Looking for a non-intrusive touch points through which information about customer demographics, preferences, and lifestyles can be directly observed? Communities are a great way to do this and a very valuable resource for your customer marketing efforts. Here are some ways that I have used our support community site for reference activities:
- I spent some time looking for positive comments by customers. Some customers gave their companies and location so it was easy to contact them about becoming customer references.
- Once we needed a press quote and so we posted an article about feedback for a new feature. We didn't end up finding a customer but we got some leads that could have easily panned out if we would have had more time.
- I get Google Alerts for all things LANDesk and one time a customer posted a question on the community site. I immediately knew it was him and emailed him an answer versus posting it on the site. He was quite pleased that I proactively emailed him the answer.
- Use the community to find leads for your customer reference program. I looked at the biggest contributors to see who was already in my reference program and a few that were passionate about LANDesk that I invited them to become part of it!
One caution here - Most customers will not post too much on your support site if you are going to use it for a marketing tool so proceed carefully and wisely!
Read more about about using communities to build your brand online:
http://prashant-onlinemedia.blogspot.com/2008/10/brand-building-online.html
Monday, October 13, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The Ice Cream Maker - Highly Recommended!!!
I came across a fantastic book that I highly recommend for anyone who works in marketing, sales or is a manager. It's called The Ice Cream Maker by Subir Chowdhury. In the book he shares a parable about making quality in everything you do and how the first rule of business is first and foremost the customer. It's a must read for all 'students' of business. Here are some key points:
- There are two types of customers (internal and external) and we need to take care of both
- Innovation is part of America's DNA
- We must listen to customers, it's not about what we think needs to be done but what is the customer asking for!
- "Listen, Enrich, and Optimize (LEO)" concept
- Quality is defined by the customer
- The surest path to improved quality is getting your front-line employees involved
- Take care of the employees and they'll do the right things for your customers
- "But, quality, I realized, starts with strong leadership. It starts with me listening more closely to our workers, and to our customers."
- There's a great story here about an airline flight attendant blindly following policy and not getting a drink of water, before a flight, for an old man in the front of coach because water was for "first class only." It's a great example of making sure that people aren't hampered by policy -- they need to be engaged to use their brains and to do the right thing for customers.
THE ICE CREAM MAKER tells the intriguing story of Peter Delvecchio, the beleaguered Plant Manager of Dairy Cream, an ice cream manufacturing company with stagnant sales that is on the verge of closure. Desperate to save his company and his own job, Peter reaches out to his former neighbor Mike McMaster of Natural Foods, who has a talismanic influence on him. Peter learns from Mike that satisfied employees who are passionate about their work are more likely to produce quality work and meet the needs of customers, generating a self-fulfilling cycle of success.
Through an engaging dialogue between Peter and Mike, Chowdhury reveals how Mike guides Peter to enable Dairy Cream to rise from the ashes like a Phoenix, using the concept of “LEO,” an acronym that stands for Listen, Enrich, and Optimize. This concept drives home the point that by focusing on quality, listening to what customers want, and meeting their needs, companies will reap the benefits of increased profits—the natural outgrowth of prioritizing customer satisfaction.
Visit The Ice Cream Maker web site or order your copy today from Amazon
- There are two types of customers (internal and external) and we need to take care of both
- Innovation is part of America's DNA
- We must listen to customers, it's not about what we think needs to be done but what is the customer asking for!
- "Listen, Enrich, and Optimize (LEO)" concept
- Quality is defined by the customer
- The surest path to improved quality is getting your front-line employees involved
- Take care of the employees and they'll do the right things for your customers
- "But, quality, I realized, starts with strong leadership. It starts with me listening more closely to our workers, and to our customers."
- There's a great story here about an airline flight attendant blindly following policy and not getting a drink of water, before a flight, for an old man in the front of coach because water was for "first class only." It's a great example of making sure that people aren't hampered by policy -- they need to be engaged to use their brains and to do the right thing for customers.
THE ICE CREAM MAKER tells the intriguing story of Peter Delvecchio, the beleaguered Plant Manager of Dairy Cream, an ice cream manufacturing company with stagnant sales that is on the verge of closure. Desperate to save his company and his own job, Peter reaches out to his former neighbor Mike McMaster of Natural Foods, who has a talismanic influence on him. Peter learns from Mike that satisfied employees who are passionate about their work are more likely to produce quality work and meet the needs of customers, generating a self-fulfilling cycle of success.
Through an engaging dialogue between Peter and Mike, Chowdhury reveals how Mike guides Peter to enable Dairy Cream to rise from the ashes like a Phoenix, using the concept of “LEO,” an acronym that stands for Listen, Enrich, and Optimize. This concept drives home the point that by focusing on quality, listening to what customers want, and meeting their needs, companies will reap the benefits of increased profits—the natural outgrowth of prioritizing customer satisfaction.
Visit The Ice Cream Maker web site or order your copy today from Amazon
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
How much Time Should a CEO spend with Customers?
I came across a GREAT article today I just had to share. Read on to see what Harvard Business School professor John Quelch has to say on this topic.
Every corporate mission statement pays lip service to respecting customer needs, but actual customer expertise is typically a mile wide and an inch deep, says Harvard Business School professor John Quelch. Here's why every CEO should spend at least 10 percent of his or her time thinking about, talking to, and steering the organization to the customer. Key concepts include:
* To be customer-oriented, executives must get out and meet customers on their home turf—in their homes, on job sites, in their offices.
