610 Posts Found

Global consumer strategist Aparna Bharadwaj shares a fascinating glimpse at under-the-radar affinities that transcend cultures and borders — from the way people snack in China and Saudi Arabia to how people shop for clothes in the US and Russia. “There are patterns where you least expect them,” she says – and paying attention to them just might bring the world a little bit closer.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Aparna Bharadwaj | Sources: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), TED Conferences LLC | Subjects: Customer Related, International, Marketing / Sales

For the past three decades, the business mantra has been “customer first.” Yet focusing on retaining and expanding an existing customer base often results in finer segmentation and the greater tailoring of offerings to better meet customer preferences, which will likely lead companies into too-small target markets of an existing industry.

The blue ocean strategist’s mantra is “noncustomers first.” By looking to noncustomers and building on … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Mi Ji, Renée Mauborgne, W. Chan Kim | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales, Strategy

Thanks to the increasing availability of AI, including machine learning algorithms, deliberately creating customer data feedback loops is now possible for most products and services. This means that as a firm gathers more customer data, it can feed that data into machine learning algorithms to improve its product or service, thereby attracting more customers, generating even more customer data. For some products, it is easy; … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Andrei Hagiu, Julian Wright | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Customer Related

Personalization based on customer attributes and behavior is a familiar concept among marketers, and artificial intelligence is making it increasingly effective. AI-based hyper-personalization employs both sophisticated methods and far more data than previous methods and is far more precise as a result. Thomas H. Davenport discusses the role of AI in personalization as well as the growing backlash against personalization fueled by data privacy concerns. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Thomas H. Davenport | Source: Management and Business Review (MBR) | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business, Marketing / Sales

When is the last time you took stock of your customer base? Two marketing and data experts say it’s due for a systematic review.

Content: Article | Authors: Anita Balchandani, Michael Ross, Peter Fader | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

In an excerpt from their book ‘The Customer-Base Audit,’ Peter Fader, Bruce Hardie, and Michael Ross ask critical questions to help you gauge how much you really understand about your customers’ buying behavior.

Content: Article | Authors: Bruce Hardie, Michael Ross, Peter Fader | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Customer Related

When Raymond Loewy arrived in Manhattan, U.S. companies did not yet worship at the altars of style and elegance. That era’s capitalists were monotheistic: Efficiency was their only god. American factories—with their electricity, assembly lines, and scientifically calibrated workflow—produced an unprecedented supply of cheap goods by the 1920s, and it became clear that factories could make more than consumers naturally wanted. To sell more stuff, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Derek Thompson | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Need to call Facebook? Frontier? Good luck.

Content: Article | Author: Emily Stewart | Source: Vox | Subject: Customer Related

When you’re adding new features, the question shouldn’t be, “Is this potentially useful to someone?” Instead ask, “How does this contribute to our users achieving their goals?” It’s very easy to “value add” your way straight out of product/market fit.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jane Davis | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Entrepreneurship, Innovation

Understanding how a person wants to view themselves is actually incredibly valuable. It tells you a lot about how you can mirror that feeling back to them with your product while still satisfying their actual preferences.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jane Davis | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Market Research, Market/Investment

Understand the why and the how behind user behaviors, identifying which ones actually demonstrate value and which ones are potential leading indicators of a broken experience.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jane Davis | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Market Research

There’s typically about eight different steps in the customer jobs flow of someone starting and completing an action. You can really apply that framework to any product that you’re working on and look at the steps that you’re solving today. Look at the steps that you’re currently not solving and think about how you can solve other jobs that are ancillary to your core product. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ryan Glasgow | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation

You can’t rely on your customers to figure out what to build. They can really only tell you what outcomes they’re looking to achieve.

Content: Quotation | Author: Ryan Glasgow | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation, Market Research

How does a business start with customer journey mapping? Before attempting any customer journey map exercise, organizations must answer two questions.

• Are we a customer-centric organization?
• Is customer experience a measured focus of our business?

Assuming the answer is yes to those questions, the next step is to build out journey maps using the following general framework.

Content: Article | Author: Mike Turner | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Customer Related

There are three areas that degrade customer experience: commitments you make that you can’t keep, failures in the way you align processes and teams with the customer, and a lack of resources.

Content: Quotation | Author: Gary Moore | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Customer Related

You get the behavior that your comp plan designs for. In the early days, I prefer to keep comp plans simple with two metrics, max. I also love plans that have a component focused on the entire customer lifecycle. For example, comping teams on bookings and retention can be a powerful way to ensure teams pursue the right users who will be longtime customers.

Content: Quotation | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Compensation, Customer Related, Human Resources

In order to truly serve a customer, you need to understand two things: What are their goals and what is standing in their way?

Content: Quotation | Author: Meka Asonye | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Customer Related

The idea that a strong customer relationship equates to a growing customer relationship is simply not true. Don’t mistake loyalty for growth.

Content: Quotation | Author: Anson Vuong | Source: Gallup Management Journal | Subject: Customer Related

“Why would a customer not want this?” is often a far more interesting question than why they would. When you’re working on a product idea, there’s a thesis for why you believe you’re right and it’s really easy to constantly confirmation bias yourself into believing it’s the optimal decision. But once you can also find the counterpoint, the scenario where you’re wrong, you can start … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Rick Song | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Great customer service is the holy grail of sales. When customers feel satisfied, they spend more money and are more likely to come back. Happy customers write positive reviews online and share their experiences through word of mouth. But great customer service is also really hard. Shoppers complain that sales associates aren’t listening to them or are just going through the motions.

There is a simple … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jonah Berger | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Customer Related