The CCO role is a lonely place. There are fewer than 400 people in the world with this title, and the average tenure is a mere 26 months. Yet the impact CCOs can have on a company's bottom line can be profound. Successful CCOs have mastered three key elements of corporate survival, and these strategies are applicable to anyone responsible for strengthening customer relationships within an organization: Drive profitable customer behavior Create a customer-centric culture Demonstrate your value
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According to ABI Research, U.S. mobile commerce sales will reach $4.9 billion this year, and will account for $163 billion in sales worldwide by 2015. Additionally IDC reports that the U.S. smart phone market will increase 50 percent this year. Despite the growing number of consumers conducting mobile transactions, a new study conducted by Tealeaf shows that the medium is laden with issues that impede customers' ability to complete transactions and prevent them from returning.
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Most marketing leaders recognize the value for their companies to have a social media presence, even if the financial returns on those efforts aren't easily quantifiable. It's table stakes for companies to have a Facebook or Twitter page nowadays to further engage with customers, including providing customers with another channel to interact with them and share their experiences, good or bad. But as common as it might be for most companies to have a corporate social media imprint, many CMOs
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As my colleague Andrew McInnes pointed out in his report Ten Major Voice of the Customer Trends, more companies are closing the loop with their customers. During Forrester's 2009 Voice of the Customer Awards, entrants with closed-loop processes were the exception. In 2010 they were the rule, with many top finalists integrating closed-loop processes with their sales and marketing efforts. For this year's awards we expect to see a new crop of innovative closed-loop applications. But just like any well-intentioned
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"Customer satisfaction is not a differentiator, it's a lagging indicator," said Leigh Benatar of Brand Keys at last week's Loyalty Expo trade show. Customers expect to be delighted these days. So instead of focusing on satisfying customers, companies need to look at new ways to build true loyalty and advocacy. During the show Loyalty 360 CEO Mark Johnson highlighted seven trends he sees in customer loyalty.
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Ah, to know whether customers are truly loyal, will actually repurchase and recommend, will increase their wallet share. It's the Holy Grail. And like the Holy Grail, the quest will inform you, challenge you, and keep you ever hopeful. But, ultimately, it's unreachable. So, you may ask, why bother trying to measure loyalty? Because current measures are valuable; they provide useful, actionable insight. But it's not a complete picture. The problem is what's not being measured, according to Jannie Hofmeyr,
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The term social intelligence is being used to describe the next big thing in social media monitoring and analysis. Zach Hofer-Shall of Forrester Research deserves credit for popularizing the term. Several leading technology solution providers have come to embrace it. So, too, have a growing number of industry practitioners and observers. I count myself among the latter. Social intelligence is a terrific way to describe the next rung on this evolutionary ladder. That rung maps to some key technology innovations.
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Last week, Wachovia officially transferred all of its customer accounts and information over to Wells Fargo. In the days leading up to the switchover, Wachovia mailed large packets of information to its customers regarding the details of the changes and notifying them of the steps that customers needed to take to ensure their accounts were intact. During this period, my husband and I received no less than five packets containing the same information.
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The digital research company eMarketer has just released its latest report on social media usage in the United States, "U.S. Social Network Usage: 2011 Demographic and Behavioral Trends," and the data is remarkable. The report is notable for three reasons. First, we have hit the two thirds majority of U.S. Internet population for social network use -- 63.7 percent of U.S. Internet users actively use a social network. Second, social networks' rapid growth rate is slowing, which seems to be
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In light of the current crises playing out on the world stage, namely the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the civil unrest that's gripping the Middle East and North Africa, the squabbles between billionaire National Football League owners and millionaire players don't evoke much sympathy. Still, the collateral impact on affected team employees demonstrates lousy decision-making on the part of management and its potential repercussions on future employee engagement and customer satisfaction.