* How much of a CEO's time should be spent interacting with customers depends on at least two things: the nature of the business and the company's strategy.
* CEOs should be cautious about overdoing the percentage of time interfacing with customers.
Read the article
Every corporate mission statement pays lip service to respecting customer needs, but actual customer expertise is typically a mile wide and an inch deep, says Harvard Business School professor John Quelch. Here's why every CEO should spend at least 10 percent of his or her time thinking about, talking to, and steering the organization to the customer. Key concepts include:
* To be customer-oriented, executives must get out and meet customers on their home turf—in their homes, on job sites, in their offices.
* How much of a CEO's time should be spent interacting with customers depends on at least two things: the nature of the business and the company's strategy.
* CEOs should be cautious about overdoing the percentage of time interfacing with customers.
Read the article
Thursday, September 25, 2008
The Little Touches
Last night on TV I saw a commercial for free Walgreens Health Screenings. In the commercial they say how they are spending $35 million dollars to travel around the United States to do free health screenings. The Take Care Health Tour provides free health screenings to the public nationwide, with a focus in areas in need of discounted health care. The screenings include a bone density test, body mass index evaluation, blood pressure check and a glucose and cholesterol test. That amounts to about $115 in health care screenings, but at the tour bus, it's all free. Tour Manager of the Take Care Health screenings Jeff Smith says, "We are aware that there are people who don't have access to this type of health program and that's why we're giving the service to these people entirely free, so they can know what to work on for the future." Learn more
What a great example how a company can build customer loyalty, build relationships with prospects and get their name and brand out there!
Another example of this is a few months ago I was at my parents' house and they had this card standing up on their dining room table. Being the curious cat that I am, I looked to see what it was. On the front of the card was a birthday cake graphic with Zions Bank as part of the graphic. When you open the card, there's a note that says:
"Happy Birthday. All of us at Zions Bank would like to wish you a very happy birthday and success in all your endeavors this year." And its singed by the President and CEO of the bank. It even has a cool quote by Christopher Morley "There is only one success-to be able to spend life in your own way."
What does your company do to build relationships with their customers?
What a great example how a company can build customer loyalty, build relationships with prospects and get their name and brand out there!
Another example of this is a few months ago I was at my parents' house and they had this card standing up on their dining room table. Being the curious cat that I am, I looked to see what it was. On the front of the card was a birthday cake graphic with Zions Bank as part of the graphic. When you open the card, there's a note that says:
"Happy Birthday. All of us at Zions Bank would like to wish you a very happy birthday and success in all your endeavors this year." And its singed by the President and CEO of the bank. It even has a cool quote by Christopher Morley "There is only one success-to be able to spend life in your own way."
What does your company do to build relationships with their customers?
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Customer Loyalty - Why it Matters
One of my favorite topics hands down is the topic of customer loyalty! I have read many books on this topic but my favorite author on this topic is Frederick F. Reichheld. Most people might be familiar with his newer book "The Ultimate Question" but my favorite is "The Loyalty Effect". You know it's a good book when you find tons of nuggets in the preface to the book. On page xi, there's my favorite nugget "The fact across a wide range of industries is that a 5 percent improvement in customer retention rates will yield a 25 to 100 percent increase in profits".
Let me say that again, this time read slowly and let this amazing statement sink in:
"The fact across a wide range of industries is that a 5 percent improvement in customer retention rates will yield a 25 to 100 percent increase in profits".
Wow, just a 5% percent improvement can impact your profits that much? That is an amazing fact. Think about that. Every day in companies, we hear about people saying "how can we grow the bottom line" and other such comments but how often do you hear someone say "How can we we increase our customer retention rates?"
Let me say that again, this time read slowly and let this amazing statement sink in:
"The fact across a wide range of industries is that a 5 percent improvement in customer retention rates will yield a 25 to 100 percent increase in profits".
Wow, just a 5% percent improvement can impact your profits that much? That is an amazing fact. Think about that. Every day in companies, we hear about people saying "how can we grow the bottom line" and other such comments but how often do you hear someone say "How can we we increase our customer retention rates?"
Commitment from the Top Down
Today Forrester Research Names their new CMO, Dwight Griesman, a 25-year marketing veteran. A press release went out where Mr. Griesman talks about his commitment to the customer. Here's one of his quotes: "As Forrester's new CMO, I am committed to ensuring that the voice of the customer continues to be central to how Forrester enhances its products and services across the 19 IT, marketing, and technology industry roles we serve."
Call me crazy, but that's the kind of commitment from the top down that makes a difference in a company. I have been doing some research on Forrester and their various customer research. I came across one document called "The Customer Experience Journey". Learn more. I've read the report and it's really insightful into not just one piece of the customer picture, but the whole picture. This guy has a fabulous blog and I'm wondering how much of the Forrester customer focus is driven by him. His name is Bruce Temkin and he is the Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research focusing on customer experience. Its seems like a month ago that I saw that Forrester did a report on the value of customer reference programs. I am getting a copy of that report soon, this stuff is so good!
Stay tuned for more from Forrester! I'm loving it!
