We’ve all heard about the black hole that customers assume their feedback ends up in. Many of us may even have that black hole in our organizations. Roger Blumberg makes sure that’s not the case at Ariba.
Blumberg is senior director of customer strategy for the spend management software vendor. He implemented a compelling closed-looped survey process, which he shared with attendees of IQPC’s Customer Feedback Summit earlier this week. Here’s what caught my attention:
The Superbowl isn’t just the pinnacle of the professional football season, it’s one of the most important days of the year for companies selling party food. Americans buy soda, chips, wings, and pizza by the ton, and the companies who make that food spend millions convincing consumers to buy their product. This was the first year all three major pizza delivery companies (Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Papa John’s) offered the choice to place orders online. Comscore recently ranked all three and analyzed how Domino’s could come out so far ahead of the other two on Superbowl Sunday.
Does a CMO have a place in the boardroom next to other executives? Is the title just another of the endless string of Chief Officers companies have been coming up with recently? How can a CMO’s effectiveness be judged alongside a CFO’s or CEO’s? These are just some of the questions today’s Marketing Xfactor lead story and column attempt to answer. Do you think a CMO position is necessary at most companies? Should the role and responsibilities be markedly different from that of other C-suite executives? Why do you think CMO’s have such a short shelf-life?
Thousands of Starbucks devotees went without their mocha fix yesterday, but it was for good reason. Employees were busy getting retrained on how to make the perfect cup of coffee.
The coffee chain closed its 7,100 stores at 5:30 p.m. to coach employees on how to make perfect espressos, which included lessons on giving quality pours of the espresso shots and adjusting the grind on the automatic espresso machines.
The company, known for delivering quality service, has experienced a decline in sales over the past year, closing 100 stores and seeing a decline in stock. So it made sense for Starbucks to return to what founders Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin, and Ziv Siegl set out to do in 1971—to sell the finest-quality ground coffees.
An increasing number of companies, like Starbucks, are focusing more on quality—even measuring employees on delivering quality service. Travelocity, for example, scores agents on quality. If their scores fall below a certain desirable quality level, they receive immediate training.
By closing all of its stores, Starbucks has shown customers its committed to delivering quality products and service. But by taking the pledge across the enterprise, quality begins to transcend the narrow scope of products and services to eventually affect the bottom line.
Tired of the word "blog" yet?
Well, probably not, since you're currently reading one. But the ups and downs of life in the blogosphere (and is it a sphere, after all? I've always envisioned it as more trapezoidal) have been more apparent than usual this week, with headlines screaming about everything from Barack Obama wearing traditional Somalian garb, to what the deal was with Gary Busey on the Oscars red carpet.
If your company doesn't have a blog these days, you're probably being looked at askance by your colleagues, friends and family. Just as beggars in olden times were forced to wear signs reading "Unclean," you might as well be wearing one reading "Unblogged."
This past Christmas I purchased outdoor lights for my new home. I was very excited to deck the halls for the first time. When I got home and opened the package, instead of white lights I had bright blue -- not the look I was going for. I felt embarrassed walking back into the store to explain how I had no idea what I was buying, but could I get a refund anyway? Had someone taken the time to educate me on the different types of lights and what kind of plug I'd need for it, I wouldn't have made the mistake, and my experience would've been better.
This is happening more often as products get more complex. Who's in charge of educating the consumer -- the retailer, the manufacturer, or the consumer himself?
If you ask a dozen marketing and sales professions why these two organizations can’t seem to get along, you’ll get a dozen answers. Those responses will range across a broad spectrum of not only why they can or can’t get along, but also whether they should even bother trying.
In last week’s blog I presented analyst Barry Parr’s description of what Web 2.0 would look like in the near future. This week I offer my own opinion of what will shape Web 2.0 and social media far beyond next year.
With customer service nightmare stories becoming the pastime of many bloggers, I thought it would be refreshing to share a positive experience that I recently had at Progressive.
I’ve been a customer for a few years, but recently called to cancel my policy because I had intended to switch to my new husband’s policy at a competitor. I, having a fairly clean driving record, had little need to call Progressive during my tenure as a customer. So when I called, much to my surprise, I was greeted by the friendliest contact center agent I’ve ever encountered. Of course, the company wanted to retain my business, so she went above and beyond not to lose me. She went over my policy and worked to find additional discounts to apply to reduce my rate. She even chatted conversationally about a personal experience she had. The conversation lasted for several minutes and I hung up feeling connected to the company.
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Continue reading "The Golden Rule is Alive at Progressive" »
Interesting piece in today's New York Times on how the impending arrival next week of a "branding mash-up" between J.C. Penney and the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation might confuse each company's brand image in the minds of consumers. The new clothing line, called American Living, will be featured exclusively at Penney's; its ad campaign will work hard to make the Polo/Penney connection via such tried and true Lauren components as photography by Bruce Weber.
While the potential for boosting Penney's cachet and Lauren's bottom line seems obvious, it's left some brand consultants wondering if the deal's really going to be as win/win as it's being presented. “May I remind you that Wal-Mart ran ad pages in Vogue?” the article quotes Robert K. Passikoff, president at brand and consumer loyalty consultancy Brand Keys. "The ads were lovely, but no one would buy the clothing.”
