The word envy comes from the Latin invidere, literally to "cast an evil eye." The same root gives us the word invidious. In evolutionary terms, being envious of someone else could be explained as nature's way of encouraging us to study the traits and habits of other, more successful people, which could contribute to our own success, as well.
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Those of you who have followed my rants about the credit card business and retail banking, or about stupid-company tricks in social media, know just how angry I can get when it comes to businesses making profits from customer mistakes and pushing their own interests to the exclusion of their customers' interests. (Some business models actually appear to be designed precisely for that purpose!)
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My philosophy professor used to say: everyone serves a purpose in life, even if they only serve as a horrible example for others. A more accurate description of Nestle's mishandling of a big fracas in social media could hardly be written. It started with an initiative by Greenpeace to get Nestle to stop using palm oil in its products, contending that the harvesting of palm oil was damaging the environment. The organization created a faux Nestle Kit Kat logo,
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The old credit card business model, in which companies make money off of consumer error, is finished. With new regulations taking effect, the credit card industry needs to shift its strategy to be more customer focused.
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A recent New York Times article raised serious issues about the viability of one-to-one marketing. Citing a survey of consumer attitudes commissioned by professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley, the article reports that a clear majority of Americans (66%) reject the whole idea of tailored ads and personalized news, even without being told how their own interests are being tracked online. But this survey is deeply flawed and its authors' conclusions are biased (they're
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I'm now about four months into my "Twitter Experiment," and I can confirm that my initial skepticism was entirely misplaced. I have been intrigued, delighted, inspired, and educated by micro-blogging in ways I could never have guessed before. I remember vividly the day my ad agency had its first email system installed. By the next week, it seemed to me that the sheer velocity of thinking and transacting had radically increased. And I have the same feeling now about my
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As the social Web continues to gain traction, with millions of individuals now making individual contributions, one thing that frustrates businesses is the problem of making sense of all this noise. Because that's all it is, unless you can detect patterns in these billions of individual posts, tweets, text messages, and comments. It is a giant, flowing river of information, but it's impossible to get any sense of a river's current by examining it one drop at a time.
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This morning I went running in Pasadena, re-doing the very lovely 5-mile route I did on Wednesday, but I set off at my training pace this time. Now I'm a fairly fast middle-distance runner, and I've been running all my life. High school and college cross country teams, too. But on this run, around two miles into it, some kid passed me. Damn. NO ONE passes me on a run. I pass other people on my runs. Other people don't
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I'm in Pasadena for the three days of Fortune Magazine's "Brainstormtech" conference, featuring speakers from many different companies, usually making their presentations in an interview or talk-show format that also involves a Fortune reporter or editor. On the whole, I found this to be a very effective format for putting across insights and information. My role here, however, is not to give a speech - which is why I end up attending most conferences I attend. Instead, I've been retained
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Did you see Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie "Bruno" yet? If not, you can probably save your money. That's the judgment of John Horn, movie critic and journalist for the LA Times, speaking on NPR's All Things Considered. Why? Because this movie may already have been killed by negative WOM.
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I constantly hear from B2B executives that it's a challenge to develop strong relationships between the B2B sales staff and clients. But it doesn't have to be.
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In the last few days I've met with two airlines and discussed with each what we consider to be "best practices" for frequency marketing programs. I also got a personal experience, courtesy of British Airways, in "worst practices" for frequent flyer programs. In Martha's and my opinion, the best frequency marketing programs (whether for airlines or other firms) have five qualities: Insight, modularity, openness, customer management, and simplicity.