Call me crazy, but that's the kind of commitment from the top down that makes a difference in a company. I have been doing some research on Forrester and their various customer research. I came across one document called "The Customer Experience Journey". Learn more. I've read the report and it's really insightful into not just one piece of the customer picture, but the whole picture. This guy has a fabulous blog and I'm wondering how much of the Forrester customer focus is driven by him. His name is Bruce Temkin and he is the Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research focusing on customer experience. Its seems like a month ago that I saw that Forrester did a report on the value of customer reference programs. I am getting a copy of that report soon, this stuff is so good!
Stay tuned for more from Forrester! I'm loving it!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
You Worked in Call Centers for How Long?
When I first started working in the business world, my first job was in a call center. It quickly became apparent that not only did I like it, but I was really good at it. It's funny how that works. Within a few months of being hired at Nice Corporation, and yes that was the name, I was promoted to a 'special' team. The special team was a team of five of us who worked on the most strategic projects. I realized then that I liked this type of work and stayed in it for more than twelve years.
That's right! I worked in call centers for more than twelve years. I worked in call centers at Novell, Nice Corporation, Matrixx Marketing, US Hotline and Sears and I seem to get grief about that a lot. Some people wanted to know how I 'stood' it for so long and others wanted to know how I kept from going 'crazy' working in that type of job so long.
There's only one reason and that's because I got to work with customers! For many of those twelve years, I was a manager but either way whether I was on the phones directly with the customers or coaching employees how to be better at customer service, I loved it!
One of my favorite things about that job was difficult customers. That's right. I said difficult customers! I loved to get a customer who was upset about something and I turned them around and made them happy customers! I made it a personal goal to turn customers around. Here are some tips how I did it:
- Stay calm. No matter how upset a customer gets you do not have to get upset, in fact the calmer you stay the shorter the call with be and the more you can help the customer.
- Listen. Put your 100% attention on to the customer and try to find out what they really want. Honestly, one of life's most important lessons is to learn that it's not WHAT the person is saying but what they are 'really' saying. For example, if your kid came home from school and said she hates everyone at school, would you think that's what she really meant? No, it probably means someone was mean to her at school and it hurt her feelings and now she's upset or maybe she doesn't have a lot of friends lately. The same principle applies to customers, try to find out what they are 'really' saying and you both will win.
- Next, take notes. There is no way you can remember everything the customer is saying so you can follow-up. Plus sometimes I could even make a map of what the customer was saying and figure out where the problems started.
- Own the call. Sometimes people hide behind the phone literally. They use fake names, they won't give out their phone number and they don't want to transfer you to their boss. Imagine the customer's surprise when I got on, gave them my full name, my direct line and told them if they got cut off somehow to please call me back.
- Go the extra mile. This little principle can turn the most upset customer into your biggest advocate! Maybe it's following-up on the concern yourself, or calling them back personally or whatever. There's always an opportunity to go the extra mile for a customer.
- Remember everyone deserves respect. If your sister, brother, mother, dad, uncle, grandpa etc called a company for some help, how would you want them treated? Honestly here folks, do unto others as you want them to do unto you.
- Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. Please for the love of customers, follow-up on the issue until the customer is happy. This world would be such a happier place if more companies did that.
Well that's it for tonight. Have you helped a difficult customer today?
That's right! I worked in call centers for more than twelve years. I worked in call centers at Novell, Nice Corporation, Matrixx Marketing, US Hotline and Sears and I seem to get grief about that a lot. Some people wanted to know how I 'stood' it for so long and others wanted to know how I kept from going 'crazy' working in that type of job so long.
There's only one reason and that's because I got to work with customers! For many of those twelve years, I was a manager but either way whether I was on the phones directly with the customers or coaching employees how to be better at customer service, I loved it!
One of my favorite things about that job was difficult customers. That's right. I said difficult customers! I loved to get a customer who was upset about something and I turned them around and made them happy customers! I made it a personal goal to turn customers around. Here are some tips how I did it:
- Stay calm. No matter how upset a customer gets you do not have to get upset, in fact the calmer you stay the shorter the call with be and the more you can help the customer.
- Listen. Put your 100% attention on to the customer and try to find out what they really want. Honestly, one of life's most important lessons is to learn that it's not WHAT the person is saying but what they are 'really' saying. For example, if your kid came home from school and said she hates everyone at school, would you think that's what she really meant? No, it probably means someone was mean to her at school and it hurt her feelings and now she's upset or maybe she doesn't have a lot of friends lately. The same principle applies to customers, try to find out what they are 'really' saying and you both will win.
- Next, take notes. There is no way you can remember everything the customer is saying so you can follow-up. Plus sometimes I could even make a map of what the customer was saying and figure out where the problems started.
- Own the call. Sometimes people hide behind the phone literally. They use fake names, they won't give out their phone number and they don't want to transfer you to their boss. Imagine the customer's surprise when I got on, gave them my full name, my direct line and told them if they got cut off somehow to please call me back.
- Go the extra mile. This little principle can turn the most upset customer into your biggest advocate! Maybe it's following-up on the concern yourself, or calling them back personally or whatever. There's always an opportunity to go the extra mile for a customer.
- Remember everyone deserves respect. If your sister, brother, mother, dad, uncle, grandpa etc called a company for some help, how would you want them treated? Honestly here folks, do unto others as you want them to do unto you.
- Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. Please for the love of customers, follow-up on the issue until the customer is happy. This world would be such a happier place if more companies did that.
