629 Posts Found

A company’s most regular and trusted customers—a group we call the “client rim”—can be a powerful force for change when they provide feedback on service standards or product quality. The opinion of these customers counts; they have extensive experience with the company and its ways of working, are generally committed to its success, know the people, and are typically both its most enthusiastic ambassadors and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Arne Gast, Raul Lansink | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Customer Related

People are stuck between focus groups on the one hand and the Steve Jobs approach (“I will know what customers need before they know it themselves”) on the other. The Jobs way is compelling, but it’s risky. The challenge is the journey from today’s customer, whom most companies understand well, to tomorrow’s customer, whom they don’t.

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Customer Related, Market Research, Marketing / Sales

The clearest path to bettering customer service is to understand the customer lifetime value and the impact of that on your resources and bottom-line. Calculating your customer’s lifetime value allows you to clearly understand and justify the need to continuously improve your service offering to ensure the customer continues to deliver on his lifetime value.

Content: Quotation | Author: Chris Zane | Source: Chief Executive | Subject: Customer Related

Early adopters get most of the attention from analysts and marketers, but focusing on consumers who are resistant to innovations is another way to bring new products to market.

Content: Article | Author: Matt Palmquist | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation, Market Research, Marketing / Sales

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

Digital technologies have caught fire because they address three core human needs: the need for connection with other humans, the need for self-expression, and the need for exploration. Wrapped up in the seductive ribbon of convenience, there has never been a better formula for consumer engagement. Understanding the human side of the digital revolution will be a key success factor for businesses trying to compete … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Hana Ben-Shabat | Source: Kearney | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business, Personality / Behavior

Product returns are typically seen as a necessary headache and a cost drain. But companies can use their return policies to enhance customer loyalty and increase profits. Research by J. Andrew Petersen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and V. Kumar of Georgia State University.

Content: Article | Author: Matt Palmquist | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Customer Related

Too many people think only of their own profit. But business opportunity seldom knocks on the door of self-centered people. No customer ever goes to a store merely to please the storekeeper.

Content: Quotation | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Customer Related, Entrepreneurship, Management

No consumer can absorb, interpret, store, recall and use all of the information available, not even all the relevant bits. This imbalance between available information and available mental processing and storage capacity gives rise to a necessary principle of scarcity. Without it, there would be no need for firms to compete for awareness and privileged positions in the consumer’s mind.

A direct corollary of limited capacity … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Niraj Dawar | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

When customers … come across a new product, their cognitively economical approach is to try to classify it, to sort it into a familiar bin or category, so they can make sense of it in familiar terms. If they can do this, they can efficiently apply existing knowledge. For example, coming across a bean bag for the first time, a customer might be confused. But … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Niraj Dawar | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

During a typical customer research process, we will interview customers and might ask them questions like these. All of these questions are customer and product discovery questions, almost identical to the ones product managers use to understand if the company has unlocked product-market fit. In addition, these interviews surface insights about marketing positioning and true perception in the market; customer support effectiveness; overselling; and product … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Tomasz Tunguz | Subjects: Customer Related, Market Research

Moving at the speed of the crowd has become mandatory for any company that is on the Web (which is just about every company). These companies must understand how influence gets peddled in the marketplace today (and constantly refresh their understanding) – and they must constantly reevaluate how customers are influenced and what the appropriate response should be. Readers will learn what the responses should … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Joshua B. Bellin, Paul F. Nunes | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Customer feedback is great for telling you what you did wrong. It’s terrible at telling you what you should do next.

Content: Quotation | Author: Phil Libin | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subject: Customer Related

There are many types of customer feedback, but it’s useful to group them into three main categories: complaints, suggestions, and compliments. Usually, it will feel as though the categories are complaints, complaints, and complaints.

Complaints are great; the more detailed, the better. They tell us where our product or overall experience is failing. Plus, they are the easiest form of feedback to get. No training or … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Phil Libin | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subject: Customer Related

Customer service is a crucial part of your business, and one that deserves your attention and your money—you are trying to build a life-long customer relationship. Here are four focus areas to help you achieve your customer service goals.

Content: Article | Author: Chris Zane | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Great performance, whether in customer service or the quality of manufacturing, requires operational excellence. Operational excellence requires a great operational design and great people to carry it out. Neither can make up for the lack of the other.

Content: Quotation | Author: Zeynep Ton | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Human Resources, Management, Operations

Good service rests on a foundation of good operations. But good operations rest on a foundation of skilled and motivated employees.

Content: Quotation | Author: Zeynep Ton | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Human Resources, Management, Operations

How you treat your employees determines how they treat customers.

Content: Quotation | Authors: James Thomas, Jon R. Katzenbach, Rutger von Post | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Customer Related, Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

Whereas making strategy about competitors can be highly destructive, making it about the customer encourages leaders to find ways to win without having to pay the price for their victories. Does this mean that competitors can be safely ignored when it comes to strategy? No. Understanding competitors’ value propositions is one effective way to generate new thinking on how to improve your own value propositions. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ken Favaro | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Customer Related, Strategy

Linking feedback and incentives can bring unintended consequences. How would you know, for instance, if a particular customer’s complaint regarding an employee might be rooted in some form of discrimination? To feed that back to the [employee] or link customer complaints to bonus payments could well be the basis of a discrimination lawsuit. It is very difficult to distinguish between intended and unintended discrimination, and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Customer Related, Human Resources, Management