CEOs, Listen Up!
Leadership necessitates listening. Today's CEOs expect communications to be a strategic asset and critical link between their corporate vision and the first connection to their customers—customer service.
Leadership necessitates listening. Today's CEOs expect communications to be a strategic asset and critical link between their corporate vision and the first connection to their customers—customer service.
We at 1to1 Magazine interviewed all 15 1to1 Customer Champions for this year's cover feature. They had many different stories to tell, but many seemed to approach their corporate and customer challenges in a similar way.
“I’m passionate about customers. I always start with, how does that affect the customers?”
Those were the words of Sage Software President and CEO Sue Swenson yesterday during the opening keynote at Sage’s Insights partner conference. Swenson was emphasizing to partners how important customer relationships are to her, and to Sage.
I always love to hear that kind of customer focus, but it especially strikes a chord when someone at the C-level not only talks the talk but walks the walk. Because as we all know, an enterprisewide customer strategy can only succeed if company leaders believe in the power of customer centricity, communicate that to their employees, and deliver on it.
Many customer-focused executives face a challenge when trying to get executive buy-in for new customer-based initiatives. Traditionally it has been hard to track revenue and bottom-line impact to specific customer experiences. But new tools and processes now show that improvements in the customer experience actually do tie back to the bottom line.
Continue reading "Monetizing Customer Experience Improvements" »
While the Feds are busy cutting interest rates and deficit spending to quell the current recession (or mild downturn, depending on who you ask)—companies may feel the pressure to start cutting valuable programs such as marketing or customer service, at the detriment to customers. These areas should remain in tact in the coming months because they will not only help companies weather the mounting storm, but will give them the edge they need to emerge on top.
Here are a few suggestions for surviving the recession.