisco for the Salesforce.com Dreamforce ’07 conference when I stopped in a small pizza shop for lunch. It looked just like any restaurant I’d visited on the East Coast, with one key difference: something on the checkout counter that caught my eye.
Specialty retailer Pier 1’s elimination of its online store on September 1, seems like a flashback to a decade ago.
The reason for the close? The company cited inventory concerns due to the uncertain nature of planning when making products by hand rather than on an assembly line. http://www.pier1.com/TheNewPier1com/tabid/198/Default.aspx.
The title of Tom Markert’s new book, You Can’t Win a Fight with Your Client (Collins), sounds like basic advice. After all, who would want to even find themselves in a combative position with an existing or potential client, much less an actual rumble?
But Markert, the CEO of market research provider Ipsos Loyalty Worldwide, already knows that you already know that. Just as was the case with his previous tome, 2005’s You Can’t Win a Fight with Your Boss, Markert is providing some fundamental rules that serve more as a reminder of good practices than trying to reinvent the wheel.
Customers are not equal. If you have ever read a Peppers and Rogers book or heard them speak, you know this is true. It's the basis of what we write about every day at 1to1 Media. So knowing that, how do you figure out their value? A new buzzword around the marketplace is "engagement." It's a great attribute of a customer's value to the company, but it's so vague. Companies talk in very broad strokes about the importance of engagement, but there hasn't been much in the way of measurement for it. Forrester Research aims to change that.
Earlier this week I attended the Gartner CRM Summit. The event kicked off with a keynote from distinguished analyst Scott Nelson, Gartner’s managing vice president, application strategy and governance. Nelson shared some expectations and predictions regarding customer strategy and technology for the coming year.
We hear in the news all the time about people frustrated with long-term cell phone contracts, undisclosed fees, bad service, and the inability to switch providers. One remedy to nearly all consumer complaints against wireless carriers is a bill proposed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Jay Rockefeller, democrats from Minnesota and West Virginia, respectively. Though politicians often unveil proposed legislation as a public relations stunt knowing it will never get to a vote, the rules they’ve drafted are a great start toward reforming the mobile industry. Among the changes in the Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act of 2007, Klobuchar and Rockefeller propose the following:
Continue reading "Senators tackle wireless industry standards" »
Over the past few months, I’ve made a few gift purchases from Macy’s jewelry department. Each time, I received excellent service from the customer service reps. And each time, at the end of the purchase, they asked me to go online when I got home to take a survey about the quality service they delivered to me. Although my intention every time was to follow through and note the outstanding service I received, I have yet to take even one survey.
Like most busy consumers, I forget about the experience I have as soon as I leave the store. In which case I ask, why are retailers still missing out on capturing this valuable customer information at the point of sale—when it matters most? Why aren’t companies investing in in-store kiosks so that consumers can log their suggestions and comments immediately after they make their purchases?
Continue reading "Are You Listening to Customers Where it Counts?" »
"Business opportunities are like buses; there's always another one coming."
So says Virgin Enterprises founder Richard Branson, someone who knows an entrepreneur when he sees one. (Ted Turner says an entrepreneur is “what you’re called when you don't have a job,” but let’s not get distracted.) While identifying entrepreneurs seems relatively simple – hello, Bill Gates! Roll over, Walt Disney, and tell Howard Hughes the news! – there’s also the very real possibility that there are entrepreneurs-in-the-making within your company.
That’s the theory behind Entrepreneurs Inside: Accelerating Business Growth with Corporate Entrepreneurs (Xlibris), a new book by Susan Foley, Executive Director, Research Centers at Babson Executive Education and the founder of management consulting firm Corporate Entrepreneurs, LLC.
If you won the lottery, would you spend it all at once, or sock it all away to use later? Most people would try to do a combination of both, balancing their long- and short-term financial goals. The same should be true with how companies deal with customers. There has got to be a balance between getting as much money from customers as possible at once, and building loyalty and lifetime value over time. Move over too far in either direction, and you may destroy customer value or run your business into the ground. Or both. Which is what happened with many mortgage lenders that took advantage of the subprime loan market.
I was recently having a conversation with reader Miroslav Slodki and he posed the following question:
If a brand is global, is it fair or wise to have isolated geographic pricing? He then answered the question using Oral B as an example.
The best use for social networks from a marketing perspective is still very much up in the air. Some companies use profile pages to increase awareness, many advertise on MySpace and other sites in a more traditional manner, and others search blogs and profiles to gauge perception. The last of those three, using social networkers as a focus group by listening in on what’s being said, has created a lot of buzz lately because of what a few brand managers have done.
Continue reading "Businesses DO pay attention to Facebook!" »
Dave Duffield, the well-known beloved boss at former software company PeopleSoft, known for his camaraderie with his employees, became somewhat of a phenomenon for building a highly regarded employee culture ripe for fostering information sharing and fresh ideas. So it was my pleasure to have the opportunity to recently interview the former head of what was once the second largest software company in the world, at the RightNow user conference.
You gotta figure that Mattel’s Chief Executive, Robert Eckert, isn’t having much fun these days.
In a little over a month, the world’s largest toy maker has announced three major recalls due to concerns about excessive lead paint in Chinese-made toys the company sold. Now comes word that Eckert is expected to testify in House and Senate hearings this week and next, centering on how adroit the company was in alerting federal regulators about major toy recalls.
As a concerned parent of a going-on-three-year-old, I’ve been tracking the story pretty closely. After all, I was the one to anxiously check my son’s ever-growing collection of Thomas trains a few weeks ago for the telltale numbers signifying whether James, Percy and the others might be headed for that great railyard in the sky. (Well, in the mail to toymaker RC2, at any rate.)
However, Thomas and the Very Big Recall was, if you’ll pardon the expression, child’s play compared with the still-to-come Mattel move.
It's been 13 years since Amazon.com first started its online shop. Millions of merchants have followed suit, and now we're getting into the awkward stage. Sure, there are many sites (like Amazon) that have matured early, but unfortunately many still have a ways to go before they catch up. As these companies mature, many are looking at personalization as a must-have strategy for the future. At the recent eTail conference, eBay and Neiman Marcus in particular spoke of plans to enhance their personalization features, and integrate on- and offline business strategies. We highlight their plans in today's issue of 1to1 Weekly.
Last week I was catching up on my stack of BusinessWeek magazines while lying on the beach. I read with great interest “Fear and Loathing at the Airport,” by Chris Palmeri and Keith Epstein, which discusses the sad state of the U.S. air travel system. It’s a great article that covers lots of ground, but being that I obsess about all things customer service, I was especially struck by the following:
I’m not really very technology-savvy, and I have always been very happy not to possess a PDA. Until my kids gave me one I didn’t even own an MP3 player. But I have to say that when I saw the new iPhone my 27-year-old son bought, I contracted a bad case of gadget envy. I mean this thing is very sexy. It is way way cool. Starship Enterprise cool. Now I know this is a terrible thing for any father to say, but secretly I found it very satisfying that he had had to pay an astounding $600 for the thing, because that allowed me to continue resisting the temptation, and to bask in my fatherly fiscal wisdom. “Aren’t you worried they’ll cut the price soon?” I asked him. Of course, he said, he knew they would be cutting the price sooner or later. But he just wanted to have one NOW.
And now they have definitely cut the price. From $599 down to $399. Two months or so after launch. My son is upset, and many other early adopters of this new product are, also. They feel betrayed. Wall Street has hammered Apple’s stock, and the scuttlebutt is that Apple did this solely to make their short-term sales numbers. On the other hand, I can’t help thinking that Apple is now on the road to conquering the whole PDA-phone-pod universe. The only step they could take that would be nearly as big (and they HAVE to do this!) would be to make the iPhone available on non-AT&T networks.
If my judgment of Apple’s corporate character is right, I predict they will soon be making amends to the early purchasers of the iPhone, either by giving outright refunds or by giving away equivalent levels of free services or additional products. Apple is one of the most trusted brands in the tech space, and they didn’t get that way by failing to listen to their customers. If they can win back their early adopters, then the only thing this really shows is that they misjudged the initial demand for the device at the higher price. And then when they get back on track, they'll probably keep plunging ahead, where no one has gone before…
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this saying, “Give Em the Pickle” is the catch-phrase of motivational speaker Bob Farrell, who also sells a customer service-oriented training video. Before I began working at 1to1, my previous employer showed us his video every year to make us think about customer service in a different way and drive home the point that making customers happy now, even when slightly less profitable, will pay off in the long run. As Don and Martha would say, don’t get stuck in the mindset of short-termism.
Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a situation similar to the one I found myself in the other day. My wife and I were in a local Honda dealer, finalizing our lease agreement on a new car. We’ve been driving Hondas for years, have always been impressed with their performance, and regularly receive courteous and helpful service.
As the salesman handed me the keys, he noted that I could probably expect to receive a customer survey satisfaction survey by phone in the following weeks. “You’ll be asked to rate a number of statements from ‘1’ to ‘5,’” he explained. “Anything less than a ‘5’ on anything and I fail the entire survey.”
We’ve all seen enough Willy Lomans and Gil Gundersons in our time to feel guilty about giving that poor working-for-commission shlub less than a 5. But that negates the whole idea behind the questionnaire, doesn’t it?
Do you trust your friends when they recommend a product to you? Research shows that most people trust that more than advertising and most other forms of marketing, but should they? A hot topic the last month on a number of customer and marketing blogs and publications has been Staples’ “Speak Easy” program, which I believe falls somewhere in the gray area of marketing ethics.
Poor customer service seems to be getting worse, but it depends on where consumers live in the U.S. that determines how they react to bad service.
Yesterday at the RightNow Summit, its user conference in Colorado Springs, CEO Greg Gianforte summarized the second annual joint Harris Interactive and RightNow Customer Experience Impact Report and revealed some surprising results.
Of the North American consumers surveyed, Midwesterners are the most emotional of consumers, with many likely to swear and cry; Westerners are more likely to never return to a company or post a negative blog entry/online review after a bad customer experience; Southerners, on the other hand, are least likely to swear but are the most likely to fantasize about defacing company property; and Northeners are least likely to register a complaint or tell others about a bad experience and are the least likely to post a negative blog entry.
Media buyers are the new rock stars, according to David Verklin, CEO of Carat Americas and Chairman of Carat Asia-Pacific.
Being the head of the world's largest independent media buying operation, he would think so, but a perusal of his new book, "Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here: Inside the $300 Billion Business Behind the Media You Constantly Consume" (Wiley), co-written with the late New York magazine columnist Bernice Kanner, finds that he may well be onto something.
There's lots of buzz around the business impact of virtual worlds like Second Life. Sure, it's great for fantasy gamers holed up in their basements, but how will it grow business? Companies like IBM, Xerox and others have jumped in, using its community features to hold virtual meetings and show clients product demonstrations. But it's not just for the big players. You see, in Second Life you can be whomever you want to be, shedding your real-life limitations. For individuals, that may mean making your avatar a body-builder or a bikini model. For businesses, especially small ones, it means interacting with prospects and customers all over the world, using the same tools as the Fortune fat cats. Today's issue of 1to1 Weekly illustrates how one small company flexed its relationship muscles on Second Life.
A colleague of mine at Carlson Marketing recently sent me an email detailing a horrible customer experience she had with Budget Car Rentals while traveling in Costa Rica. During her trip, her rental car’s tire went flat. While changing it, she was robbed on the side of the road, losing her passport, cell phone, cash, and credit cards. But the way she describes it, the customer service experience that followed was almost as bad as the roadside robbery.
Martha and I both like Fred Reichheld’s Net Promoter Score, which we consider to be a convenient, quick way to get a handle on whether your company is building enough customer equity to sustain your growth and profit in the future. We think of it as a kind of leading indicator of lifetime value change. Most of you reading this blog will already be familiar with Reichheld’s concept, we’ve had a couple of conversations on it elsewhere in this blog, in "CFOs and CMOs - Maybe we can help each other?" and in "My Net Promoter Problem."
Recently a colleague of mine at the British research company Infoquest sent me a white paper called "Net Promoter Score -- The Search for the Magic Pill," disputing the usefulness of NPS as a tool for understanding customer loyalty and value. It is an eight-page analysis, authored by Howard Ploman, President of Infoquest International, and offers an interesting and insightful appraisal of the disadvantages of trying to rely on NPS as an all-purpose gauge of customer loyalty.
Yesterday, BusinessWeek featured an article in which the editors went directly to Wal-Mart managers—the employees closest to the customers—to ask them their ideas about how to fix the struggling behemoth.
Many of the managers' ideas were simple and even obvious, but as the article pointed out, they’re ideas that were generated after talking with customers and listening to what they want.
Take chocolate doughnuts. Wal-Mart has been cutting back on making fresh doughnuts because they don’t make much money for stores. But the store managers have a different perspective. They say they actually get people into the stores and then while there they buy other merchandise.
When the magazine contacted Wal-Mart a spokesperson seemed to be dismissive of the manager’s ideas, declining to comment on them. That may be a mistake.
In 1to1 Magazine’s upcoming October issue, contributing writer Erika Rasmusson Janes will explore how tapping employees for fresh ideas generates new processes, services, and products that companies otherwise can’t produce. She reveals that employee feedback is relevant in improving customer service and making internal changes. Rasmusson says that frontline employees are the ones who see patterns to customer satisfaction and know what hinders efficiencies.
Hopefully Wal-Mart won’t take the BW article with a grain of salt. The company needs to realize that its employees are the biggest untapped resources available—and one that should not be ignored.
When thumbing through the latest business books, coming upon the title "Why Is Everyone Smiling?" (Brown Books) might cause one to look around his or her office and reply, "Uh, everyone ISN'T smiling."
But if that's true, your company might learn a lesson from the book's author, Paul Spiegelman, co-founder of healthcare-exclusive customer interaction center The Beryl Companies, who firmly believes that happy employees lead to happy customers -- and has the figures to back it up.
More than clever advertising or price discounts, if you want more customers you should encourage positive word-of-mouth from your current customers. So many studies show that it's a successful strategy. But knowing and doing are two different things. How do you get customers to start talking?
Is customer loyalty a marketing myth? Some say it is. I guess it depends on how you define loyalty.
I’d have to say that, like love, there are many shades of loyalty. I love my daughter, and I love my dog, and I love chocolate. Is the love I have for each the same? Of course not.
It’s the same with loyalty.
Most people will now admit that the customer isn’t always right, but sometimes where to draw the line between giving in to and refusing a request can be very blurry. The New York Times ran an article yesterday on its website about Nova Rico, a cartography company that sells custom-designed globes and has received custom orders from some countries that pose an ethical dilemma.
On magazine death prognosticator site Magazinedeathpool.com, the producer, or Grim Reaper as he or she calls himself, has been predicting the termination of specific magazines since early last year.
