14 Posts found for Author: Rob Markey

Most companies work hard to determine the root causes of customer dissatisfaction. To outgrow your competition, you have to work at least as hard to determine the sources of customer delight. If it derives from product quality, then what, specifically, do customers cite as evidence? If it comes from the customer’s experience in buying from you, then what about the process most impressed them? In … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Frederick F. Reichheld, Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Customer Related

Companies have learned a sobering truth during the past decade or so: Building a truly customer-centric culture and organization is never primarily a top-down affair, to be implemented solely with the levers of conventional management. It is always a bottom-up process, with people throughout the organization actively developing and supporting the company’s culture. Employees need to see the fundamental connection between the work they do … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

High Net Promoter Scores are certainly better than low ones. They indicate that a company has earned more promoters than detractors. But how do we interpret the scores these companies are reporting? What is a good score? How should we set goals and targets for improvement?

To begin, we should make sure we look at the right sort of Net Promoter Score. Seasoned practitioners of the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Companies that seek to be the best at something may have to be only average at everything else.

Content: Article | Authors: Mark Gottfredson, Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Net Promoter SystemSM (NPS®) practitioners have created sophisticated systems that enable them to close the loop with customers, bring the comments and criticisms that they get to the front line and use that feedback to continually improve the customer experience. They have learned how to link the feedback to their customer relationship management (CRM) software and their existing operational infrastructure, so that they know what … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Frederick F. Reichheld, Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Customer Related, Management, Marketing / Sales

If all you do is “empower the front line”—grant your employees more freedom to wow customers—they will almost certainly strike the wrong balance between customer delight and shareholder returns. The key to success in empowering frontline employees lies in giving them a framework within which to operate—and feedback about how they are performing within that framework.

Content: Article | Author: Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Many top companies are using or have adopted a Net Promoter® system to learn more about the quality of their relationships. A closed-loop feedback process can help businesses identify key clients, product features customers like or dislike, service opportunities and problems that need immediate attention. But these efforts can only go so far if the survey data is flawed by biased answers. Like a virus … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Frederick F. Reichheld, Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Customer Related

As part of a broader customer engagement strategy, social media can be an effective and cost-efficient marketing, sales, service, insight and retention tool. Our recent survey of more than 3,000 consumers helped to identify what makes social media effective.

Editor’s Note: this paper will likely become dated somewhat quickly, but some of the content seems to me of lasting value.

Content: Article | Authors: Chris Barry, Chris Brahm, Eric Almquist, Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Customer Related, Management, Marketing / Sales

This content is restricted to site members. Please log in or register

If a hard asset like a machine is somehow impaired, a CFO must reflect the asset’s lower value on the books. The same applies to a contract or piece of software. If customers, on the other hand, suddenly decide they hate doing business with your company, this asset is clearly impaired—but the CFO may not even know about it until too late. And even if … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Frederick F. Reichheld, Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Accounting, Customer Related, Finance

Historically, the vast majority of customer feedback was anonymous. It was collected in a “market research mode,” which meant no one could follow up with individual customers to address their issues directly. The flawed logic behind this was built on a belief that customers would not share honest feedback unless their identity was kept secret. That might be true in some circumstances, but in my … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Rob Markey | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Customer Related

Some companies seem to want to hear from their customers-that’s why they spend so much money on elaborate feedback systems. But the approach many of these companies take seems to ensure nobody in the organization will learn anything from what they hear. And if employees don’t learn anything, how can they take action to make things better? Here are some of the tactics companies use … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Rob Markey | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Customer Related

Loyal customers cost less to serve. They concentrate spending with companies they trust. And they help stretch marketing dollars through word-of-mouth referrals. The powerful advantages of customer loyalty help explain why the biggest changes in market share occur during downturns.

Content: Article | Authors: Darrell K. Rigby, Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Customer Related, Management, Marketing / Sales

Most companies assume they’re consistently giving customers what they want. Usually, they’re kidding themselves. When we recently surveyed 362 firms, we found that 80% believed they delivered a “superior experience” to their customers. But when we then asked customers about their own perceptions, we heard a very different story.

Content: Article | Authors: Barney Hamilton, Frederick F. Reichheld, James Allen, Rob Markey | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Best Practices, Customer Related