Hyper-Personalization for Customer Engagement with Artificial Intelligence

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 ]

What Do You Really Know About Your Customer Base?

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.

The Four-Letter Code To Selling Just About Anything

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 ]

A Framework for Getting Started With Customer Journey Mapping

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.

How Language Boosts Customer Satisfaction

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 ]

CEOs Need a Customer Experience Revolution—Not an Evolution

Thanks to digital technologies and digitally savvy customers, companies across industries can create a customer experience unlike anything ever seen before. CEOs, take note: this could be the biggest growth opportunity to come along in decades.

10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

These are one of the most used heuristics for User Interface Design. They were developed by Jakob Nielsen together with Rolf Molich in the early 90’s. The final set, which you see here, was released by Nielsen in 1994.

Mapping the Job-to-be-Done

The Job Map reveals a stable strategy to drive growth through innovation: get the entire job done on a single platform.

B2B Organic Growth Remains Elusive

Companies need a plan for transforming their current operating model to a customer-centric one. Many moving parts make up customer centricity — from having a clear customer engagement strategy to talking with customers to creating a plan of action.

Developing this model comes down to four phases, which Gallup has categorized as discovery, diagnostic, analytic and sustainment. Within each of these phases, Gallup has also identified common tasks … [ Read more ]

Keep It Real: How to Not Over-Automate Email Sequences

Email automation was sent from Marketing Heaven. Without it, drip campaigns and email sequencing would be nigh impossible, no matter what you are trying to achieve with it. Whether you’re a marketer, a lead-nurturer, or a sales pitcher, you know the value of email automation.

However, you can have too much of a good thing. In your quest for an easier working day, the steady drip-drip-drip … [ Read more ]

An End-to-End Perspective on Field Service Optimization

Optimizing service after the sale in the world of physical goods can have a significant impact on reducing field service costs.

The Most Important Metrics You’re Not Tracking (Yet)

Most leaders say they’re customer-centric, but if everything they measure is company-centric, how could that be true? Revenue, growth, and similar Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) measure how customers are performing for the company. But organizations that wish to be customer-centric (and maximize growth) must also measure how the company is performing for its customers.

Where Net Promoter Score Goes Wrong

Since its introduction in Harvard Business Review, 16 years ago, the Net Promoter Score, or NPS, has become a foundational business metric. Based on a single question—On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company?—it’s a simple way to get a quick read on consumer sentiment, and it’s been widely embraced in the marketplace. Many leading companies have embedded … [ Read more ]

14 Ways to Use Email Marketing (Besides Sending Newsletters)

Getting the most bang for your email marketing buck requires a little creativity. So think outside the newsletter, and try out these 14 email marketing tactics.

How to Create an Online Community That People Will Pay For

Companies have long valued the customer insights that online communities can provide, and some, such as Harley-Davidson, have even turned them into a revenue source by charging membership fees. But ensuring the success of online membership communities can be a challenge. You have to attract enough participants to create a dynamic community and, far more challenging, create a high-quality user experience that keeps your participants … [ Read more ]