Well that's it for tonight. Have you helped a difficult customer today?
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Customer Newsletters
One of the biggest opportunities that companies often miss out on is leveraging your customer communications to build customer loyalty and increase incremental revenue. It's a huge opportunity that I hope more companies will start doing over the next five years. As the cost of acquiring new customers via traditional marking efforts continues to rise, marketers need to take a much closer look at customer newsletters and other opportunities to build increase customer loyalty.
I have had about six years experience working on internal newsletters and then another two more years with customer newsletters. Creating a newsletter is much more than just developing and executing a monthly newsletter. Here are some thoughts to consider:
* Are your customer newsletters valuable to your customers? By this I mean, are they relevant, consistent, relevant, and action-oriented? It doesn't matter how good your newsletter looks, if your customers don't see value in it, and they don't open it, then so what?
* Have you done research with your customers so you know who they are and what they want in a newsletter? If you don't know anything about your customers and what they want to read, why are you producing a newsletter?
* Have you involved stakeholders from all key divisions in developing your newsletter strategy (this includes sales, support, finance, and anyone else that regularly works with customers)?
* Have you put the right person in charge of your newsletter? Too often, this is a job that is given to the new marketing person usually just out of college. It's up to you, how important is it to you to nurture and cultivate your key customers?
* Do you have a good customer list? Ok, this could be a whole discussion by its own but you need a good customer list that includes your current customers and if you don't have one, you should work on it and to build a subscription program so customers can opt-in to your newsletter.
* Is the person or team in charge of your newsletter working with your marketing and branding teams to ensure consistent communication between your newsletter and other corporate projects?
* Are you linked in with the right product managers, product managers and other key players to make sure you are getting the key messages that should be communicated?
* Do you have a long-term strategy and plan for your newsletter and other customer communications?
* Do you have a great email system to send your customer communication that tracks clicks, shows trending, and tracks your customer's response to your emails? A great one that we use is FutureNow. An amazing email program can make a big difference in your customer communication and even campaign success.
* Last but not least, are you leveraging modern technologies when communicating to your customers? Please don't send pdf or text newsletters to your customers, when the rest of the world has been sending html for at least a good five years now.
Hopefully this gets some ideas flowing and you realize what a big impact your customer newsletter can have if you do it right!
I have had about six years experience working on internal newsletters and then another two more years with customer newsletters. Creating a newsletter is much more than just developing and executing a monthly newsletter. Here are some thoughts to consider:
* Are your customer newsletters valuable to your customers? By this I mean, are they relevant, consistent, relevant, and action-oriented? It doesn't matter how good your newsletter looks, if your customers don't see value in it, and they don't open it, then so what?
* Have you done research with your customers so you know who they are and what they want in a newsletter? If you don't know anything about your customers and what they want to read, why are you producing a newsletter?
* Have you involved stakeholders from all key divisions in developing your newsletter strategy (this includes sales, support, finance, and anyone else that regularly works with customers)?
* Have you put the right person in charge of your newsletter? Too often, this is a job that is given to the new marketing person usually just out of college. It's up to you, how important is it to you to nurture and cultivate your key customers?
* Do you have a good customer list? Ok, this could be a whole discussion by its own but you need a good customer list that includes your current customers and if you don't have one, you should work on it and to build a subscription program so customers can opt-in to your newsletter.
* Is the person or team in charge of your newsletter working with your marketing and branding teams to ensure consistent communication between your newsletter and other corporate projects?
* Are you linked in with the right product managers, product managers and other key players to make sure you are getting the key messages that should be communicated?
* Do you have a long-term strategy and plan for your newsletter and other customer communications?
* Do you have a great email system to send your customer communication that tracks clicks, shows trending, and tracks your customer's response to your emails? A great one that we use is FutureNow. An amazing email program can make a big difference in your customer communication and even campaign success.
* Last but not least, are you leveraging modern technologies when communicating to your customers? Please don't send pdf or text newsletters to your customers, when the rest of the world has been sending html for at least a good five years now.
Hopefully this gets some ideas flowing and you realize what a big impact your customer newsletter can have if you do it right!
Exceptional Customer Service
Wow it's been a busy week but I wanted to share a great customer service experience I had. A month or so ago I signed up for a trial membership for a service. A few days ago the monthly charge showed up on my bill and I was a little concerned since I forgot about it. I was a little nervous calling the company to cancel because they usually pressure you to stay with them, want to know why you are canceling etc but I thought I'd give it a try. Here is how my experience went:
(1) Answering the phone - The representative from this company answered before the second ring.
(2) Great Customer Service Skills - The rep was pleasant and listened to me without interrupting. I didn't have to give a reason for canceling and he even offered to give me a refund for the charged amount for this month. He was 100% engaged in our conversation, which doesn't seem to happen too often.
(3) Email confirmation - I have never had this happen to me. The rep emailed me, or it could have been their system that automatically sends out emails, and I was so impressed with the email that I want to share it.
Subject Line: TheLadders.com - Phone Call Follow-Up [Incident: 080915-000983]
Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.
Discussion Thread
(Matthew) 09/15/2008 10:50 AM
Hi Liz,
Thanks for giving us a call
You're all set! I've processed your refund. You should see a total of $30 back on your credit card within the next three business days.
Your account has been downgraded from Premium to our free Basic membership. You will not be charged again.
