As we look back at 2008, many of us think of two words: good riddance. And as 2009 looms with even less potential and promise, how are we as businesses expected to stay constructed and hopeful?
Continue reading "8 New Year's Resolutions to Boost Business" »
"Once upon a time..."
That's the way all fairy tales start, and this episode about excellent treatment from an auto dealership sounds almost like a fairy tale -- but it's true.
Continue reading "Guest Blogger Ted Myers: Fairy Tale (Service) Can Come True" »
The big story this holiday season has been the economy, and how retailers are really hurting this year. Figures released before and after Christmas reveal low revenues across the board and a dour look at 2009 sales. But in the middle of it all stands Amazon, which boasted its"best year ever."
Continue reading "Amazon Shines Amidst Holiday Retail Woes" »
"What would you do if you knew who would be your best customer next year?" David Macaulay, a corporate vice president for Siemens AG, asked during his presentation at an executive summit. In the case of Siemens, the answer lies in optimizing all of its key customer relationships.
Several months ago we won a very large piece of business from an existing client. It was exciting work for my agency and was a great way to end the year.
This particular client had gone through major restructuring throughout our two-year relationship and we were for the most part working with new leadership. So I was excited when I sat down with them to talk about how this project would run.
You can't get through to the end of the year without reflecting just a little bit on the past 12 months. Even the customer strategy world saw a lot of innovations, improvements, and exciting advances. There were also, of course, some missteps.
The other day I received a large envelope from BackChannelMedia. It contained an 8-page, card-stock, glossy booklet about the company; a 26-page spiral-bound report on the company's Q4 projects printed on high-quality, glossy stock; and a finely printed, 18-page research report that was, ironically, about achieving differentiation in an increasingly competitive TV market.
Why "ironically"?
One result of the Big 3's trip to Washington begging for money is that GM had to reveal its budget plans for the next few years. It emphasized the importance of Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC to the company's future, which left people wondering what would happen to the other GM brands.
On a recent trip to the Middle East, I had a chance to meet with Gigi Levy, CEO of 888.com, which trades on the London stock market. I've known Gigi since his days at Amdocs, and I believe he's one of the smartest analysts and most insightful customer-value strategists around. A visitor to 888.com will find a popular gaming site where players can play alone or with others, and more importantly, can play for money or just for fun. The majority never bet any cash, and many who do just play for small amounts. But the heavy players keep 888.com cookin' along at a healthy profit margin, despite big payouts to the winners.
With an increased eye on the environment, it should be no surprise that consumers are revaluating their lives with an eye on reducing waste. Why,then, are some companies still leaving a large carbon footprint with direct mail?
The financial markets have been taking a beating, so, unfortunately, many people have been left with no jobs. In the month of November alone nearly 600,000 Americans lost their jobs. Last week a major financial institution announced the slashing of 35,000 jobs, leaving more Americans unemployed, depressed, and afraid. What a way to celebrate the holiday season!
The Bank Bailout plan negotiated by the Bush administration is intended to revive our sagging economy, albeit with little to no success. However, a Texas Congressman is challenging Congress and the White House to develop a plan that will shift the control from the government to decide how the bailout funds should be used to stimulate the economy to the American taxpayers, who are in the best position to use the funds in a way to jumpstart a sagging economy.
When President-Elect Obama takes office January 20, he inherits responsibility for a population of very well-connected Americans (and I don't mean Blogojevich or other politicians). He has embraced technology during his campaign, and I see that focus rapidly expanding as he settles into the Oval Office. The Pew Internet Project has some suggestions for him to think about as he crafts his administration's online policies.
Continue reading "Recommendations for Obama's Online Policies" »
Recently I traveled to another one of the Middle East's thriving economies. This country is experiencing rapid economic development. Its traditional culture is under pressure as it faces change management challenges similar to those found in the corporate world.
Continue reading "Peppers Unplugged: Two Points for Manama" »
One of the most challenging aspects of customer experience is the person-to-person interaction. With all the possible variables of emotions, words, and actions that can potentially create a positive or negative experience there's only so much a manager can control. That's why it's so important to hire right in the first place.
Normally I agree with what Thomas L Friedman writes in the New York Times. Yes, sometimes he can be a bit too liberal, but I think in his analysis of Detroit's problems and his solution to fix it in this week's column he's gone off the deep end.
Given the U.S. credit crunch and news about financial failures everywhere you turn, you probably feel some days like you're living in a pressure cooker. And with news of the absurd like the heads of the auto industry flying private jets to their bailout request meeting, or yesterday when Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain asked for a $10 million bonus (he deserves it--he kept the company's losses to only $11 billion), you may be losing faith that companies have any ounce of integrity, or sanity, left.
Continue reading "Dollar Bank's Everyday Customer Champion" »
I don't know who has designed the payment processes at Target Credit, but it certainly isn't the people putting great designs into the store. Make a payment via the Web on the due date and you'll be hit with a $39 late fee if the payment is processed after 3pm Central time. "Manage my account" registers the payment on the date made, but simply applies it to the next day if made after 3pm. Isn't the Web supposed to be real time? Oh, and if you want to make a payment by phone it costs you $20 via a live person or $15 if paid via the IVR. Pay at the store (likely the most expensive to support and process) and it's free. Hmmm...
Continue reading "Guest blogger Dan Smith: Redefining "Real Time" Service?" »
For kids, it's Bakugan. For teens and young adults, it's a video game system like Wii, Xbox 360 or PS3. But for adults, the hot item this holiday season is the Blackberry Storm. It is a must-have item on many people's lists, and finding one at a store is almost impossible. Following in the footsteps of the iPhone, it's another mobile device that does a million cool things that people are fighting to get. With advanced mobile devices so deeply penetrating the marketplace, will marketers ever figure out a good strategy to interact with customers on them?
Continue reading "Mobile Devices Are Hot Ticket This Holiday Season" »
Ah, the holiday season. Companies scramble to makes their Q4 numbers and fill the next year's pipeline. This year's bonus challenge: a recession.
Every holiday season includes gifts, as well. Mine is to share with you some advice from several of 1to1's colleagues and associates on how to harness customer centricity to stay competitive in 2009. I posed the following question:
What aspect of customer strategy will be the most useful to survive or thrive in this uncertain economy, and why?
Continue reading "How to Thrive in 2009? Love Your Customers" »
Which is the better channel to embrace, mobile or social media? Don't worry, there's no right answer. Each has its pros and cons, just like with any choice marketers have to make. But in this economic downturn, it's important to make the right choice for your customers and your business. I recently wrote a story about Weight Watchers launching a mobile site. In the next issue of 1to1 Magazine, we'll include a story about how Atkins just re-tooled an online site and launched it as a social network. Two similar companies with similar goals (to help people lose weight) but they went about reaching customers very differently.
With all the doom and gloom of the economy, it surprises me that Cyber Monday's customer satisfaction levels remain almost as high as 2007 levels. ForeSee Results reported that satisfaction dropped only less than a point, which may indicate that companies are still investing in service and a quality online shopping experience.
Continue reading "Cyber Monday Scores High With Customers" »
Not a day goes by where I don't read about or hear about how the customer experience is the new frontier...the next competitive advantage...a new differentiator.
I am already a proponent, developing and leading a customer management program at one of Canada's largest company's; one of the believers who know (and can prove) that improving the customer experience will drive bottom-line results.
During these tough economic times, many pundits have recommended keeping a keen focus on the customer, and not to lose sight of how a small gesture can go a long way toward customer loyalty. The Motley Fool recently highlighted some great examples of this, and how they might translate to your business.
Continue reading "Great Examples of Serving the Customer This Holiday Season" »
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it's one of the few that doesn't involve commercialism and religion--just family, friends, and bountiful food, paying a fitting tribute to the American ideals of productivity and prosperity.
