Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Looking at leaders: Ken Erickson

Our 2013 event is all about the Insights-Rich Customer Stories. With that in mind, in the months leading up to the 2013 Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit we're going to be featuring some of our amazing customer experience leaders here on the blog.

This week, let's take a look at:

Ken Erickson, Ph.D., CEO & Cultural Anthropologist, Pacific Ethnography Company

Erickson will be presenting the keynote "Able to Fly: Global Design Ethnography and Airplanes" at the 2013 Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit. In this session, you'll hear how Boeing wanted to understand the experience of differently-abled passengers around the world to improve the design of its passenger airplanes. Fly-along research in India, Chile, the USA and China, with an anthropological eye on “rites of passage” revealed how existing design—and service—made the experience disabling.

The audience will learn:
• How ethnographic methods are applied to design research
• How universal design transforms special needs into universal benefits
• How aging reshapes consumer needs and widens business impacts.

For more about the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit and our featured speakers, visit our website and download the brochure. Register as a reader of our blog with code TCEL13BLOG to save 15% off the standard registration rates. Visit the webpage to register today.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Idea Gathering: Customer Experience & Mergers/Acquisitions

Not just hearing, but translating innovations and insights is a huge part of the value of the Total Customer Experience Leadership. Our unique idea gathering wrap-ups between sessions facilitate alignment of customer strategy inspiration with business relevant actions and have been one of our most highly rated features in the past.

Here's our weekly idea gathering wrap ups of some of our favorite customer experience strategy, design and alignment news and views:

Given their recent appearance in the news this week our topic is mergers and acquisitions.

Within the last month several big names have announced mergers and acquisitions including Berkshire Hathaway acquiring Heinz Food, US Airways and American Airlines seeking to merge, and Office Depot merging with Office Max.

Inc Magazine reported that large companies spent a total of 84 billion last year alone in acquisitions of smaller companies with the top five being Facebook, Google, Groupon, Twitter, and Cisco respectively.  For many companies making acquisitions is just part of their corporate strategy, and for many more being acquired is their strategy.

Mergers and acquisitions can often be long drawn out affairs depending on the sizes of the companies, and can certainly be a headache for all parties involved. However, despite the difficulties that businesses ma face during a merger and acquisition it’s crucial that they don’t lose sight of the most important thing: the customer.

Many acquired customers are often lost primarily due to poor communication regarding the acquisition process. If it’s a bigger company, customers might hear about the merger or acquisition themselves and immediately fear service or quality changes. With smaller companies the problem often arises when the customer tries to make contact and struggles to find the new department, service, or even company.

It’s the responsibility of all parties involved in a merger or acquisition to re assure the customer that things are going to stay the same, or improve for them. People tend to fear change and a customer finding out that their new provider is some random merger who “acquired” them might be put off. Often mergers and acquisitions mean disruptions in service for customers and strategist guru Joe Lamantia explains in an article on the subject how “Much of the disruption is easily managed in advance by communicating upcoming changes to customers”.

They key of the whole process is communication. American Banker sums it up saying “The value of communicating to strengthen customer retention through the post-acquisition integration process is quite clear.” Keeping customers informed means keeping customers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeffrey Marino is a contributing writer concentrating his focus on Business Administration, Management Information Systems, and Tech Innovations. He blogs atFordham Nights and can bereached at JMarino@iirusa.com.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Looking at leaders: Anders Nicholls

Our 2013 event is all about the Insights-Rich Customer Stories. With that in mind, in the months leading up to the 2013 Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit we're going to be featuring some of our amazing customer experience leaders here on the blog.

This week, let's take a look at:

Andres Nicholls, Partner, Prophet

Presenting one of our "Design" focused sessions, Nicholls will be telling the story of Emart.

Emart is the largest retailer in South Korea, with more than 120 big-box superstores, including some in China. With an eye toward a brand invention and format development, Emart recently created three stand-alone retail brands: Matrix, a specialty consumer electronics store; Molly’s Pet Shop, a high-end pet store/pet hotel; and Emart Traders, a warehouse-style store. Take an inside look at the design and development of these brands and their introduction to the Korean consumer.

In this session, you'll learn about:
• Leveraging segmentation data to focus on your most profitable segments
• Engaging customers to create a compelling and differentiating brand experience
• Designing your brand positioning and bringing it to life

For a great sneak peek of the session, check out this blog post on the Emart transformation.

For more about the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit and our featured speakers, visit our website and download the brochure. Register as a reader of our blog with code TCEL13BLOG to save 15% off the standard registration rates. Visit the webpage to register today.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Idea Gathering: Customer Experience & Customer Journey Mapping



Not just hearing, but translating innovations and insights is a huge part of the value of the Total Customer Experience Leaders. Our unique idea gathering wrap-ups between sessions facilitate alignment of customer strategy inspiration with business relevant actions and have been one of our most highly rated features in the past.