Thanks for reading and best of luck!
Regards,
Matthew
Community Manager
TheLadders.com, Inc.
Have a Question? Click Here: http://theladders.custhelp.com
(1) Answering the phone - The representative from this company answered before the second ring.
(2) Great Customer Service Skills - The rep was pleasant and listened to me without interrupting. I didn't have to give a reason for canceling and he even offered to give me a refund for the charged amount for this month. He was 100% engaged in our conversation, which doesn't seem to happen too often.
(3) Email confirmation - I have never had this happen to me. The rep emailed me, or it could have been their system that automatically sends out emails, and I was so impressed with the email that I want to share it.
Subject Line: TheLadders.com - Phone Call Follow-Up [Incident: 080915-000983]
Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.
Discussion Thread
(Matthew) 09/15/2008 10:50 AM
Hi Liz,
Thanks for giving us a call
You're all set! I've processed your refund. You should see a total of $30 back on your credit card within the next three business days.
Your account has been downgraded from Premium to our free Basic membership. You will not be charged again.
Thanks for reading and best of luck!
Regards,
Matthew
Community Manager
TheLadders.com, Inc.
Have a Question? Click Here: http://theladders.custhelp.com
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Company Checkup - The Customer Experience
When was the last time that you did a company checkup on what the customer experience is for your customers? If you haven't done it recently, you probably should. It's a great way to make sure your customers are being treated how they should be and that all the work (and money!) that you have put into getting customers isn't getting blown because of a horrible process or a bad employee?
To get started, you need to make a list of all your customer touchpoints and the experiences they might go through. Here are some examples:
1. Awareness (Is it easy for prospects and customers to learn more about your company and your offerings? Are your tradeshow booths managed well and customers and prospects treated like gold at the booths?)
2. Engaging with Sales (Is it easy for a customer to find a phone number to find out who their sales person is? What about if they want pricing? How are your phones answered? Do your inside sales people and sales people return calls in a timely manner)
3. Buying Process (Is it easy to place an order? Does the customer get the product in a timely manager? Do they get registration information easily? Do you send them a welcome e-mail or letter telling them numbers for technical support, etc)
4. Support (Is it easy for a customer to find the technical support phone number on your website? How are your support phones answered and how responsive are your support people?)
These are just a few examples but there are probably dozens of examples that you can work on to make sure your customer has a quality customer experience every time they interact with your company!
To get started, you need to make a list of all your customer touchpoints and the experiences they might go through. Here are some examples:
1. Awareness (Is it easy for prospects and customers to learn more about your company and your offerings? Are your tradeshow booths managed well and customers and prospects treated like gold at the booths?)
2. Engaging with Sales (Is it easy for a customer to find a phone number to find out who their sales person is? What about if they want pricing? How are your phones answered? Do your inside sales people and sales people return calls in a timely manner
3. Buying Process (Is it easy to place an order? Does the customer get the product in a timely manager? Do they get registration information easily? Do you send them a welcome e-mail or letter telling them numbers for technical support, etc)
4. Support (Is it easy for a customer to find the technical support phone number on your website? How are your support phones answered and how responsive are your support people?)
These are just a few examples but there are probably dozens of examples that you can work on to make sure your customer has a quality customer experience every time they interact with your company!
Friday, September 12, 2008
All You Have to do is Ask - Think Positive!
In my role as a Customer Reference Manager I have learned so much about customers, but there is one lesson I truly value. This is the lesson of thinking positively when working with customers. At one conference I went to, I was surprised how negative some of the attendees were about the sales organization and customers. It was kind of weird but they expected the worst from the sales people like "the sales people WON'T help me" or "the customers NEVER will do references".
First of all, with that kind of attitude, they are probably right. Working with customers and the sales organization is like being a sales person. Your attitude has a lot to do with your success! If you believe a customer will help you with a reference request, then you will probably get one. This week I got three customer requests for PR and sales and one of the requests was pretty challenging. But I didn't give up and I ended up with not only one but THREE customers willing to help out just for that one! I got the other two requests done too.
Second, doing customer references is like sales, you need to be a hunter. One of my co-workers in sales emailed me this week and said I sounded like a hunter. It is true. I don't just sit here waiting for references to come to me or for sales to send them to me (HA). I am very proactive and extremely creative in getting references. Its funny sometimes how I get them, but hey I do.
Third, there are customers who want to help and if they can, they most likely will! For example, some customers want to get their name out there and so they are LOOKING FOR such opportunities that you have to offer. And sometimes situations change. I had a customer who couldn't do a reference but then her company policy changed and she could do some on a limited basis. What if I would have just told myself that she could 'never' do them and gave up on her? Well then I wouldn't have the awesome customer reference contact that I have now. Another great example of this is last year at our user event in Vegas. I emailed my reference contacts to see if any wanted to give presentations and we got so many responses that we had to add a whole customer track! We had 13 customer presentations and they all turned out great!
The bottom line is to keep your head up and expect the best from your customers!
First of all, with that kind of attitude, they are probably right. Working with customers and the sales organization is like being a sales person. Your attitude has a lot to do with your success! If you believe a customer will help you with a reference request, then you will probably get one. This week I got three customer requests for PR and sales and one of the requests was pretty challenging. But I didn't give up and I ended up with not only one but THREE customers willing to help out just for that one! I got the other two requests done too.