Along with eggnog, Christmas sales in October, and layoffs, there's another tradition at this time of the year: the turkey shoot. But at 1to1, the turkey shoot doesn't have much to do with slaughtering birds; instead, it's about taking a fond look back at some of the greatest fiascos, customer service-related and otherwise, of the previous eleven months.
I started the great 1to1 Turkey Shoot tradition a year ago (and had plenty to work with, I might add), but 2008 seems to be shaping up as just about the turkiest yet. So let's get shooting...
It was supposed to be a great marketing idea. Give everyone in America a free Dr. Pepper if the supposed Guns 'n Roses album "Chinese Democracy" ever came out. The album finally was released, so Dr. Pepper had to make good on its promise. Unfortunately, the execution of its plan didn't work out so well, which may harm its brand affinity in the end.
Here's irony for you: A website dedicated to helping businesspeople connect makes it difficult to connect with their staff for support--and, unbelievably, for sales.
In my role as Adjunct Professor at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, I have the opportunity and the honor to work with talented faculty and exceptional students. It's always a pleasure to me to get to North Carolina.
After a recent session with MBA students, my colleague Professor Christine Moorman and I received the following question from a class participant: What is the value of segmenting customers and devising a profile of customer needs when you are a start-up and have "no customers?"
Continue reading "A Question for Start-Ups: Why Will You Have Customers?" »
Why do people shop online? Convenience? No sales tax? Bigger selection? Discounted prices? Maybe the better question would be why people continue to shop offline. For some, window shopping is like a hobby. I'm sure many of us have visited a mall for no apparent reason other than to kill some time and maybe purchase something as an afterthought. But it's that impulse buy that retailers love. It's the magazine rack at the grocery store checkout, the new video game endcap display in the electronics store, and the rows of candy just about everywhere that stimulates our visual senses and makes us forget about checking the price or asking "do I really need that?" Until now, window shopping and impulse buying were strictly offline activities. But finally the web has found a way for us to forget about what search term brought us to a page, and simply browse.
"The greatest competition you'll ever face is you."
Words of wisdom to live by from Bruce Jenner. The gold medal decathlon winner in the 1976 Summer Olympics keynoted the Sage Summit yesterday in Denver and inspired the audience to turn the current pressures into a new level of commitment to its personal best.
A day hardly passes without news of significant layoffs at some financial, publishing, or automaking concern, which set me to wondering how companies can maintain employee morale in such a climate. There seems to be no end of advice out there.
This is the question facing politicians today. But it also represents a case study in the conflict between short-term costs and long-term benefits - probably the most difficult conflict faced by businesses and governments today.
If we bail them out, then we definitely avoid a lot of pain over the next year, as thousands of workers retain their jobs, as auto assembly lines keep ordering parts from suppliers, and as thousands of car dealers continue to have uninterrupted supplies of inventory. But using taxpayer dollars to save these misfiring corporate giants today will almost certainly cost us a great deal more in the long term. For a variety of reasons, the business models that GM and Ford are operating make them completely uncompetitive with rivals like Toyota, Nissan, and even Mercedes - all of whom also employ thousands of other Americans in their U.S.-based manufacturing facilities and dealerships.
If you want a terrific explanation of some of the fatal and probably irreconcilable flaws in the very structure of the GM and Ford businesses, when compared to their most immediate competitors, see this Wall Street Journal article by NYU Distinguished Research Scholar Michael Levine.
Continue reading "Should GM and Ford Be Bailed Out or Not?" »
Last week I had an opportunity to talk to Don Peppers about the current state of the economy and what businesses can do about it. Granted, we agree that some of the issues are out of businesses' hands, due to the stock market and the dollar's roller coaster ride. But, a lack of customer centricity certainly played a part in where we are today, he says, and he cautions that future moves -- like the potential auto industry bailout -- should be centered around building customer lifetime value, not just green cars, in order to secure long-term success.
Continue reading "Don Peppers Puts Financial Turmoil Into Customer Perspective" »
These days, the Nets basketball organization is looking more like a full-service career management company.
Continue reading "The Nets Score Points With Unemployed Fans" »
I recently came across yet another example of history repeating itself--and not in a good way. We've all heard the stories of CRM failures caused by companies rushing to plug in the technology to fix a problem instead of first understanding and crafting a CRM strategy.
Well, one of the current areas of "Let's just do it" (yes, there are several) is Net Promoter Score (NPS). Now, whether you buy in to the concept of NPS or not isn't the point. The point is, if you're going to use it--or any other customer strategy or supporting tool for that matter--you must first understand how it applies to your business to do it right.
"Now more than ever" is often one of those empty-headed phrases that companies use to engender interest and/or excitement about themselves. It always gets me to wondering just how useful a given product or service actually was in the past, and just why it's so much more relevant "now." (It also unfailingly reminds me of the 1992 movie The Player, whose studio loudly boasted "Movies: Now More Than Ever," with no one ever considering what that actually means.)
But lately I've come to see that the phrase can actually have some value, as in: Now more than ever, you need to engage your customers.
The new issue of 1to1 Magazine features a story by Jeremy Nedelka about how companies can learn more about their prospects and customers by checking out social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. I think these sites are great for networking and connecting with friends, but there is a line that needs to be drawn between personal and professional information. What's the etiquette?
The recipe for customer centricity has a long list of ingredients that companies use to varying degrees. But no matter what mix companies choose, there are two elements that are essential: trust and culture.
Continue reading "The Two Key Elements of Customer Orientation" »
Did you watch CNN's election coverage last night and wonder how the network sent correspondent Jessica Yellin from Obama's Chicago headquarters to the New York broadcasting center, to stand in front of Wolf Blitzer?
Despite various national polls showing double-digit leads for Barack Obama, we awake (and, one hopes, vote) today not really knowing for sure who our next president will be. Part of this is due to the television news media's wanting maximum viewers tonight, of course, but there's also the desire to avoid the unsettling spectre of another "Dewey Defeats Truman" debacle.
While predictive analytics from firms like SPSS -- whose senior vice president, market strategy Colin Shearer told me not long ago was "absolutely" looking at the Obama/McCain question -- are nothing to sneeze at, they don't capture the imagination like Halloween masks and Baskin-Robbins ice cream can.
Yep, as John Mellencamp would put it: this is ourrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr country.
I know, it's way too early. I've still got gobs of Halloween candy leftover, and the skeleton is still on my front door. But now that we're in November many people's thoughts turn to holiday shopping. And with consumers guarding their wallets a lot closer these days, retailers need to think critically about their customer service strategies for the holiday season.
How the current economy is affecting marketing budgets and the customer experience are hot topics right now. So last week I asked readers and LinkedIn members to respond to a brief survey on potential changes to their 2009 marketing budget and strategy. Some results surprised me (I thought that "decreasing our marketing budget" would get the lion's share of votes, but it didn't); while others were expected (a continued shift toward social media marketing).
Continue reading "Changes to Marketing Spending and Strategy Coming in 2009" »
We've covered Meijer, a Midwest-based department and grocery store, in the past because of their mobile campaigns. Recently the company launched Halloween-themed mobile marketing that's unlike anything I've seen before. Take a look at the video of Meijer and SmartReply operatives unveiling their guerilla marketing.
In our book Rules to Break & Laws to Follow, Martha Rogers and I tried to convey our sense that as technology brings more and more "connectedness" to our world, our entire economic and social system is becoming more like a giant network. Whether you are talking about customers who are increasingly connected to each other, or employees and channel partners, or your portfolio of new product innovations, it is vital to understand how networks operate, and why.
Networks form by the rule of "preferential attachment," which means that each participant added to a network is more likely to be added by a connection to another participant who already has more connections. This is why influential customers become more influential at a faster rate than those who aren't influential. It's why the most visited Web sites gain visitors faster than others, and why wealthy people become wealthier at a faster rate than others. One consequence is that a small number of Web users exert an extreme amount of influence at many sites. The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article on this, "The Wizards of Buzz," in 2007.