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There is a very nice "conversation starter" essay on McKinsey's site today regarding the fact that natural disasters and economic cycles seem to occur with the same kind of frequency and intensity. The actual pattern isn't a normal distribution (the kind of bell curve that we all studied in statistics) but a "power law distribution" - which means, essentially, that there is a "long tail" of outliers. In a power law distribution an event that is twice as severe, for
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Chaotics is the title of Philip Kotler's new book, co-authored with John Caslione. Fundamentally, it is a book of lists - seven factors that can cause chaos in the business environment, 10 innovation mistakes to avoid, three behaviors to ensure a new mindset, eight questions to create an "early warning system," four escalating levels of complexity, eight steps to more effective scenario planning, ten practices to weather extended periods of turbulence, four key changes in the marketing landscape, five components
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I just returned from a nine-day trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Mixing vacation and business, I learned a lot about the business climate within the banking and telecom industries, as well as the actual climate and weather in Riyadh...sand storms and all. Watch my Peppers Unplugged video to learn more:
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So far, the downturn we are encountering looks like a recession. It may be one of the more severe recessions in the last 50 years or so, but it's still only a recession, and not even close to turning into a genuine "depression," if you define that as a 10 percent or greater decline in GNP. We should all remember, however, that economic downturns are entirely natural events, and you can't prevent them any more than you can prevent ocean
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In my latest video blog, I look at the peanut salmonella outbreak from a business perspective. Short-term thinking by Peanut Corp. of America led to catastrophic circumstances.
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Companies of all sizes seem to be cutting larger and larger swaths through their employee ranks every week, turning thousands of otherwise happy lives upside down. It is a terrifying thing to lose your job. I know. It happened to me less than twenty years ago, when I was let go from a highly paid advertising job in a general cutback. And I remember the feeling like it was yesterday. Abject fear. Terror. I had a modest severance, but our
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This week I made a presentation to a large telecom client of ours in Istanbul about the virtues and how-to's of customer analytics and segmentation. As a normal part of the transition strategy to becoming more customer-centric, we usually suggest that a client should identify one or two segments, and place them into a pilot program of customer management. By running this pilot project over a number of months, you can work out the kinks and conflicts involved in managing
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Recently I traveled to another one of the Middle East's thriving economies. This country is experiencing rapid economic development. Its traditional culture is under pressure as it faces change management challenges similar to those found in the corporate world.
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This is the question facing politicians today. But it also represents a case study in the conflict between short-term costs and long-term benefits - probably the most difficult conflict faced by businesses and governments today. If we bail them out, then we definitely avoid a lot of pain over the next year, as thousands of workers retain their jobs, as auto assembly lines keep ordering parts from suppliers, and as thousands of car dealers continue to have uninterrupted supplies of
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In our book Rules to Break & Laws to Follow, Martha Rogers and I tried to convey our sense that as technology brings more and more "connectedness" to our world, our entire economic and social system is becoming more like a giant network. Whether you are talking about customers who are increasingly connected to each other, or employees and channel partners, or your portfolio of new product innovations, it is vital to understand how networks operate, and why. Networks form
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Confused about how the presidential polling figures can be so variable? Why do some polls have Obama ahead by 8 to 14 points (pick your number) while others still show the margin too close to call? Here's one big reason: Polling bias. When you do research, the wording of the actual questions you ask will bias the answers given. This is just human nature. Exhibit #1 is a front-page headline in today's Washington Post: Poll Gives Obama 8-Point Va. Lead.
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Although many politicians and much of the mainstream media would like you to believe that it was rampant deregulation of the financial industry that "caused" the economic crisis we now face, don't believe it for a minute.
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The actual cause of the current financial crisis is very complex. Everyone points the finger of blame, but so far we have no confessions of guilt.
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We might seem to harp on this topic, but there really is no way to over emphasize the importance of trust - not just in terms of creating the most possible value from customers, but in "lubricating" the interactions and transactions of commerce. Indeed, our entire economic system would come to a crashing halt overnight, if it weren't for the trust that people have for each other.
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Martha Rogers and I have just returned from the Technomarketing Conference in Sao Paulo, where we appeared jointly on stage together, two times over two days during this four-day conference. We don't often get the chance to do that, but it's always fun when we do. Brazil is an up-and-coming economy, with a dynamic business community and an entrepreneurial culture that is likely to make it an increasingly influential country.
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The current state of U.S. politics reflects an important business lesson. Groups with diverse perspectives tend to make better, more creative and effective decisions than groups made up of people with similar perspectives. So what's the catch?
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Just like any other brand or company, politicians are trying to market their wares to you. And just like when choosing a particular product or service, your decision will likely come down to two elements of trust: intent and competence.
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More than 200 years ago, someone created a "machine" that could play chess against the best in Europe. It's one of the first examples of automation, but the story brings with it an important lesson about today's self-service strategies.
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So last night at 3:30 in the morning, Eastern time, my phone gets a text message, from the Obama campaign: Joe Biden has been chosen. In the fog of sleep, I remember thinking: this just can’t be true. This MUST be some kind of ingenious hoax. Joe Biden makes sense, of course, but no sane presidential candidate would release this kind of news at 3:30 in the morning. What about the news cycle? Now in the light of day, as
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Every night I debate with myself whether to leave my mobile phone on or not. My wife and I have children and close relatives who live in different time zones all over the world, from Hawaii to London. And as a frequent international traveler, I often sleep in a hotel bed somewhere in Europe, the Middle East, or Asia. Life is complicated enough, I think, without being awakened in the middle of the night by a business colleague who didn’t
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Senator Phil Gramm was recently quoted as saying we are not in a real recession, but a "mental recession." What does this have to do with your customers and your business reputation?
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Yesterday in New York, Martha Rogers and I had lunch with one of our favorite people, Phillip Riese. Phillip, an ex-American Express senior executive, is a literal fount of entrepreneurial wisdom. We cited him in our first book, The One to One Future, in 1993. Phillip’s insight is that business books come and go sort of like diet books. Everyone’s always trying to find the right diet in their own personal lives, and business executives seem to be on the
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If you’re looking for ideas on how to use social media in your marketing plans, you need look no further than Jeremiah Owyang’s blog, where he synthesizes a list of 50 social media ideas into five broader strategies. Jeremiah is an analyst with Forrester, and the five broad strategies come from Forrester, while the 50 ideas come from Chris Brogan’s blog. Brogan describes himself as a “social media evangelist.” One look around his site will convince you of the veracity
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I recently returned from an 8 1/2 day trip, during which I had engagements in four continents. I've captured it all in an 8 1/2 minute video. From Brazil to Qatar to Prague to Halifax, I exchanged insights during presentations, workshops, and one-on-one meetings. I met with executives from such industries as financial services, contact centers, and hospitality, and shared information on such issues as customer loyalty and employee engagement. I also learned about their business strategies. You can hear
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Sen. Phil Gramm, an advisor to Sen. John McCain, just stirred a big controversy by maintaining that the economic downturn causing so much angst is largely the result of pessimistic thinking, rather than serious economic problems. Pointing out that we aren’t actually in a recession at all, with real economic growth anemic but still respectable at a 1% positive rate, he called this a “mental recession,” and said the problem is we are becoming a “nation of whiners.” McCain repudiated
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There is increasing controversy about new personalized ad technologies able to track your every online move. Unlike most personalized online advertising, this new technology, from companies like NebuAds in the United States, and Phorm in the UK, is based on the cable TV or phone company that provides your overall Web access – your Internet-service provider (“ISP”). There’s an article about this in today’s Wall Street Journal.
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Can’t tell you how many times I’ve signed up for email notifications from some company I’ve dealt with, only to find myself inundated with messages so that within a few weeks, having read only one or two of them, if that many, I have to go back to the Web site and unsubscribe. I unsubscribe a lot. Just about as much as I subscribe. The other day my wife reported that she had signed up for the Neiman Marcus email
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If you believe, as I do, that earning the trust of customers is the most direct route to long-term success for a business, then there is a new book you should run out and buy today: The Best Service is No Service, by Bill Price and David Jaffe. If you want, read my comprehensive review of this book on Amazon, and then buy it.
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This week I was in Ottawa, talking to a whole group of government officials about the importance of customer centricity. But, you say, governments are monopolies, so they don't compete for business. And even if they did, they don't REALLY have customers anyway. But the surprising truth is, the principles around customer centricity are universal, and the government officials I addressed were just as interested in the topic as any business audience. Watch the Peppers Unplugged video, "Should Governments Be
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Hey, I just returned from a week in Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. In Singapore I heard that when a mobile phone company in that region removed the upper limit on what their call center reps were allowed to spend to satisfy a customer, it actually reduced the average amount each rep spent! You can hear about that, and some fascinating facts about Singapore, in my latest "Peppers Unplugged" video diary entry.
