Complimentary Webinar: Silencing the Voice of the Customer (VOC): New research methods to create breakthrough products and services

In association with Strategyn, The Institute for International Research invites you to join us for a one hour complimentary Web Seminar.

Silencing the Voice of the Customer (VOC): Focus on the "job-to-be-done" and create breakthrough products and services
Tony Ulwick, Founder & CEO, Strategyn
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 1:00 - 2:00 PM EDT

Reserve your Webinar seat now here.

Over the past 30 years, innovation experts have led companies to believe that it is impossible to know all their customers' needs. They contend that customers can't articulate their needs, and that customers have latent needs - or needs they don't know they have. What if it turns out that this thinking is wrong?

There is a new way of approaching your customer needs but it's not with the Voice of the Customer. Over the past 20 years Strategyn has created and refined an innovation process called Outcome-Driven Innovation® (ODI) that invalidates this old thinking. In addition, a ten-year track record study reveals that when the world's most respected companies silence the voice of the customer and gather the right inputs for the innovation process, they experience an 86 percent success rate. This is a complete turn-around in the innovation industry.

In this webinar, Strategyn founder and CEO, Tony Ulwick will demonstrate how thinking about innovation and customer needs from a "jobs-to-be-done" perspective enables companies to create winning growth strategies and breakthrough products and services.

What you will learn:

* The shortcomings of listening to the "voice-of-the-customer"
* How to define a market from the customer's perspective
* How to create a growth strategy using the right customer inputs
* How to organize the innovation process around the right customer insights

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

About The Institute for International Research:
The Institute for International Research (IIR) is the world's largest conference company and has been the leader in the provision of business information for over 25 years. IIR produces over 5,000 events annually through its network of offices in over 35 countries.

Focusing on What The Customer Thinks

This interview on the Forbes MarketShare blog with Jim Bush, EVP of World Service at American Express, contains some great insights regarding the American Express customer experience strategy.

I was particularly struck by the following quote:

We also strongly believe that great service doesn’t come down to what we think about our performance internally. It’s all about what the customer thinks after every interaction. So we’re not measuring our performance by internal measures. Instead, we’re gauging it by looking at whether customers would recommend American Express to their friends based on their experiences.

Is your company doing anything to shift the focus from internal performance to customer reactions? If so, how? How are you measuring customer loyalty? The American Express study mentioned in the blog is interesting reading regardless of where your current strategy stands.

Thanks for Attending

Thanks to those who joined us yesterday for the Targetbase webinar on Engagement Optimization in Healthcare.

If you have additional questions for our dynamic presenters Trae Clevenger, Senior Vice President, Innovation and Brian Kaiser, Vice President, Healthcare Strategy they can be reached at brian.kaiser@targetbase.com and trae.clevenger@targetbase.com respectively.

Or follow Targetbase on twitter @TargetbaseRX

For more information about our ePharma events, visit the ePharma blog here.

The Customer Is Always...On Twitter?

Have you seen this article from Fortune exploring the efficacy of various customer service channels for eight real-life brands?

Not that long ago I was discussing the future of technology in regards to customer service. Here we have eight cases of companies using twitter, in addition to phone and web channels, to address customer issues...with varying degrees of success. Even Zappos, a known customer service champion, falls somewhat short when put to this test.

The fact is, customers are going to seek answers on channels like twitter - or worse, badmouth your brand. Refraining from having a twitter presence means you may not immediately hear the complaints, but they'll still exist. The best policy is therefore to listen and respond in the best way possible. (A topic IIR occasionally addresses on the Community 2.0 blog). Is the social media team at your company prepared to deal with this challenge? Where does customer service and social media intersect? It's an interesting conundrum.

Are you on twitter? We are, follow us @customerworld.

Complimentary Web Seminar from Targetbase and The North American Conference on Customer Management and The Institute for International Research

Join Targetbase and The North American Conference on Customer Management for Engagement Optimization in Healthcare, a one hour, complimentary webinar on Thursday, March 10 from 2-3 PM EST.