In my posting a few days ago on this blog, Did Deregulation Cause the Financial Crisis?, one of Graham Hill's comments was that a financial crisis like this is, in reality, the end result of many different networked effects coming together in a kind of perfect storm. And this is a perfect example of the kind of randomness that an increasingly networked world is likely to treat us to.
So, if you really want to understand how networks will impact your business success as we become more and more connected, I'd recommend these books (in addition to ours!), and we've listed them sort of in order of increasing depth and complexity.
Continue reading "A Book List for Understanding How Networks Operate" »
Layoffs are an ugly option. But during volatile periods, it may be a necessary evil for some companies. However, if firms find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to do them, they should do them well.
Are you annoyed with Dr Pepper?
The soda company long ago made a promise that every man, woman, and child would receive a free Dr Pepper if Guns N' Roses' long-delayed Chinese Democracy album ever came out. The pledge was looked at as something of a joke -- a promise made in the relatively secure knowledge that the arrival of the disc (whose recording began in 1994) would be tantamount to the return of Godot.
But then a funny thing happened: GN'R announced Democracy would indeed be coming, on Nov. 23.
And Dr Pepper realized it had a potential mess on its hands.
Confused about how the presidential polling figures can be so variable? Why do some polls have Obama ahead by 8 to 14 points (pick your number) while others still show the margin too close to call? Here's one big reason: Polling bias. When you do research, the wording of the actual questions you ask will bias the answers given. This is just human nature.
Exhibit #1 is a front-page headline in today's Washington Post: Poll Gives Obama 8-Point Va. Lead.
Continue reading "Presidential Polls: Why Do They Vary So Much?" »
In these hard financial times, the temptation to raise prices and customer fees looms large as companies look for quick ways to keep revenue. But resisting that temptation may prove to be much better for your bottom line in the long run.
Continue reading "Don't Let Customers Carry Companies on Their Backs" »
Not surprisingly, the current economy's impact on marketing budgets and the customer experience are hot topics among our colleagues and readers right now. This made me wonder how you, our readers, are rethinking marketing in 2009. So I decided to ask. I created a brief survey on marketing in 2009. Please take a moment to respond. I'll provide the results in my blog post next Friday.
Thanks!
I feel bad for Joe the Plumber. The REAL Joe the Plumber, not the group of low and middle-class Americans he symbolically represents. Well I feel sorry for many of them too, but that's another blog. Joe went from being an anonymous guy to the day's major news story in a matter of hours. Most people say they can't imagine how that feels, but the way they're treated by businesses can make them feel that way sometimes.
I was reading an article on data mining in the financial industry in the New York Times yesterday and it made me think of what happened to Joe, and how easy it is to access information that most people think is private.
Continue reading "What do Joe the Plumber and Customers Have in Common?" »
After speaking to several technology vendors at DMA08 last week about business trends in the current economic downturn, it seems as though either marketers plan to focus more on customers, or the technology vendors that provide their customer relationship tools are just remaining hopeful.
Continue reading "Marketers Set to Strengthen Customer Focus in 2009" »
My friends, we are waist-deep in the silly season.
I refer not to the current television season (though with the likes of "Knight Rider", "My Own Worst Enemy", and "90210", things in Primetime Land are pretty silly) nor the way the baseball season is wrapping up (Phillies vs. Rays could give "Sex Change Hospital" the ratings bump it so desperately, undeservedly needs), but the just-as-mercifully-ending presidential political season.
And, like most things in life, the looming Nov. 4 election comes down to branding--or, more specifically, poor branding.
This woeful economic time can also be an opportunity for companies looking to build real customer loyalty.
We think a lot about taking the customer's point of view, and a few situations beg that issue. What's more maddening than waiting to get the check after a meal in a restaurant? How can the manager not see how waiting 40 years to see the promised land can obliterate the effect of a delicious meal, the delightful ambiance, or the prior great service? The waiter who was so attentive about your drinks and coffee and sauces has suddenly tessered to a foreign land.
"Listening tends to be an underrated marketing strategy," Diane Hessan, president and CEO of Communispace, said when she and I were discussing trends.
But that's changing. Hessan is seeing an increasing in the number of companies cocreating and collaborating with their customers, and that starts with gaining an understanding of their needs, preferences, and expectations.
"We're at the vortex of market research and social media," Hessan said. "Increasingly, companies are using social media to listen to and gather insight from customers."
Mobile customers have long wondered why, when they call another cell phone, both they and the person they called are charged for using minutes. The same with text messages sent from one person to another. At least in those cases there was a somewhat plausible explanation that if people used two different carriers, the message or call had to cross two networks and thus two fees were imposed.
Now that most subscribers have unlimited (or effectively unlimited) minutes, and many buy messaging plans so they don't incur a per-message fee, Verizon is exploring "new revenue streams," including a charge for companies that send text messages to its subscribers.
Continue reading "Verizon Wants to Double-Dip on Text Messages" »
A pretty girl may be like a melody, as Irving Berlin wrote in 1946, but about a year ago Honda decided that the very roads we drive on should be literally melodious. The so-called "melody roads," featuring the carving of intermittent grooves similar to rumble strips on highways, have been something of a success in Japan and South Korea.
But in the city of Lancaster, California - not so much.
This week I had an issue with a web hosting company I use for my soccer team's website. They deleted my account, and I had no idea why. My only way to contact them was to click on the "support" link. My experience left me wishing that they would change the name of the link. It was far from "supportive."
Although many politicians and much of the mainstream media would like you to believe that it was rampant deregulation of the financial industry that "caused" the economic crisis we now face, don't believe it for a minute.
Continue reading "Did Deregulation Cause the Financial Crisis?" »
The actual cause of the current financial crisis is very complex. Everyone points the finger of blame, but so far we have no confessions of guilt.
Continue reading "The Financial Crisis: Short-Termism Coming Home to Roost " »
SEO (search engine optimization) is great right? It gives you high search results, better visibility to the people you want to reach, and ultimately can make a lot of money for your company. All of those things are true, but I have to disagree with the premise.
According to a recent customer experience study by RightNow Technologies and Harris Interactive, consumers seem to be more agitated than ever from poor customer experience...and they're not standing for sub-par service any longer
Continue reading "Wake Up People--Customers Demand Great Service" »
In an increasingly cluttered branding landscape, it can be difficult for a company to get its message out there. And, let's face it, insurance companies have it tougher than most -- hence the squawking ducks, urbane lizards, and giant red umbrellas permeating today's broadcasting.
But Britain's Trident Insurance is trying something a little different. If you thought bikini-clad babes bouncing on pogo sticks had nothing to do with insurance, you'd be wrong.
Given all the upheaval in the financial world these days, it's no surprise that most consumers are feeling jittery. It seems like at any moment we'll hear of another bank or financial institution closing up shop or being sold. I'm surprised, then, that I haven't gotten any communication from my bank about what's going on. I will get 100 offers for credit cards or ID theft protection every month, but when I want to hear from it about if it's staying in business, I get nothing.
Continue reading "When I Want to Hear From My Bank, They're Not There" »
Last weekend I flew to Turkey to give a speech on one-to-one marketing. I was invited by Xerox to speak at the Marketingist Conference and Exhibition. Also speaking at Xerox’s booth/theater was Rafi Albo, managing director of SegMarketing, an Israel-based marketing agency. Albo discussed what he calls data creative: Starting with customer data to generate the creative of one-to-one campaigns.
“You need to think creatively about data,” he said during his presentation. “Data is the language of real customer behavior.”