Second, doing customer references is like sales, you need to be a hunter. One of my co-workers in sales emailed me this week and said I sounded like a hunter. It is true. I don't just sit here waiting for references to come to me or for sales to send them to me (HA). I am very proactive and extremely creative in getting references. Its funny sometimes how I get them, but hey I do.
Third, there are customers who want to help and if they can, they most likely will! For example, some customers want to get their name out there and so they are LOOKING FOR such opportunities that you have to offer. And sometimes situations change. I had a customer who couldn't do a reference but then her company policy changed and she could do some on a limited basis. What if I would have just told myself that she could 'never' do them and gave up on her? Well then I wouldn't have the awesome customer reference contact that I have now. Another great example of this is last year at our user event in Vegas. I emailed my reference contacts to see if any wanted to give presentations and we got so many responses that we had to add a whole customer track! We had 13 customer presentations and they all turned out great!
The bottom line is to keep your head up and expect the best from your customers!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Maximizing Your Best Customers
I have a customer in my customer reference program who is a dream. We'll call him Keith and he is just great for so many reasons. Most of all, he has learned how being a great customer reference can be a win-win for his company and him. When I first met him at a user conference, he was just your average Joe happy customer. In a year, he has become my favorite customer advocate. He started with doing a fabulous case study and moved on to do a great press article for us for which he was recognized at a company event! Next year, he will even do a customer success video testimonial and has some great opportunities to participate in upcoming customer events .
Not all your customers will say no to opportunities and probably one of the biggest lessons I have learned in the customer reference business is that to expect the best from customers not the worst. Managing a customer reference program is so similar to being in sales that it makes me chuckle sometimes. I have a reference pipeline, my target 50 success stories each year, my target 100 references each year etc. And just like in sales, if you have a positive mental attitude it makes a big difference in your success.
One huge success I just found out about tonight was a new Analyst ROI study that just got wrapped up. It took a few months but there were 15 customers interviewed for this who shared their return on investment numbers and the paper turned out just fabulous! These customers all had great stories and wanted to share their experiences. Here's the IDC report
That's just one reason I love my job so much but honestly to have a job where the customers loves your products so much is fun, really fun!
Not all your customers will say no to opportunities and probably one of the biggest lessons I have learned in the customer reference business is that to expect the best from customers not the worst. Managing a customer reference program is so similar to being in sales that it makes me chuckle sometimes. I have a reference pipeline, my target 50 success stories each year, my target 100 references each year etc. And just like in sales, if you have a positive mental attitude it makes a big difference in your success.
One huge success I just found out about tonight was a new Analyst ROI study that just got wrapped up. It took a few months but there were 15 customers interviewed for this who shared their return on investment numbers and the paper turned out just fabulous! These customers all had great stories and wanted to share their experiences. Here's the IDC report
That's just one reason I love my job so much but honestly to have a job where the customers loves your products so much is fun, really fun!
Monday, September 8, 2008
What do Customers Want and GO Netflix!
Do you know what your customers want? Ask them! Some of the most successful companies in the world are that way for one reason and one reason only, they know their customers and knew what they wanted. Amazon was started because one guy, Jeff Bezos, knew that people wanted an easy way to order books online. Now he's one of the richest man in America and trust me, he knows his customers. A similar story happened at eBay. The online auction Web site was founded in San Jose, California, on September 3, 1995, by French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar. Pierre knew there was a great opportunity to sell things online and pursued his mission.
The topic for my blog today is that companies that know their customers are very successful. And how can you know your customers? Here are a few ideas:
1. Meet them in person. Go to conferences, user groups, customers sites, anything to get to know them and to truly understand what they want and need
2. Customer surveys - Ah the golden egg of customer knowledge. Companies who do customer surveys and do them well are very successful.
3. Customer communication. Talk to your customers and more importantly, listen. It's a two way street. You have needs, they have needs and hopefully you can produce a win-win situation
I want to share a quick story on one company's success in the area of communication. About a month or so ago, I got an email from Netflix, I think from the president. In the email he apologized for an error they had been having, offered up a solution and offered up a partial refund for the month. Wow, was I impressed. Honestly I hadn't even known there was a problem going on but this company is so awesome that they proactively reached out to customers to apologize AND to make things better. Here's their message that they not only emailed to customers but posted on their website
IMPORTANT: Your DVD shipments might be delayed… We're sorry to report that we've been experiencing issues with our shipping system, so some of you are not receiving DVDs in a timely manner and some of you have not received emails letting you know we got a DVD back from you.
We apologize and we'll be automatically issuing credits to all of you whose shipments have been delayed. Our goal is to ship DVDs as soon as possible and to provide a personalized email update to you if your DVD shipment was delayed.
We're sorry for any inconvenience we've caused you and thank you for your patience.
The Netflix Team
I was already a very happy customer but now I am a customer for life with this one email they sent! GO NETFLIX! And go great management at company's who value customers!
The topic for my blog today is that companies that know their customers are very successful. And how can you know your customers? Here are a few ideas:
1. Meet them in person. Go to conferences, user groups, customers sites, anything to get to know them and to truly understand what they want and need
2. Customer surveys - Ah the golden egg of customer knowledge. Companies who do customer surveys and do them well are very successful.
3. Customer communication. Talk to your customers and more importantly, listen. It's a two way street. You have needs, they have needs and hopefully you can produce a win-win situation
I want to share a quick story on one company's success in the area of communication. About a month or so ago, I got an email from Netflix, I think from the president. In the email he apologized for an error they had been having, offered up a solution and offered up a partial refund for the month. Wow, was I impressed. Honestly I hadn't even known there was a problem going on but this company is so awesome that they proactively reached out to customers to apologize AND to make things better. Here's their message that they not only emailed to customers but posted on their website
IMPORTANT: Your DVD shipments might be delayed… We're sorry to report that we've been experiencing issues with our shipping system, so some of you are not receiving DVDs in a timely manner and some of you have not received emails letting you know we got a DVD back from you.
We apologize and we'll be automatically issuing credits to all of you whose shipments have been delayed. Our goal is to ship DVDs as soon as possible and to provide a personalized email update to you if your DVD shipment was delayed.
We're sorry for any inconvenience we've caused you and thank you for your patience.
The Netflix Team
I was already a very happy customer but now I am a customer for life with this one email they sent! GO NETFLIX! And go great management at company's who value customers!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Customer Lifetime Value - Plus
Customer lifetime value is an interesting exercise based on a lot of math. Customer lifetime value is defined as the present value of all current and future profits generated from a customer. And here's the formula
CLV = M x
R 1 + I – R
M = margin or profit from a customer in a certain period
R = your retention rate (most companies are between 60-90%)
I = discount rate (your company’s cost of capital, usually a rate of 8-16%)
If you go to the first link I have listed below, there is a handy dandy calculator to help you calculate this CLV for your company. BUT you have to know the following:
- Current customer base
- Total revenue for 1 year
- Average profit margin
- Current retention rate
- Percent increase in customer retention rate:
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Calculator
How to Compute Your Customer Lifetime Value
How to Calculate Lifetime Customer Value
Calculating LifeTime Value (LTV) or Lifetime Customer Value (LCV)
What I would like to propose is that it's really hard to measure what a customer's 'true' real lifetime value is to the success of your company. For example, you can do all the formulas above, and good luck because it is really hard sometimes to get all that financial information together, but does it show how 'valuable' the customer is to your company's success? I say no. Here are some areas that customers help you to be more successful and while there is probably some way to measure this, I don't have one today. The CLV plus areas I am talking about include:
- Customers who participate in press releases or news articles
- Customers who complete your customer surveys and give great feedback
- Customers who do sales references for your company and even site visits
- Customers who speak for you at events or conferences
- Customers who through Word of Mouth talk positively about you to their circle of influence
- Customers who assist other customers with online communities or other sites
Do you know who your most valuable customers are? And are you leveraging these customers enough? Customers are your most valuable assets! Get to know them and together you can help your company be even more successful!
CLV = M x
R 1 + I – R
M = margin or profit from a customer in a certain period
R = your retention rate (most companies are between 60-90%)
I = discount rate (your company’s cost of capital, usually a rate of 8-16%)
If you go to the first link I have listed below, there is a handy dandy calculator to help you calculate this CLV for your company. BUT you have to know the following:
- Current customer base
- Total revenue for 1 year
- Average profit margin
- Current retention rate
- Percent increase in customer retention rate:
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Calculator
How to Compute Your Customer Lifetime Value
How to Calculate Lifetime Customer Value
Calculating LifeTime Value (LTV) or Lifetime Customer Value (LCV)
What I would like to propose is that it's really hard to measure what a customer's 'true' real lifetime value is to the success of your company. For example, you can do all the formulas above, and good luck because it is really hard sometimes to get all that financial information together, but does it show how 'valuable' the customer is to your company's success? I say no. Here are some areas that customers help you to be more successful and while there is probably some way to measure this, I don't have one today. The CLV plus areas I am talking about include:
- Customers who participate in press releases or news articles
- Customers who complete your customer surveys and give great feedback
- Customers who do sales references for your company and even site visits
- Customers who speak for you at events or conferences
- Customers who through Word of Mouth talk positively about you to their circle of influence
- Customers who assist other customers with online communities or other sites
Do you know who your most valuable customers are? And are you leveraging these customers enough? Customers are your most valuable assets! Get to know them and together you can help your company be even more successful!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Who Are Your Customers?
Yesterday in a meeting I was asked what the greatest marketing lesson was that I've ever learned. I said it's that customers are individuals not just masses of people. For example, they have different needs, different lives, different approaches, different levels of comfort level talking to the press etc. Hands down, this has been the biggest marketing lesson that I've ever learned, especially since doing customer references.
For example, customer A might be an IT Manager with 20 years experience who is looking to share his experiences and willing to do press interviews, case study, speaking engagements etc because he wants to advance his career and is comfortable talking about his experiences. Customer B might be a new IT admin who is really too tactical to be able to talk to the press and too shy to want to.
Both customers are valuable but we need to respect what they want and need. My examples apply well to my current job but no matter your business, I challenge you to take some time and get to know your customers. Not just the stats and the numbers, but who each individual customer. I know it's not realistic to get to know every customer but I think the greatest thing anyone at a company can do is to to know your customers. The only way to eat an elephant is one bite as a time. The same principle applies to getting to know your customers, except you don't bite them, you just need to get to know them.