Many magazines have passed on to its Death Pool Hall of Fame since launching. Even Business 2.0 and Fast Company are among the most recent business magazines that the Reaper predicts to get the axe. While there are many elements that can be attributed to a publication’s close, I want to call attention to a new study from Nielsen//Netratings and Mediamark Research Inc.
By linking data from NetView, Nielsen//NetRatings’ Internet audience measurement service, with corresponding data points from MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer, the data revealed that an average of 83 percent of the visitors to the Web sites of 23 large circulation monthly magazines access those magazines’ content solely online. And it seems as though age doesn’t play a part in which medium is accessed. Of people ages 18-44, 82 percent solely accessed content online and 82 percent of visitors over the age of 45 also only got their magazine content on the Web.
These statistics not only mark a change in innovation online, but it calls for data-driven cross media plans. As more activities go cross channel, how will marketers and advertisers plan for projects and budgets and how can they effectively track responses? Some of the best companies are still tracking convergence manually, not having enough resources or systems to adequately provide analysis.
While the publishing industry is a niche example, it’s still an indication of how business is evolving and converging. Are you prepared to make the necessary changes to keep up with this changing landscape? If not, are you willing to face the scythe?
Most of you can doubtless recall Dr. Pepper's ubiquitous "Be a Pepper" ad campaign of the 1970s (All together now: "I'm a Pepper, He's a Pepper, She's a Pepper, We're a Pepper, Wouldn't You Like to be a Pepper, Too?"). Though the good Doctor officially retired the slogan in the mid-'80s, it's still a mainstay of life, popping up everywhere from sitcoms and movies to, er, blogs ... and the TV ads can, of course, still be viewed on YouTube. (Whatever happened to David Naughton, anyhow?)
Dr. Pepper has since tried out a number of messages (including the less-than-transcendent "Authentic blend of 23 flavors" and the numbingly bland "I Want It All"), none of which have given "Be a Pepper" a run for its money.
That got me thinking: when is it time for a company to change its brand motto? If you've got something that works -- that maybe has even penetrated people's everyday conversation -- should you try to update it at some point, or let it be?
How much are your customers worth to your firm? It's a question many would like to answer, but few actually take the time to really understand. But if you look strategically, often times you've already got the information available to figure it out. A new study from Aberdeen Research we feature in this week's 1to1 Weekly newsletter picked out a few tactics for companies to analyze to learn which customers are MVCs and which are worth "firing."
FedEx is known for absolutely, positively getting packages to their appointed destination overnight. But its more recent focus is to absolutely, positively continue to raise the bar on its customer experience, according to Om Chokriwala, managing director of strategic marketing. During his presentation at the recent Customer Feedback Week, Chokriwala revealed how the company is doing so.
Continue reading "When You Absolutely, Positively Want Loyalty" »
In today’s issue of the Marketing X-Factor newsletter, I wrote the Hot List story about a study published by Pew Research that attempted to draw a portrait of “Generation Next.” The study defined the generation as 18-25 year olds, a group that has also been described using a number of other terms. As a member of the 18-25 demographic, I found the findings to be accurate based on my experience, but I disagreed with defining my generation using the term “Generation Next.”
With the movement toward new channels like social networks, virtual worlds, and mobile rapidly evolving, that brings up the question “How important is email to the future of marketing?”
In light of these new technologies, marketers might consider bypassing email. But anyone who circumvents email is risking a still critical piece of their multichannel marketing and sales strategy. In fact the DMA estimates that commercial email in 2007 is forecast to generate $21.9 billion in U.S. sales. And each dollar spent on email is projected to generate more than $48 in sales.
Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog.
“On today’s Internet…amateurism, rather than expertise, is celebrated, even revered....The professional is being replaced by the amateur, the lexicographer by the layperson, the Harvard professor by the unschooled populace.”
This, in case you’re wondering, is a bad thing, according to Andrew Keen’s new book “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture” (Doubleday/Currency). And yes, most of it is just as apocalyptic as its subtitle indicates.
Teams win and lose. Players, even those revered by fans, sometimes get traded. There are so many variables in the professional sports business. But for the New Jersey Nets basketball team, the one constant is the customer experience. CEO Brett Yormark acts as host to as many fans and employees as possible during each game, ensuring that the experience is the utmost off the court.
Every day there are millions of people watching sports, game shows, or just about anything on TV and thinking to themselves “I could do a better job than (insert quarterback, contestant, or cable TV show host’s name here).” That used to be the end of the conversation for the couch potato unhappy he never got the shot to live out his dreams. Today, however, some companies would like people to believe that through consumer-created content and the emphasis on user participation, everyone has an equal chance be nationally recognized for something. But do they?
Continue reading "Consumer-Generated Content: All are Equal, but Some are More Equal Than Others" »
I was back in Vegas this week, this time attending the content-packed Customer Feedback Week. Day one kicked off with a stellar presentation by Kip Knight, vice president of marketing for eBay North America. Knight warmed us up with his twist on Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits: the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Customer-Centric Companies.
Continue reading "eBay’s Kip Knight on Customer Centricity" »
This week I've seen the inside of FedEx Kinko's more times than I would have liked. The reason being is I needed to print labels for a large mailing but first needed to do a mail merge from an Excel spreadsheet. Not being well-versed in Excel, I assumed the people who do print for a living would surely know how it's done. They must get this request regulary, I thought.
To my surprise (and dismay) no one at any of the three stores in town knew how to do a mail merge, which resulted in me spending hours behind the counter trying to figure it out with the employees. One man has worked at one of the stores for seven years and still hasn't yet learned this service.
We all know how important branding can be. A quick scan of the past weekend’s new movie box-office receipts finds the internationally-recognized “Simpsons” brand in fine fettle, raking in nearly $72 million (and umpteen puns of the “That’s a lotta d’oh!” variety), while “I Know Who Killed Me,” starring the rather tainted brand Lindsay Lohan, grossed a little under a buck seventy-five and a couple of stale Skittles. (Plans for a sequel, “I Know Who Killed My Career,” are currently on hold.)
Most companies’ brands fall somewhere in the middle of that range, with many hoping to increase brand-awareness and impact but unsure of how to do it. Enter Sandra Sellani, VP of marketing at commercial real estate brokerage Sperry Van Ness International, with her book “What’s Your BQ: Learn How 35 Companies Add Customers, Subtract Competitors, and Multiply Profits with Brand Quotient” (WBusiness Books).
I have an identical twin sister named Anne. We are exactly the same age, live near each other, and work in similar occupations. We even bought our cars around the same time. According to the old rules of demographics, we should get similar marketing communications. But, she shops online much less frequently, and while I'm active on Myspace and LinkedIn, she doesn't have time for online communities. She can't live without her DVR, while I don't mind the commercial breaks in between TV shows. And she downloads her music from iTunes, while I'll visit a CD store to buy an album.
Continue reading "You Think You Know, But You Have No Idea" »
At 1to1 we write a great deal about how important a talented staff is to a compelling customer experience. Well, lucky me! I work with a wonderfully talented team who goes out of their way every day to deliver top-notch content, i.e., a great customer experience for our readers.
In the past few weeks we received several awards that illustrate this. The awards are for editorial excellence, but what they are also judged on is how well the articles meet the publication's stated mission. Here's ours, in short: 1to1 Media strives to deliver content that will help our readers to excel in their jobs and establish a competitive advantage for their organizations by creating, implementing, and executing profitable customer strategies. In meeting that mission, we were awarded the following:
The American Society of Business Publication Editors honored us with a Silver award in its regional Azbie awards program for the Hot Topic section of 1to1 magazine, edited by Mila D'Antonio. Mila also received a Bronze Azbie for her article about 1-800-Flowers.com, "Courting Customers."