What do David Blaine and Wall Street have in common? They’re both great at creating illusions. Unfortunately, Wall Street believed the illusion it created (the value of subprime mortgages) was real. Companies do the same thing every day, convincing themselves that if they have more customers and higher revenues then everything will keep going up, even if they don’t spend the time understanding customers and providing great service.
Got a question about customer strategy, loyalty, or just plain business? In our never-ending quest to be customer-focused and live the 1to1 concept, we are looking for questions for our Ask the Expert series. It is part of the new "Strategic Insight" section of 1to1 Weekly, and also lives as part of the content on www.1to1media.com.
As U.S. companies tighten their belts and cut costs, HR personnel have a different concern—how to retain employees in a down economy.
Until recently, companies offered compensation as a means of employee retention. And according to a Pulse on Leaders study released on September 23 by the Personnel Decisions International (PDI), most organizations still focus on compensation as an employee retention tool, despite development opportunities being recognized as the most effective tool.
Well, it's been a fun couple of weeks on Wall Street, no? Was it really just a week ago that I blogged about the AIG fiasco?
There's plenty of blame to go around now for what could turn out to be, to borrow a phrase of Tom Brokaw's, the Greatest Depression. (What was so Great about the 1929 Depression, anyhow?) Depending on who's doing the talking, the fault for yesterday's failure to pass that $700 billion bailout can be attributed to the president's ongoing inability to convince anyone he's doing the right thing in any circumstance; to Nancy Pelosi's promise that new leadership in 2009 will solve these problems (yeesh, what a crackpot); or to the fact that the American public doesn't understand that the "bailout" is not, in fact, a bailout, but is an infusion of liquidity. (There; feel better?)
Personally, I don't think it helped when some Treasury Department spokeswoman told Forbes.com that the computing of the $700 billion sum was "not based on any particular data point. We just wanted to choose a really large number." What was that about new leadership again, Nancy?
Anyway, with all this sturm und drang going on, it's reasonable -- if not downright expected -- for companies to start panicking and burying their heads in the sand. But there's a glimmer of hope on the other side of the world, and it's the home of some 1.3 billion people.
With all sorts of data being collected and people sharing more and more information about themselves online, privacy issues become more important. So which companies stand out when it comes to developing innovative privacy programs? The International Association of Privacy Professionals recently awarded three companies honors at its annual Privacy Academy.
Continue reading "It's Not Just About Firewalls and Passwords Anymore" »
As much as we believe in customer centricity and applying the Golden Rule in business, truth be told, not all customers return the favor. From unrealistic expectations to outright rudeness, customers can sometimes challenge even our most patient service experts.
Web users have short attention spans. Frustrate them with an awkward interface and they'll be gone in seconds.
This is common knowledge, however, according to Tealeaf’s 2008 Online Transactions Survey of more than 2,000 adults, the proportion who experience problems during e-transactions remains high—at nearly 87 percent. And 41 percent of people who experience problems said they would abandon the site or switch to the competitor.
There’s been a fair amount of comedic hay made lately out of AIG’s series of “The Strength To Be There” TV commercials. Still running last week as the insurance giant was imploding, the ads feature precocious kids worrying aloud about such topics as “risk management,” with their parents invoking AIG as a “nuff said” riposte. Each commercial ends with AIG’s tagline: “The strength to be there.”
Of course, AIG as we (and its shareholders) knew it is no longer there. Which got me to wondering: When should a company stop whistling past its own graveyard when problems arise, and address its customers’ concerns?
Yes, we all know that customers want a consistent experience across channels. And we know that the online channel is growing as a key customer touchpoint. But intuition and common sense don't always have a place in the financial statements. So how do you know if your multichannel strategy is affecting the bottom line?
Continue reading "How Do You Measure Multichannel Success?" »
The next competitive battleground is customer experience. So say 95 percent of business leaders, according to Ed Thompson, a Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst. Additionally, he said during his keynote at the Gartner CRM Summit, 80 percent of executives think customer strategy is more important than it was three years ago.
Continue reading "There’s More Than One Way to Customer Experience Success (In Fact, Here’s 7)" »
In the early days of the United States, you had a choice. You could live in the same town all your life, and everything about you was known by your neighbors, or you could wander from town to town, making you anonymous to everyone you met.
No, this is not a post about a drunken night in Vegas that involved a little white chapel. I’ve never been to the city, and as far as I know I’m still enjoying all the “perks” of single life (read: ordering take-out and playing video games every weekend). So imagine my surprise when my car insurance company congratulated me for getting married.
A new global shopper study, “Shopper Decisions Made In-Store” (SDMIS,) takes a closer look at what’s happening in the world’s retail shopping aisles.
Let's face it: Contact centers have always been comedy gold. English majors of a certain age will fondly remember studying Aristophanes' seminal play What Was That Account Number Again?, while Baby Boomers still trade battered VHS copies of The Honeymooners episode "Let Me Route You to the Moon, Alice." And of course we all enjoyed the recent box-office smash Burn After Listening to An Endless Loop of "The Girl From Ipanema" While Being Regularly Reminded, "Your Call Is Very Important to Us."
Okay, so maybe your own call center experiences have been less Groucho than grouchy. Not Some Like It Hot so much as Some Like It Not. More Drears than Cheers. (Thanks, I'm here all week. Enjoy the veal, and don't forget to tip your waitress.)
But that's not to say there's no laughs to be had in this area, as Genesys has recently demonstrated.
How many loyalty programs are you a part of? How many compete with each other? I know that I join simply for the perks, not to build actual loyalty. However, the good programs end up strengthening my relationship.
We might seem to harp on this topic, but there really is no way to over emphasize the importance of trust - not just in terms of creating the most possible value from customers, but in "lubricating" the interactions and transactions of commerce. Indeed, our entire economic system would come to a crashing halt overnight, if it weren't for the trust that people have for each other.
I’ve attended two CRM conferences in the past two weeks with session after session on everything customer strategy—social media, CRM technology, capturing customer insight, boosting retention, and more. The one common theme: No matter how terrific the strategy or technology, none of them will fly without great people at the controls.
You’ve probably heard it a thousand times, but it still bears repeating: If you want loyal, engaged customers, you first need loyal, engaged employees. As much as we in this “CRM industry” tout the idea of customers first, and as much as the reality is that without customers you have a hobby not a business, it is employees who deliver those loyalty-building customer experiences, whether through delivering great service, designing unique products, creating and participating in two-way communications, or simplifying processes. Thus, to truly succeed over both the short and long term, a customer strategy must includes a comprehensive employee engagement strategy.
Here is some of the advice on employee engagement shared at the two events.
I’ll preface this story by saying that politicians love to hear themselves talk. For those who don’t live in Connecticut, Atty. General Richard Blumenthal certainly falls in that category. He’s gone after student loan lenders, corrupt officials, and now his crusade against injustice has taken him up against AT&T and its near-monopoly on phone service. He recently held a press conference and released a number of statements to the press stating AT&T has “appalling disrespect for consumers and disregard for the law.”
Many companies talk about real-time agent training, instilling a culture of innovation, and employing a customer-first strategy. But few companies actually can document examples of individual employees working to make every customer experience outstanding.
FedEx is one of those rare companies. In the March/April edition of 1to1 Magazine, I covered FedEx’s Purple Promise in the article "Powered by Purple," which vows to make every customer experience outstanding across the entire organization. As one of the FedEx contact center employees told me when researching that article, “The Purple Promise is ingrained in all of us. We just do what we can for the customer.”
Martha Rogers and I have just returned from the Technomarketing Conference in Sao Paulo, where we appeared jointly on stage together, two times over two days during this four-day conference. We don't often get the chance to do that, but it's always fun when we do. Brazil is an up-and-coming economy, with a dynamic business community and an entrepreneurial culture that is likely to make it an increasingly influential country.