Here on the blog, we'll be presenting weekly idea gathering wrap ups of some of our favorite customer experience strategy, design and alignment news and views.  


This week our focus is on Customer Journey Maps.
Customer Journey Maps are one of the most underrated parts of a good Customer Experience Strategy and are all too often under utilized or not used at all. Imagine a general who made battle strategies without a map or a contractor trying to build something without blueprints. 

These examples are exactly as absurd as trying to create a customer experience strategy without a customer journey map. Customer Journey maps track customer engagement with a business every step of the way from the first interaction, or thoughts of potential interaction, to after the sale, and every possible step in between. 

Customer Journey Mapping is about understanding the wants, needs, interactions, and emotions of the customer in relation to your business. How does walking into one of your stores make a customer feel? What is a customer thinking when they search for your product online? These are examples of questions that a good customer map should answer. Taking the time out to actually relate to the emotions of customers is an invaluable effort that will reflect greatly on actual customer experience. PeopleMetrics describes this kind of customer empathy as “mak[ing] it easier to shift out of internal process mode and into thinking about how the company could be doing a better job of delivering value to customers.”

Customer Journey Maps should not be taken lightly and to create a truly effective map takes a lot of time and research to determine actual customer experiences and emotions. You also might not like what your first map looks like but that’s part of the process.

UXmatters.com explains that Customer Journey Mapping is all about very subtly selling service design. They define service design as “the design of the overall experience of a service, as well as the design of the process and strategy for providing that service” . 

This means that customers should enjoy the experience of doing business with a company every step of the way despite the fact that the experience is not something which can physically be capitalized on. So while making a Customer Journey Maps wont instantly give you business,  when properly used, they will significantly improve the experience of the customer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Marino is a contributing writer concentrating his focus on Business Administration, Management Information Systems, and Tech Innovations. He blogs at Fordham Nights and can bereached at JMarino@iirusa.com.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

How to Make Smarter Decisions in a Data Overloaded World


Big Data is a small idea; according to Christopher Frank it's all about being able to use the information to make smarter decisions. However, according to a recent study by McKinsey, the United States will soon face a shortage of up to "1.5 million managers and analysts to analyze big data and make decisions from their findings."*

The Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit will explore the skills needed to sift through the Big Data to uncover and understand the insights that lead to better business decisions. Customer-focused leaders from eBay, Facebook, Forrester, Hunter Douglas, JetBlue, Safelite AutoGlass, Toyota Financial Services and more will share best practices with their own customer programs that drive business results.

Christopher Frank
Keynote Spotlight: Curating the Customer Conversation: Making Smarter Decisions in a Data Overloaded World
- Christopher Frank, Vice President, American Express, Author, Drinking from the Fire Hose

Just about everyone these days suffers from information overload the 24/7 explosion from our computers, smartphones, media, colleagues and customers. Information is essential to making intelligent decisions, but more often than now, it simply overwhelms us. It's like trying to drink from a fire hose.

How do you find the truly essential nuggets of information and use them with confidence? From first-hand experience from Fortune 100 companies and start-ups, Christopher Frank will share insights to drive your customer experience agenda forward.

Hear more about big data and customer experience from Christopher in this exclusive podcast.

Special Offer! The first 10 people to register with code CHRISFRANK will receive a complimentary copy of Drinking from the Fire Hose.

Joining Christopher at the event is an impressive speaker roster including:

• Tony Ezell, Chief Customer Officer, Eli Lilly and Company
• Paula Harries, Director, Client & Member Research, CVS Caremark
• Ken Erickson, Ph.D., CEO & Cultural Anthropologist, Pacific Ethnography Company
• Jasmine Green, Vice President, Chief Customer Advocate, Nationwide
• Andres Nicholls, Partner, Prophet
• And more, download the brochure for the complete speaker list and agenda.

Announcing New Speakers!
• Jim Bampos, Vice President, Total Customer Experience, EMC Corporation
• Katy Churches, Manager, Customer Experience, American Family Insurance
• Paul Magnone, Co-Author, Drinking from the Fire Hose

Register before Friday, February 15, 2013, to secure your spot and save $300.

Registration Information:
Mention your Blog VIP code TCEL13BLOG to save 15% off the standard rate.
http://bit.ly/X7rrpq 
Email: register@iirusa.com
Phone: 888.670.8200

* From McKinsey Study: Big Data & Analytics, Talent & the "Brand"

Related articles

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Looking at leaders: Peter Fader

Our 2013 event is all about the Insights-Rich Customer Stories. With that in mind, in the months leading up to the 2013 Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit we're going to be featuring some of our amazing customer experience leaders here on the blog.


This week, let's take a look at:

Peter Fader, Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Fader's keynote will be on the topic of "How Can Customer Centricity be Profitable?"

Many experts are touting the virtues of
“Customer Centricity” as a valuable emerging
business model, but there is a lot of confusion
about what this concept means – and
uncertainty about whether and how it actually
leads to greater profitability. The purpose of
this session is to bring clarity to both of these issues. We begin with a brief review of Professor Fader’s recent book (“Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage”) but then dive deep into the profitability question. We examine the main tactical “building blocks” underlying customer centricity and point out some subtle but important insights to help managers make the most effective and efficient use of each of them.

Check out this video from Wharton Digital Press for a glimpse into the topics Fader will be sharing at the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit.


For more about the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit and our featured speakers, visit our website and download the brochure. Register as a reader of our blog with code TCEL13BLOG to save 15% off the standard registration rates. Visit the webpage to register today.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Connecting VOC Data Back to Your Customer Strategy


Building a sound strategic customer plan calls for making some really tough decisions. You know that providing unique and authentic experiences to your customer is an integral part of the plan - but balancing that alongside meeting your short-term business goals, requires true organizational alignment in order to achieve real success.

Deliver the experiences your customers have come to expect from your brand means knowing your customer, what they value and translating that value into what matters most.

How well do you know your most valuable customers and are you connecting your VOC data back to the customer strategy?

The Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit is uniting cross-industry, customer-focused leaders to share best practices in linking data-driven behavior to business results, designing next generation customer experiences and measuring the impact of customer programs. Download the brochure for full details here.

Keynote Spotlight: 
 
How Can Customer Centricity Be Profitable?
- Peter Fader, Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
 
Many experts are touting the virtues of "Customer Centricity" as a valuable emerging business model, but there is a lot of confusion about what this concept means - and uncertainty about whether and how it actually leads to greater profitability. The purpose of this session is to bring clarity to both of these issues. 

We begin with a brief review of Professor Fader's recent book but then dive deep into the profitability questions. We examine the main tactical "building blocks" underlying customer centricity and point out some subtle but important insights to help managers make the most effective and efficient use of each of them.
 
Joining Peter at the event is an impressive keynote roster, including:

Jasmine Green, Vice President, Chief Customer Advocate, Nationwide 
Dan Hill, Ph.D., President, Sensory Logic
Sean Bruich, Head of Measurement Platforms & Standards, Facebook
Christopher Frank, Vice President, American Express, Author, Drinking from the Firehose
Thomas Feeney, President & CEO, Safelite AutoGlass


Related articles

Friday, February 8, 2013

Idea Gathering: Customer Experience & the Decline of Green

English: The financial crisis affectes the rea...
 (Photo: Wikipedia)
Not just hearing, but translating innovations and insights is a huge part of the value of the Total Customer Experience Leaders. Our unique idea gathering wrap-ups between sessions facilitate alignment of customer strategy inspiration with business relevant actions and have been one of our most highly rated features in the past.

Here on the blog, we'll be presenting weekly idea gathering wrap ups of some of our favorite customer experience strategy, design and alignment news and views.  This week our focus is on consumers and the environmental movement. 

Despite environmentally conscious products generating 40 billion dollars for businesses in 2011 the hype around these “green” products is fading with consumers, likely due to the higher prices.  According to a consumer survey conducted by Gfk the number of consumers who were willing to spend more on green items such as food, cars, light bulbs, apparel, and packaging has all decreased since 2008. The percentage of consumers willing to spend more for greener versions of these items has decreased between 5 and 13 percent over the last four years.  This correlates with an Ipsos poll which revealed that 59% of American consumers were not at all willing to spend anymore on a product just because it was more environmentally friendly.

According to a Time Magazine survey, it’s not just over pricing that’s deterring consumers from going green but an overall change in belief. The survey reports that the number of Americans who describe themselves as “environmentally conscious”  and “car[ing] a great deal about the current state, and future, of the environment” has decreased since 2009 as well. 

Beyond price and attitude however Advertising Age magazine suggests that the rejection of green products could be due to marketing over-hype and aggression. These kind of marketing tactics which involve exaggerating the impact of purchasing (or not purchasing) certain products have led to consumer skepticism and distrust. When consumers Advertising Age goes on to describe some companies such as Axe and its parent company Unilever which have begun environmental campaigns with limited sales motives merely to gain back the invaluable trust of consumers.  

About the Author

Jeffrey Marino is a contributing writer concentrating his focus on Business Administration, Management Information Systems, and Tech Innovations. He blogs at Fordham Nights and can be reached at JMarino@iirusa.com.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Looking at leaders: Dan Hill

Our 2013 event is all about the Insights-Rich Customer Stories. With that in mind, in the months leading up to the 2013 Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit we're going to be featuring some of our amazing customer experience leaders here on the blog.

