629 Posts Found

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

The most important question. It’s not:

Is my price low enough?
Is it reliable enough?
Do I offer enough features?
Am I on the right social media channels?
Is the website cool enough?
Am I promising enough?

No, the most important question in marketing something to someone who hasn’t purchased it before is, “Do they trust me enough to believe my promises?” Without that, you have nothing.

Content: Quotation | Author: Seth Godin | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales, Trust

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

To ensure the customer-centric vision takes root, you need to establish clear metrics that are linked to the company’s strategic, operational, and financial goals. Those metrics will help with determining priorities and shifting the orientation of the company toward a more customer-centered business model. Ideally, the marketing team will work with the executive team to establish the metrics.

Once the metrics are selected, it is a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Laura Patterson | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Customer Related, Market/Investment

People crave connection, self-expression, and exploration. Today’s winning companies are tapping into these basic human needs, both online and offline.

Content: Article | Author: Hana Ben-Shabat | Source: Kearney | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business, Management, Marketing / Sales

Value is not intrinsic, it is not in things. It is within us; it is the way in which man reacts to the conditions of his environment.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Online consumer feedback is growing exponentially and contains invaluable information about not only what consumers think of products and brands, but also about what they expect from a product. Some businesses view the vast amounts of online feedback about their products and services in a reactive light. Each positive review is a pat on the back that need not be investigated further; while each negative … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Customer Related, Market Research, Marketing / Sales

People seek out two things: information and entertainment. Offer them freely, and they’ll find you.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales, Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior

Lewis P. Carbone introduces an excerpt on how to eliminate negative cues from The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty, by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi.

Content: Article | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Customer Related

What do Porsche fanatics, a video game hater, and a person who cooked two weeks’ worth of meals in a rice cooker have in common? They are all “extreme consumers”—those whose tastes are so out there that mainstream market researchers tend to dismiss them as “noise” when trying to figure out how typical consumers think.

That’s fine if you only want to keep making incremental improvements … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Jill Avery, Michael I. Norton | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Customer Related, Market Research, Marketing / Sales

Leading companies like Fed Ex and others have found that a daily metric that tracks occurrence of errors that frustrate customers can be a simple and easy way of measuring and predicting when a customer might leave and never come back.

Content: Article | Author: Mark Graham Brown | Source: Business Finance Magazine | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Complaints are super helpful. Suggestions? Not so much.

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

Just as a company should always be inventing new concepts, products and services, it should also be inventing the customer of the future. Company leaders who play it safe ask themselves, “What do we know how to make?” Company leaders who are a little bolder ask, “What does the customer demand right now?” And the most successful innovators of all ask, “What will the customer … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation

For years I’ve been preaching that a lot of customer service is common sense that, unfortunately, isn’t so common. It is the great companies that consistently deliver an experience that meets, if not exceeds, expectations. And, much of this experience is common sense.

Content: Article | Author: Shep Hyken | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Customer Related, Management, Marketing / Sales

If these “harbingers of failure” love what you do, you are in trouble.

Editor’s Note: This is one of the more interesting pieces of research I have read about in a while. Based on the work of Eric T. Anderson, Song Lin, Duncan I. Simester and Catherine E Tucker

Content: Article | Author: Jessica Love | Source: Kellogg Insight | Subjects: Customer Related, Market Research, Marketing / Sales

Even with good systems, you still need good people.

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

Innovation can be defined as a process whereby ideas are transformed into new or improved products, services, or processes to solve practical problems and meet needs or to advance, compete, and differentiate organizations in the marketplace. In today’s world of increasing complexity, to compete effectively it is imperative that corporations explore ways to foster new ideas such as increasing their sources through loose ties to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Kalle Lyytinen, Marty Abbott, Michael Fisher | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation

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

Relationship management is not a “system.” It’s a process and a philosophy. At this point in the adoption cycle of practices and technologies, it’s old hat. Yet few organizations really do it well, and many don’t do it at all. These 12 steps should suggest a path to implementing relationship management and reaping the financial benefits.

Content: Article | Author: Stephen E. Lipka | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Customer Related