Continue reading "Don Peppers Goes Behind the Scenes at Brazil's Technomarketing Conference" »
One of the themes at last month's SpeechTek conference in Manhattan was that, economic downturn or not, the technology keeps making advances -- and, more importantly, companies in the field keep making money.
"We're in a position where companies still need to invest in the advancements being made," Michael Zirngibl, president and CEO of Angel.com, told me. "The industry at large is at a point where it's got all this customer data in hand; now we need to start using it."
This question may seem easier to answer than it actually is. In fact, in some organizations different constituents may see customer strategy completely differently. Some executives may be focusing on cost cutting while others are aiming to boost brand equity. According to Gartner managing vice president Scott Nelson, companies need to select one primary strategy and stick with it. Sure, you may cut costs while deepening customer relationships, but ultimately, if building relationships is your primary aim, it will take you down a different path of strategy, tactics, processes, and even technologies than cost cutting would.
In today’s increasingly customer-empowered economy, a successful organization is a customer-centric one. One that balances customer needs with corporate needs. That engages and empowers employees. That integrates information and operations. And that capitalizes on the technologies that support these efforts.
Today at the Gartner CRM Summit we’ve announced the winners of the 2008 Gartner & 1to1 Customer Awards—organizations that have recently implemented a successful customer strategy with resulting business impact. All of the winners—Gold, Silver, and Bronze—have demonstrated the positive effects their initiatives have had on both the customer experience and the bottom line.
And the winners are:
The current state of U.S. politics reflects an important business lesson. Groups with diverse perspectives tend to make better, more creative and effective decisions than groups made up of people with similar perspectives. So what's the catch?
“CRM is what you wanted. CRM 2.0 is what customers want from you,” customer relationship management guru Paul Greenberg told a rapt audience during his keynote speech at the recent CRM Association’s Return to Customer annual conference.
Internet Explorer 8 hasn’t even been released yet, and already Microsoft is facing stiffer competition in the browser market. Tuesday Google offered its web browser, Chrome, for download. Chrome’s release has already been widely publicized, so I’ll shorten reviewing its features and focus on its ultimate impact. Chrome is very similar to Firefox, but it also employs some of the better features from Opera, Safari, and IE as well. It’s a free download, so visit www.google.com/chrome to give it a test run. What’s much more interesting than its entry into the browser market is the possibility that eventually Chrome could challenge Windows as a new operating system.
Continue reading "Google’s Chrome Polished and Ready for Download" »
In May, São Paulo unveiled a new bridge—the Octavia Frias de Oliveira Bridge—which spans the Pinheiros River that flows through the city. The bridge deck is unusual due to its form, which is similar to an "X" crossing at the tower.
Just like any other brand or company, politicians are trying to market their wares to you. And just like when choosing a particular product or service, your decision will likely come down to two elements of trust: intent and competence.
Continue reading "This Election Season, You Are Being Marketed To" »
More than 200 years ago, someone created a "machine" that could play chess against the best in Europe. It's one of the first examples of automation, but the story brings with it an important lesson about today's self-service strategies.
Continue reading "Do You Know the Story of the Mechanical Turk?" »
Electronic Arts is one of the companies that gets it when it comes to customer relationships. The company's senior director of customer support, Boyd Beasley, is one of our 2008 Champions. But EA isn't just doing service right, it understands social media (which it should, given its young videogame-playing customer base). A few weeks ago the company used YouTube to turn what could have been a negative customer story into something positive.
So last night at 3:30 in the morning, Eastern time, my phone gets a text message, from the Obama campaign: Joe Biden has been chosen. In the fog of sleep, I remember thinking: this just can’t be true. This MUST be some kind of ingenious hoax. Joe Biden makes sense, of course, but no sane presidential candidate would release this kind of news at 3:30 in the morning. What about the news cycle?
Now in the light of day, as the storm clouds of Fay begin to scatter and we actually see patches of blue sky for the first time in several days here on the coast of Georgia, I realize what Obama’s media strategy is. It’s an anti-news-cycle strategy, designed to give the bloggers, emailers, MySpacers and FaceBookers time to get the drop on all the C-suite media companies – CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, etc
Continue reading "And the winner of the presidential election is...(drum roll)...SOCIAL MEDIA!" »
Yesterday I moderated the webcast “Take a Walk in Your Customers` Shoes: Using process thinking to transform the customer experience across the enterprise,” during which we polled attendees about customer experience issues. Their responses were telling, so I wanted to share them with you here.
Continue reading "Customer Experience: Good News and Bad News" »
Yesterday a colleague forwarded a post from The Funnelholic, a blog about B2b lead generation, inside sales, CRM, and online media. The author Craig Rosenberg came across The Marketing Consortium, Unica’s now defunct blog where great minds in marketing used to converge.
A pair of recent branding campaigns have caught my eye, one based around a TV show that ceased production in 1998 and the other involving beaming an ad into outer space. Both might just be silly enough to work.
I've been covering social media a lot lately. July was social media month at 1to1 Media, and we even created a microsite, www.getpastthehype.com, as a resource for our readers. In speaking with social media experts, authors, analysts, and all-around smart people, a few common themes appear when it comes to social media strategy.
What is it about mobile marketing that’s so attractive? It’s “amazingly trackable” because SMS responses are individual, yet it has mass-market reach, said Michael Becker, executive vice president of business development for iLoop Mobile, during his session at DM Days New York. Becker added that mobile is the most versatile platform out there because it brings elements from other media to the customer experience: timeliness, portability, and location awareness.
The most popular application on Facebook isn't surveys, "pieces of flair," or bumper stickers, although they all have tens of thousands of users. Until recently, the biggest source of wasted time on the social network was an application called Scrabulous, which has been getting a lot of press lately. It was invented by two brothers in India, but was so much like Scrabble that Hasbro sued to have the game shut down. Now Hasbro probably wishes it had never found out about Scrabulous.
Today customers have higher expectations and greater choices. It’s no surprise that they expect business with your company to be seamless, tailored, and hassle free.
To remind us of why delivering a superior customer experience is urgent, Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow Technologies, has authored a new book “Eight to Great: Eight Steps to Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience.” In the book he lists the eight steps required to deliver a great customer experience.
Have you had any fun experiences lately with automated phone systems? Attempted to use the tried-and-true method of pressing "0" to get a live person, only to be told that "You have made an invalid choice"? Help may be on the way, from a somewhat unlikely source.
Continue reading "Plumbing the Depths of Automated Phone Systems" »
I don't know about you, but I've got Olympic fever. I've been watching swimming, basketball, cycling, rowing, soccer, you name it. I've seen it on TV, and also watched some events on my computer. It's very cool how NBC has set everything up. Powering much of this technology at the Olympics is computer maker Lenovo. The brand name might not be very familiar in the United States, but the maker of the ThinkPad PC has its own Olympic-sized hurdles to jump in its branding strategy.
Keeping up with the speed of change today is no easy task. Neither is combining short-term flexibility with long-term strategic planning. Keeping tabs on trends can help. Richard Feldman, managing partner of Source Marketing, offered 10 trends that may impact marketing in the coming year—and after—during a session at DM Days New York.
They are:
If you have any doubts about social media’s business value, let me dispel them for your now. Although social networks and online communities and the like may not drive immediate sales or help you hit your quarterly earnings targets, they can absolutely help you build customer engagement (thus long-term revenue growth)—through gathering feedback, responding to concerns, sharing educational content, and more. In the case of responding to customers’ concerns, social media is turning out to be a powerful retention tool.
Let me give you an example:
Continue reading "Social Media as a Customer Retention Tool" »
If you walk through the Times Square screaming about how you couldn’t cross the street, would you be surprised if someone walked up and offered to help you? Probably not. Life isn’t like the episode of Friends where Jason Alexander plays an office manager who shouts about wanting to kill himself and no one even looks up from their desk. Prior to social media’s popularity many consumers may have felt most companies worked that way, but today if you have a complaint many businesses are actively listening and willing to resolve the issue.
