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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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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When you tell someone you remember card catalogs in a time before online databases, they immediately assume you have three grown children and a mortgage. But, once people discover you're really a 25-year-old woman with the countenance of a teenager, you suddenly become the enemy--a lobotomized creature that cannot function without the support of their smartphone. To most companies, I am not an individual, but one of many. I am just another piece in a puzzle they cannot seem to
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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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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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For most of my life, I've been considered a child in the eyes of the law. But, even though my ID now claims I'm older than I appear, there's no denying that the holiday season ignites the spark that brings my inner child back to life. Retailers can put every TV, tablet, and smartphone in the entire store on sale and I will still gravitate toward the toy aisle.
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Now that the housing market has begun to thaw, marketing opportunities are heating up. Because the average consumer spends an average of $6,000 to $7,000 during the moving process, marketers must take advantage of this prime opportunity to acquire and retain customers as they embark upon this transition. But, while the last few years saw houses sitting for months at a time, the average home now sells within 30 to 45 days, meaning marketers have a much smaller window of
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Hand-shaped turkeys and pilgrim hats have all but faded from our holiday season preparations. They say tomorrow is Thanksgiving, but the commercials on TV and the catalogues in my mailbox tell me that companies and consumers are more interested in what they want than what they have. We usher in the holiday season with one day dedicated to counting our blessings, yet we bookend this day of appreciation with nothing but selfishness and greed.
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Customer centricity is often associated with steps that companies in the private sector can take to build closer relationships with their customers and to deliver products, services, and experiences that are designed with the customer in mind. But customer centricity doesn't just apply to the business world. As a Peppers & Rogers Group white paper points out, a growing number of governments, associations, and non-profits around the world are adopting best practices from the business community and designing citizen-centric offerings
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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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1to1 Media's Tom Hoffman speaks with David Petersen, CEO of Sense Networks, about different ways that companies can use analytics to better understand the mobile customer and how customers are using mobile devices as part of their multichannel journeys.
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Human beings and various other species within the animal kingdom qualify as social beings because we intermingle with other members of our kind. But, as technology continues to advance, we're beginning to see how the different devices in our lives interact with one another as well. However, as the electronic world begins to merge, customer service providers are finding it harder than ever to supply sufficient, reliable support.
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In recognition of Customer Service Week, 1to1 Media's Tom Hoffman speaks with Frank Paterno, Vice President of Marketing at Intelliverse, about different ways that companies can take advantage of cloud-based contact center services. This includes best practices for making it easy for customers to use self-service tools.
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Many people neglect to realize that today's technological takeover has been in progress for decades. From the very first light bulb, to the invention of the Internet, these creations are the fuel that has propelled us into the present. We only notice technology's rapid evolution now because today's constant experimentation highlights how far our society has come in such a short amount of time.
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Sometimes it seems as if customers are moving at lightning speed. Given the many channels customers use and the dexterity with which they move from one channel to the next, it's becoming increasingly difficult for companies to keep pace with their customers, much less anticipate their needs. These are just a few of the requirements facing companies as they look ahead to how they will need to meet customers' service expectations in the future.
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1to1 Media's Tom Hoffman speaks with Karine Del Moro, Senior Director at Confirmit, about best practices for drawing upon employee feedback to help improve the customer experience.
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This week marks the start of the official 2012 TV season where networks will introduce a bevy of new comedies and dramas with the hope of attracting the magic number of viewers sufficient enough to get the green light on a second season.
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One of the most intriguing aspects of the U.S. presidential election is that there are so many different ways to spin the numbers on voter sentiment and voting blocs. How will Mitt Romney and President Obama fare with voters from military families and veterans or union workers? In a unique twist, the customer experience experts at Temkin Group have placed the presidential race under a different lens - how likely are consumers to recommend the candidates to their friends and
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Digital touchpoints like websites, mobile phones, and tablets can drive revenue, lower costs, build brands, and engender customer loyalty. This shouldn't be new news to anyone reading this. But to achieve these potential benefits, you need to deliver digital interactions that meet your customers' needs in easy and enjoyable ways. That isn't as easy as it sounds. Companies struggle on a daily basis to identify what digital experience improvements they need to make -- and, once that's nailed down, how
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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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Over the Labor Day weekend, I read an article in Mediabistro which states that up to half of the workforce for Fortune 100 companies by 2020 could be freelance, contract, or temporary workers. As the Mediabistro article points out, gains in temporary hiring have historically preceded any upticks in full-time hiring. But in the current economy, full-time employment hasn't picked up any momentum. The topic got me to thinking more broadly about the type of skills and mixes of worker
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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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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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My 15 year old son is a bit of a clothes hound. He's constantly searching websites for deals on shoes, shirts, pants, etc. He's pretty good at finding bargains online. A few weeks ago, he came across a special on Blink-182 shirts as he's a big fan of the band. The offer was two shirts for $20. The price didn't include shipping, which turned out to be the bane of my son's shopping experience.
