629 Posts Found

It would probably be hard to find anyone these days to argue against the idea that all activities of a business should be responsive to customer needs. It is our contention in this article, though, that being customer-oriented is not enough in the present complex economic environment. Successful players need to be market-driven, a concept that broadens customer orientation to other key market actors (distributors, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jean-Jacques Lambin | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Customer Related, Strategy

New wireless technologies will soon broadcast customers’ personal information, including their presence, preferences, and priorities. Providing services based on this digital information will require careful consideration of the six items of customer insight we call customer “context.” Companies that are able to integrate and use this information on a moment-by-moment basis will reap better and more profitable customer relationships.

Content: Article | Authors: Jeanne G. Harris, John C. Beck, Patrick D. Lynch | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business

Companies spent the 20th century managing efficiencies. They must spend the 21st century managing experiences.

Content: Article | Authors: C.K. Prahalad, Venkat Ramaswamy | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

The first step in leading a successful CRM program is to develop a robust customer strategy based on good old-fashioned customer segmentation. Step two is to realign your organization to support this plan. Third, provide the right tools and technology to support your customer strategy and realigned organization. And at every step of the way ask yourself whether customer loyalty could be better promoted by … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Crawford Gillies, Darrell K. Rigby, Frederick F. Reichheld | Source: European Business Journal | Subjects: Customer Related, Strategy

It’s not enough to know your customers. You have to integrate them into your company.

Content: Article | Authors: Charles E. Lucier, Deven Sharma, Richard Molloy | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

From being a platitude to being a pre-requisite, being ‘market driven’ has been the secret behind many of the success stories – Shell, Dell, Honda, Intel, Boeing, Novartis, Merck, Cisco – of recent years.

Editor’s Note: I thought the excessive dwelling on real-life examples was of little value but there is some useful information in this article.

Content: Article | Author: George Day | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Customer Related, Strategy

The management of customer knowledge is critical to many contemporary business initiatives involving customers and customer-relationships. Firms are investing billions of dollars in technologies to manage customer information and turn it into knowledge. Yet few organizations have developed outstanding levels of customer insight, and most concentrate only on the customer data that are easiest to address. In the research for this article, we investigated the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Ajay K. Kohli, Jeanne G. Harris, Thomas H. Davenport | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Best Practices, Customer Related

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Real-time data can improve the routing and logistics of field personnel and parts–and the company’s bottom line.

Content: Article | Author: Michael Blumberg | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Customer Related, Operations

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Principles for turning non-customers into loyal advocates, by the author of Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It, How to Keep It.

Content: Article | Author: Jill Griffin | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Should data security and privacy require an ROI? It did at this retailer, who ended up paying the full price.

Content: Article | Author: Larry Ponemon | Source: Darwin Magazine | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business

Very few of us, myself included, know the customer. One reason is that all of us believe, and must believe, that the product and the service we produce is important. But 99.9% of your customers couldn’t care less about your product or service. You are not that important in their universe. And that’s almost impossible to accept.

The second reason is that you amass an enormous … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Context Magazine | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

“Why is there such an intense focus on customer relationship management, or CRM? The simple (yet highly compelling) reason: profits. Study after study reveals a proven link between how effectively a company interacts with its customers and its financial performance. As a result, spending on CRM initiatives has soared. Yet more money spent does not connote more or better results.

In this paper, we lay … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Kearney | Subject: Customer Related

Managers have long been interested in weeding out customers they consider to be less profitable than others. The question is, how do managers determine who belongs in that group? According to several Wharton marketing professors, there is no easy answer, despite new and increasingly sophisticated efforts to measure what is called “Customer Lifetime Value” (CLV) – the present value of the likely future income stream … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: David Bell, George Day, Peter Fader, Xavier Dreze | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Start with obvious direct costs. Then look in all the unexpected places, too.

Content: Article | Author: Marc Shingles | Source: Darwin Magazine | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Detailed customer profiles aren’t enough. Companies must make their marketing messages more timely.

Content: Article | Authors: John Erik Garr, John Sviokla, Matthew Chittle | Source: Context Magazine | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

“Why are customers who say they’re satisfied not necessarily repeat customers? Because satisfaction is a measure of what people say, whereas loyalty is a measure of what they actually do. Many managers still don’t recognize this fundamental difference, so they use customer satisfaction and customer loyalty interchangeably, as though they were synonyms.”

Content: Article | Authors: Arthur Einstein, Mark Klein | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

McKinsey’s experience with dozens of companies, from banking and insurance to travel and logistics, shows that faltering CRM efforts can be turned around. The key to uncovering the root cause of the problem is to reassess the business goals of the system and the organizational and technical support it receives. Every CRM breakdown stems from some combination of poorly defined objectives and organizational and technical … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Arthur Hu, Daniel Levitt, Jim McCrory, Manuel Ebner | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business

Using the Balanced Scorecard approach, Robert S. Kaplan, of Harvard Business School, and David P. Norton analyze the four essentials of customer management: customer selection, acquisition, retention, and growth.

Content: Article | Authors: David P. Norton, Robert S. Kaplan | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Customer Related, Management