International editorial association TABPI honored 1to1 with a Gold Tabbie award for the Hot Topic section, as well as an honorable mention for John Gaffney's article "Inside the Mind of the Conscientious Customer."
Congratulations to our editorial staff, whose tireless efforts were recognized by their peers in two tough awards competitions.
Hoping that this doesn’t qualify as beating a dead horse, I’d like to offer a different angle to the Sprint-Nextel customer firing saga. Judging by what we’ve written about the story and the responses from people to previous blog postings, there’s a majority who think the company was justified in letting the 1,000 chronic complainers go. Most people said it was better to cut off a small, unprofitable few to benefit the many. I agree with that principle, but I’d like to offer another possible explanation for the firings that is less customer-centric.
1to1 Media’s Senior Editor Kevin Zimmerman wrote yesterday in his blog about his interview with Paul Gillin, who recently authored the book “The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media.”
Gillin says that many companies aren’t committed to their blogs, and don't devote the time and resources to managing it. Others start their blogs without a well-thought plan and as a result their blogs eventually die.
At the Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange this week, I found that many executives struggle with this same issue of how to leverage blogs. Some even are challenged with how to get started, and if they will provide value for their companies.
A brief list of the challenges I overheard include: how to handle negative content, developing a response strategy, who writes it, bandwidth to manage the blog, what metrics to use to measure it, the complexity, maintaining consistency across channels, how to write for corporate blogs, how to morph forums with blogs, how to calculate ROI, and awareness of legal and compliance issues.
While some executives grappled with these issues at the conference, others spoke about their successes. David Doucette, director of Internet strategy at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, said that the hotel chain features a blog “written” by their lobby dogs. The blogs tell the Fairmont stories and gives guests opportunities to tell their experiences. Guests actually bond with the dogs and even call the hotels to inquire about how they’re doing.
Grier Graham, vice president of sales and marketing at TechDirt, a corporate intelligence provider, told me that even though the company has a couple hundred customers, the blog receives 100,000 page hits every day. As a result, the company uses the viral nature of the blog as a marketing tool and major news outlets have linked to the blog recently.
And Rick Short, marcom director for Indium Corporation, a provider of thermal interface materials, said the company’s blog is used as a competitive differentiator. Commmunities of customers like semi-conductor communities and liquid flux communities, have formed as a result. “We’ve been blogging for three years and not a single competitor has tried to enter the space,” Short said.
My belief is that blogs provide a way for companies to engage with customers, they offer new marketing channels, and they offer a avenue for customers’ voices to be heard. It’s up to individual companies to leverage that valuable customer insight and marketing potential.
TechDirt, Fairmont, and Indium are three very different companies in varying industries and all have found success with blogs. If you’re one of those companies spending time debating the value in blogs rather than assembling a team to develop the initial research and plans for one, your competitors are probably out there engaging with your customers through their blogs as we speak.
It seems as if blogs are like opinions these days: everybody has one. (Present company obviously included.) Blog search engine Technorati reported in late spring that it was tracking over 71 million blogs, not all of them having to do with Harry Potter.
But is blogging right for your company? According to longtime marketing consultant Paul Gillin, who recently published the book The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media (Quill Driver Books), the answer is a resounding “It depends.”
Continue reading "Blogging: Everyone’s Doing It ... But Should They Be?" »
We've done articles about how some customers feel "trapped" with a company, either through a contract, lack of competition, or other factors. On the flip side, many companies feel "trapped" serving some of their customers. With the old adage "the customer is always right" running through their heads, companies tend to stick with customers who are beligerent, uncooperative, constantly unhappy, and a drain on company resources, with no hope of changing. So when Sprint Nextel decided to prune its customer tree last month, it took a PR hit. In today's 1to1 Weekly lead story, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers say they believe it was the right thing to do, if it's a long-term strategic move and not done out of quarterly desperation. What do you think?
Contental Airlines may be one of the few airlines that still serve complimentary in-flight meals, but executives there know that without great service, there won't be anyone in the seats to eat them in the first place. During his speech at Call Center Week Jim Thistle, senior director, international reservations and revenue programs, for Continential, gave some insight into what service delivery was like at the airline before and after implementing workforce management.
Maintaining a customer relationship, or any relationship for that matter, takes personal interaction and support, right? That was the logic behind trying to save mom-and-pop stores from going under when big box retailers gained popularity. Many of those larger companies have since improved their service, largely due to knowledgeable and visible associates. A new study by IHL Consulting Group, which analyzes retail technology, however, seems to devalue personal interaction with customers.
For some companies, letting their customers' voices be heard is critical for long-term success.
A new study released today from online customer satisfaction firm Foresee Results, finds that the availability of online customer reviews on a retail Web site boosts overall satisfaction with the Web site, loyalty, and likelihood to buy online. Of the top 100 grossing retail Web sites, the ones that offer customer reviews experience better loyalty and conversion rates.
Some highlights of the study include:
* Customer reviews significantly improve the online shopping experience. Satisfaction is 11 percent higher for people who said they had seen customer reviews on the site than for those who said that reviews weren't on the site they visited.
* Customer reviews increase conversion and loyalty. Shoppers on sites with reviews are 10 percent more likely to purchase from the retailer's Web site than those on sites without reviews.
* Online shoppers that remembered seeing customer reviews are 13 percent more likely to recommend the site than are shoppers who didn't see reviews.
Continue reading "Asking Customers What They Think Has Long-Term Benefits" »
When you think of geniuses, you’re likely to come up with such names as Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, and Spider-Man.
Hang on – the webbed wonder may be many things, but a genius?
Well, yes, according to Dr. Alan S. Gregerman, author of the newly-published book "Surrounded By Geniuses: Unlocking the Brilliance in Yourself, Your Colleagues and Your Organization" (SourceBooks, Inc.). As indicated by the title, Gregerman’s approach is that “We all have the potential to be geniuses in ways that matter to ourselves and those we serve.”
No theorizing about relativity, inventing the lightbulb, or producing overbaked Tom Hanks movies required, then; the key is looking for inspiration in new and unlikely places – including fictional comic-book heroes.
Customers want what they want, when they want it. That's particularly true for the under-30 set. After all, they never had to wait in line on a Friday afternoon to cash a check at the bank, it's always been direct deposit. They haven't had to travel to the library reference section -- the Internet's pretty much always been there. And they probably never wrote fan mail to their favorite rock star -- they just became a "friend" on the band's myspace page. So when companies want to meet their needs and react to their feedback, it better be quick and relevant. Today's 1to1 Weekly lead story shows how one retailer is getting it right online and off by incorporating a community aspect and involving customers in the process. How does your company react to customer needs?
Google has been described as everything from “big brother” to “the evil empire” for the way it seemingly wants to participate in every aspect of our lives. Last week the Internet giant came a little closer to that goal by acquiring Grand Central, a service that allows users to sign up for one phone number they can keep for their entire life. That number would forward calls to any of their other phones (home, work, cell, etc…) and save their voicemails, contact list, and a plethora of other information online.
Every company has its own central intelligence “agency.” That group: employees. Tapping into that inner intelligence can lead to valuable process and product improvements.
An organization’s front line sees problems and opportunities their managers don’t, according to Alan Robinson, Ph.D., coauthor of Ideas Are Free and Corporate Creativity. To be truly excellent at customer service, Robinson said during his keynote at the recent Call Center Week conference, you have to be able to capture and implement large numbers of employees’ ideas.