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When Professor John Henry Pepper, of the Polytechnic Institute in London demonstrated the Pepper's Ghost "hologram" demonstration back in 1862, he probably never imagined that someday his illusionist experimentation would propel customer service into the future 150 years later.
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1to1 Media's Tom Hoffman speaks with John O'Hara, President of Pitney Bowes Software Solutions, about the opportunities and challenges for achieving a thorough understanding of customers, including insight into customers' needs, behaviors, preferences, channel usage, experiences, and potential value.
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There's an interesting discussion going on among contact center professionals on a LinkedIn group based on the following question: "Which of the following technologies do you believe will have the most impact on customer service within the next 5 years?" The choices include: • Mobile Customer Service Apps • Virtual Agents • Video • Agent Desktop Technology
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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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Retail stores have the opportunity to engage customers both online and in-store. Because customers no longer have to leave their homes to shop, retailers have the ability to engage customers and develop relationships across numerous channels. However, many retailers haven't yet fully embraced the resources available.
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Retail sales across the U.S. fell for the third consecutive month in June as weak employment growth and stagnant wages appear to be restricting spending among many American consumers, according to a report from the U.S. Commerce Department. The data is troubling since it suggests that consumer spending, which drives about two-thirds of the U.S. economy, is also weakening, according to Reuters. And while there's no panacea for unstable consumer spending, retailers and other companies can strengthen sales by analyzing
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A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog about plans by Verizon and AT&T to introduce family data sharing plans. As part of the blog, I complained that customers didn't want to have to keep track of monthly data usage by their family members.
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There's been no shortage of discussion lately about how challenging it is to be a CMO. Among the issues faced by CMOs is the ability to effectively manage marketing efforts across various channels that companies use to interact with customers. Siloed channel data makes it particularly tough for CMOs and other decision-makers to gain a complete view of customers and their behaviors across different channels as well as their transactions, preferences, and potential needs. The desire among CMOs and other
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We spend too much time looking at screens. We bounce from our phones, to our computers, to our televisions, absorbing commercials, tweets, and status updates ad infinitum. "Windows" have taken on an entirely new meaning. This overwhelming flood of information keeps us glued to these rectangular boxes day in and day out.
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1to1 Media's Tom Hoffman speaks with James Norwood, CMO at KANA Software, about different ways to improve web customer service, including self-service capabilities, as well as common mistakes to avoid.
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1to1 Media's Tom Hoffman speaks with Michael Housman, managing director of analytics at Evolv, about best practices for using Big Data to improve the performance and responsiveness of the contact center.
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Right about the time I started in the CRM/customer strategy space about 12 years ago, a new term was coined. "Customer Experience Management" emerged as the new mantra for every organization, as well as a movement to reengineer companies, their employees, and processes around the customer.
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One of the biggest problems with contact centers is the inordinate amount of focus that's placed on efficiency. Many agents are instructed and incented to close out calls quickly, often without fully resolving a customer's issue or delivering a satisfactory experience. Last week while I attended Call Center Week in Las Vegas, I came across an example of where customer service should be headed.
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It can be difficult to predict the value of delivering customer service and support via social, according to Gartner Research Vice President Jeff Mann. It's easier to show the value once a company starts using social for customer service, Mann said during his presentation today at the Gartner Customer Strategies & Technologies Summit 2012 in London. In a few cases, he said, companies forced to respond to a major customer outcry via social discovered significant benefits and created formal
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There's a long list of problems with the U.S. healthcare system, including skyrocketing premiums, sizable gaps and limits in insurance coverage, an over-emphasis on risk mitigation (re: avoiding malpractice lawsuits), etc. Despite these challenges, this doesn't mean that the customer experience has to suffer. For instance, I had a downright delightful healthcare experience this past weekend with an ophthalmologist.
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A new study released by Amadeus examines the frustrations that travelers have with today's airport experience and how airports are expected to evolve between now and 2025. The study provides a fairly comprehensive look at what passengers dislike most about the airport experience and what they would like to change.