Space is limited. Click here to reserve your Webinar seat now.

How do you measure the impact of customer engagement with your content and communications? How can you use a customer’s pattern of engagement to strengthen the relationship and drive prescriptions and adherence?

The tight integration of content, data, cutting-edge analytics and technology can deliver optimal customer interactions and drive your marketing objectives. Learn about an innovative approach that is providing marketers with an actionable gauge of relationship strength and the ability to drive and optimize ROI.

What you will learn:
• Define a “positive engagement” with your content both online and offline
• Connect an “engagement” with the desired outcome, be it your healthcare professional customer writing a prescription or a patient refilling one
• Create relationship management programs that are driven by a pattern of engagement
• View a case study

Speakers:
Brian Kaiser, VP of Strategy
Trae Clevenger, Senior VP, Innovation

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements:
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows ® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Macintosh ®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS ® X 10.4.11 (Tiger ®) or newer


North American Conference on Customer Management
For over 8 years, NACCM has been your most trusted partner for peer-to-peer sharing, leadership building sessions, and legendary storytellers, leaving you with the inspiration and empowerment to make a difference. NACCM balances practical content you can take action on, unique experiences that reinvigorate, and big-name keynotes that inspire- all while stressing the importance of keeping the customer at the center of every business decision.

Are Mobile Apps The Future of Customer Service?

Between reading about the recent addition of ICE (Interactive Customer Experience™) TV and Mobile programs, a virtual, interactive concierge service, to the newly opened JW Marriott Indianapolis Downtown and learning the results of the most recent J.D. Power and Associates study on customer satisfaction—wherein automated response systems did nearly as well as the industry average satisfaction level—it seems clear that automated customer service and customer service systems are a trend with staying power. American Airlines, as we discussed last week, also offers mobile applications to keep customer experiences stress free, such as the Mobile Boarding Pass system.

With a general public that is increasingly using smart phones to text and tap their way through the day, it’s hardly surprising that some would prefer to address customer service issues in this manner. Why dial an 800 number and wait to speak to a service representative, when you can call up the Internet or an app from your mobile device for immediate answers? What was once simply the realm of Interactive Voice Response technology now includes elements such as text, touch and visual inputs and outputs.

What is your company doing when it comes to automated response systems and mobile technology? Do you see mobile apps as a potential time and money saving device? Or is developing and maintaining mobile technology seen as an additional unneeded expense? If you are developing mobile technology, will it be proactive—such as the American Airlines or ICE applications, which address customer needs before a problem arises—or reactive, such as a direct link to customer service questions? Share with us in the comments!

Honoring Employees For Improved Customer Service

With the holiday season behind us, many are relieved to have the stress of annual travel over with. Meanwhile those who travel regularly throughout the year continue to face increased security, long lines, high prices and more.

American Airlines is looking to put the pleasure back in traveling and improve the flying experience for its customers by building a sense of competition between airport station teams and honoring improved customer service and innovative problem solving with its quarterly “Customer Cup” awards.

San Francisco, Denver, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Ohio, and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic were awarded the Customer Cup this quarter for improvements in internal customer satisfaction ratings in several categories, including increases in customer interaction and baggage delivery ratings. The Customer Cup represents a small part of the airline’s focus on improving the experience for its customers by strengthening internal communication and processes. Employees from all sectors of the business are encouraged to bring forward ideas and solutions to improve the travel experience for customers, and recognition programs such as this one reward innovation.

"Given the challenges the industry faces, the Cup is a great way to recognize the accomplishments of our employees," Mark Mitchell, American's Managing Director – Customer Experience stated in a press release, "It's through their dedication and ingenuity we can deliver exceptional travel experiences of our customers."

By improving participation in improved customer experiences amongst internal stakeholders and streamlining customer experiences with new technology—including iPad, iPhone and Android mobile apps—American Airlines is turning the focus away from the inevitable negatives of flying and towards increased customer satisfaction. Has your company had any success with employee recognition programs? What goals and strategies do you have for 2011 to improve your customer experiences?

Happy Holidays from Customers 1st!

We're taking some time off from our coverage of customer service to celebrate the season with our loved ones. We want to sincerely thank you for your readership, your comments and your participation. We look forward to returning to the world of customer service management in 2011!

Here are our top Customers 1st posts from 2010:
New customer experience measurement system for USPS
NACCM 2010: Day 2 in Pictures
NACCM 2010: Rogers Communications’ Customer Retention & Satisfaction Approach

We wish you Happy Holidays!

Threadless looks to FaceBook for Customer Support

Internet Retailer recently turned to Facebook to support their customer service. By teaming up with Parature, Inc, they were able to create a "Support" tab on their Facebook Fan Page that hosts FAQs. If customer questions aren't answered in the FAQ questions, customers can contact employees for answers. Not only does this get many of the questions answered, it allows Threadless to monitor what customer service issues need to be handled more quickly than others.

Brianne Hattaway, director of customer support for the online retailer, stated, “Our approach to support is shaped by our online community and their need for transparency and immediacy. We can reach out to our customers on Facebook even more than before and give them a fluid support experience across different channels with the personalized support that Parature enables on our site.”

What other kinds of innovative services have you seen to support customers on Facebook?

NACCM 2010: Day 2 in Pictures

Day 2 of NACCM 2010 in Photos:

NACCM 2010: An Interview with the Conference Chair

On the last day of NACCM 2010, we caught up with Curtis Bingham, President and Founder, CHIEF CUSTOMER OFFICER COUNCIL, the Chair for the 2010 Conference.

NACCM 2010: How Leaders Must Empower Employees: CareerBuilder.com Focuses on People, Process and Culture

Presented by: Mike Hargis, CAREERBUILDER

-Millennials are 2-3x more accepting to new technologies
-Millennials prefer structure for their day
-Millennials would rather work as a group than as individuals

How do you retain Millennials? Trust, balance and structure

Career builder only keeps people in their call center for 24-36 months, otherwise they get burnt out. Create a fun environment with degrees in psychology, philosophy, then go on and invest in their training. They do at least 3 events a year to build leadership, such as “Extreme Events”. They reward by creating videos. Employees share these videos, and it makes it easy to attract the right type of people to your company.

They’ve created an App to refer candidates on Facebook. By sharing content, they were able to successfully communicate to more people

NACCM 2010: The Hartford’s Journey Toward Building an Award Winning Culture

Presented by Sue Brinker, AVP Property & Casualty Learning, Hartford Insurance
NACCM, 2010

Hartford’s Advance 50 team is comprised of 5,000 highly credentialed reps with advanced degrees in an aging-related field. The obvious gap is that the customers being served average an age of 65, while the reps are 24 years old. Therefore hiring for attitude is critical, with training, individual coaching, enabling systems, metrics, and rewards to do the rest.

Their training is very deliberate and lasts 11 weeks, 6 weeks of which is live work with customers. New hires are on the phone side-by-side with their mentor as soon as day 8, which enables the employee to learn, apply the knowledge, and be coached.

Empathy and patience are critical for these 24-year olds, since many of their AARP customers are recently widowed, have suffered a stroke, or have hearing loss. They task the rep with working on their own improvement plans where opportunities are discovered. And they maintain the “best call” library contest that serves as both a recognition vehicle and also provide examples as an excellent resource.

NACCM 2010: Ace Care Increases Efficiency without Losing “Tribal Knowledge” or Personal Touch

Presented by Kalus Buellesbach, NACCM 2010
Helping you is the most important thing we have to do today.



As the world’s largest retail cooperative, Ace has 4600 independent stores served by 4,200 direct employees. Their challenge has always been to create a support environment that emphasizes quality while scaling the business.

To that end they implemented the Ace Care Center project, which focused on improving service by utilizing the resources from 85 people in 7 different helpdesks that served retailers, consumers, vendors, and employees. Starting with unifying contact processes and rationalizing service hours, they were then able to improve service levels and drive quality. Since they had little budget, they were able to implement a call recording system using $100 devices from Radio Shack and provide robust agent scorecards using Excel-based tools, using the budget for bonus compensation that rewards agent performance.

NACCM 2010: Service Sabbatical: Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Employee Development Opportunity

Patricia Dilane, Director Member Service Delivery, Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts

Service Sabbatical is an innovative program from BCBS-Mass that improves quality, reduces attrition, and generates goodwill in the community, driving hard ROI.
The initial objective they had in mind was to provide the ability for associates to grow professionally, not just job training, and also be able to provide stronger ties to the communities they serve. The thinking was that this approach could improve quality and attrition metrics, paying for itself.
The week-long curriculum focuses on
• Big-picture call-center operations
• Business challenges that the center faces
• Team building through development of solutions to those problems, including interviewing executives to gain context and knowledge while gaining more exposure
• and a community event that “gives back”

They run the program regularly, accepting 10-12 associates into the program each quarter from a pool of approximately 50 applicants. Senior management believes in this and attends the sessions as well, both participating and encouraging. They even now have a wait-list from senior executives that all want to participate.



Feedback from the associates has been incredible – survey responses are tremendously positive. But beyond that, BCBS quality metrics have increased for all participants, many have been promoted and attrition has decreased. The program has even expanded into Claims and Provider Services areas, further facilitating cross-functional collaboration and teamwork.

NACCM 2010: View from the Top

Jay Steinfeld, CEO, Blinds.Com
It’s hard to do one thing 100% better than everyone, but you can do 100 things 1% better. It all adds up.



Blinds.Com is the largest provider of window treatments on-line, and has revenue per employee equal to Amazon and Facebook. Their mission is to create an experience that makes buying complex and customizable products surprisingly easy and exciting.
To accomplish this Jay runs the business by the numbers, with a critical number KPI being Gross Margin per visit since this reflects conversion rates and sales growth, and provides a leads into where to dig deeper. But repeat business and referral rates, and Net Promoter Scores are also extremely important, and Jay uses those to make sure they can get customer needs addressed with the right priority.
Jay spent many years driving to customers’ homes before going on-line , and believes in the power of customer feedback at the individual level. In that regard, Blinds.Com establishes Net Promoter Scores around the organization, even down to the individual agent level, calculating NPS for each agent. Driving some internal competition, Blinds.Com believes in the effectiveness of transparency and publishes all scores out to everyone. This rather unique practice drives other great behaviors, including better information sharing between departments, better collaboration between teams.
Those interactions with customers have shaped their core values: improve continually, and experiment without fear. Jay hires people that are aligned with these beliefs, asking prospective employees during the interview how they have strived to improve themselves within the last 6 months, and what they did to change for the better. As a result Blinds.Com has a team of people that works together and strives to do better, especially when it comes to improving the customer experience.
Jay attributes their incredible growth over the years to those core values. In fact, the business didn’t really take off until those values were formally established and became part of the business’ DNA.
Some examples of how this manifests itself in some simple practices:
• All employees have the opportunity to present at regular all-hands meetings
• Teams maintain open whiteboards showing the things they are working on with facilitated areas for new ideas.

Jay writes a regular column on BNet called the No-nonsense Boss. Sounds more than worth checking out.



[This blog provided by Steve Bernstein of Waypoint Group, and cross-posted at the Customer Insight = Revenue blog]

NACCM 2010: Learning Leadership Disney Style for Strong Business Results

Presenter: William Greenwald, HUMANA

Leadership Details from Disney:
-Attention to detail – Humana has no meetings between 8:00-9:00 and 4:00-5:00 so they can meet with their employees and say good morning/good evening
-As leaders, you must listen to your employees. They can provide insights as little things you can do to improve your employees interactions with customers.
-When someone is asking a question, figure out what they’re really asking.

Expect resistance – Great leaders must listen. Managers must listen. Most people have problems with change. Have you ever been taught how to deal with change? People have resistance because they don’t know how.

Make people your brand. Is it common practice in your organization? People aren’t often in the most conventional places. Leaders can pick out talent in individuals even though they may not have had previous experience. Hire for your organization with emotional intelligence.

-How do you teach leaders to teach others?
-“Burn the free fuel” – do the free things – recognize your employees, show up to the employee birthday parties, recognize your employees and their spouses
-Train for leaders, not just skill

NACCM 2010: Leadership Means Enabling Success for All Associates: How ADT's Employee Engagement Impacts the Bottom Line

Presented by: Georgia Eddleman Little, ADT SECURITY SERVICES

The Customer Monitoring Center – take calls for customers at times of emergency, answering calls for over 90,000 alarms a day. They also serve as the security for all WalMart products.

Employee engagement at ADT: IT’s critical to their success.
Four ways to link engagement to high performance with employees:
1) Build a line of sight
2) Increase involvement
3) Share of accurate decision making decisions
4) Reward and recognition

When evaluating individuals, the information goes to the direct manager’s boss. Every quarter, there is a meeting with the director a level above their manager. In addition, each quarter, one team from each center collects the information, collaborate across call centers, and then develop a report and share it on the company’s portal. It’s an easy way to get employee engagement and views from the front line.

NACCM 2010: Customer-Centric Leadership: Sun International Hotels Gears Up for the World Cup

Presented by: Ica van Eeden, SUN INTERNATIONAL (PTY) LTD HOTEL GROUP

What does customer management mean? Identify and undsteradn what they really want and look at what your business really is. They need to have a good business strategy with balance.

Manage five things for their customers:
1) Perceptions
2) Interactions
3) Experiences
4) Relationships

They had to unite their brands under across many different cultures. They chose to use CHarleze Theron as a brand ambassador, as she represented many of the ideals of South Africa. They then created a strategy to communicate their new vision across their properties world wide. How did they implement this? They started in one hotel then moved to many others. Their projects just continued into the World Cup.

How do you deliver an experience? Map out all customer touch points. The Middle Manager became the coach. They coached the employees as to their new goals and initiatives. They created videos that showcased the bad experience then the good experience and discussed the attitudes between the two.

She challenged all Middle Managers, and explained that they were the customer service and they had to lead by action.

NACCM 2010: Drive Business Performance: How Leaders Enable a Culture of Intelligent Execution

Joey Fitts, Author, DRIVE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE: ENABLING A CULTURE OF INTELLIGENT EXECUTION

How do you differentiate from the competitor? Focus on great customer experience.

The core function of customer service is to deal with customers. Customer centricity is not a single department or function, but something that needs to persist across the organization. Everyone has to be able to understand customers: both their needs and their wants.

We have to understand customers, and how their perceive the issues. We should not only understand our customers, but understand who they are talking to and what they know. What does evidence play in making decisions?

Customer loyalty. They’re loyal to you, but how loyal are you to them? Is it easy to engage with your customers? Within Hilton, 5% Loyalty increase resulted in a 1.1% revenue increase.

Innovation is a challenge. Know what customers need, even if they don’t know what they need. Previously, Lego has been innovating, but not in a way that makes sense to their customer. They must understand their consumers, because the majority of their sales each year are on products that didn’t exist the year before. They started to focus on their core customers, and they see results in their sales.

NACCM 2010: "Breakfast of Champions" Outdoor Roundtables

Roundtable: Gina Debogovich, BEST BUY

Best Buy’s social strategy has really taken flight over the past three years. Here are a few of the key points from her roundtable:

• -Her team creates videos on a biweekly basis. It is all done in house by her employees. They produce videos that often see the highest call volumes and questions to their call center, which often reduces their incoming calls.
• -Through all of their platforms, they continue to engage with their customers and answer customer service questions first.
• -With all of their social media platforms, they have to cater the voice that is used on the platform. Messaging and conversations aren’t’ the same from Facebook to Twitter to their online message boards.

Best Buy’s Social Media policy can be found at bestbuysocialmediapolicy.com.

NACCM 2010: Day One In Pictures

Photos of Day 1 at NACCM 2010 in Orlando, Florida:

NACCM 2010: What was one thing you learned today?

After an informative day at NACCM, a few attendees shared one thing they learned about today. Watch the video:



What did you learn at NACCM on Day One? Would you like to share your findings on Day Two? Find New Media and share!

NACCM 2010: Growing a Branded Community to Increase Engagement and Advocacy

Pesented by Rebecca (Becky) Carroll, Community Program Manager, Verizon, NACCM 2010

Moving from as tech support oriented community with forums into a more engaging business community required Verizon to realize that social media isn’t a campaign; it is a strategy to build relationships. Viral activities are fleeting – customer evangelism lasts.

Communities allow companies to listen in to conversations and benefit from the insight. And customers have the opportunity to get answers to broader questions beyond Verizon offerings. They have 12 individual customers that lead their communities (not employees), doing this work out of sheer love and passion, and selected from their contribution to the community every 6 months.

As part of the effort, Verizon also monitors and engages via Twitter, via their “Idea Exchange” site, and provides educational and lifestyle content through “Room to Learn.” These activities provide other channels for communication, since customers have different needs and not all use the forums.

And if you think this is all too expensive to do, note that Verizon has only a team of 3 plus their community software vendor. Lean and mean!

The Verizon community is open to everyone, not just customers. As a vehicle to grow their business, the communities also enable Verizon can also get closer to the customer, gain new insights, and drive improvements in customer retention. And for customers, they now are able to self-serve, learn, and have a place to be heard.

Becky recommends starting within your own community: Go into your company’s forums and see what people are saying, passing along the insight in customer-speak. You can then go to external social sites like Twitter and Facebook, using that “customer-speak” from your own forums to find the things that are the best opportunities for engaging customers on your own site.

[Posted by Steve Bernstein of Waypoint Group, and cross-posted at Customer Insight = Revenue blog]

NACCM 2010: Improving Worldwide Customer-Centric Culture & Accountability

Presented by Ines Vargas, LATAM Customer & Partner Experience Lead, Microsoft Corporation, NACCM 2010

95% of Microsoft’s business comes through more than 640,000 partners. And with 88,000 employees worldwide, Microsoft has created a very challenging environment to manage.

They maintain a simple execution model based on 3 pillars:

1. Listening Systems: Windows 7 is based on millions of customer opinions and exemplifies what can be done when they listen to customers. Microsoft conducts a bi-annual customer relationship survey, transactional surveys, website surveys, submitted feedback, and even in-product submissions. All are followed-up where issues are uncovered, both individually and in the aggregate for ongoing improvement. As an example, the in-product window that appears when a Windows system issue occurs gathers critical data that is used in prioritizing fixes, establishing service packs, and communications.

2. Business Planning & Performance Management: Scorecards are used throughout all levels of the organization. Everyone has commitments around customer and partner experience, measured both directly and indirectly. For example, since they know that Windows 7 has the highest and excellent satisfaction levels compared to previous versions, they track the conversion rate of customers migrating to this product.

3. Culture & Accountability: In addition to corporate values, Microsoft has a Senior Executive responsible for Customer Experience enterprise-wide, and ties individual goals to compensation. Accountability is measured and monitored through scorecards, as well as well as with peer recognition and spot awards.

Microsoft maintains a website for all to see their efforts, at http://www.microsoft.com/about/cpe

[This posted provided by Steve Bernstein of Waypoint Group, and cross-posted on Customer Insight = Revenue blog.]