"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
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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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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?
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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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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
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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,
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Today we announce the winners of the 2013 Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards. I've been with 1to1 Media since the inception of the awards and have seen it evolve into what it has become today: An international program that recognizes customer experience leaders--companies that have taken chances and have overcome adversity to advance their customer-centric practices forward.
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Each year, the Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards are given to end-user organizations that have implemented successful customer strategy and CRM initiatives. These awards spotlight excellence among organizations that take a customer-centric approach to improving their business performance and have proven results from doing so.
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As an avid personal investor I'm often appalled by cable shows that report on the markets as if they were non-stop sporting events. Seriously, how many people care how the NASDAQ or the Dow are doing on any given minute of any given day? But apparently there are enough day traders out there that noon reports from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange are as compelling as half-time reports during the NFL playoffs.
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No matter where you choose to sit on a train, there will be a time when each seat goes backward or forward. But, just because every car's situated in this fashion does not mean that the rail line's policies and practices should be, too. When it comes to Amtrak's ticketing procedures, some methods have taken off with great speed and determination, while others have stalled out at the station.
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As consumer mobile adoption continues to increase, people's expectations of how companies should connect and engage with them have also changed.
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Of the six disciplines in Forrester's customer experience maturity model, design is probably the least understood. It's is not taught in most business schools (although this is starting to change at institutions like Stanford and the University of Toronto). It's also not widely practiced in most companies outside of specialized groups that focus on digital touchpoints. And so it remains a mystery to most business people. That's a shame, because design is an incredibly valuable business tool -- and it's
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Companies are in a constant state of courtship. Though each first encounter may only be brief, they must put forth much effort to nurture that initial spark and kindle the potential flame. Each customer represents another chance to develop a long-term relationship, but communications often only come in intermittent bursts at first. If that first transaction proves positive, the brand in question may just warrant a repeat purchase--maybe even lifetime loyalty if all goes well!
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You know the importance of aggregating, analyzing, and acting on your voice of the customer data, but with continually emerging channels, VOC practices become increasingly challenging to carry out. An organization with cross-departmental ownership of VOC, sophisticated data collection and analytical methods in place, and the commitment from the C-suite to communicate the importance of acting on VOC must be in place for real results to occur.
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Voice of the customer data is alluring. Once you start to collect customer feedback, there's always something more you could be gathering. You think: What else can I learn? What else are customers saying and thinking? Where else are they saying it? You want to know more.
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While social networks have been around since the now forgotten days of MySpace and Friendster, today's most popular sites continue to gain momentum as social media evolves. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest have grown into engagement platforms that allow consumers to interact with their friends, family, and favorite brands regularly. But, as these social interactions begin to blossom, companies have begun to value and utilize social tools as part of their customer care efforts.
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The success of marketers everywhere is increasingly tied to the use of analytics and Big Data, with the goal of correlating campaign success to real business results. No longer are marketing departments simply thought of as creative machines, as their responsibilities now reach a broadening scope of channels and tasks that range from tying social media success to business ROI and delivering mobile messaging where it matters most in the customer's buying journey.
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Though showrooming continues to draw much discontent from brick-and-mortar retailers across the board, many have conjured up their own ways to fight back. Just last week, one Reddit user posted an image (also below) from the window of an unnamed store. The sign warns customers that the store will begin charging anyone who enters the establishment a $5 fee. If the customer makes a purchase before leaving, the $5 will then be deducted from their total. This tactic, clearly designed
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More and more marketers today are incorporating their loyalty programs and campaigns as part of the overall customer experience. They're replacing "channel" with "customer," analyzing Big Data to drive individual loyalty programs that stick, and leveraging gaming mechanics to engage customers in new and innovative ways to drive loyalty.
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It disappoints me when customer experience professionals at B2B companies won't even consider CX practices from business-to-consumer companies. Sure, B2B firms can learn a lot from other B2B firms: Cisco has an amazing voice of the customer program, Boeing does great work conducting field studies of their customers, and Adobe has a notable CX governance practice. But unless B2B customer experience practitioners want to run the CX race with one foot in a bucket, they should also learn strategy from
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Perhaps I'm addicted to the chips and salsa. Or maybe it's the friendly service. Either way, Chili's Grill & Bar never fails to satisfy (in my opinion). But, for one young Utah girl and her family, Chili's went above and beyond to make sure their needs were met with the utmost compassion.
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A well-aligned strategy serves as the building blocks of a company's products and services, and eventual growth. But that doesn't just mean that a company's marketing messaging or customer service must be consistent across channels; it also means that an organization's marketing must align to the actual products and service it delivers.
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Just one week ago, as white smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel, millions of people took to Twitter to express their joy and excitement over the election of Pope Francis. With nearly 130,000 tweets per minute, citizens across the globe welcomed the new pope, the first elected since the advent of the smartphone, the tablet, and Twitter. But it wasn't until the smoke cleared that we could finally see technology's impact on our lives in just eight short years.