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More than half of companies say that they have voice of the customer (VoC) programs in place today, and many others say they're planning to establish programs within the next year. That's a good thing, because collecting, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback is a recipe for success in financial as well as customer experience terms. The firms recognized in Forrester's 2010 Voice of the Customer Awards attributed impressive business results to their VoC efforts, ranging from increases in customer
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Think about all the ways you communicate digitally today: You email via computer, probably via smartphone, and perhaps even via netbook or tablet. You send and receive text messages. If you have a smartphone, you may use QR codes to get product information. If you're a gamer, marketers may reach you via in-game messaging. You may have a Mac, BlackBerry, iPad, and Xbox. Or perhaps you have an HP EliteBook, an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy Tab. You may have
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SMS is a bit Jekyll and Hyde; it's among the most private forms of communication available, yet is extremely social. Therein lays the intrigue. My question is this: "If someone hands you a business card, there is implied permission to call or email. What about texting?" I started an exploration with a query on Twitter. As responses began to come in, my curiosity was piqued. I began to wonder about where this peculiar channel fits into customer service and social
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Customer experience excellence is not a compilation of random acts of customer service. It is coordinated, deliberate, and consistent. "Great experiences are planned," said Garry Marsh, director of THM Business Simulations, during his keynote at the Gartner CRM Summit 2011 earlier this week in London. "They don't just happen."
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I've just had one of those maddening IVR experiences that consumers love to hate. I called a local Internet service provider and got caught in IVR purgatory when the system kept asking me for an account number that I didn't have. By the time I gave up -- dozens of unproductive buttons later -- I was ready to launch an IHateDell.net-style campaign to let the world know not to do business with the cable company. In today's environment, where brand
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While loyalty is a strategic imperative for many companies, others still view it as a one-time approach rather than a journey that spans customers' lifecycles and takes into account their preferences and purchasing histories.
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Nina Simosko, Senior Vice President of SAP's Premier Customer Network in North America, describes the joint benefits of engaging and collaborating with customers.
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Michael Porter famously wrote that companies differentiate themselves by performing a unique set of activities that are different than their competitors, or by performing the same activities differently. Here are some numbers: 86 percent of companies say customer experience is a top strategic priority for 2011; 76 percent seek to differentiate based on customer experience; 46 percent have a company-wide program for improving customer experience currently in place and another 30 percent are actively considering it; and 52 percent have
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Even though software companies and agencies create content for the mobile phone, mobile providers need to take ownership of their subscribers' experiences. New research shows that nearly half of smartphone users blame mobile providers for service issues.
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Truly customer-centric organizations have customers' best interests at heart at all times. They often show this by taking a proactive approach to meeting, or surpassing, customers' needs and expectations throughout the customer lifecycle. One company that embraces this tack is Polygon Northwest. According to Steve Martorano, director of customer services, the real estate developer does this not only to satisfy customers today, but also to build long-term engagement that will encourage referrals and repurchase. Unlike most competitors, for example, Polygon
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The term social demand generation has been kicked around for at least a year among social CRM types. And it's definitely not a "geeks-only" phrase. I've heard social demand generation used by both veteran markers of the hardcore Michael Porter school (writer of Competitive Advantage) and by "new-school" social media marketers alike. That said, should social demand generation be called social revenue marketing? No! Social revenue marketing is simply a subset of social demand generation. Here are five reasons why
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Jim Somers, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at Antenna Software, offers recommendations for creating electrifying mobile applications that resonate with business customers.
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Call centers sit on the frontline of customer experience where they provide sales, support, and customer service functions. They're often customers' first -- and sometimes their only -- human interaction with a company. Even with conservative estimates, it's easy to make the case that large call centers have customer influence on par with, if not greater than, that of mass advertising campaigns. (Assuming a call center with 3,000 agents and an average of only 50 calls per agent per day,
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The role of "social strategist" in the business world is gaining steam. Many companies realize they can't relegate social media efforts to a tactical level, and instead need someone to formulate strategy, planning, and execution in this important customer channel.
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Ever get a bad haircut? It's likely that you have. But the real question isn't whether you have; it's, how much of it was your fault. Customers today expect great experiences. And that's OK, as long as they also do their part. If you want courteous service, you need to be courteous. If you want relevant messages, you need to provide some details on your preferences.
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While still very much emerging channels, social media like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have quickly become part of the marketer's everyday toolbox for attracting, interacting, and engaging with customers online. This is particularly the case for Facebook, as that property now accounts for 11 percent of the time spent online in the U.S, double a year ago according to comScore, and relaxed rules and a wider array of third-party apps and services make it easier for businesses of all sizes
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It's no secret: It definitely pays when companies monitor social media for consumers' negative comments about their brands. In many cases dissatisfied customers can be won back. However, recent research from RightNow Technologies indicates the possibility that organizations might be rushing into the social realm without a strategy in place.
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Companies have been gathering Voice of the Customer (VoC) and behavioral information about their customers for years. But historically, at least within most organizations, these buckets of customer insights have largely been maintained separately from one another. But that's expected to change.
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