According to Annette Franz [@Annettefranz], “A key component of a VOC Initiative is getting the right feedback at the right time from the right customers. Then glean insights, create action plans, and drive it all back to the right departments and the right employees who take action at the right touch points at the right time.” This was the basis of a recent #CXO chat as we discussed, “Operationalize Insights to Drive Business” with guest Annette Franz, Seasoned Client Services (CX, VOC, SaaS) executive.
Posts Tagged ‘customer experience’
Operationalize Insights to Drive Business
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012Customer Experience Motto for 2012
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012Recently, I came across a great quote by Kerry Bodine of Forrester Research, Inc. where she said, “Companies need to start treating customer experience as a business discipline—not a bumper sticker.” It made me wonder if companies, as they start planning their strategy for 2012, are truly embracing what it means to build a customer-centric culture.
Working in the customer experience industry, weekly I meet with numerous Fortune 500 organizations. I am always surprised to hear comments like, “this year we are focusing on our customers first and foremost” or “we have just hired a new senior director to really lead our customer experience initiative.” For many of these companies, they are just starting to embark on the customer experience improvement journey. A 2011 study from the Temkin Group shows only 7% of companies think they are customer experience leaders while 61% of them want to be at the top in their industry in three years. The question I ask then is, “Why now?” Haven’t you always been concerned about your customers?
Leveraging Information Assets to Optimize Customer Value
Monday, November 21st, 2011When asked to identify the greatest barriers to improving multichannel customer experience, “Thirty-four percent of respondents identified difficulty unifying different sources of customer data.” This would indeed be a barrier as understanding your customers’ needs is intrinsic to delivering an exceptional customer experience. To understand the customer, organizations must take each morsel of information left at touch-points across the organization and weave them together to create the customer’s story. The need for information optimization and big data applications then becomes vital. I had the honor of being in the hot seat as we explored this topic at one of our tweet chats. Here is a glimpse into our discussion:
Movement Inevitable or Improbable
Monday, October 17th, 2011“When we forget who we are we drift—movement is inevitable.” I heard this statement recently and immediately thought of how much truth resonated from it even with regards to organizations and customer experience.
Sometimes a company starts in overdrive and sets a high precedence for how they serve and delight customers. As Q1 slips into Q4 and years roll by, overdrive slows and service levels dwindle—“Movement is inevitable.” Customer churn rarely happens all at once—it happens gradually. Time leads to a weakened commitment to the customer experience strategy, vision dims, and Customer Facing Professionals (CFPs) lose their passion. The shift in mindset is almost imperceptible as the organization moves from tolerating subpar service, to accepting it, then embracing it.
Insight, the Oxygen Companies Need
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011This week is National Customer Service Week and organizations across the globe are promoting a heightened awareness of customer service with the theme: “Refresh, Recharge, and Reconnect.” Customer Facing Professionals (CFPs) are encouraged to take this week and refresh their spirits, recharge their energy, and reconnect with customers. It’s interesting that the focus is on the ‘people’ factor in the customer experience as we’ve had quite the discussion about it this past week on LinkedIn. “Refreshing” and “recharging” is an excellent goal as happy employees can connect with customers more effectively. As part of recharging, companies should ensure the free flow of organizational information and knowledge—the oxygen carrier for any organization.
Orchestra Seats: Investing in the Best View of our Customers
Monday, September 19th, 2011While researching whether or not to pay extra for Orchestra seats, I read an insightful value statement, “You see the show from the perspective the playwright and director saw it. You are seeing the show the way it was created to be seen.” As a product manager, this got me thinking about whether our customers experience the full value of our products they way we had envisioned. How can I help ensure that my customers always have an orchestra seat as they leverage our solutions? And moreover how can I ensure that my own organization is seeing our customers when we develop our products and our brand message?
Investment-shy? Should you go out of business?
Monday, September 12th, 2011Some business and technology decision-makers are rather hesitant about making significant new investments in technology right now. To their way of thinking, it isn’t prudent to spend on a new customer solution implementation right now because demand for their current products is so uncertain. In their minds, it’s better to wait until things pick up a bit. Then, they say, they’ll consider investing in some fancy-schmancy new technology.
This way of thinking is, however, exactly wrong—especially today.
There are three reasons in particular why the failure to invest in a competitively differentiated customer engagement now is completely wrong-headed:
Design, Deliver and Display a Customer-Centric Culture
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011In today’s economy it’s important that organizations, regardless of size or industry, create customer-centric cultures. Research indicates that “71% of business leaders believe that customer experience is the next corporate battleground.” This means that the entire organization must align with the customer experience vision, strategy and standards. Companies need to empower all employees to ensure they deliver memorable customer experiences. “Eighty percent (80%) of CEOs believe their brand delivers a superior consumer experience yet only 8% of consumers agree.” How then do we create a customer-centric organization that our customers agree is superior?
The 12 Most Important Steps an Organization Can Make to Improve the Customer Experience
Monday, August 29th, 2011The customer experience an organization delivers is unique to that company, difficult to imitate, and results in a distinctive competitive advantage. According to Peppers and Rodgers, “81% of organizations with strong competencies for delivering customer experience excellence outperform competitors.” Here are Vivisimo’s 12 most important steps an organization can take to improve their customer experience:
