Think customers: The 1to1 Blog

Want Better Customer Experience? Adopt the Six Disciplines of CX Maturity.

2013-05-24T14:09:25Z

Forrester has just released the latest version of an annual favorite: "How Companies Improved Their CXi Scores, 2013." As we do each year, we compiled a list of brands whose scores went up five or more points in our Customer Experience Index over the past year (in this case, between 2012 and 2013). We asked CX leaders from those brands if they'd be willing to tell us what they did to drive those improvements. Finally, we synthesized their answers into a list of best practices that others can learn from.

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The Power of a Personalized Experience

2013-05-23T11:39:19Z

Organizations that don't invest in personalizing the customer experience, whether online or within their brick-and-mortar stores, are going to be facing an uphill journey to keep up with their competition.

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Service, Satisfaction, and the Social Customer Comment

2013-05-22T04:00:00Z

"If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Mothers may be fountains of wisdom, but in today's social world, Facebook and Twitter encourage many to rebel against the astute words of yesteryear. Though many bite their tongue in person, they rush to social media to vent their frustration, as offline interactions become online conversations. But, as Simon Palmer, chief technology officer at Empathica, highlights, negative feedback that can be used to uncover areas of weakness and opportunities for improvement, while positive feedback can be a valuable source of insight into what is going right with a business.

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Hoffman's Hot Seat: Best Practices in Social Customer Care

2013-05-21T08:52:33Z

1to1 Media's Tom Hoffman speaks with Greg Sherry, Vice President of Marketing at Verint, about successful approaches for blending social into customer support, including effective techniques to scale for social customer care.

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Winning the War on Showrooming

2013-05-20T04:05:00Z

The key to success is often the ability to adapt to change. When it comes to showrooming, trying out products in stores and then ordering them from online competitors that charge less, some retailers are realizing the importance of not only adapting to this change, but also embracing it.

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Business Model and Brand: Keys to Customer Experience Innovation

2013-05-17T13:05:09Z

At Forrester, we define customer experience as how customers perceive their interactions with your company. Over the past few years, my colleagues and I have written a lot about the perceptions piece of that definition. Here's a quick overview: Customers' perceptions occur on three different levels, which we collectively refer to as the customer experience pyramid. At the base of the pyramid is "meets needs." Do customers perceive that you've met their basic needs and provided value through the interaction? Then we layer on "easy." Do customers perceive that you're easy to do business with, or that they have to jump through a bunch of hoops? At the top of the pyramid is "enjoyable." Do customers perceive that you're enjoyable to business with - that you're connecting with them on some personal, emotional level?

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Mobile Proliferation is an Opportunity for Marketers

2013-05-16T11:26:41Z

Our lives have started to revolve around our mobile phones. Our phone is almost always on our side. Most of us sleep with it on our bedside table, using it instead of an alarm clock. It's the first thing we reach out for when we wake up and we carry it with us wherever we go. In fact, how many times have you turned back after realizing you've forgotten your mobile phone?

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Has Huggies Taken Technology Too Far?

2013-05-15T04:00:00Z

Technology continues to evolve each day, but unlike children, we do not document this growth with pencil marks on our doorframe. We measure technology's lifecycle through tweets, apps, and upgrades. But, just as teenagers test their boundaries, technology frequently pushes the envelope when it comes to innovation and creativity. In Huggies' case, the latest gimmick truly hits below the belt.

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Hoffman's Hot Seat: The Buzz at the Gartner Customer 360 Summit

2013-05-14T09:44:14Z

1to1 Media's Tom Hoffman speaks with Brian Shepherd, President of Customer Strategy and Technology Services at TeleTech, about the Big Data and analytics discussions that attendees at the Gartner Customer 360 Summit recently shared in San Diego along with strategies for tackling the key challenges faced by companies.

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Customer Signals for Adapting Experiences

2013-05-10T04:05:00Z

A chemical manufacturer with a solid customer listening program noticed an uptick in complaints about pricing. Unlike many firms, which would take the comments at face value and take action accordingly, this company first stepped back and reflected on its strategy: It sold premium chemical for advanced applications targeted at particular industries, so it surmised that the company shouldn't see this kind of feedback. It conducted some root cause analysis, talking to those customers. It learned that some distributors were selling chemicals for applications in markets better served by off-the-shelf, commodity products. As a result, not only were these distributors driving detractors, which were creating a headwind for selling into their target market, but they were wasting time on low-value sales and more importantly, using valuable resources internally that made the company competitive in target markets (e.g. scientists to help innovative clients discover new applications for the chemicals). The company decided that the right course of action was to revisit its distributor training and communications programs to better ensure sales teams understood the core value proposition and how to find the high-value opportunities.

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Leveraging Technology for Better Sales

2013-05-09T11:14:32Z

An effective salesforce is compulsory for business success. Savvy organizations are investing heavily in their sales team to make sure that they close as many deals as possible. Forward-thinking business leaders are constantly looking at new technologies that will help their sales teams do a better job. Many organizations, for example, are leveraging mobile technologies and social media to improve their sales effectiveness and improve the company's bottom line.

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Incorporating Social Insight to Enhance Engagement

2013-05-08T04:00:00Z

There's a distinct difference between hearing and listening. While most companies hear what their customers are saying about the brand via social media, very few truly listen to the problems at the core of customer sentiment so they may act upon such feedback to improve experience. Social insight presents companies with an interesting and educational look into how customers interact with and perceive the brands they do business with, yet most companies remain at the starting stages of strategic expansion, juggling data and development in ways they never needed to before. However, for Best Western and LEGO Systems Inc., winners of the 2013 Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards in the Social and Mobile Engagement category, social media has allowed these popular brands to connect with customers in ways that both boost engagement and strengthen existing relationships.

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Delivering an Unforgettable Customer Experience

2013-05-07T09:26:33Z

Last week while I was attending the Gartner Customer 360 Summit in San Diego, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop that was focused on best practices in enabling great customer experiences. The session started with each of the 30 attendees sharing anecdotes about the most exceptional customer experiences they'd received and why they meant so much to us.

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Better Data Analysis; Improved Business Performance

2013-05-06T04:05:00Z

In the Big Data world in which we live, business intelligence has become a big market. Companies that have deployed integrated analytics platforms and emphasized real-time data analysis to better understand customer behavior have gained a big advantage from doing so. For Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and AAA, winners in this year's Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards, adoption and successful deployment of customer analytics has not only become a competitive differentiator, but also a mechanism for delivering excellence customer experiences and generating growth in revenue.

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Putting the 'Customer' in 'Service Optimization'

2013-05-03T12:30:00Z

When it comes to providing the best service experience possible, the customer defines success. Though many companies approach service and support as just another metric to be maximized, those that emphasize quality over call times differentiate themselves from the competition and excel in customer satisfaction. For Cisco and Cigna, winners in the Customer Service Optimization category of the 2013 Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards, superior service isn't simply a goal to be attained, but also a foundation on which to build long-term loyalty and trust.

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