Nielsen/NetRatings announced yesterday that it will scrap its longtime industry measurement of online page views for how long visitors spend on Web sites.
Although Nielsen already measures average time spent and average number of sessions per visitor for each site, the company will start reporting total time spent and sessions for all visitors to give advertisers, investors, and analysts a broader picture of what sites are most popular.
Why is this significant? The move demonstrates how page views are becoming less effective means to gauge a Web site's popularity amidst the growing use of audio and video and that audience engagement is a more robust metric for a Web site’s success. More companies are moving toward the human side of business—appealing to customers' emotions and interests to get customers on the sites and to keep them connected.
I spoke yesterday with Carley Roney, cofounder of the popular wedding Web site The Knot, who with her partner and husband David Liu, has built the site into the biggest online wedding destination. That’s largely because the site provides a breadth of content and appeals to a woman’s particular life stage. Visitors engage in personal experiences on the site, become connected, and often stay loyal long after their nuptials.
The strategy, Roney says, is rather than build the site around advertisers, they’ve built it around the audience. “On the Internet, people will not click if you don’t make it something that’s interesting to them or speaks to them. On the Internet we’re responsible for every piece of behavior of our audience,” she said.
Is your Web site engaging with customers? Are you the go-to source for information in your industry? Are you offering rich media as a way for customers to interact and communicate? Are you engaging your customers in product development and asking their opinions? Are you active in building customer communities on your site?
If you answered "no" to all of them, then it's time to take a fresh look.
By now you most likely have heard that SprintNextel has fired a few thorny customers. In a letter to about 1,000 of its 53 million customers the company "terminated" these subscribers, who apparenlty had SprintNextel customer service on speed dial. The customers called the SN contact center an average of 25 times a month, a rate 40 times higher than average customers, according to published reports. I think it's a great move, but let's not overstate it. Yes, it's an interesting entry into the "do you fire customers?" debate. But, this is only 1,000 customers. If SN were really going to cut into its "below zero" customers, I'm sure 1,000 is a negligable amount. Also, it's very interesting to me that AT&T, which is in the middle of iPhone hell, used the occasion of SprintNextel's move to essentially say "hey, we would never do that."
SprintNextel is on the right track here. I just think they could have gone further if they expect this strategy to be truly impactful.
Video may have, in the immortal words of The Buggles, killed the radio star. But don’t try telling that to call centers managers who, although seemingly interested in video technologies, don’t see them as the next killer app.
According to a new survey by contact center and IP telephony products and services firm Interactive Intelligence, video is the top new technology currently being evaluated among the 2,500-plus call centers surveyed, rating above decision support/data mart, e-learning, and a host of other tools.
There's a fine line executives have to ride between convenience and customer data privacy and security. On one hand, customers are demanding more personalized attention and don't like needing a million passwords. On the other hand, there are many undesirables out there just waiting to compromise personal information or attack data systems. In today's issue of 1to1 Weekly, we look at the aftermath of retailer TJX's data breach, in which almost 46 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen.
“Companies don’t have poor brand promises, they have problems delivering on the promises they’ve created.”
During his Call Center Week keynote, ResponseTek Networks CEO Syed Hasan went on to say that instead of working to meet the original promise, many companies will keep adjusting their brand promise as necessary. Hmmm. Perhaps not the best option.
Consistency, according to Hasan, is the better choice. He cited Southwest Airlines and Apple as two companies that consistently deliver on their brand promise, adding that this consistency creates customer advocates.
How can you be sure that you’re delivering on your brand promise?
Continue reading "Are You Delivering on Your Brand Promise?" »
If you live in a major U.S. city, you may have noticed recently that your local 7-Eleven looks a little different. A dozen of the convenience stores were turned into “Kwik-E-Marts,” the fictional version of 7-Eleven from The Simpsons, to promote the long-running cartoon’s feature film debut later this month. Not only does the handful of locations resemble the cartoon store run by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, but most of 7-Eleven’s franchised stores will sell special products that until now could only be seen on The Simpsons. Customers can now buy everything from Krusty-O’s cereal to Buzz cola to the signature Slurpee-like Squishee, if only for a limited time.
At last week’s Customer Service Week conference Andre Harris told a terrific story about a remarkable employee. Harris is the director of national customer service for Westfield LLC, which operates about 120 shopping centers in four countries (about half of which are in the United States). She was emphasizing how important it is to hire and train what the company calls “WOW people.”
Here’s a digest version of her tale:
I have a personal beef with Apple. I try to never let personal matters interfere with what I choose to write about. But hey, if Apple wants to offer me the same price (.30 per song) for upgrading the sound quality on the 3,500 songs I've purchased over the past three years as it does for someone who bought three songs over the past three years, go for it. They do, after all, have leverage. Leverage is a rare and dangerous thing when you're a brand marketer. This is a lesson Apple is learning the hard way. The iPhone has been the most visible product launch of the "all blogger/all breaking news" era. Did you know the iPhone launch was actually considered a "developing story" on CNN last Friday? But with this visibility the iPhone launch has been placed under a microscope that is unwarranted and unfair. Of course there are going to be a few unhappy customers. Of course there will be some problems with partners. What did you expect? Problem is, the obsession with "always on" information means that CNN considers the iPhone and its associated issue a kind of techy Paris Hilton story. And as Paris would undoubtedly know, as the old saying goes: "The higher you climb the flagpole the more they see your ...... you know."
I spent the past two days at the Call Center Week conference, which you’ll hear more about over my next few blog posts. One highlight was IQPC’s 2007 Call Center Excellence Awards. The best part: Bath & Body Works’ Pati Crowley was honored with the award for Call Center Leader of the Year.
Woo hoo!
Continue reading "Congratulations to Bath & Body Works’ Pati Crowley!" »
I like Dell's latest customer-centric approach, which looks to be balanced on design, quality improvements and retail expansion. Today it announced that it will customize its designs to include more colors and design tweaks to play to the WalMart audience (its newest account). In some ways it represents Dell's decision to bail on the direct sales market. In other, more important ways, it reflects what got the company to this point in time, which is listening to its customers and then executing on that knowledge. I'm not in the Dell most growable customer group right now. If you're reading this, you're probably not either. But there's a whole generation of kids that want their laptop the way they want it, and if they want purple, you make it purple.
I constantly see commercials for mobile phones or cable service that entice new customers with great discounts and special offers. If I'm already a customer, it makes me mad that only the "new" customers get the good deals. Why should I be treated worse because I'm already a customer? The acquisition frenzy in many of these industries can turn off current customers and make them switch to a competitor.
Continue reading "What's So Great About Being a "New" Customer?" »
One of our 1to1 magazine readers recently emailed me this question:
“What are the skill sets of successful relationship marketing directors? I have already checked out the job sites but a majority of the descriptions display the immediate need rather than the responsibilities that will make a company a truly 1to1 organization.”
It’s a great question, and the first thing that came to mind was our 1to1 Customer Champions, who are all highly skilled relationship managers. With those folks in mind, I sent a reply:
I don’t know about you, but I love online banking. I pay bills online, of course, but I’ve also opened accounts online; set up, changed, and cancelled recurring payments; researched account and mortgage options. The works. And in most cases it’s a better experience than the ones I’ve had in the branch. Not because the people aren’t friendly or helpful. It just significantly easier, more convenient, and less time consuming to self-serve.
