Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

It's a unique correlation, but one that can be done if you dig deep into customer data to gain insight. This was just one valuable lesson learned at this week's 1to1 Customer Champion Roundtable event in Toronto. Represented were marketing and customer service executives from industries like retail, finance, high-tech, and government. They touched on many topics and shared many insights.

Even with their different backgrounds, they all agreed that data integration issues are a big challenge. The ultimate goal is to tie marketing and customer service back to ROI, and data sharing is necessary to do that. For example, Janet LeBlanc of Canada Post talked about her organization's Customer Value Management program. The company created a customer value index based on customer perceptions and behavior. As the index moves up and down, so does Canada Post's revenue. (Read more about Canada Post's program in the May-June issue of 1to1 Magazine).

In addition, the focus on the technical side of "CRM' is changing to a focus on the customer experience, particularly when it comes to relevance down to the individual level. This requires a consistent experience across channels, which has multichannel and employee engagement implications.

However, "if you have 1,000 priorities, you don't have any," one person said. To that end, Geoff Brock of Canadian Tire Financial Services has his team pick from a short list of customer issues to work on based on voice of the customer feedback and calls into the contact center. It's one way to make a visible impact to customers without getting overwhelmed. (Read more about Geoff's initiatives.)

As an editor, it was really great to sit among a room of practitioners and learn what types of customer issues are happening in the real world. I look forward to more of these types of 1to1 roundtables in the future.