629 Posts Found

Like it or not, although market researchers often develop a solid understanding of the jobs that customers are trying to do, the primary language through which the nature of the opportunity must be described in the resource allocation process is the language of market size. Asking marketers to understand this concept is not the solution to the problem-because whether it is called “marketing myopia” or … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: CIO Magazine | Subjects: Customer Related, Market Research

If you really want to understand what’s going on inside the minds of your customers, do the following: set up an easy response form on-line with two open-ended questions people can respond to in less than 90 seconds. Ask your customers what your company does that adds value to them, and what gets in the way of adding value to them. Ask if they have … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Customer Related

An “extraordinary guarantee” – a radical departure from a typical low-octane guarantee-has proven to be a powerful catalyst for galvanizing an organization to eliminate the causes of customer dissatisfaction in every part of its business.

Content: Article | Author: Christopher W. Hart | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Best Practices, Customer Related

Sometimes a valuable customer may be the person who never buys a thing. In a new research paper, Professor Sunil Gupta discusses how to assess the profitability of a customer in a networked setting-a “free” customer who nevertheless influences your bottom line.

Content: Article | Author: Sunil Gupta | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

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“Rate your experience from 1 to 10” “Would you recommend our company?” We ask the questions of our customers. But what do we do with their answers? Jeanne Bliss gives us the action plan to actually make our customers happy with our services.

Editor’s Note:
I personally thought the introductory material was of little value, but the 10 steps which start on page 12 were … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jeanne Bliss | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Complexograms are thumbnail sales portraits of your customers. These portraits reflect the ideal status of each customer segment as they near the close of the buying decision process. A Complexogram has four quadrants representing the four dimensions of sales complexity (need, risk, knowledge, consensus).

Content: Article | Source: GrokDotCom | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Most metrics of customer satisfaction are individual-centric and ignore the fact that many experiences with products and services are actually jointly consumed. Our research indicates that people might evaluate products or services differently depending on whether they consumed it alone or with someone else.

…When designing experiences…it’s important to create conditions where people can actually observe and subtly interact with each other. What you want … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Capital Ideas | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

The psychology at the heart of customer buying patterns is far more complex than previously thought. The different variations of customer loyalty must be understood if a company is to win the long-term battle for customers, increase market share and achieve high performance.

Content: Article | Authors: Paul F. Nunes, Steven S. Ramsey, Woodruff W. Driggs | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Customer segmentation divides customers into groups based only on those needs and factors actually driving purchase decisions. A common mistake is to segment customers based on peripheral characteristics that, while interesting, provide no help in achieving the fundamental goal of segmentation: selling more product more profitably.

Content: Quotation | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

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Every company has metrics that track performance. The key question is whether these metrics really provide visibility to performance as viewed by the customer.

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Customer Related, Measurement

When making a purchase, a consumer has a choice between using frequent-flier miles, cash, or some combination thereof. Which will he or she choose? Another consumer has an opportunity to participate in a special program to get a free car wash after paying for a certain number of washes. What’s the best way for the car-wash owner to motivate the customer to participate? Such questions … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Companies have tended to concentrate on differences between different groups of customers. They have divided them into ever smaller and neater segments so they can customize their offerings to meet the needs of those segments.

We found that value innovators take a different approach. Instead of looking at differences between customers, they focus on the basic commonalities across customers. When companies create unprecedented value on … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation

It is the customer who determines what a business is. It is the customer alone whose willingness to pay for a good or for a service converts economic resources into wealth, things into goods. What the business thinks it produces is not of first importance–especially not to the future of the business and to its success…What the customer thinks he is buying, what he considers … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: 800-CEO-READ (8CR) | Subjects: Business Rules, Customer Related

One of the surest signs of a bad or declining relationship is the absence of complaints from the customer. Nobody is ever that satisfied, especially not over an extended period of time. The customer is either not being candid or not being contacted-probably both. The absence of candor reflects the decline of trust and the deterioration of the relationship. Bad things accumulate. Impaired communication is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Most channels are constructed from the supplier out, rather than from the customer in. In other words, the product or service is designed first and it is only then that the supplier thinks about ways to get the product/service out to the customer. If the company achieves its sales goals, it lulls the company into the assumption that the channels must be right. For all … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

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Call centers are an essential part of the marketing and customer care strategy of many companies, but too many executives consider these operations a necessary expense rather than a way to generate new business. Indiscriminately moving customer traffic to a company’s Web site or outsourcing call centers haphazardly can make them less rather than more effective.

Content: Article | Authors: Deepak K. Khandelwal, Keith A. Gilson | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales