Top Customer Experience Blog Posts of 2014

We’ve published a lot of interesting, innovative, and inspiring blog posts about customer experience this year, so we wanted to take a moment to look back on the most popular posts of 2014. Here are the topics our readers enjoyed the most this year:

Marketers Adapt to Digital Customer Trends for Holiday Shopping Season: Over the last few years, technology has truly revolutionized retail - Black Friday and the holiday season exemplify that change better than any other time of year. Now, marketers must reassess their strategies as consumers spend increasing amounts online ahead of the shopping weekend in order to capture the online shopping trend. As of late, Black Friday and Cyber Monday  have experienced a change in spending patterns, with the Adobe Digital Index predicting that $2.6bn – an increase of 15 percent – will be spent on Cyber Monday alone, with Black Friday growth up by 28 percent to $2.48bn. The holiday season in the U.S. will aim to break online records for e-commerce spend at $72.41bn, a growth of 16.6 percent in the last year, according to eMarketer. To read the full post, click here.

The Customer Experience: A Journey Best Understood in Reverse?: Even after decades of study, the “Customer Experience” remains a top focus for large and small companies alike. Work from McKinsey about the consumer decision journey (references below) is just one of many recent examples. Millions of dollars and labor hours, and prodigious efforts, are spent on the subject. From time to time, clients ask—usually around the annual budget-setting cycle—“What should our priorities be in evaluating customers’ experiences?  What’s the first, most important thing we need to understand?” To read the full post, click here.

Using Consumer Insights to Make Smarter Business Decisions: We sat down with Kelly Harper, Director of Customer Experience Learning at BMO INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING, to discuss how the power of consumer insights help to make smarter decisions in business. Harper goes into how important customer experience is when it comes using customer insights to make the best business decisions possible. You need to think about what type of experiences your organization is giving your customers.  Your consumer insights allows you to understand what is broken in your current experience you are delivering and what is really important to the customer – what are those elements that you have to get right each and every single day. Consumer insights will help you identify and keep track of what is most important to the customer.  To read the full post, click here.

Why Your Brand Needs Social Customer Service: These days, customers aren’t calling your 800 number. Instead, they are getting on Facebook and complaining about you or sending a Tweet about your lousy service. Social customer service is a very different ball game with unique practices, plans and a different timeline. You’d better be listening for online complaints and be ready to respond in real-time or face potentially negative profits. Social customer service emerged because organic online conversations require an immediate response. When a customer complains about you on Facebook or Twitter, you’d better be listening and respond within a short window or poor attitudes about your brand escalate. Social customer service connects your customers with people, both inside and outside of your organization, and with the information they need to solve problems and make better decisions. Not to mention, your customers expect it. To read the full post, click here.

Creating a Positive Customer Experience: When it comes to obtaining and retaining customers, remembering what you learned in kindergarten really isn't enough anymore. Now, it hinges on the effective use of social media and other Internet-based resources, according to a new study from Consero Group.  Chief Customer Experience Officers will continue to need a variety of new tools and processes to manage the smart consumer effectively and retain customers in a competitive marketplace. More companies recognize the importance of positive customer experience to overall success. But even though budgets and staff sizes are increasing in many firms, many CX executives still lack sufficient resources to run their departments well. To read the full post, click here.

The Power of Personality at Work: We caught up with John Mayer, renowned Professor of Psychology, the University of New Hampshire and Author of Personal Intelligence. We express our personalities in almost everything that we do – in both our personal and professional lives. So, every single day we exhibit some patterns of behavior that are consistent and sometimes respond to particular context. According to Mayer, personal intelligence is the intelligence we use to understand these personalities – whether they in other people or in ourselves. Virtually any organization today is made up of people, so you can think of the organization as an organizational chart, including Presidents, CEOs, managers, etc.  “Personal intelligence deals with information at a different level than that,” explained Mayer. “Instead, on top of that organizational chart are real people.” To read the full post, click here.

Customer Experience Conversations: Crystal Collier: we sat down with Crystal Collier, CEO of CX Act, formerly TARP Worldwide. CX Act has pioneered the science of quantifying, managing and optimizing the customer experience and has remained a leader in the CX market since 1971. Today, through its innovative research, technology and customer interaction programs, it continues to set the standard to improve clients' customer service performance, customer value and "The Profit of Interaction.” According to Collier, without considering empathy—from the C-suite to the frontline employee—delivering a superior CX is nearly impossible. Customers are driven largely by emotions, and their behaviors result from feelings. To read the full post, click here.

Customer Experience Innovation: Treat Your Customers Like People: We caught up with Len Ferman, managing director of Ferman Innovation, and former Senior Vice President of Innovation and Ideation at Bank of America. Today, corporate leaders often lose sight of customer needs in the constant quest toward next quarter’s earnings. But, what is positive for stock prices tends to conflict with long term customer satisfaction and shareholder value. You simply can’t understand the customer experience if don’t empathize with your customers, Ferman told me. “You have to be able to see them face-to-face and listen to them talk about their pain points and challenges,” he said. To read the full post, click here

Customer Experience Conversations: Nestor Portillo: Nestor Portillo, Director, Social Communities and Customer Experience at Microsoft shared his best customer experience, the importance of empathy, and how social media has affected customer experience today. According to Portillo, customer experience is a combination of emotions, memories, expectations, needs fulfillment, timing and effort. All of these are important add-ons to your product or service. So, in order to deliver a great customer experience, it needs to have a high degree of empathy and emotion because the interaction goes beyond product functionality or a feature explanation. To read the full post, click here.

Customer Experience Conversations: Janet LeBlanc:  Janet LeBlanc, President of Janet LeBlanc + Associates Inc. LeBlanc discussed how empathy and emotion has a critical impact on customer experience today. According to LeBlanc, the best customer experiences are those that elicit the strong positive feelings and emotions that strengthening the relationship and loyalty a customer has with a company. Statements such as: “I felt like she understood what I wanted or they treated me with respect” are the best examples of a great customer experience. To read the full post, click here.

About the Author: Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist of the Marketing Division at IIR USA, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. Amanda is the Editor at Large for several of IIR’s blogs including Next Big Design, Customers 1st, Digital Impact, STEAM Accelerator and ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts, and a regular contributor to Front End of Innovation and The Market Research Event,. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the technology industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.

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• How Does Your Organisation Talk Customer Experience? And What Does This Tell You?
• Ecommerce and multichannel insights into the 2014 Christmas shopping season
• Emotions and Ecosystems Drive Customer Experience in 2015
• Marketers: It's Time to Make Nice with Your CIO

Become a Better Leader and Secure Your Organization’s Future

"Companies with high leadership qualities were six times more likely to be among the top 20 financial performers of all organizations."

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Facilitator William Greenwald, Founder & Chief Neuroleaderologist, Windsor Leadership Group will lead attendees through self-exploration, Disney-based leadership and service case studies, hands-on learning exercises and group experiences in the Disney theme parks. This experiential journey will lead to personal discovery, authentic leadership development and the ability to design and sustain high performing leadership teams and service cultures.

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@TotalCustomer

Customers1stblog.iirusa.com

Optimizing the Customer Experience through Multi-Social Marketing

In the life sciences industry, multi-social marketing is new to most people. Many assume multi-social marketing is only about applying core creative elements across all communication channels — print, digital, online, and social media. But, it actually interlaces siloed channels and creates immersive experiences that align with the customer journey.

According to PharmaVoice Multi-social marketing begins with storytelling - a powerful tool to connect and inspire action that goes beyond facts and data. Effective storytelling engages the emotions of customers and inspires them. The best multi-social marketing initiatives integrate campaigns and leverage best practices from all channels, including print, digital, and social media. The most successful initiatives focus on the needs of different customer segments at each point in their journeys through the channels they prefer. And, the final critical element is the creation of value for customers beyond the prescribed treatment - value beyond the treatment is what keeps customers engaged with a brand.

To develop a successful multi-social marketing campaign, you have to understand the customer experience. Dive deep to understand the interactions between physicians, patients, caregivers, nurses, pharmacists, and information sources. Once the customer experience is understood, the multi-social marketing experience strategy can be created. The process for developing a multi-social strategy includes:

• Discovery—Ask questions and gather data to understand current and future customer needs.
• Assessment— Understand and predict customer needs now and in the future.
• Market research— Confirm assumptions about unmet needs and predict behavior across all channels.
• Insights—Transform data through analysis into business intelligence.
• Short-term optimization—Develop plans to interact with customers that deliver what they need, when they need it, and how they want it.
• Long-term solutions—Apply the right resources (staff, processes, technology, content) to the work.

This piece was contributed by @AmandaCicc.

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• Here is the ROI for Social Marketing
• Social Media Gives Consumers and Brands a Direct Connection
• 2014 Holiday Social Marketing Trends

Save the Date: Creating Magic through Leadership & Service Excellence

Let the Magic Begin...

We are thrilled to invite you to Walt Disney World Orlando for our newest Leadership Experience:

Creating Magic through Leadership and Service Excellence

February 11-12, 2015*

Walt Disney World (Orlando, FL)

* Optional Pre-Workshop Tour:
1/2 Day Disney Backstage Tour of the Magic Kingdom on February 10, 2015 (9am - 1pm)

The Windsor Leadership Group has partnered with the producers of NACCM: North American Conference on Customer Management to bring you a two-day "one of a kind" leadership event. All learning will be held within Disney Parks and all participants will be treated to:

• 2 days of experiential learning at Hollywood Studios  and EPCOT Theme Park
• 3-Day Disney Park Hopper Pass
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• A signed copy of Lee Cockerell's book, Creating Magic
• Optional Pre-Workshop Tour: 1 /2 Day Disney Backstage Tour of the Magic Kingdom
• Discounted room rates for those wishing to extend their stay before or after the event

Workshop Description

The framework for this learning event is built upon the collaborative efforts of William Greenwald, a leading scholar in the practices of servant leadership, and Lee Cockerell, former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World® Resort and world renown author of three books: Creating Magic, The Customer Rules, and Time Management Magic. The core constructs of this program draw upon William's research and Lee's books, including one of Lee's major and lasting legacies while serving as EVP of Operations at Disney; the creation of Disney Great Leader Strategies, which was used to train and develop over 7,000 leaders at Walt Disney World.

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This high-impact, highly engaging learning event will be led by William Greenwald. Over the course of two days, William will immerse leaders into the principles of extraordinary servant leadership and Lee's leadership framework taught at Disney. 

Through the use of self-exploration, Disney-based case studies, hands-on learning exercises, and group experiences in the Disney theme parks, leaders are guided through an experiential journey leading to personal discovery, authentic leadership development, and the ability to design and sustain high performing leadership teams and service cultures! 

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"William's energetic presentation style and mastery of storytelling make my books come alive. I highly recommend this workshop for anyone aspiring to create a little magic in life, both personally and professionally." - Lee Cockerell

We hope to see you in Disney World!

Cheers,

The Creating Magic Team

Customers1stblog.iirusa.com

@TotalCustomer

#CreateMagic   

Marketers Adapt to Digital Customer Trends for Holiday Shopping Season

Over the last few years, technology has truly revolutionized retail. Black Friday and the holiday season exemplify that change better than any other time of year. Now, marketers must reassess their strategies as consumers spend increasing amounts online ahead of the shopping weekend in order to capture the online shopping trend.

As of late, Black Friday and Cyber Monday  have experienced a change in spending patterns, with the Adobe Digital Index predicting that $2.6bn – an increase of 15 percent – will be spent on Cyber Monday alone, with Black Friday growth up by 28 percent to $2.48bn. The holiday season in the U.S. will aim to break online records for e-commerce spend at $72.41bn, a growth of 16.6 percent in the last year, according to eMarketer.

Luke Edson, senior vice president national markets at YP, recently told The Drum that businesses have had to realize the need to focus on the growth of consumers turning to their mobile devices when researching products before making a purchase. “Consumers are also connecting to businesses through mobile apps for everything from getting directions to finding a deal. Mobile has the unique ability to target customers in the moment and drive their behavior. What’s more mobile location data can provide key insights on a consumer’s behavioral patterns, including someone’s likes, lifestyle and habits," he said.  

Customers spend more time online and it is becoming a place where shopping decisions can be influenced. "We know that we need to engage across multiple channels. This holiday season we have increased our focus on social and digital media, including creating an online only holiday gift guide, multiple social sweepstakes across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, creating video content specifically for YouTube, and pushing content on Pinterest for the first time,” Brandi Ply, director of marketing strategy at online retailer, Big Lots told The Drum.

Only five years ago mobile marketing and mobile sales for Black Friday did not exist- Black Friday was only about hitting the stores to get the best deals. Now, it seems that it’s more important for marketers to get their best deals on Thanksgiving Day online and through mobile marketing. Even Black Friday is now as much about online as it is about in-store sales.

“Black Friday is a double-edged sword for most digital marketers. We know consumer engagement is going to be unusually high so it’s an ideal time to try and capture their attention, but we also know that all marketers are having the exact same thought so it can be difficult to stand out in such a crowded space," said advertising technology company Spongecell chief executive, Ben Kartzman.  "This year, smart digital marketers will focus on delivering a dynamic experience for shoppers that they haven’t necessarily seen before.”

Related articles

• Cyber Monday: Everything you need to know
• Amazon Is Starting Black Friday Sales A Full Week Early
• The Best Day to Shop Online Will Not Be Cyber Monday

Millennials and Beauty: Serving the Eye of a New Generation of Customers

According to a recent Future in Focus report, by 2017 the Millennial generation, also known as Gen Y, is predicted to surpass the boomer generation in spending power and become the most active spenders of the first half of the 21st century. The report dove into Millennial consumer behavior regarding beauty, identifying and exploring attitudes and values that will shape their purchasing patterns over the next decade.

Shaped by the digital age and the economic recession, this large generation of 70 million in the U.S. has different priorities, shopping behaviors, and attitudes from other generations. In fact, this always-connected generation has concerns about their l finances that the older generation of spenders did not at their age, and they are more ethnically and racially diverse than any generation before them.  In fact, among adults age 18 to 29, just 61% are Caucasian (compared to 70% of older adults), while 19% are Hispanic (vs. 13% of older adults), 14% African-American (vs. 11%), and 5% Asian. In addition, Millennials are economically diverse—with one-third being lower income, one-third middle income, and one-third upper income.

Millennials are the first to grow up with ubiquitous information so they tend to have an affinity for the digital age and are always connected. Five of six (83%) say they sleep with a mobile phone next to their bed, compared to just 57% of all adults. They also use the Internet primarily as a social tool, with 75% reporting having a profile on social media. And 80% of younger Millennial social media users (i.e., 18 to 24 years old) connect with their platforms several times a day. But this constant connection applies to their consumer lives as well: 41% regularly use their phones to compare prices while shopping, compared to just 26% of boomers.

This generation was hit hard by the Great Recession. As late as 2012, 32% of Millennial shoppers reported having difficulty affording groceries, compared to just 22% of the overall population. As a result, Gen Y tends to be more frugal than older generations. In 2013, 22% of Millennials (compared to just 17% of Xers and 14% of boomers) said they were putting more money into savings during the previous year.  Still, Millennials have made beauty and personal-care rituals part of their culture no matter the economic situation. They are developing attitudes regarding beauty that will influence the products they seek. Six of the most pervasive attitudes are beauty is a fun way to express oneself; beauty is worth the expense; beauty is way more than skin deep; you’re never too young for anti-aging; do-it-yourself beauty ; beauty is not just for women and; beauty is a fun way to express oneself.

Research by Mintel suggests that Millennial women associate beauty with fun more than women of older generations. For instance, two out of three 18- to 24-year-old women (65%) enjoy the ritual of putting on makeup—a share nearly 50% higher than that of all women (45%). Nearly two in three Gen Y women say they wear makeup every day, and nearly half (48%) say they spend more than 10 minutes putting on makeup. In addition to having fun with it, most Millennials see beauty care as another way to express themselves. More than two in three women age 18 to 24 (69%) say they wear makeup that expresses their personality, compared to just 55% of all women. Their ability to express themselves through beauty may be part of the reason that almost all (94%) Gen Y women say that makeup helps them feel more confident.

Millennials seem to think that enhancing their beauty is worth the expense. In fact, they spend more than the average shopper on beauty and personal care categories. Millennial shoppers spend over 25% more than average US shoppers on such products as body scrubbers, shampoo, conditioner, styling gels or mousses, and suntan products, and 20% more on cosmetics.  A significant majority (75%) of Millennial women say they don’t mind spending money on makeup because it makes them feel good.

Additionally, unlike older generations, Millennials are more attuned to skincare and anti-aging benefits at an early age. According to NPD, 39% of older Millennial women (those age 25 to 34) say that anti-aging is an important benefit that they look for in skincare products. While younger Millennials are often still dealing with acne, older Millennials are growing aware that changes in their skin during early adulthood may mark the beginning of an aging process.

But, Millennials take a more self-driven, DIY approach to beauty care. Although influenced by their frugal nature, Millennials’ do-it-yourself approach to beauty may also be motivated by the fun they have experimenting with new products. Millennials are twice as likely as the overall population to embrace self-reliant, home-based beauty behaviors and at-home beauty products.

Driven by social media and the increasing competitiveness of the job market, Millennial men also think beauty matters too. They are putting a greater emphasis than older generations did on looking and dressing their best, which involves both fashion and grooming. In 2013, more than three in four men (76%) said that the pressure on men to dress well and be well groomed had increased. Nearly as many (73%) think that men now face as much pressure in these respects as women do. For Millennial men, grooming is increasingly seen as a component of healthy living, like exercise and eating well.  

From beauty companies’ point of view, Millennials are at a critical stage in their lives. Millennials are establishing beauty and skincare habits and consumer patterns that are likely to persist throughout their lifetime. So, the companies and brands that win Gen Y consumers are likely to retain these consumers for the long term.  

To read the full report, click here.

Related articles

• Millennials Openly Defy the Obamacare Mandate
• Will Millennials Change Banking Forever?
• 5 Ways America Is Failing Millennials
• Are Millennials cheap, or just smart?

Call For Presenters: Total CX Leaders Conference

INDUSTRY ALERT: OFFICIAL CALL FOR PRESENTERS
The Institute for International Research (IIR) is currently seeking presenters for:

Total CX Leaders Conference
Creating a Seamless OmniExperience for Modern Commerce
June 1-2, 2015
Boston, MA

INTERESTED IN SPEAKING?
This year, we are looking for facilitators, speakers and innovators to present an entirely re-imagined customer experience strategy for modern commerce. See below for specifics. Have another idea? Let us know - anything is possible.

• Group facilitators: Much of the Total CX Leaders Conference experience will be based on interactive discussions and ideation. Can you guide a conversation and help participants nurture new ideas and connect the dots?
• Case study speakers: Have a NEW story to share and can you get it across in 20-30 minutes?
• Local experiences unique to Boston?  Have a favorite block of art galleries you rush to every time you're in Boston? Do you have a Boston based office or studio ideal to host an interactive workshop or tour?  Let's see how we can integrate your unique Boston experience into the agenda.
• Workshop facilitators: Attendees will be devoting time to getting their hands dirty and tackling real challenges head on. Do you have a half day experience that could help customer experience leaders grow and learn?

ABOUT THE EVENT:
Total CX Leaders Conference is a call to action for leaders who need to understand what it takes to win with a strategic customer experience program. This high engagement two-day conference brings together thought-leadership to focus on higher level thinking around the strategic alignment of customer strategy, technology and business aspirations. Linking data driven behavior to business results, designing next generation customer experiences and measuring the impact of your customer programs is the difference between great and greater.

2015 Content Areas Include:
User Experience Design // Data-Rich Insights & Analytics // Digitizing the Customer Journey // Customer Loyalty // Design Thinking // Omnichannel Experience // Analyzing and Measuring VOC // Aligning Data Touchpoints // Customer Centric-Culture // Customer Behavior Trends // Translating Insights into Actions // New Technologies & Methodologies // Big Data Initiatives and so much more.

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES:  All vendors, consultants, agencies and solutions providers that would like to get involved in Total CX Leaders should contact Sponsorship Director, Jon Saxe at jsaxe@iirusa.com or at 646-895-7467.

Due to the high volume of submissions, only accepted proposals will be notified. For consideration, please email rmcdonald@iirusa.com with the following information by Monday, November 10, 2014:

• Proposed speaker name(s), job title(s), and company name(s)
• The topic your session would cover
• Which format you'd like to present
• Please indicate what is NEW about the presentation

All the best,

The Total CX Leaders Team

#TotalCX15

@TotalCustomer

Customers1stblog.iirusa.com

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What actually happens along the Shopper Decision Journey [Webinar Link Inside]

If shopper marketing is about influencing shoppers at the point of purchase decision, how much do we really know about how and where shoppers make decisions?

Our learning is increasing all of the time and we actually know quite a lot as an industry, but for some reason we often seem to forget or ignore everything we know when we try to influence shoppers.

In fact, a huge amount of money, especially if price discounts are being taken into account, is being spent often in ways that may neither help or be damaging to the brand.

We'll explain what happens along the Shopper Decision Journey and give key insights into why their behaviour is not always what you want during our upcoming Webinar, Shoppers Behaving Badly.

This presentations looks at:

• how shoppers really make decisions
• the implications for shopper marketing
• and how to drive a return on investment

When: Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 10:00 AM EDT
Duration: 45 minutes includes Q&A

  --->>> Sign up here

  Speakers: 

• Kirstie Hawkes, Director & Consumer and Shopper Lead, Kantar Retail Europe
• Richard Tolley, Director & Consumer and Shopper Lead, Kantar Retail Europe
• Lee Smith, Global Director, Retail and Shopper

Presented by Kantar Retail and the producers of the International Shopper Insights in Action Event, which unites over 250 of the most prominent retailers and FMCGs from across 35+ countries to share best practices (and next practices). Leading Researchers, Category Managers, Shopper Marketers, Merchandisers and Industry Experts attend to explore consumer and shopper behaviour, the decision journey and how to champion the value of activating intelligence for basket growth. We invite you to join us in Edinburgh this November and help build the future of retail together.

Related articles

• Kantar Worldpanel launches in Egypt
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The Customer Experience: A Journey Best Understood in Reverse?

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” -Soren Kierkegaard

Even after decades of study (and oodles of actual studies), the “Customer Experience” remains a top focus for large and small companies alike. Work from McKinsey about the consumer decision journey (references below) is just one of many recent examples. Millions of dollars and labor hours, and prodigious efforts, are spent on the subject.

From time to time, clients ask—usually around the annual budget-setting cycle—“What should our priorities be in evaluating customers’ experiences?  What’s the first, most important thing we need to understand?”  My answer often echoes Kierkegaard’s assertion above: To best understand and prioritize, begin at the end.  Although this list doesn’t include every possible flavor of CEM study, here’s my ranking and rationale for some major types:

1. Understand Churners/Defectors/Disconnectors

Three standard aims of these studies are:

• Why did they leave (pushed or pulled)?
• Where did they go?
• Would they come back? (hint: many would)

But why put this at the top of the list?

• Like the Little Dutch Boy, you must plug the holes in the dam: High attrition rates require high acquisition rates just to maintain the size of your customer base—and that can get expensive.
• Many wounds are self-inflicted, some are easy to fix: Pick that low-hanging fruit.
• Know when and why you lose customers to specific competitors.
• While the reasons people leave are not always the same as the reasons they stay, fixing the former may go a long way to keeping your customers in the fold.

2. Understand Current Customers

They are the source of current revenue and profit—not to mention paychecks and bonuses. Even simple information about satisfaction based on level of product usage (volume) and specific products used (“Is subscribing to our internet service an upper or a downer?”) can be very enlightening. There are many ways to gain useful knowledge here, for example:

• The McKinsey paper posits that as good and bad events occur, customers may enter a Loyalty Loop: If, at a minimum, experiences nearly meet expectations, they don’t search and remain “loyal.” A price increase, bad customer service or a competitive offer can disrupt this, as can small annoyances over time.  So one focus can be ensuring customers remain in that Loyalty Loop…and if they are not, figuring out how to get them back there.
• With later follow-up, a company can discover key tipping points (e.g., 4-6 months before the end of a mobile phone contract, or two and four years into auto ownership) when it’s optimal to bolster loyalty with a proactive contact or offer.

3. Understand New/Upgrading Customers

So we now know why customers leave and maybe something about why they stay. What next? New customer studies are the reverse of a churn/defector study: Your new customers are probably someone else’s defectors. You’ll discern why they came to you, what attractants and promotions really work, if they were pushed or pulled, where they came from, and among other options:

• What was their purchase decision process like? Short or long, involved or impulse?  How and why did their path end with you?
• What was their experience during the sale itself? How were they treated? What was their opinion of the salesperson and others?
• The “on boarding” experience: early disappointments and successes; that first monthly bill; so far, so good?
• How do we find more of them?

4. Understand Prospects and the Market as a Whole

These studies place your finger on the market’s pulse, and how your and the competition’s changing images are linked to marketing programs, new product introductions, etc. It is the realm of Brand Trackers—illuminating awareness, familiarity, attractiveness of and openness to your brand, why prospects don’t chose you, and whose image is rising and falling. (FWIW, note that McKinsey’s scheme questions the relevance of the traditional funnel approach, which assumes consumers frequently go through a systematic and active re-evaluation of alternatives. That leads to often-expensive awareness building and promotions, and a possibly misallocated budget.)

Understanding the marketplace is critical. Knowing where you are ahead and behind the pack tells you what the game’s score is today. So if it’s that important, why list this last? It can be more imperative for your company to make sure you have your own house—product, price, customer service, systems, etc.—in order first, before you try to acquire a new customer. Some years ago, Ramada had to pull an advertising campaign called “No Surprises”: Apparently, guests were still finding too many.

Without a solid, well-running process in place, a customer’s journey with you may be short indeed!

About the Author: Randy Hanson, Vice President, Market Strategies International

Join Mark Willard of Market Strategies and Mary Lee of AAA for “Revolutionizing CX: How AAA Turned Satisfied Customers into Loyal Advocates” at TMRE 2014 in Boca Raton (2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21). They’ll share how a new measurement program and a built-in, closed-loop system revolutionized AAA’s member experience program and empowered employees across the organization to make immediate and lasting improvements in customer experience. And, visit the Market Strategies team in Booth #508. Learn more about TMRE 2014 here: http://bit.ly/1pEaxzO

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Exclusive Interview: Using Consumer Insights to Make Smarter Business Decisions

In our next episode of the Inside Insights Podcast series brought to you by Consumer Insights Canada, I am fortunate to sit down with Consumer Insights Canada keynote speaker Kelly Harper, who is the Director Customer Experience Learning at BMO INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING, to discuss how the power of consumer insights help to make smarter decisions in business.

Harper goes into how important customer experience is when it comes using customer insights to make the best business decisions possible. You need to think about what type of experiences your organization is giving your customers.  Your consumer insights allows you to understand what is broken in your current experience you are delivering and what is really important to the customer – what are those elements that you have to get right each and every single day. Consumer insights will help you identify and keep track of what is most important to the customer.    

Consumer Insights Canada is a conference that showcases the local Canadian culture in its storytelling. With new entrants like Target Canada, rapid changes in technology and increasingly discerning customers, the Canadian retail industry is in a constant state of change, challenging players to adapt strategies and tactics to remain relevant.  This conference was created for our insights community that focuses on the power of insights in motivating smarter decision making and shines a particular lens on the local flavor of shopper insights in Canada.

Check out the full interview here: 

Download this episode (right click and save)

If you’d like to hear more from Kelly, don’t miss her keynote session, “How to Embed a Culture of Customer Experience in your Organization” at Consumer Insights Canada on Tuesday, September 30th at 10:15 am. The event is taking place this September 29-October 1, 2014 in Toronto, Canada. For more information about the event and to register, please visit our website: http://bit.ly/1khTaTJ

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Invest in Your Customers' Futures

Photo: Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada by David Stanley, Nanaimo, Canada

In "Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?", Michael Schrage maintains that your organization's innovations should be investments in your customers' futures. He proposes to "shift the focus from extracting value from customers to making customers more valuable. Simply put, this new focus redefines the purpose of innovation — which is not just designing better products and services, but designing better and more valuable customers."

Looking for a resource to help your organization redefine their innovation mindset? Immerse yourself in innovation at this year's Back End of Innovation (BEI) event in Las Vegas, Nevada, Oct. 6-8.

You'll learn how organizations are investing in their customers' futures. Kim Schaefer, Director of Communications, The Downtown Project, presents "Redefining a City." By helping to revitalize a downtown Las Vegas neighborhood that has been in a state of decline for many years, The Downtown Project is helping to redefine the image of the city itself. This organization is working to create an environment of entrepreneurship, learning, collaboration, innovation and creativity that it hopes will inspire communities around the world.

To learn more about BEI and register, go to www.BackEndofInnovation.com

Stay connected with BEI:
- twitter.com/BEI_Innovation #BEI14
- linkedin.com/Back End of Innovation
- facebook.com/BackEndofInnovation

Peggy L. Bieniek, ABC is an Accredited Business Communicator specializing in corporate communication best practices. Connect with Peggy on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and on her website at www.starrybluebrilliance.com.

Consumer Insights Canada Brings TMRE & Shopper Insights into Your Backyard

Two weeks ago, Shopper Insights in Action uncovered new trends and insights, with one common theme being shared - "Consumers want trusting relationships, they don't want cold, transactional interactions." Sir Terry Leahy, Former CEO, Tesco & Shopper Insights in Action 2014 Keynote.

Now more than ever, it's even more important to have a deeper understanding of your consumer and what they want, and that's why we're so excited to be bringing Consumer Insights Canada right into your backyard.

The Consumer Insights Canada Event focuses on the power of insights to inspire smarter decision making and shines a lens on shopper and consumer behavior in Canada.  Whether you're looking to break into the market for the first time, or just deepen your relationship with Canadian consumers - this is your must-attend event.

The North American Consumer Insights Event

September 29-October 1, 2014

The Ritz Carlton

Toronto, Ontario

Canada

You'll hear from leading Canadian insights leaders as well as experts from around the world including:

>The Art of Engagement: The Importance of Connecting with Customers in a Multi-Channel World, Canadian Tire

>Falling in Love & Having a Relationship are Two Different Things, Target Canada

>How to Embed a Culture of Customer Experience in Your Organization, BMO Institute for Learning

>Six Secret Steps to Outsmart, Out-Innovate, and Out-Adapt Your Competitors, TrendHunter.com 

>New Canadians: The New Frontier for Marketers, Yahoo! Canada & Mediacom Canada

>Parallels from a Canadian Charity: From Donor-Centric Solutions to Shopper-Centric, General Mills Canada

>Mobile NFC Payments: Canadian Opportunities, Visa Canada

>And from Brandspark, Cadillac Fairview, Colgate Palmolive, General Motors, Mastercard, Saputo and more!

Download the brochure for the full agenda: http://bit.ly/1qb4Wx2

Consumer Insights Canada provides you with the tools you need to push the agenda forward in your organizations and set the strategic framework to better understand Canadian shoppers and consumers. In addition to the insights-filled agenda, you're registration also includes BONUS ACCESS to FEI: Toronto, brought to you by the World's Leader in Advancing Innovation.

Join us in Toronto this fall! Mention code NACI14LI & Save 15% off the standard rate. Register today: http://bit.ly/1qb4Wx2

Cheers,

The North American Consumer Insights Team
#NACI14

@TMRE

themarketresearcheventblog.iirusa.com

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Do Your Customers Expect the Unexpected?

Photo by paul bica

“Even in the familiar there can be surprise and wonder." - Tierney Gearon, author

Everyone is looking for that unique experience, product or service that will make a difference in their lives. Your customers are no exception.

They expect your brand will "wow" them yet again in some special way. And if you do, they will continue to reward you by being lifelong customers and telling their friends about your brand.

Here are some ideas to help get you started on delivering memorable and meaningful customer experiences:

• "How to Give Your Customers an Unforgettable Experience" by Shannon Willoby
• "41 Customer Experiences to Learn From" by Denise Lee Yohn

Peggy L. Bieniek, ABC is an Accredited Business Communicator specializing in corporate communication best practices. Connect with Peggy on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and on her website at www.starrybluebrilliance.com.