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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Relationships often begin with a spark. For some, the fire burns bright, withstanding the test of time, but for others, the flame quickly fizzles into a puff of smoke. But, just as person-to-person relationships take much time and effort to maintain and grow, business-to-customer relationships require work to keep the attraction alive. Here at 1to1 Media, we spoke with Keith Pearce, head of market dynamics at Genesys, to explore why customers become "disenchanted" by their brand relationships, how companies can
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Like Thanksgiving and Black Friday, Cyber Monday has become an annual "holiday" for consumers who seek online sales in an effort to avoid crowded stores and to find better deals. Research from BIGinsight for the National Retail Federation estimates an even bigger turnout today compared to last year, with an estimated 129.2 million Americans shopping online, compared to 122.8 million this time last year.
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Crunched for time, short on cash flow, and often understaffed, small business owners in the past have largely ignored social media channels as a way to market their business and engage customers. In fact, in August of last year, eMarketer polled 304 small business decision-makers, and 64 percent of them said social media was either unnecessary or something about which they didn't have an opinion.
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When engaging in social media, "likes" don't always equal loyalty. Many companies have come to realize that true customer loyalty and engagement takes more than sending promotions to solicit "likes."
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With Election Day less than one week away, citizens all across the nation are doing their best to familiarize themselves with the issues and determine where the candidates truly stand. For much of America, jobs are the most important talking point on the agenda, and for the National Retail Federation (NRF), this means helping the 42 million retail workers across the country stay informed on the topics that pertain to their livelihood.
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I'm about to start a gut renovation of my kitchen, which, of course, is an incredibly stressful -- not to mention expensive - project. For cabinets, we got a recommendation for a designer at a local cabinet store. We met with her, got some great ideas, and went home to wait for the quote.
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For smaller companies, superior service often becomes their ticket to success. For Fidelity Communications, a high-speed Internet, phone, and cable TV provider based in Missouri, transforming their contact center became the way to satisfy customers and engage call center agents across multiple states, thereby cutting costs, decreasing hold time, and building loyal relationships in an industry overshadowed by big business.
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Henry Kissinger said, "The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been." This year's 1to1 Customer Champions are doing just that. Their enthusiasm to improve the customer experience, and their willingness to try new tactics for organizational adoption, underscores why they were chosen as exemplary leaders who drive their companies' customer experience forward.
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Over the past several months, I've been leading a number of Customer Experience Ecosystem workshops, in which a cross-functional group of employees spend the first part of the day empathizing with customers and walking in their shoes while "mapping the customer journey."
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Last week I got a question via email from one of Forrester's clients, who asked: "How do you explain the success of companies that consistently provide a poor experience but perform well financially?"
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Many companies strive to provide great customer service. However, few companies deliver the kind of customer service that makes an emotional connection with customers - the kind of connection that fosters loyalty and willingness if not an eagerness among customers to recommend a company to a friend.
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Bridging silos and bringing together data that's hosted in different repositories is a priority for many organizations which want better visibility into their customer data, allowing them to gain better insights on which to base business decisions.
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This summer I vacationed in Redwoods National Park on the northern coast of California. Each day, my husband and I enjoyed peaceful hikes among the awe-inspiring trees that towered several hundred feet above us. But one thing caught me off guard: Far more often than I had anticipated, we encountered redwoods ripped from their roots, sprawled horizontally across the forest floor. Most had taken several other trees down with them. At first, I lamented the fate of each of these
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In today's online-heavy world, one-to-one interactions between customers and the brands they do business with are becoming less frequent. This is one of the reasons why organizations need to make sure to not only satisfy customers during these dealings, but exceed their expectations.
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Change is good. But when it comes to making a change to a recognized element within an organization, business leaders need a sound strategy that ensures consistency. According to Eric Courville, director of marketing at North Plains Systems, changing a company logo isn't something that should be taken lightly. "It's the essence of what the company is," he says.
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With bankruptcies, corporate scandal, accounting irregularities, and gaps in corporate governance making daily headlines, it's no wonder that public trust in companies has diminished.
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Whenever I talk about the business impact of customer experience, there's one thing that always grabs people's attention. It's an analysis done by Jon Picoult of Watermark Consulting, who took five years of data from Forrester's Customer Experience Index and constructed two model portfolios. One is a portfolio of the top 10 publicly traded companies in the index (customer experience leaders) and one is a portfolio of the bottom ten publicly traded companies in the index (customer experience laggards).
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Customer reviews have become an integral part of the shopping experience, aiding prospects in their search for their next product. In fact, 72 percent of customers who took part in this year's Local Consumer Review Survey said that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
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Henry Ford famously quipped that if he had asked customers what they wanted, they would have said, "A faster horse." It's a well trod line, one that's guaranteed to receive nods and chuckles in any business meeting. We can all relate. After all, nothing's really changed since Ford's time. Customers today still can't tell us exactly what they want, or imagine products and services that don't currently exist. No one in 2009, for example, was screaming for a computer that
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A happy and engaged workforce is a fundamental element in business success and forward-thinking business leaders are striving to gain and retain high levels of employee engagement. Not only are engaged employees more likely to work harder, ultimately having a positive impact on the customer experience, but it's human nature for customers to want to do business with a brand that is evidently treating its employees right.