That said, I, like many other banking customers, like integrated multichannel options. But, according to “Service Done Right: Why Great Online Customer Service Matters More than Ever,” a recent study conducted by IBM and Kana Software, a majority of the 72 financial services firms studied “fell into the lowest quadrant for lack of both the necessary online access channels or for having a channel that was ineffective.”
Continue reading "Study Finds Financial Service Firms Need to Invest in Service" »
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that he was dropping his Republican affiliation—a step which pundits believe will position him for the 2008 independent bid for the presidential campaign.
Bloomberg for president may be the most logical idea I’ve heard yet to fix the mire in which the current tycoon president has embroiled us. Ross Perot tried it in 1992 and 1996 but this billionaire businessman has something over on Perot. Bloomberg has applied a new model for public service which aims to treat constituents as customers.
In building up New York as a brand, he has viewed the city as a company by deploying a "customer" strategy and overhauling much of the infrastructure. He deployed an extensive 311 contact center with 24/7 customer service, established New York recruiting centers in other nations to market the city, made government offices more accessible, and implemented a feedback mechanism from “customers” to develop new products and services, among other customer-centric strategies.
While this isn’t an endorsement for Bloomberg, imagine the effect this dream cabinet would have on a turnaround mission:
This is what blogs are for right? I should be able to throw some ideas around that might not be fully-baked. So here goes in the best spirit of Web 2.0, 3.0.....whatever. I read The Black Swan recenlty, a book that is as disturbing as any business book I've ever read. And beleive me, I've read too many. The book has many radical ideas. Basically, it relates the concept of Black Swans to life and business. A "Black Swan" actually represents two things. First and foremost, it's something that society discovers that has always been there but has escaped our attention. Second, it represents the random event. It's the plane that appears in downtown Manhattan, the stock market crash, the customer that gets on the blogosphere and makes a personal experience spread like a boulder dropped into a pond. We cannot predict all Black Swan appearances. But we can prepare against the damage caused by them. I think this represents a whole new area of customer strategy. It may be an idea that we accept as readily as "long tails" a year from now. I urge you to read it. If you've read it, I'd love to know what you thought of it.
My local video store (Tommy K's) recently closed the branch near my house. After a few attempts to rent at the Blockbuster down the street, I decided that I would rather drive 15 minutes into the next town and rent from the Tommy K's there. The foregin/indie film selection is much better, they have new releases when Blockbuster runs out, and the staff is very knowledgeable and friendly. For me, loyalty isn't just about price or convenience when I want to watch movies.
Yesterday I had a terrific lunch with one of our Editorial Advisory Board members. We talked about how organizations are still challenged with data silos and fiefdoms, often maintained because C-level executives talk about change and reorganizing around the customer but don’t put the compensation, organizational structure, and commitment in place that’s necessary to actually make such a heady change stick.
Among all the customer touchpoints, social media and mobile seem to be leading in cool factor – and marketing potential. Social media encourages consumers to engage with their favorite brands more often and for more time. It can spur and support word of mouth like no other medium. Mobile has an always-on ubiquity and presence/location capabilities that can give marketing more immediacy than ever. Both have unique benefits and challenges. And both have huge potential. What I wonder is this: Which do you think will have the greater impact on marketing five years from now and why?
This week the CMO Council released a report that uncovers that chief marketing officers may be asleep in the C-suite.
The report, assembled from five different surveys of marketers, executives, and CMOs aimed to find ways to define and align the position of CMO. What the report lay bare is a poorly articulated definition of the role of the CMO, unsuccessful alignment of the position within the organization, and continued high turnover rate for those who fill the position.
Many top executives interviewed said that the CMOs lack the background, skills, and attributes needed to justify their presence in the C-suite. They said that CMOs fail to provide them with ROI data because of a lack of marketing measurement and data analysis experience. They also lack financial management acumen, strong global business intellect and insight, and a strategic mindset.
The CMO Council proclaims that the position of CMO must be occupied by an executive who can come in and help drive company growth, lead innovation, provide strategic vision, champion the customer experience, and be fluent in characteristics of the company’s product development and service delivery models.
Fortunately, not all CMOs are comatose. I’ve referenced examples of three CMOs who are making a difference at their organizations:
It amazes me to see so much action in the financial news regarding car companies. Now Ford wants to offload Jaguar and Land Rover in the interest of generating the revenue that will find more solid financial footing. That's all good, but I don't hear much out of domestic automotive companies about reality. To be more exact, customer-centric reality. If you're going to play in the auto business for the long-term, you need to cop to the reality that customers will want (and do want) more fuel options. They might not use their cars as much. And they will be more conscious about driving SUVs. My 12-year old daughter calls SUVs "seal killers" because she heard that we need to ruin the seal's habitat to get more oil from it.
I know that's an innocent point of view. But she's four years away from driving, and probably six or seven years away from purchasing a car. Customer values are formed early and often in my experience. And I don't think the auto business, regardless of its M&A activity, understands that yet.
It's very rare to call a company and get an actual person. As customers, we've become accustomed to the automated messaging system. So for companies that look at it strategically, a human voice can actually become a competitive differentiator. In today's lead 1to1 Weekly article, that's what discount brokerage Scottrade did as part of its overall customer strategy.
Chocolate and cash aside, often less truly is more – especially when it comes to quality versus quantity in marketing. We’ve said it many times at 1to1 regarding such messaging as direct mail and email: Don’t blast out every communication to every customer. Sometimes the blast is appropriate, but in most cases, targeted relevancy should prevail.
It turns out that the rush for more in marketing is prevalent in another area that could perhaps be better served by a less-is-more approach.
The American car industry has taken a beating over the past few years. Expectations for U.S. cars have been set pretty low, so it's big news that Ford yesterday led the pack in the latest initial quality study from J.D. Power. Five vehicles from Ford Motor Co. placed at the top of their categories in initial quality. Mustang fans can now tell their spouses that the red Cobra convertible is a good investment as a "mid-size sporty car," and not an impractical, mid-life crisis purchase. Through all the layoffs, pension issues and price wars, it's good to see that Ford is trying to live up to its "Quality is Job #1" brand promise. It's better than living up to the reputation of "Fix Or Repair Daily."
This week BusinessWeek.com posted a story that spotlighted Six Sigma and how some companies like Home Depot and 3M are scaling back their Six Sigma and Lean efforts because their constant data measurement and paperwork can potentially drain quality time spent with customers and ultimately constrict innovation.
Tom Davenport, Babson College management professor, who was quoted in the article, said “process management must be leavened with a focus on innovation and customer relationships.” Davenport is correct. Some companies have promoted innovation by applying Six Sigma processes to improve the actual customer experience by listening to customers, bringing the customer insight into the measurement process, removing the root causes of problems, and applying steps to improve the customer experience.
Hey, it's business. Nothing personal, right? So I won't take the comment about my Hillary-loving lack of intelligence from last week's blog posting to heart. But I will return to last week's topic, which was about market orientation and who owns it. My point is this: No political party owns the concept of market orientation. In fact, I would go as far as to say that market orientation is irrelevant. It's customer orientation that counts. Market orientation, to me, means that governmment provides conditions under which business can grow. The result, at best, is an increase in the GDP. Opening international markets is the best example I can think of, and both parties have certainly be interested in that. Customer orientation means that government provides conditions that will encourage its citizens to spend the most money, and that their rights will be protected in the process. No one owns that process. No party owns the customer.