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"Truly elegant design incorporates top-notch functionality into a simple, uncluttered form." -David Lewis I consider myself a design devotee. Not of high-end fashion, but the kind that lends itself to functional and seamless customer experiences. So much so that I'm not only in constant pursuit of flawless customer experiences, but I also take note of imperfect ones that stick out like a sore thumb.
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There's no question that executive support can make or break a voice of the customer program. With an executive (or several) on board, VoC teams can get the funding and tools that they need to succeed. And VoC leaders from Forrester's 2012 Voice of the Customer Awards almost unanimously gave others the advice to build executive support.
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Though the Better Business Bureau may "start with trust" at its core, for the council's Southern California chapter, the journey ended in expulsion. Built upon honesty, the BBB works to protect every consumer's best interests by making sure companies across industries uphold the highest standards and keep true to their promise. But when an ABC News investigation uncovered this hidden "pay to play" culture, the BBB determined that this chapter did not maintain the very standards this organization commands.
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In our ultra-connected world, in which your 3-year-old is adept at using an iPad and your mother now texts you photos of her cats, marketers are in constant pursuit of the Holy Grail that will help to leverage this digital explosion. With more devices and more audiences comes added pressure.
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Over the past seven years, Forrester has observed the trend of companies putting in place a senior executive responsible for leading customer experience efforts across a business unit or an entire company. Whether firms call them a chief customer officer (CCO) or give them some other label, they are sitting at the highest levels of their companies and exist in both B2C and B2B companies as diverse as GM, UnitedHealth, Fidelity, Level 3 Communications, and Eli Lilly.
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When consumers choose to do business with any given company, they do not just invest their hard earned dollars, but their trust, as well. Every time customers share their credit card information or personal identification numbers, they enter into an unspoken agreement--the consumer promises to complete the transaction, possibly coming back in the future, while the company promises to protect this sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands.
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Last month I was in Europe with a group of customer experience professionals from various divisions of the same large company. Although their expertise was at varying levels, no one was clueless and everyone seemed highly motivated. About halfway through the all-day session, one of the attendees asked me a question that I'm going to paraphrase here.
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To quote Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, "'Trust is the new black." But in these days where making the bond between brands and their customers is essential to economic prosperity, it seems like some companies are still donning yesterday's trends of relying on deceptive practices by not proactively reaching out to customers to help them make informed decisions.
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I was flipping through the 2012 Forrester Voice of the Customer Award nomination forms the other day, and I realized that I've been unwittingly holding on to a valuable resource -- all the advice that we asked nominees to impart on other voice of the customer programs. The very last of the six questions on our nomination form is, "What advice would you give to other organizations to make their programs successful?" We got some great answers from the 40
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Gone are the days when the average tourist wandered around with a paper map in one hand and a camera around their neck. Thanks to smartphones, these travelers can carry a world of maps and their trusty camera right in their back pocket. But for those popular attractions and tourist destinations that recognize this change in behavior, mobile devices have the ability to engage visitors in an entirely new way.
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To deliver great customer experiences, firms must first design them and then orchestrate the complex system of interdependent people, processes, and technology that Forrester calls the customer experience ecosystem to deliver them. Customer experience (CX) pros often know a lot about the design part and uncovering customer needs, but often struggle with changing the operational underpinnings required to deliver on the vision. Conversely, business process management (BPM) pros have the chops to re-engineer business processes, but when focusing on the
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If you peruse the shelves of your favorite store, what you see isn't necessarily all you can get. Through DailyGrommet.com, creators have an opportunity to share their concepts and products--those that have yet to enter the mainstream retail world--with consumers through the website's product launch platform. DailyGrommet.com provides individuals with the chance to share their innovative, unique creations with their robust, "citizen commerce" community. But, while users were once limited to phone, email, or Web submissions, creators and consumers now
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Ever since the emergence of digital, much has been written and discussed about bridging the social/mobile and traditional marketing divide by getting a handle on Big Data and ultimately having the ability to understand and respond to consumers' ever-changing needs and behaviors.
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Despite professed customer centricity, many firms don't think to involve customers, employees, or key partners in the experience design process. That's unfortunate, because this activity - called co-creation - can help companies understand what types of interactions will best meet people's needs, and then figure out how to implement those interactions the right way.
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Customers are kind, mean, and everything in between. But, every now and then, customer service representatives encounter customers that are off the charts. These requests leave service professionals scratching their heads as they conjure up ways to satisfy the consumer despite their confusion. Yet, while these interactions may be strange at the time, they typically make for entertaining stories after the fact.
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Allow us to paint a vision of the future for you: After interactions with your favorite companies, no one asks you how you liked those interactions. Your email inbox contains no requests for a few minutes of your time. No one asks you to wait on the phone line to answer a few questions. The word "survey" has vanished from your vocabulary.