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Because of the recession, the average consumer has become increasingly pocket conscious. Since 2008, couponing has seen a 27 percent increase, and with the proliferation of social channels, many brands are beginning to transition their offers from print to digital. While coupons were once pieces of paper clipped from inserts in the weekend paper, connected consumers can print offers online and access coupons on their smartphones, erasing scissors from the equation and putting social media at the center instead.
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Social media is offering new ways for organizations not only to reach out to their customers, but also to allow these clients to promote their favorite brands among their social networks. A number of organizations are finding innovative ways to engage with their customers while at the same time promoting themselves over social channels.
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Where "value" once referred to one's personal beliefs, the word now belongs to your burger and fries. Brands continue to take advantage of the word, diminishing its worth in an attempt to attract patronage. But for Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), "value" means serving up shoddy products alongside their "better than you" attitude at a price you just can't afford.
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Mobile phones seem to be taking over the world. We're rarely more than a few feet away from our phones and many times they're tucked safely in our pockets or bags. Most of us panic whenever we notice our phone is missing and will inconvenience ourselves to go back and pick it up.
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Word-of-mouth is important in business, and perhaps even more in the health sector where people tend to value the opinion of their friends and family and ask for advice before choosing the medical professional who will help them with their health needs. The Internet has continued to push the envelope, making reviews available to all, and thus easier for individuals to do their research before visiting a health clinic or making an appointment with a medical professional. This new trend
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One of the hallmarks of customer centricity is making it easier for customers to do business with a company. One company that's taken a step in the right direction in this regard is Wal-Mart. This week, the retail giant announced that it has expanded its Christmas layaway program, extending the amount of time that customers have to pay for certain products under its interest-free program by an additional 30 days. In addition, Wal-Mart also expanded the categories available for layaway
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At its core, customer experience management comes down to governance. But what is governance, really? You've probably got a hundred different governance processes in your organization, none of them exactly the same. The word "governance" may stir up images of executives in closed-door meetings talking about compliance. And yes, teams of senior decision makers are an important component of governance practices at many organizations. But customer experience governance isn't about a committee that hands out edicts from on high. And
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What do Zooey Deschanel, Samuel L. Jackson, John Malkovich, and Martin Scorsese have in common? They all talk to Apple's Siri as if she's a human being, someone who understands what they need. And, in Apple's advertisements, Siri answers back, helping Deschanel order tomato soup on a rainy day, tells Jackson where he can find organic mushrooms for a homemade date night dinner, shares a joke with Malkovich, and even elicits a compliment from Scorsese after helping him reschedule his
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Choice is great, but sometimes it can also be overwhelming. And since customers want to make the right choice before spending their hard-earned cash, they often seek advice. In an increasingly online world, customers have even more choices. Not only is it easy to switch from one online retailer to another to find what you're looking for, but e-commerce sites are providing even more choices.
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Organizations that are providing scripts for their customer-facing employees need to keep one thing in mind: Customers are very savvy in recognizing a scripted interaction and don't always like it.
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Loyalty can take time to develop, but for Mani Rewards, building a solid foundation meant integrating loyalty components from the start. Launched earlier this year, Mani Rewards partners with publishers across the Web to reward users for everyday behaviors.
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Loyalty programs have been in the spotlight lately. In the past, companies treated their rewards programs as an afterthought, offering one-dimensional rewards, communicating with members via a single channel, and failing to collect data from these valuable pools teeming with information about customers' needs and values.
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I love candy! But I love superior customer service even better. Last month, I was preparing for a visit from my aunt and cousin who live in Michigan. They were coming in for my graduation ceremony, and this would be their very first visit since I moved to Connecticut four years ago. I cleaned up the basement and threw away half of its contents; this was where my aunt and cousin would stay. I knew they couldn't sleep on a
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In today's smartphone-driven world, organizations are constantly bombarding us with new apps that promise to make our lives easier and better. Just this morning, for example, I made a hairdresser's appointment through an iPhone app, even before I had got out of bed.
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I've written before about my experiences as a Nissan customer, most of which have been positive. However, I recently had a less-than-stellar experience with Nissan that I'd also like to share, one that ultimately had a favorable outcome.
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Organizations that take the time to engage in one-on-one interactions with their customers are standing out among their competitors. And yet, not all business leaders are investing in such interactions, allowing their companies to really have a two-way conversation with their customers.
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Great customer experiences are the result of countless deliberate decisions made by every single person in your organization on a daily basis. To align those decisions, employees and partners need a shared vision: a customer experience strategy.
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Customers want relevant messaging that's targeted directly to them. And yet, despite being well aware of this, a number of companies fail to make the effort to communicate with their customers in a truly personalized manner.
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