Innovation and creativity go hand in hand. Marketers play a large role in promoting both at their companies. At the recent THE Conference on Marketing, famed author Malcolm Gladwell put marketers to the test: in terms of innovation, are you a Picasso or a Cezanne?
There’s no escaping the dreaded, yet often useful, acronym. CRM, ERP, ASAP, and on and on. There are countless broad acronyms, like the ever-present bank ATM; and there are myriad industry-specific acronyms, like, well, the high-tech ATM (asynchronous transfer mode). But that’s not enough. No, no.
Continue reading "WYFMA: What’s Your Favorite Marketing Acronym?" »
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day (a holiday designed by marketers if there ever was one), mobile and social network application Frengo is helping people celebrate the day in a more high-tech way. Using Facebook or mobile phones, lovebirds can send each other virtual gifts (or real flowers through 1-800-Flowers).
Continue reading "Not Your Parents’ Card, Chocolate, and Flowers" »
What will the technology that we now call Web 2.0 look like in a year? In five years? In today's The Marketing Xfactor we featured a podcast with Jupiter Research media analyst Barry Parr, who attempted to answer that question. Listen to what he has to say and tell us, how do you think Web 2.0 will evolve, redefine itself, and impact businesses in the future?
When we think of customer experience, we think Disney, Apple, Starbucks, Virgin, and the Ritz-Carlton. But one company, Harley-Davidson, is about to surpass all these customer-centric leaders.
This year, the motorcycle company will unveil the Harley-Davidson museum in Milwaukee, WI. The 130,000 square-foot building will be a celebration of the company’s history, the passion of the riders, and customer stories. It will feature a restaurant, café, retail shop, meeting space, and special events space. Also, so that the company’s loyal customers can connect with the museum, they have the opportunity to purchase a stainless steel rivet customized with their name to be mounted along a wall on the 20-acre property.
Now I know that Harley-Davidson boasts a loyal customer base. Its customers are really fans who build their lifestyles around the company’s products. But the museum will only enhance that connection by creating the ultimate experience--a mecca to its customers.
I recently spoke to James Gilmore and Joe Pine about their book Authenticity: What Customers Really Want, and they said that goods and services are no longer enough—people want experiences. As such, companies will shift their focus from just relying on delivering good services to building experiences. As a result, the experience culture will eventually become the predominant economic offering.
But this shift will first require creativity and innovation (you can’t deliver a unique experience without either of them). Harley-Davidson understands that, and I'm certain that its riders will travel from all over the world to pay homage.
A million dollars may not be what it used to be, but a growing base of people with a self-made million bucks or so is making its influence felt as never before. That’s the thesis of The Middle-Class Millionaire: The Rise of the New Rich and How They Are Changing America (Currency/Doubleday) by Russ Alan Prince and Lewis Schiff, out Feb. 26.
Customer strategy is always evolving. And in many cases, the best advice about what to do with your customers comes from your peers, doing similar things at their companies. The 1to1 Impact Awards shines a spotlight on companies doing extraordinary things with customer strategy. And we've got war stories direct from the winners about how they were able to achieve their customer goals. Hear from executives at P&G, Westpac Bank, La Redoute fashion retailer, and Voices.com.
Continue reading "These Giants Are Champions of Customer Strategy" »
I recently saw Barbara Glanz present about customer service. She told a story about “Johnny the bagger” that brought tears to many attendees’ eyes. It’s not only inspiring, it proves that every employee is integral to the customer experience and that little things can make a dramatic impact on customer loyalty—and ultimately, the bottom line. Check out the story at Simple Truths. You’ll be glad you did.
Sometimes I hear stories from friends and relatives about their customer service experiences and I have to wonder what the companies they’re dealing with are thinking. Around Christmas time, what should have been a simple online order turned into a hassle for my mom. She just wanted a plate, but what she encountered was a retailer with disconnected customer service that’s now lost her as a customer.
Love them or hate them, this year’s Super Bowl commercials offered something different—a mechanism to drive viewers online to interact with the companies.
To calculate which companies successfully integrated the offline and the online, SendTec, a multichannel integrated direct marketing agency, conducted an analysis. This year, the company found that 64 percent of Super Bowl advertisers included a website in their ad.
So, who were the big winners and what did they do so differently that made them stand out?
Continue reading "Five Companies Score With Integrated Super Bowl Ads" »
It's no secret that time is at a premium these days, on both sides of the customer/company equation. Most consumers feel they're operating with an ever-lengthening "to-do" list, and companies' patience for new products to establish themselves -- as well as for making quarterly targets -- seems to be growing ever shorter.
A new book, Stopwatch Marketing: Take Charge of the Time When Your Customer Decides to Buy (Portfolio), takes an in-depth look at this phenomenon, delineating what authors John Rosen and AnnaMaria Turano say are four basic types of shopping styles and suggesting how best to serve each of them.
I don't know about you, but I have at least 5 gift cards with under $2.00 on them. I also have multiple cards from the same store, which I can't combine. While the gift card industry is thriving, the user experience could certainly be improved. And the experience on the part of the retailer can be improved as well.
Last night, after trying everything I could think of over the course of two days to get my computer to work again, I finally breathed a heavy sigh and picked up the phone to call Apple’s technical support center. Now, I’ve dealt with Apple before and had a great experience. But for many companies, service is so inconsistent that, based on my broader services experiences overall, I didn’t know what to expect.
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