Friday, December 25, 2009

Happy Holidays from Customers 1st

We're taking some much needed time off from our coverage of customer relationship management to celebrate the season with our loved ones. We want to sincerely thank you for your readership, your comments and your participation.

Here are our top posts from 2009:

Dell Delights Customers

NACCM 2009: Answering the Social Phone – Listening, Measuring, and Engaging in Social Media.

Hospital provides customer service training at the request of employees

We'll be back in January with more coverage.

We wish you Happy Holidays!

Monday, December 14, 2009

OFFICIAL CALL FOR PRESENTERS - Submission Deadline EXTENDED The Life Stage Marketing Summit Uncovering Opportunities for High Priority Segments

Email krivielle@iirusa.com by Tuesday, December 15, 2009

May 10-12, 2010
Hotel Sax
Chicago

IIR is excited to announce that we are putting the finishing touches on the Life Stage Marketing Summit. We are looking for just a few more speakers to cover the following session topic areas: Social Media Strategies (measurement & ROI, branding and innovation are priority key themes), Marketing & Engagement for specific life stage or life style segments and research and Segmentation and Trend Insights, as it relates to understanding your key segments or emerging priority segments better. Case studies are particularly well received.

If you have an interesting case study or provocative perspective to share please contact me directly.

Session topics include but are not limited to:
· Transition in Life Stage: How Your Customer Evolves
· Breaking into New Life Stages without Alienating Your Consumer Base
· Products Across Life Stages - Which Ones Succeed and Why?
· Researching Life Styles and Stages: Tools and Techniques
· Innovating New Products or Services for Multiple Life Stages and Styles
· Common Threads and Differences in Specific Segments
· Creating an Authentic Message to Build Loyalty for Life
· Integrating New Trends into Traditional Products to Grow Your Brand
· Emerging Product Markets for Various Life Stages
· Product Life Stages: Introducing and Removing Products
· Ethnography for Universal Design
· The Spread of Technology through Life Stages
· Keeping Your Product Relevant as Your Consumer Ages
· Using Social Networks and Blogs as a Marketing Tool? What Works?
· The Right Mix of New Media to Reach Your Target Market
· Mobile and Online Marketing: Where Your Consumers Are
· Trends in Social Media and Technology
· How Your Consumers are Using Online Now
· Cutting Edge Trends: What's Next?

The Audience
Who will attend? Leaders from a variety of industries with responsibilities in:

· Marketing
· Market Research and Development
· Product and Brand Management
· Consumer, Customer, Shopper, Strategic Insights
· New Product Development/Management
· Strategic Planning and Development
· Customer Experience, Loyalty, Retention
· Business Development
· eMarketing/Social Media
· Innovation & Discovery
· Communications/Design


Speaker Benefits
Our speakers join us for countless reasons. Come include:
· To advance the purpose and value of reaching life stages and styles
· To showcase the critical role of reaching life stages and styles within their organization
· To network with their peers and other industry leaders and participate in high level, intellectual exchanges

Added Bonus: Each speaker will receive free admission to the conference (a $3000+ value) including admission to all conference sessions, networking breaks, lunches, exhibit hall, cocktail party, etc.

Submission Guidelines & Deadline
For consideration, please e-mail Kim Rivielle at krivielle@iirusa.com with the following information by Monday, December 14th:
· Proposed speaker name(s), job title(s), and company name(s)
· Contact information including address, phone and e-mail
· Title of presentation
· Brief overview of the presentation (1 short paragraph plus 2 bullets that illustrate audience takeaways): Please note: if your proposal is selected, portions of this description will be printed in the brochure and used online to promote your participation
· Previous conference presentation experience and/or brief speaker biography

Due to the high volume of responses, we are unable to respond to each submission. All those selected to participate as speakers will be notified shortly after the deadline.

Thank you for your interest in The Life Stage Marketing Summit!


All the best,

Kim Rivielle
Managing Director
Marketing and Business Strategy Division
Institute for International Research
krivielle@iirusa.com
708 Third Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10017

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Budget cuts axe KS Medicaid customer service line

The Kansas City Star reports today that Medicaid budget cuts in Kansas have forced the state to axe its customer service line. Starting in February, a help line for doctors and pharmacists who provide Medicaid care in Kansas will close. Hours for a customer service line for Medicaid recipients will be “sharply” reduced.

The delays in confirming eligibility for new Medicaid applicants will grow. The state will cut $200,000 in funding earmarked for overtime and extra help to reduce the backlog.

Are there any other means of customer service that the state can introduce?

Friday, December 4, 2009

Poor Customer Service Costs Billions

DestinationCRM.com reports that a new, "The Cost of Poor Customer Service: The Economic Impact of the Customer Experience and Engagement," may finally put the damage bad service can create into a language executive boards understand -- dollars and cents. According to the survey of 8,880 consumers across 16 countries, poor customer service cost an aggregate of $338.5 billion per year, the average value of each lost relationship across all countries surveyed costing $243.

Learn more: Poor Customer Service Costs Billions

Is this news to you? How are you leveraging the costs of customer service?

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Customer service strategy more important in emerging markets

Barney Beal of SearchCRM.com reports today that customers in emerging markets seem to have more bad experiences to share thereby making a customer service strategy even more important for businesses. According to the results of a recent survey by Accenture,
the survey, conducted over the summer, found that 87% of consumers in emerging markets switched providers in at least one industry sector because of poor service in the past year. That's 18% more than the global average. And, the survey suggests, they're not hesitant to tell others about their experiences -- 69% tell their acquaintances about bad experiences and 25% use social media to spread the word. In emerging markets, 40% of consumers said they use blogs and other online media to tell others about their negative experiences.

Learn more: Customer service strategy more important in emerging markets