This week, let's take a look at:

Dan Hill, Ph.D., President, Sensory Logic


In his keynote session, "What’s the Emotional Story?" Hill will discuss the customer experience as a journey. There is a plot with risks, rewards, and the possibility of conflict. The customer will have a reaction to any brand representative with which they interact. Not only are the human representatives important, but the customer will also create a personification for the company as well with archetypes such as the magician or ogre.

Attendees will be exposed to:
 • An introduction to facial coding as a means to quantify feelings
• The role of emotions in the consumers preview, story, and aftermath with a brand and/or company
• Case studies from 14 years of experience with customer service and customer experience

For more about the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit and our featured speakers, visit our website and download the brochure. Register as a reader of our blog with code TCEL13BLOG to save 15% off the standard registration rates. Visit the webpage to register today.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Enterprise Search: A New Customer Engagement Strategy

Last month, we received a tweet from @ACIS_Search on the importance of search in customer experience strategies. As a follow up, we're happy to present a guest post delving into that topic by Efrem Habteselassie, ACIS Consulting, along with a great infographic. (To submit your own guest content, email vrusso@iirusa.com)



Search has become the de-facto standard for navigation and information discovery within a company's website. According to studies, if the search experience is not engaging and the returned information is not relevant to the customer, the majority of visitors will abandon the website after three unnecessary clicks.

Most call center managers understand their company saves money every time a user is able to effectively find the answer to his or her support issue online, yet many companies still do not have an effective enterprise search strategy to make the support experience engaging and productive.

When considering your tool kit for customer engagement, enterprise search should not only be added to this list, it should be a top priority.

Organizations are beginning to understand the need to transform search strategies in order to reduce cost, improve efficiencies and enhance customer experience. The solution is Enterprise Search Optimization (E-SEO), which is the process of tuning the search platform and content structure on a company’s website to deliver highly engaging and relevant information that meets user needs. When properly deployed and managed, an E-SEO strategy will boost customer engagement, user satisfaction and company profitability.

Transforming Customer Experience Through Enterprise Search

Customer experience is the key to success in 2013. As noted in the Customer 1st blog post, Your 2013 Customer Experience Checklist, customer experience has been identified as a huge opportunity for growth in that “the organizations who are doing it right are seeing profits soar above those who have not.” But what many companies may not realize is that enterprise search can play a critical role in this regard.

One of every three customers who use call centers have visited the company website first. For corporations that have hundreds of thousands of phone calls a year, reducing the call volume by even 10 per cent will lead to a significant cost savings.  It will also avoid an abundance of frustrated customers.

In order to deliver an incomparable web experience for end users, organizations must provide the customer with engaging information though accurate and relevant search interaction. From an E-SEO strategy perspective, user engagement and online experience are all about making intelligent use of available information and leveraging the search technology to deliver highly engaging and applicable search results that match the customer needs in his or her current context.  Companies that are successful in properly executing their E-SEO strategy will see:

·         Increased web activity
·         Improved productivity rates
·         Enhanced customer service operations
·         Stronger customer relationships


The ROI on Enterprise Search

Many companies develop website content with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices in mind, and yet customer retention rates continuously fall short of expectations. These companies end up investing thousands of dollars into an SEO strategy that falls short of producing the intended results. There are a variety of reasons for poor conversion rates or abandoned search sessions; but among the key factors is the lack of an E-SEO strategy.

Your E-SEO strategy must be properly aligned with marketing campaigns and customized to recognize and highlight the marketing keywords used in these campaigns. It is also important to ensure your enterprise search is in tune with the way users are interacting with your website.

Enterprise search is typically initiated to address the following key pain points:

·         Customers are dissatisfied with the quality of search, and these complaints lead to productivity loss.
·         Prospective buyers who arrive at the website are abandoning it without making a purchase.
·         Existing customers are looking for product support information and end up using the more expensive call center channel.

A search upgrade project is often launched with an objective to achieve a measureable improvement in one or all of the above problem areas. The metrics used to identify these issues include:

·         Customer satisfaction index;
·         Productivity improvement;
·         Visitor conversion/registration/buy rates or an increase in the amount of time spent on the website per visitor;
·         And reduction in call center volumes.

To learn more about enterprise search ROI, check out these tips for developing a business case for search.




ACIS Consulting Inc. provides world class technology services in enterprise search and knowledge discovery, helping companies bring increased value to customers. ACIS offers a range of search based applications and an extensive library of functions and features that can be leveraged to quickly create custom solutions for specific business needs.


Visit www.cloudsearchportal.com to learn more or follow us on Twitter @ACIS_Search and LinkedIn ACIS Consulting Inc.