"I don't trust him any farther than I can throw him," says Principal Ed Rooney about protagonist Ferris Bueller in the famous John Hughes movie. "With your back, Ed, you shouldn't throw anybody," Rooney's secretary Grace replies. And as the film ends, Rooney gets attacked by dogs, beat up by Jennifer Grey, his car gets towed, and he must ride the school bus home next to Joan Cusack, who offers him a warm gummy bear from her pocket. So it can be said without trust, you're not going to have a good day.
Let me start by saying I'm not a big Karl Rove fan. But the following quote in the most recent issue of The New Yorker completely floored me, and I'd love to get our reader's take on it. In the story titled "Party Unfaithful" Rove is quoted as saying: “There are two or three societal trends that are driving us in an increasingly deep center-right posture. One of them is the power of the computer chip. Do you know how many people’s principal source of income is eBay? Seven hundred thousand.” He went on, “So the power of the computer has made it possible for people to gain greater control over their lives. It’s given people a greater chance to run their own business, become a sole proprietor or an entrepreneur. As a result, it has made us more market-oriented, and that equals making you more center-right in your politics.”
When did "market-oriented" equate with "center-right?" eBay has found a sustainable business model is because it has empowered customers, not computers.
I recently read a terrific article about one journalist’s experience with Linked In. I’ll boil down the point of the article to this: There’s no point in signing up to be a part of a social networking website if you’re not actually going to be “social.”
He makes a good point. Some business networking sites offer numerous benefit that are, of course, only beneficial if you use them.
In today’s hyperconnected world, companies have little control of the information that moves around the Internet about their organization. One way to improve brand perception is by taking control of customers’ conversations and by making it easy for customers to talk in a public forum about an organization’s products.
In her book Beyond Buzz. The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Lois Kelly reminds us that marketing’s primary purpose is to help people understand organizations and products in ways that are meaningful to them. She says two overlooked ways to achieve this are by listening to customers and making them feel heard; and by making it easy and interesting for people to discuss ideas, issues, and points of view. Through these conversations, customers become more involved and becoming involved is the prerequisite to taking action.
I agree with Kelly about the importance of incorporating customer conversations into marketing, but I think that companies are starting to recognizie the effectiveness of this strategy. Some companies are currently using interactive multichannel marketing campaigns where actual customers can tell, in their own words, why they like the particular organization’s products.
• Take, for instance, Nikon. The company recently gave 200 residents of Georgetown, S.C., a new Nikon D-40 digital camera and they snapped photos of their friends, family, and the venues around town. Their stories, photos, and video testimonials can be viewed on www.stunningnikon.com/picturetown.
• At the Royal Bank of Canada, the organization has implemented a Client First strategy where the company has implemented new processes and has retrained the employees to focus on the customers. One of the resulting campaigns from that strategy is a series of webcasts and videos on www.rbc.com/clientstories that feature real customers giving their own point of view and experiences as to why RBC puts them first.
• Delta Airlines emerged from Chapter 11 in April and as part of its restructuring plan, the company is expanding service, adding amenities to coach, and reorganizing around the customer. Delta’s new “change” campaign invites travelers to give feedback on www.delta.com/change. The site will showcase tips and ideas from customers, and Delta says it will eventually become a collaborative forum for “honest dialogue between airline and air traveler,” a place where customers’ ideas will influence how the company operates.
• Blackberry is asking people why they love their Blackberry through ads and on the Internet. Customers can post their stories at www.blackberry.com/ask. Blackberry says the responses have been overwhelming. The site also features videos of high-profile customers—typically CEOs and founders of companies—who talk about why they love their Blackberries.
Have you seen a customer-driven marketing campaign? Share what you’ve seen here.
I'm not too impressed with what I hear and see from new AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. First off, he places all his bets on a rebranding campaign to make Cingular go away and AT&T louder. This on the eve of introducing a potentially huge product, the iPhone. I don't know what the iPhone does yet. But I do know AT&T is not a draw for me. I would be a little more information and customer-centric in the approach to the iPhone. Customer experience and then word-of-mouth will drive sales. Second, here's a scary quote from Stephenson: "We're going to control the video on our network. The content guys will have to make a deal with us." That's not a very democratic appraoch to technology and certainly not customer-centric. The Internet is about customer access. Rattling the corporate saber this early in the tenure shows me that Stephenson needs to go meet some of the people that will make or break his brand: His customers.
Today’s time-pressed consumers want speed with their service. Consider the following:
In most cases the last place employees who work weekdays want to be on Saturday is at a work-related function. Unless, of course, they work for a company whose culture creates employee loyalty and engagement -- the kind of engagement that spurs people, like Marty Peters of Detroit, to dedicate their life’s work as an employee (61 years, in Marty’s case). And spurs others, like Martin Joseph of New York, to give up their Saturday to volunteer at said company-hosted event.
A colleague of mine recently told me that she read about some well-known fast food restaurants serving “secret” menu items where customers can order off the menu at restaurants like Jamba Juice and In-N-Out Burger.
When I researched this concept, I found that the secret menu at In-N-Out Burger is not only an entry in Wikipedia, but it’s also displayed on the company’s Web site. “The secret Menu: urban myth, or just plain excellent customer service,” the site reads.
Continue reading "The Secret Menu: Just Plain Excellent Customer Service" »
In case you missed it, direct marketing service firm InfoUSA was excoriated on the front page of The New York Times on Sunday. The story detailed how InfoUSA customer data was twisted into customer segments such as "Elderly Opportunity Seekers," "Suffering Seniors," or "Oldies But Goodies." As it turned out the story was based on an investigation that was three years old, and closed. InfoUSA posted a detailed and effective rebuttal on its website. In short, InfoUSA was victimized here. But the issue of vulnerable customers won't go away. There are still plenty of instances of companies that prey on creating business opportunity from weak spots. Fortune Magazine, for example, goes to executives who are time crunched. So why do they have a negative option subscription renewal policy? That's the high end of the problem. At the low end, there are plenty of life insurance customers that will extend overpriced coverage plans to people who can't afford health insurance. There are legit financial service companies that will play on poor credit scores in the interest of opening one more account. Adding value to customers is not about exploiting weak points.
In today's issue of 1to1 Weekly, we discuss the strategy behind American Airlines' new Web site aimed at women. The company has also developed Web sites for the gay and hispanic communities. The idea is that the information is the same as on the standard American Airlines Web site, but the presentation makes all the difference to become more relevant and useful to customer groups. It's also interesting to note that differentiation online is a relatively new phenomenon.
Yesterday one of my colleagues and I were commiserating with each other about our daughters high expectations. Interestingly, both girls – although different ages (one is nine, the other is 18) – share a common attitude: When they’re “busy,” they’re not so interested in switching gears to have a conversation with us. But, when they want to spend time with us, they expect us to drop everything at that very instant and do their bidding (hang out, give them a ride, whatever).
Sound familiar?
I’m not talking about just other kids, here. No, no. I mean adult, paying customers. Think about it:
One of my expectations—and hopefully yours too—is that CRM technology vendors practice what they preach, strategy-wise. Sure, they have cool CRM tools, but have they crafted a smart customer strategy, and are they using their applications to support it? They should be, and customers should expect it. I mean, hey, would you want your car repaired by a mechanic who doesn’t drive?
Last week, JetBlue’s board of directors replaced its founder and CEO David Neeleman with the company’s COO David Barger.
The impassioned leader whose name is synonymous with the airline he started nine years ago, built an emotionally connected airline with a laser focus on the customer.
The change follows the February 14th disruption of JetBlue operations at Kennedy International Airport during a snow storm that left hundreds of passengers stranded for hours on airplanes sitting on tarmacs.
But customers' appreciation for the airline has already been sliding up, according to the New York Times, which reported last week that J. D. Power & Associates sees the airline's satisfaction scores climbing again.
This makes sense. I recently sat in a JetBlue terminal and was chatting with my fellow passengers. One man said because Neeleman immediately apologized after the storm, that made things right for him. The other passengers agreed.
Continue reading "JetBlue's Cautionary Move May Cost Customers" »
It's called "blogola." It's the practice of rewarding the right blogger at the right time for saying the right things about your product. According to a WSJ article today, it is the hot influence tactic at several TV networks. If you ask me it is the anti-customer strategy and the best way I've ever heard to stick an incendiary device into the whole concept of blogging. The beauty of blogs, from a customer strategy standpoint, is its unfiltered glimpse into what customers think. If companies start to pollute this resource, it's poisoning the well. The worst way to get customer feedback is to design surveys that tell you what you want to hear. The best way to wreck the blogosphere is to tell your customers what you want them to hear.
In an upcoming issue of 1to1 magazine we’re going to hold a microscope over the DNA of the customer-centric organization and dissect its leadership components. Through our various newsletter and magazine articles, we’ve seen some of these in action, like the ability to think strategically to build a win-win for company and customer, create consensus, and connect customer-focused metrics to hard-dollar metrics. We’ll be looking further into these and other areas. We’ll go out into the market and research what various leadership and organizational experts have to say about it all, but we’d also like you’re opinion. You’re the folks living customer centricity every day. So I ask, what do you think is the most important element of customer-centric leadership? What is that one skill, principle, or “attitude” a customer-focused manager cannot do without?
Earlier this week I received an email newsletter from SubscriberMail about email marketing best practices. The fun thing about it was that, in honor of Mother’s Day this weekend, the column was titled, “Email Marketing Advice From Mom,” and suggested that “marketers would be wise to apply some of mom's lessons to their email marketing efforts.”
Here’s a digest version of SubscriberMail's, er, “mom’s” 8 lessons:
In last week’s blog Got Brand Strategy, Tom West commented that companies can no longer force a brand on the marketplace—that they have to believe in their brands first. In another post, Graham Hill mentioned that in the old way of marketing, communications created brands.
Experiences do create brands, but marketers still must figure out how to leverage those rich social experiences on the Interent and build effective communications strategies around their findings.
In an interview this month in The McKinsey Quarterly, Keith Pardy, senior vice president of strategic marketing for Nokia, says that it’s not about pushing messaging out. Companies must instead build interesting relationships with customers. He says that the Internet plays a more important role in branding than ever before and that marketers have to get used to people shaping their brand via Internet marketing.
But as an industry, marketers, he said, haven’t yet figured out how to leverage the creative potential that lies in people talking on the Internet about companies. “Consumers on the Internet are open to interesting ideas and they want to co-create content with you, but make no mistake: They are in charge.
If Microsoft does buy Yahoo!, which has been rumored, it will do so by overpaying on a scale matched only by the Yankees and Roger Clemens. For Microsoft, it's a big deal because it will acquire what it could not build on its own, which is a scalable search business. But from the customer point of view it doesn't mean much. If you're a BtoB customer that buys search keywords, Google will still own your budget. If you're an average search user, I doubt that currenlty existing brands will move you to switch from your current engine of choice. But I do see one very interesting thing happening here. Search will continue to drive traffic and revenue. It will also continue to drive VC money. If a bunch of smart people can get in touch with what customers want from their secondary search engine (I'm declaring Google the primary winner) someone is going to write a new algorithm and make a lot of money.
In my experience at 1to1 Media, when the words branding and customer centricity come up, they're usually on opposite sides of customer strategy. Branding is meant to build general awareness, while customer-centricity, when done right, focuses on the needs of customer groups or individuals. At the recent Forrester Marketing Forum, however, three companies representing three different industries talked about tying the two themes together. Is it just talk, or can it happen?
Continue reading "Can Branding Lead to Customer Centricity?" »
A couple of weeks ago I rented a few (OK, well, five) movies from Blockbuster for a weekend movie marathon with my daughter (complete with popcorn, Coke, and Twizzlers, of course). They were all due the following week. Two days before the due date I received an automated call with a reminder to return the movies by that Thursday to avoid any charges. Wow. Blockbuster took proactive action to save me money – at the expense of the company adding to its coffers. The result?
Continue reading "Reactive Is “So Yesterday.” Proactive Service Is Now" »
Last week I attended a gala printing plant opening, complete with a plant tour, wine tasting (that included customized bottles of wine for each attendee, of course…), hors d’oeuvres, and two speakers. The host company, GDS, is among those trying to spread the gospel of using variable data printing to create more relevant, personal, one-to-one marketing communications. So GDS invited me to speak on trends in custom communications, and Tom Glick, CMO of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, to speak about the team’s VIP All Access program.
Glick’s was a great presentation, during which he revealed some of the strategy behind how the Nets are building a better understanding of its season ticket holders, and using that information in its marketing communications, as well as its in-arena fan experiences. The approach, launched this season by Nets CEO Brett Yormark, aims to deliver a “personal touch for all season ticket holders,” no matter where their seats are located in the arena. This means treating every season ticket holder as an individual by learning more about their specific needs and delivering experiences based on those needs. For example, if a season ticket holder has a favorite player the Nets will arrange for that player to sign an item of their choice (within a specified group of items, like a jersey or a ball) when they renew their tickets. Or the team may invite a season ticket holder’s child to take a shot on the court early before the game, or to rebound for the players.
In fact, creating a compelling customer experience is so important to the Nets that the team recently “acquired” Dashawnda Brown from the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts to work with Glick in running the VIP All Access & Experience department. Brown brings expertise on high-end hospitality to the team that it will weave into its All Access program.
As Dick Martin says in his book Rebuilding Brand America, “Any cowboy with a hot iron can create a brand.”
Martin refers to a time when brands started as a signal of ownership. But today, successful branding is tied to emotional values. Brand, Martin says “has to be easy to understand and flexible enough to modulate in a wide variety of interactions with a large number of different audiences. Most important, it can’t simply be something you stick at the end of an ad or on the side of a building. It has to be the ‘golden thread’ that runs through every internal process and through every interactions with customers. And your promise can’t be primarily rational It has to operate on the deeper level of emotions and feelings.”
That brands that topped the 2007 Brand Keys Consumer Loyalty Engagement index http://www.brandkeys.com/awards/ are powerful because they make those connections. The index, which gauges the brands to which consumers are most loyal, determines the companies that are best able to engage consumers and create loyal customers through their brands.
If I ran a public company it would be deliciously tempting to chase the richest Wall Street market in history. In fact, you could argue that the CEO that doesn't chase this market isn't serving shareholders or the Board of Directors very well. But that temptation needs to be tempered by customer-centricity. Shareholders are people who stand to get rich from your company's share price. Customers are the people who will provide the value that pours the concrete for the foundation of shareholder potential. Customers are the gas in your Porsche. It's great that the 13,000 level on Wall Street is fueling some corporate value. But I would be very careful about the quality of that fuel: Customer value.
When I was a teenager, I got an allowance for doing weekly chores. After I quickly spent that money, I'd go back to my parents with stories of how the money wasn't enough to get the clothes, music, or other toys that I needed to survive the adolescent world. Most of the time they'd answer with, "when I was a kid, we didn't have...," which really meant NO. Today's issue of 1to1 Weekly shows how a similar dilemma plays out between marketers and the CFO.
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