We wrote about companies using Twitter to help frustrated consumers. JetBlue, Comcast, Home Depot, and other major brands are monitoring what people say about them, and following up in many cases to see if they can make a negative experience into a positive one. When I was on Twitter a few days after the story ran I noticed that one of the sources I had spoken to, Frank Eliason from Comcast (@comcastcares for Twitter users), wrote that he was having a bad day because of a story the New York Times wrote. I looked up the story, and was shocked by how ignorant even social media users can be.
Continue reading "Does Anyone Get the Concept of Social Media?" »
With 40 million subscribers in the U.S. alone, mobile media is quickly becoming part of the consumer media experience, and businesses worldwide are embracing mobile as a viable marketing and communications channel.
Continue reading "Has the Mobile Internet Reached Critical Mass?" »
Every night I debate with myself whether to leave my mobile phone on or not. My wife and I have children and close relatives who live in different time zones all over the world, from Hawaii to London. And as a frequent international traveler, I often sleep in a hotel bed somewhere in Europe, the Middle East, or Asia.
Life is complicated enough, I think, without being awakened in the middle of the night by a business colleague who didn’t know it was 2 am my time when he called. Or what if I get a “wrong number” call at 3 in the morning? Two weeks ago I awakened to the buzzing sound of my phone in “vibrate” mode, only to find that Verizon Wireless had chosen 4 in the morning to send me some text messages regarding two phone numbers I had sought from their “Information” line the previous day! And my wife told me she discontinued her “alerts” from Bank of America for the same reason.
Continue reading "Mobile Phones: Are You Loyal to Your Phone or Your Network?" »
And so it's come to this.
JetBlue yesterday announced that customers looking for blankets and pillows during flights are welcome to such amenities -- for the low, low price of just $7 per set, which passengers can keep and reuse, along with a $5 coupon for Bed Bath & Beyond. This follows the well-publicized initiative by several other airlines to start charging fees for all checked baggage. No handy coupon attached to those rules, probably because there's no such company as Bilked, Bamboozled & Beyond.
Customer centricity, we hardly knew ye.
Senator Phil Gramm was recently quoted as saying we are not in a real recession, but a "mental recession." What does this have to do with your customers and your business reputation?
Continue reading "Mental Recessions and Customer Stampedes" »
Sure, when you're the only game in town, customer service and the experience don't matter much. But how many companies are the only game in town anymore? Even B2B companies need to work on customer loyalty, as tech company EMC recently discovered.
Several colleagues of mine have been using, and enjoying, Twitter for a while now. They suggested that I should, too. Instead, I wondered how they found the time—and if it was as valuable as it could potentially be distracting. With my crazy schedule, I held off joining the fray. Until, that is, an invitation popped up in my inbox—from my boss, VP of 1to1 Media Marji Chimes.
OK, I thought. I give.
:-)
Continue reading "Getting Social (Media, That Is): My first two weeks on Twitter" »
Yesterday in New York, Martha Rogers and I had lunch with one of our favorite people, Phillip Riese. Phillip, an ex-American Express senior executive, is a literal fount of entrepreneurial wisdom. We cited him in our first book, The One to One Future, in 1993. Phillip’s insight is that business books come and go sort of like diet books. Everyone’s always trying to find the right diet in their own personal lives, and business executives seem to be on the same treadmill with their business policies.
Using social media is easy. Anyone with a computer or even mobile phone can set up a blog, social network profile, wiki, or podcast. The trick is building an audience. We were asked by a number of the attendees of our Get Past the Social Media Hype webinar about how to attract the right people. For companies used to paying for advertising where audiences already exist, this is a whole new way of thinking.
Ever shop online and get so frustrated when you can’t find something that you’re looking for? Have you ever had trouble filling out an online registration or billing form? Seems like it happens more often than not these days—even with Forrester Research reporting earlier this year that online customer experience spending was to intensify in 2008 with attention being paid to usability.
One of the subjects that came up at our July 16 webinar, "Get Past the Social Media Hype," was wikis -- what they are and what they're for. Based on the Hawaiian word for "fast," wikis haven't made much of an impact yet (notwithstanding Wikipedia, of course)...but that doesn't mean that they never will.
A week after I heard about local bank IndyMac's abrupt closing, a few more regional banks in the southwest were shuttered by the FDIC for "shady" practices. And even with the big banks the stress of mergers, a weak dollar, and the subprime meltdown are causing lots of strain. What happened to financial services industry? It's quite obvious actually. Banks and other financial services, in many cases, lost site of what is truly important -- customers.
During our editorial webcast “Get Past the Social Media Hype” last week, several attendees expressed concerns about creating an online customer community and potentially opening the door to a barrage of negative—and very public—feedback. To that we say: Customers are already talking about you, good or bad, in other public forums, online and off. An online customer community won’t increase your control of the conversation, but it will make it much easier to communicate with your customers about their concerns.
But that was only one concern.
During last week’s webinar on social media, we received a number of questions about metrics, KPI’s, and other measurements related to social media. The prevailing confusion seemed to be over what to measure. The answer I gave at the time was “well, that depends.” Since then, I’ve developed a more refined answer that will hopefully allay some of the fears with justifying a social media strategy.
The success of an organization largely depends on the motivation of its employees. When it comes to encouraging employees to participate in social media on behalf of their company, it can be like moving mountains.
Last week's 1to1 webinar "Get Past the Social Media Hype" was a solid success, at least according to those I've heard from so far. My part of the presentation revolved around content-sharing, and included a brief discussion about widgets. Now with a bit more space, I thought it worthwhile to expand upon the subject.
Heck yeah it does. Or, at least, it should. I would argue that B2B companies have a lot more to bring to social media -- many high-tech or manufacturing companies deal with very specific products and customers. The community already exists. I would say that all that's needed is to give customers, partners, employees and potential customers an online area to join. The sad reality, however, is that B2B companies in general lag behind the B2C space when it comes to social media.
Continue reading "Does Social Media Work for B2B Companies?" »
Barry Herstein just became the new Chief Marketing Officer at PayPal. The online payment company is taking its strategy beyond its traditional eBay relationship to become a global financial services powerhouse. In the newly created position, Herstein is challenged to build a global brand and advance its unique business model. We recently sat down with him to discuss the details.
Continue reading "PayPal's CMO On Playing Nice With Others" »
With all the stories lately about the airlines, one may have been overlooked earlier this week. Delta announced it was placing ads to its boarding passes, as a way to increase revenue in addition to bag fees, meal and drink fees, and fuel surcharges (not to mention the increased price of tickets). Airlines have experimented with advertising before. Some have placed ads on meal carts, overhead bins, and even the outside of planes. What struck me about the story, however, was a quote from the CEO of the technology company behind creating the ads, Sojern Inc.
Continue reading "What to Do With 250 Million Unused Billboards" »
During 1to1’s editorial webinar today, “Get Past the Social Media Hype?”, we asked attendees a few questions about what types of social media they’re currently using, and what their plans are for the next six months.
During the edit team’s numerous interviews we’ve conducted over the last few months, we discovered that in talking to executives, many are still confused about how to leverage social media to create value for their businesses.
So today in a webinar at 2 p.m. EST, the 1to1 Media edit team will give advice, define social media, offer some examples of companies that are seeing success from using social media, and explain the benefits of leveraging social media tools for your company.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to use social media in your marketing plans, you need look no further than Jeremiah Owyang’s blog, where he synthesizes a list of 50 social media ideas into five broader strategies. Jeremiah is an analyst with Forrester, and the five broad strategies come from Forrester, while the 50 ideas come from Chris Brogan’s blog. Brogan describes himself as a “social media evangelist.” One look around his site will convince you of the veracity of that statement.