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Customers are becoming more demanding and also more discerning. One of the reasons behind their amplified expectations is an increase in choices, which mean that customers no longer have to settle, but can choose the best products and brands they do business with. But more than anything else, customers are expecting these brands to treat them as individuals and invest in building a relationship with them. Rather than one-off interactions, customers want a long-lasting rapport that starts even before they've
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In the next few weeks, both Verizon and AT&T are expected to introduce family data sharing plans where customers will pay for a fixed amount of data to be shared between family members or between device types (e.g. 5 gigabytes for two devices instead of 3 GB for one), according to USA Today. For its part, Verizon would phase out unlimited data plans for customers who renew their contracts or upgrade to new phones. Only customers who pay full price
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Temkin Group has completed its third annual study on the state of customer experience management. The research examines feedback from hundreds of large companies. As always, it's great to see a snapshot of where companies are on their customer experience journeys. For this post, I've decided to assemble some interesting tidbits from the research:
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During childhood, we learn in a group atmosphere. Just as we learned to socialize while also developing necessary life skills, businesses must now cultivate their social skills in order to learn how to best serve their customers.
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A new study from PulsePoint on the digital marketing capabilities and shortcomings of companies finds that "overwhelming complexity" and a "lack of unified measurement" are the key stumbling blocks in aligning these efforts with consumers' multichannel behaviors. There's a growing body of research on this topic, most of which support this thesis that marketing leaders are, in fact, overcome by the difficulty of managing and coordinating marketing efforts across the flood of channels that customers use. They also struggle to
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Consumers are increasingly interacting with businesses through a mix of channels. This is especially true in financial services. Consumers now expect to be able to access their financial information and conduct transactions via any channel they desire, whether that channel is digital or physical. Consumers who use multiple channels also expect information to be accurate, up-to-date, and consistent across channels, at all times. This creates a need for accurate, real-time cross-channel updates. Additionally, how a consumer chooses to interact
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The only way your company will differentiate based on customer experience is if the culture of your organization aligns closely with the brand promise to customers. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh puts it in his blog post entitled Your Culture Is Your Brand: "Advertising can only get your brand so far... So what's a company to do if you can't just buy your way into building the brand you want? In a word: culture. At Zappos, our belief is that if
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1to1 Media's Tom Hoffman speaks with Greg Sherry, Vice President of Marketing at Verint Systems, about different ways that companies can use workforce optimization tools to foster a customer-centric contact center. This includes the ability to identify agent competencies and align agents' skills and aptitudes, such as first call resolution or cross-selling capabilities, to provide the right support to the right customers at the right time. Additionally, workforce optimization tools can also be used to help act on Voice
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Customers are more empowered and more connected than ever, NICE President and CEO Zeevi Bregman reminded attendees during his keynote at the company's Interactions 2012 customer conference. Customers are online shopping and playing more, sharing more, using more media, he added. With the proliferation of mobile, customers can now interact 24/7 from anywhere via multiple connection points: mobile websites, social networks, the contact center, etc. In fact, a NICE survey of about 2,000 consumers found that respondents use six
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"The big change in the world is that patients are taking control." The remarks from TEDMED's Jay Walker at last week's World Health Care Congress captured the prevailing sentiment of the conference for medical and healthcare executives. Nearly every session and keynote focused on the theme that consumers, once a secondary business consideration in the industry, have shot to the forefront of healthcare business strategy.
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If you're like me, the parent of a soon-to-be college student, you're probably immersed in researching colleges and universities to help determine which ones may be a suitable fit for your child. After all, with a price tag that can exceed $200,000 for a four-year degree, finding the right college for your child is serious business.
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Change is exciting, but it can also be daunting. This means that drivers of change have a difficult task on their hands, convincing their colleagues that such a change will be beneficial for the whole organization. Despite the best intentions, organizations often encounter problems when attempting to transform customer experience. According to Lior Arussy, president of Strativity Group, one of the major mistakes that organizations make in their transformation journey is thinking that what's being proposed has already been tried.
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1to1 Media's Tom Hoffman speaks with Udi Ziv, President of NICE Systems' Enterprise Group, about approaches for striking a balance between using customer sentiment in social media while protecting customer privacy.
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"Consumers think of healthcare as a complex web," said Joshua Riff, M.D., chief medical director at Target at today's World Health Care Congress event. The company known for customer engagement sees healthcare as a potential new horizon.
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