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Months ago, an old friend from college recommended I visit the nail salon she frequented during her time at school. My mother and I were in search of cleanliness and reliability, so we both turned to Facebook for trusted recommendations. Since then, we've become regular customers, visiting every now and then to indulge in the traditional manicure/pedicure. While my mother enjoys the chance to escape reality, I've come to depend on the flawless appearance to deter me from my nervous
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Delta proved last week that it must have learned a thing or two from United Airlines' lack of response in 2008 to now famed passenger David Carroll when a flight crew broke his guitar after tossing it, prompting him to record "United Breaks Guitars." The song launched him into an Internet sensation and made him the poster boy for the power of social media when customers are wronged.
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The way that firms can deliver value to clients has massively changed. Firms can interact with customers in the context of using products (e.g. think Rosetta Stone and language coaches). In fact, customers interacting with each other within the product may deliver more value than the product itself. Companies can harness the data exhaust of product usage and turn it into powerfully useful information to help customers succeed at their goals (e.g. think Nike+ and fitness).
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When one pregnant woman and her family decided to have dinner at their local Red Robin, they simply thought they were heading out for a nice meal--perhaps one of their last before welcoming their new baby. But, after joking with the staff about her impending delivery, Amie Sivon and her husband, Jason, discovered an unexpected surprise. Their check indicated that Sivon's entire meal, totaling $11.50, had been deducted from the bill, accompanied by one simple message: "MOM 2 BEE GOOD
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It's that time of year again, when predictions, trends, and resolutions articles come out of the woodwork to help guide our expectations for the coming year. At 1to1 Media, we've included a few of our own around the customer experience.
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Over the past two years, consumer technology adoption and market forces have catapulted the field of customer experience into strategic stature. In 2012, this shift manifested itself privately through sweeping organizational changes at companies in nearly every industry -- and shined publicly through professional organizations, the media, and even in the courts.
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The New Year has arrived, and companies across industries are creating their own resolutions for 2013. But for these improvements to take root, customers have to be willing to better themselves alongside their favorite brands. Many satisfying experiences hinge upon customer-to-customer interactions, yet companies rarely look to alter customer etiquette in their attempt to boost satisfaction. Customers consistently expect more from their most trusted brands, yet they often neglect to give in return.
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A couple of months ago, I spoke at a conference in Las Vegas. Immediately before my talk, two advertising execs, one a professed quant geek and the other a "creative," spoke about how their agencies rely less on hunches these days and more on quantitative data to drive emotional relevance between their clients and consumers. "We can identify human emotions in massive rivers of data," the ad men said. When I pressed them for an example during the Q&A session,
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Every Christmas, my mother complains because she has no idea what to get me. I haven't asked for a dollhouse in years, but I have yet to move into an apartment of my own, leaving her in gift-giving limbo because I don't quite fit into anything but the gift card demographic (and gift cards just aren't personal enough). She begs me to give her hints or ideas, but nothing comes to mind. Instead of clamoring for every must-have gadget and
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As 2012 draws to a close, I have a few wishes for 2013 to ensure that we all have better customer experiences.
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In the absence of a chief customer officer (CCO)--or even real buy-in from executives for expending time and resources on improving the customer experience--many customer experience leaders struggle to ignite the kind of culture change that re-focuses how executives and employees do things. I came across a Harvard Business Review article by Debra Meyerson called "Radical Change, The Quiet Way," from October 2001, which offered sage advice that applies to any customer experience leader.
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Though the "end of the world" looms, none of us will know whether the Mayan predictions hold true until Friday. But, even if Saturday comes and life continues as usual, there's no reason we shouldn't have a little fun as we fight our potential fate. For JELL-O, this means appeasing the Mayan gods with the "funnest" sacrifice--JELL-O Pudding.
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Santa sees you when you're sleeping, and he knows when you're awake, but the average Christmas song neglects to highlight this jolly old man's keen business sense. Just take a moment to evaluate St. Nick's behavior in Miracle on 34th Street and you will discover that under his white beard lies the face of an experienced customer service professional.
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We can expect it every year around this time: Video clips featured in the news of busy delivery men hoisting holiday packages over customers' fences or whipping them into theiryards, breaking the contents within.The news anchors, horrified at what they're witnessing, then discuss options to remedy this behavior.
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Recently I was on a panel about the impact of cultural change on customer experience. My fellow panelists included Meltem Uysaler, a senior vice president of customer experience for Citi; and Patricia John, the customer experience director for Europcar U.K. (a car rental agency).
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By now, most people have seen photos of the Michigan man who got a Mitt Romney tattoo emblazoned on his face. While the man reported last week that he now plans to remove the big red and blue "R", the decision to get inked with his nominee and presidential hopeful was fanatical.
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