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Someone recently asked me, very seriously, whether I could tell them how much it really cost acquire a customer, relative to the cost of losing a customer. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that this is a nonsensical question. There’s no answer to it. That is, the answer is always going to be “it depends.” Consider the cost of acquiring a customer -- well, what particular kind of customer are we talking about? Will that be an ice-cream
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The current issue of our email newsletter “Inside 1to1: Privacy” includes a thought-provoking piece on the problems and successes of the United States’ privacy laws, entitled “Open Letter to the World: Don’t Copy Our Security-Breach Notification Model.” Published in conjunction with the International Association of Privacy Professionals, or IAPP, Inside 1to1: Privacy is a free monthly e-mail newsletter that reviews privacy, trust and security topics. I’m calling everyone’s attention to this current issue because it seems to have generated a
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I was recently in London for the Institute for Direct Marketing’s B2B conference. Great comments and discussion about the kinds of things B2B marketers can do to acquire and retain their customers. One of the issues in B2B, of course, is the fact that while a consumer will make purchase decisions on his own, a business customer will not. Businesses make no decisions on their own at all – because companies are just legal entities designed to sanction the actions
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I just left Istanbul, after spending two days in that engaging, tumultuous, thriving city. Peppers & Rogers Group’s largest and most successful consulting operation is based in Turkey, and I was there to meet the CEO for one of our larger clients, address his senior staff, and talk to the press. The night before the event, around an outdoor fire on the terrace of a beautiful restaurant overlooking the Bosporus, I chatted with the dozen or so consultants on the
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I’m doing a presentation next week for Gartner’s CRM conference in London on the incompatibility of innovation and operations. That is, the characteristics that make for a highly innovative company – experimentation, trial and error, creativity, diversity of opinions and resilience – are fundamentally at odds with the characteristics of a company that is capable of conducting its operations in a highly efficient manner – fixed routines, process invariability, and attention to detail.
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Couple of days ago in The New York Times (Monday, March 13 in the Business section) I saw an article about Wal-Mart’s new blogs, being authored without Wal-Mart’s corporate interference or editorial control, by the actual individual merchandisers at Wal-Mart. These blogs are full of their honest opinions about various items of merchandise, including quality and price value, along with a lot of purely personal observations. Real blogs, by real people, who just happen to be responsible for the products
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A European colleague has asked me whether it isn’t possible to drive customers away by simply asking them to complete a survey about customer satisfaction. That is, can the act of soliciting for a survey actually be a turn-off for customers all by itself?
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I’m not really very technology-savvy, and I have always been very happy not to possess a PDA. Until my kids gave me one I didn’t even own an MP3 player. But I have to say that when I saw the new iPhone my 27-year-old son bought, I contracted a bad case of gadget envy. I mean this thing is very sexy. It is way way cool. Starship Enterprise cool. Now I know this is a terrible thing for any father
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Martha and I both like Fred Reichheld’s Net Promoter Score, which we consider to be a convenient, quick way to get a handle on whether your company is building enough customer equity to sustain your growth and profit in the future. We think of it as a kind of leading indicator of lifetime value change. Most of you reading this blog will already be familiar with Reichheld’s concept, we’ve had a couple of conversations on it elsewhere in this blog,
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Big article in the Wall Street Journal today about Borders cutting back loyalty rewards in its very popular program. See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117504224198951153.html?mod=hpp_us_at_glance_mm for the story. (I believe non-subscribers can access this WSJ link only for a limited time period.) It seems to me that there are several things wrong with Borders' new approach. I don't begrudge them the need to contain costs, but the way this new program is configured doesn't sound like it's going to be very attractive at all
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In the October issue of “Treasury & Risk” (before you ask - my UBS broker sent it to me, thinking I would be interested in it, and she was right) the cover article urges CFO’s to pay more attention to customer satisfaction and service, because customer satisfaction is a key to long-term success. One metric the article considers at length is Reichheld’s NPS, or “Net Promoter Score,” which most of you already know boils down to the difference between the
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From the “technology so cool it’s scary” department comes this news: Google researchers have worked out a kind of software application that will allow the company to synchronize what a Web user is seeing on the computer screen with what he or she is watching simultaneously on television!
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A new academic field called neuroeconomics involves the study of how people make economic decisions in ways that are not always rational. It is a field that combines neuroscience, psychology, and economics. I just came across a bit of learning from this field that has important implications for how people make trade-offs between short-term and long-term benefits, and I want to share it with you. I warn you now, however, that I’m sharing this because I think it’s interesting, not
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