However you find this list, it’s a terrific supplement to the social media thinking we’ve already posted on our own microsite, Get Past the Hype.
When does an ad campaign go so far? If you're the state of South Carolina, it's when you're promoting yourself as "So Gay"--at least for some lawmakers.
According to a July 11 article in Columbia, SC newspaper The State, the state's Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism has pulled out of an agreement with London-based travel agency Amro Worldwide for an overseas campaign with the tagline "South Carolina Is So Gay."
A June 27 press release announcing the campaign quoted South Carolina tourism spokesperson Kirsty Dillury as saying, “South Carolina has a lot to offer gay travelers, and we think that people may be surprised to see our destination reaching out to the gay market. We are delighted to be involved with the ‘So Gay’ campaign in particular as it sends a powerful positive message to everyone that there is nothing wrong at all with a destination being described as ’so gay.’”
Not so fast, Kirsty.
I recently returned from an 8 1/2 day trip, during which I had engagements in four continents. I've captured it all in an 8 1/2 minute video. From Brazil to Qatar to Prague to Halifax, I exchanged insights during presentations, workshops, and one-on-one meetings. I met with executives from such industries as financial services, contact centers, and hospitality, and shared information on such issues as customer loyalty and employee engagement. I also learned about their business strategies. You can hear all about my trip in "The Frequent Flier."
A week before school let out at the end of June my 10-year-old daughter, Claudia, announced that she and two of her friends decided that they wanted to go to Sylvan Learning Center in the fall to improve their study habits. After inspecting my daughter for a possible alien possession (think: Invasion of the Body Snatchers), I gleefully said I would call Sylvan and look into it.
Aside from being excited about this for obvious reasons, I was also looking forward to the Sylvan customer experience. Sylvan won a 1to1 Impact Award earlier this year (Sylvan’s Sara Costello, director of direct mail and conversion marketing, talked more about that strategy on a recent webinar), and I love having the opportunity to experience firsthand the customer strategies of the companies we write about.
Continue reading "A Successful Customer Strategy in Action—Really" »
While tools like social networking, blogs, and other new media are the talk of the tech and marketing worlds, many in so-called "traditional" companies may think it wouldn't fit their business model. But for Wells Fargo, a 156-year-old financial services company, it's a major component to interact with customers and prospects.
Continue reading "Even a 156-Year-Old Can Use Social Media " »
Sen. Phil Gramm, an advisor to Sen. John McCain, just stirred a big controversy by maintaining that the economic downturn causing so much angst is largely the result of pessimistic thinking, rather than serious economic problems. Pointing out that we aren’t actually in a recession at all, with real economic growth anemic but still respectable at a 1% positive rate, he called this a “mental recession,” and said the problem is we are becoming a “nation of whiners.” McCain repudiated these comments as the Obama camp gleefully leaped on them as further proof that McCain was out of touch.
Email is a great communications tool; it’s environmentally friendly, costs next to nothing, and reaches the masses instantly. But because it provides instant gratification with little risk, email can very easily be misused. I recently got an email from ACS, the company that handles my student loans. Since I’m blogging about it, you can probably guess that I wasn’t thrilled with what the company had to say.
There is increasing controversy about new personalized ad technologies able to track your every online move. Unlike most personalized online advertising, this new technology, from companies like NebuAds in the United States, and Phorm in the UK, is based on the cable TV or phone company that provides your overall Web access – your Internet-service provider (“ISP”). There’s an article about this in today’s Wall Street Journal.
As the de facto book reviewer at 1to1, I confess that I've been letting the side down of late. Blogging instead about conferences, notable news developments, and the much-beloved Hydrox cookie, I've been remiss in keeping up with the barrage of business books that largely land in my lap. (I have, however, been keeping up with my alliteration assignments.)
So while everyone else is enjoying Child 44 and When You Are Engulfed in Flames and Goodnight Bush, I'm curling up on the 1to1 chaise lounge with Steve Yastrow, David Vinjamuri, and Richard S. Gallagher. It's a little crowded, but we're learning a few things.
When you think of an organization that is effective at building customer loyalty, you think of companies like Starbucks, USAA, and The Ritz-Carlton, right? Well add a new one to the mix. But this one isn’t a business; it’s singer/songwriter Todd Rundgren, of the song “Bang on the Drum All Day” fame.
Continue reading "Todd Rundgren, Rocker or Loyalty Leader?" »
If you feel a sense of deja vu when the topic of social media comes up, don’t be surprised. As with many approaches to building profitable customer relationships (think: CRM), social media marketing is going through its own hype cycle. Some companies have well-planned strategies with goals and metrics, while others are rushing in just to be a part of the action. Still others haven’t quite discerned the best approach to using social media as a customer strategy tool that delivers ROI. We’re here to help make sense of it all.
The role of customer care in the contact center has never been more pivotal to a company’s success. As a result, contact center leaders continuously strive to develop innovative ways to improve service, increase productivity, and integrate the contact center with the rest of the organization.
No sooner had my story on Dimension Data's 10th annual "Call Center Benchmarking Report" appeared in yesterday's 1to1 Weekly than I received another call center survey -- which, as opposed to the Dimension report, seems to indicate that call center-related satisfaction is improving.
The "Contact Center Satisfaction Index 2008: How Call Center Customer Satisfaction Impacts the Bottom Line," by CFI Group North America CEO Sheri Teodoru and coming out today, finds that call center c-sat gained 3 percent over last year, scoring 72 on the index's 100-point scale. A three-point improvement is admittedly not earth-shaking, but in today's climate it certainly does count for something.
But, not to put too fine a point on it, what?
Everyone has a bad call center story. It's as American as baseball and apple pie. In general, it's an industry where competence could be seen as a competitive differentiator. Companies are working to change their efficiency focus to more reflect the call center's impact on the customer relationship, but unfortunately the industry overall still has a long way to go.
I’m sure you’re not surprised to know that here at 1to1 we’re all about customer focus. That focus includes places that some might consider unexpected, like pricing. Oh, sure, things like volume discounts have been around for ages. But what I’m leaning toward here is tying customer value to price in a different way: Customers who value your brand/products/services will often pay a premium.
Even before the IBM commercial where the employees play “buzzword bingo” during a meeting, anyone even tangentially connected to the business world could tell you that corporate America was turning the English language into its personal playground. Similar to the way politicians carefully choose their words to convey the proper emotion and stay on message, businesses have invented terms like “offshoring” to mask the negative effects of losing jobs overseas, and “result-driven” or “value-added” to emphasize positive terms. Sometimes this process goes too far, and someone steps in to say “enough!” In England, that responsibility fell to the Local Government Association, after a local town council began calling brainstorming “thought showers” instead.
The concept of “marketing,” or the murkiness that exists around branding and the rest of the marketing world, is among the things Kevin Zimmerman discussed with author Rob Walker in today’s Marketing Xfactor. Walker also talks about the fleeting happiness that comes with acquiring things, and his belief that branding is as powerful a force in today’s media landscape as ever.
What do you think the future holds for branding? Are consumers really “brand-proof” as some experts say, or is Walker right that with some creative marketing, customer immunity to brands can be overcome?
On Monday, I took JetBlue from JFK to Las Vegas. I hadn’t flown with the airline since prior to the infamous February 15, 2007 debacle where the airline stranded passengers on tarmacs in New York for more than 10 hours because of a snow storm.
Continue reading "What Happened to Neeleman's Beloved JetBlue?" »
Forrester Research's 2008 Financial Services Forum, being held this week in New York City, is in part taking a look at how financial service firms measure the quality of the customer experience they provide, and whether or not their approach has been successful. According to Forrester's vice president, principal analyst Bill Doyle, the answer is: not so much.
When a company like Sony, which makes some of the best and most popular products in the world, refocuses efforts to improve the customer experience, you know we've reached a tipping point.
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve signed up for email notifications from some company I’ve dealt with, only to find myself inundated with messages so that within a few weeks, having read only one or two of them, if that many, I have to go back to the Web site and unsubscribe. I unsubscribe a lot. Just about as much as I subscribe.
The other day my wife reported that she had signed up for the Neiman Marcus email notification of sales, and found the same thing. But when she went back to unsubscribe, in order to un-clutter her in-box, she was offered a very clear choice. The message at the unsubscribe landing page was:
Too many emails? Click here for just once a week…
Which is exactly what she decided to choose - once a week emails.
Now that seems to me to be a very good program for a lot of companies to emulate, but unfortunately most firms don't have once-a-week email options. Most firms only have on-off switches for their email marketing programs, which amounts to either avalanche or zero.
After spending so much time covering such topics as social media and word of mouth, I decided to immerse myself in the social marketing experience. I got the opportunity to do this after a meeting with marketing services company House Party. Its site is a combination social network/party manager, where party hosts and party goers can interact on blogs and post photos and videos, and hosts can manage and track invitations, to-do lists, and more. The parties themselves are hosted by consumers—1,000 of them on the same day (or two), to be exact—for specific sponsors.
We write a lot about privacy when it comes to marketing online and sharing customer lists, but how can outdoor billboard advertising come under fire for violating people’s rights?
The New York Times on Sunday reported that Starbucks is introducing a new loyalty program that will hopefully reignite an emotional connection between the customers and the brand.
Years from now, when our children ask, "What did you do in the mobile revolution, Daddy?" we may find ourselves saying something like: "Uh ... I was waiting for it to actually happen."
That was the somewhat surprising theme at last week's Mobile Marketing Forum in New York. On the one hand we heard outgoing Mobile Marketing Association president Laura Marriott say that about half of the world's population -- 3.3 billion people -- are mobile subscribers, compared with 1 billion worldwide Internet users. On the other hand, we heard Mozes Inc. founder and CEO Dorrian Porter compare the mobile environment to the movie Groundhog Day, noting that each of the past several years has been breathlessly heralded as "The Year of Mobile" -- only to see those hopes dashed. (Amusingly, Porter started giving the same presentation on the Forum's second day.)
So just what is going on?
Last week I attended a conference in NYC that took place across from the United Nations. I walked right past the Kuwaiti consulate building. And sure enough, there was no visible mailbox. The country has no residential mail system, so marketing via direct channels poses a challenge. But one company saw this as an opportunity to connect with customers in unique ways.
If you believe, as I do, that earning the trust of customers is the most direct route to long-term success for a business, then there is a new book you should run out and buy today: The Best Service is No Service, by Bill Price and David Jaffe. If you want, read my comprehensive review of this book on Amazon, and then buy it.
Continue reading "Must-read new book: The Best Service is No Service" »
Yamaha Music UK is connecting its customers through "Yamaha Education Friends," one of a growing number of niche online communities joining the social media sphere. In today's Marketing Xfactor, you can read more about how music educators are connecting, sharing ideas, and providing Yamaha Music with insight into their needs and development ideas.
Online communities are only one way social media is transforming the way customers and companies interact. Has your company considered developing a social network or using existing sites to connect with your customers?
Somehow Steve Jobs manages to whip the media world into a frenzy when he gets up on stage, and it seems like he’s been doing that more often recently. Why? Maybe because the iPhone release last year didn’t quite live up to the publicity surrounding it, and Apple is rushing to introduce version 2.0. Once again this week, a horde of bloggers and overly excited media members are drooling at the prospect of a new Apple product. But is it worth all the attention?
Have you heard? Left for dead, consigned to the dustbin of history, gone and more or less forgotten, a familiar name has suddenly re-emerged, thrilling longtime fans who thought it was all over; that the fat lady had not only sung, but had packed up her sheet music, hailed a cab, and dived headfirst into a vat of chocolate mousse.
No, not Hillary Clinton, who hasn't (and may never) go away. Not the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who after being the feel-good baseball story of the past couple of months are in the midst of a bickering downward spiral (and yes, I know they're technically just "The Rays" now, but I still call that other team the "California Angels," so sue me). And certainly not Big Brown, who answered the Triple Crown question "What can brown do for you?" with a resounding, "Umm, not much" at the Belmont.
I am, in fact, speaking of the long-moribund Hydrox cookie, which Kellogg's recently announced will be returning "for a limited time" in August.
Recently my colleague Kevin Zimmerman wrote about an email campaign incident where his wife's name was wrong and none of the "personalized" information was correct. The company fixed the issue after a few campaigns, but even after more than 10 years of email business, many companies still have a long way to go to create a good customer experience in the inbox.
Last week I had a great conversation with Satmetrix CMO Deborah Eastman about the evolving customer experience. Of course, we also discussed the Net Promoter Score methodology.
To level set, Eastman pointed out that customer strategy success doesn’t come from asking the “would you refer” question in and of itself. What makes an impact is when a company focuses on customer-centric measures that drive employees to change the customer experience. This means that the surveying customers on their propensity to refer cannot live in a vacuum; it needs a management framework, Eastman said. “It has to be a part of the management rhythm,” she said, adding that companies must also link operational and loyalty metrics.
No doubt many of you have read about the controversy surrounding Rachael Ray, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Michelle Malkin over an wardrobe choice with alleged terrorist ties. For those who haven’t, Malkin, a conservative columnist ultra-radical nut, wrote a column comparing the scarf Ray wore in an online coffee ad to that worn by Muslim terrorists. Dunkin’ Donuts, looking to avoid controversy, pulled the ad to ward off further protests. However, the company may have created more problems than it solved by giving in so quickly over what isn’t such a black-and-white issue.
Lately, I’ve been feeling like I have social media fatigue. Every time I open my inbox, there’s another invitation from a friend or colleague to join a community. In the last two weeks alone, I received invitations to Plaxo, Twitter, Reunion.com, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Chickswhoclick.
This week I was in Ottawa, talking to a whole group of government officials about the importance of customer centricity. But, you say, governments are monopolies, so they don't compete for business. And even if they did, they don't REALLY have customers anyway. But the surprising truth is, the principles around customer centricity are universal, and the government officials I addressed were just as interested in the topic as any business audience.
Watch the Peppers Unplugged video, "Should Governments Be Customer Centric?
The dysfunction -- some would say outright hostility -- that continues to manifest itself between the sales and marketing departments at many organizations can be disheartening, to say the least.
A new global survey of more than 500 sales and marketing professionals by the CMO Council and its Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE) finds that less than 20 percent of respondents regard their sales and marketing organizations as extremely collaborative; while among those who have CRM applications, only 13 percent view the application as highly valued and widely deployed, and 50 percent said they had trouble finding customer account data, did not have enough information, or had none at all.
But there are signs of improvement out there. My feature in the next issue of 1to1 Magazine discusses how one company, Tektronix, has acted to successfully overcome this gap (which, the company's VP, marketing Martyn Etherington says was more like a chasm), and there's additional information indicating that the situation may be improving.
Who is responsible for privacy within your organization? Is it someone tucked away in the legal department or marketing, whose role seems to be more of a roadblock than a help? For most companies, privacy issues are an afterthought with compliance as the priority. But forward-thinking companies use privacy as a tool to build customer trust. Best Buy is one of those companies, and it gets all employees in on the act.
“If agents can’t solve customers’ problems it’s like throwing gas on a fire.”
That truism was told to me by Marchai Bruchey, CMO of Kana, last week when we were discussing trends in the service arena. Bruchey was talking about the challenge contact centers face with retention. “Companies need consistency in that channel, but call centers have the highest turnover.” One main reason, according to Bruchey, is that agents feel they don’t have the information they need to do their jobs. When agents can't resolve customers’ issues, both customers and agents become frustrated—often to the point of leaving.