For example, customer A might be an IT Manager with 20 years experience who is looking to share his experiences and willing to do press interviews, case study, speaking engagements etc because he wants to advance his career and is comfortable talking about his experiences. Customer B might be a new IT admin who is really too tactical to be able to talk to the press and too shy to want to.
Both customers are valuable but we need to respect what they want and need. My examples apply well to my current job but no matter your business, I challenge you to take some time and get to know your customers. Not just the stats and the numbers, but who each individual customer. I know it's not realistic to get to know every customer but I think the greatest thing anyone at a company can do is to to know your customers. The only way to eat an elephant is one bite as a time. The same principle applies to getting to know your customers, except you don't bite them, you just need to get to know them.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Customer Awareness Everywhere You Go
So one thing I do to help me become a stronger customer advocate is to observe how other companies manage their customer relationships. Every day we have the projects and errands where we get to interact with businesses. This can include filling up your tank at a gas station, going out to lunch, picking up groceries, calling customer service at a company etc. I've made it a game to watch how employees treat me and what they do to be more customer-focused. Here are some observations for this week:
- Customer focused versus good marketing: One local restaurant had a message on their cash register that says "We Love Our Customers". Ok that's nice marketing but do you love your customers? If so, show me. When I walk in, I would like to be greeted with a smile and have someone ready and willing to take my order. I promise I am no diva and don't expect anything more than the next person but if you say "We Love our Customers" then show it!
- Make it easy to do business with you. Last night I needed to do a quick cd order for my husbands music cds. I found a site and it was the easiest order I've probably placed in a long time. I felt like they were holding my hand the whole way. They helped me upload my artwork, they had FAQs on every page and answered every question. It was an awesome experience and I will definitely buy again.
- Train your employees to support your goals. One local grocery store promotes they want to exceed your expectations and they do! They have the happiest employees anywhere from the store manager to the bag boy. And they are all just so willing to help - I can ask for anything and they will go out of their way to help me. For example, last year for Christmas I wanted to get my husband something with Rachel Ray. I asked the Store Manager if I could have a display with her on it when they were done with it instead of them throwing it away. He had an extra one and just gave it to me. Wow was my husband surprised to find a cardboard cutout of Rachel Ray under our Christmas tree. This is just one example, I have quite a few more.
- Customer focused versus good marketing: One local restaurant had a message on their cash register that says "We Love Our Customers". Ok that's nice marketing but do you love your customers? If so, show me. When I walk in, I would like to be greeted with a smile and have someone ready and willing to take my order. I promise I am no diva and don't expect anything more than the next person but if you say "We Love our Customers" then show it!
- Make it easy to do business with you. Last night I needed to do a quick cd order for my husbands music cds. I found a site and it was the easiest order I've probably placed in a long time. I felt like they were holding my hand the whole way. They helped me upload my artwork, they had FAQs on every page and answered every question. It was an awesome experience and I will definitely buy again.
- Train your employees to support your goals. One local grocery store promotes they want to exceed your expectations and they do! They have the happiest employees anywhere from the store manager to the bag boy. And they are all just so willing to help - I can ask for anything and they will go out of their way to help me. For example, last year for Christmas I wanted to get my husband something with Rachel Ray. I asked the Store Manager if I could have a display with her on it when they were done with it instead of them throwing it away. He had an extra one and just gave it to me. Wow was my husband surprised to find a cardboard cutout of Rachel Ray under our Christmas tree. This is just one example, I have quite a few more.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Hiring the Right Type of Employee for Your Customer-Focused Culture
Today's Labor Day and if I was smart, I'd be resting. I have a five day offsite meeting this week that will run from 8 am until at least 10 pm. But I am loving doing this blog. Honestly, for years I have wondered why High School and Colleges don't have classes on customers, like "Understanding Customers 101". I am so passionate about this topic that I could easily write a book, which maybe someday I will. ;-)
In yesterday's blog I talked about how to create a Customer-focused culture and one of the areas I suggested is hiring the right people for your organization. As I was writing it, I realized right away that I needed to spend more time on this topic. So here are my three suggestions on what you should look for when you are hiring for your company to ensure you hire the right kind of employee that will help you build a more customer-focused company.
1. Teamwork - The first trait I suggest you look for someone who is a team player. For the eight years I managed in call centers, I learned a lot about who makes the best employees. I found out quickly that it's better to hire someone who is a team player than someone who only cares about his/her success. Here are some questions you can ask to help you find that teamwork type of individual that you want at your company:
- Tell me about the best team you ever worked on and what made it such a great team?
- Same question as above but this time tell me about a team that wasn't your favorite and what made it such a challenge?
- On a scale of one to ten with ten being high, how much of a team player would you say you are and why?
2. Passion for Customers - Next you want to find people who truly and sincerely care about customers and are willing to go the extra mile for customer.
- What is your favorite thing about working with customers?
- Tell me about a time when you had an upset customer and how you handled it?
3. Positive Attitude - Wow, honestly I am thinking that maybe I should have put this one first because a person with a genuine positive attitude can make such a difference for a team, department and company. These types of people are such an awesome asset to have at a company. Here are some of my favorite questions to ask around this trait:
- What is one of the biggest challenges you have faced in a job and how did you resolve it?
- At certain times everyone has to work with a person where there is a serious clash of personalities. Have you had this problem before and how did you handle it?
- Tell me about a time when you knew a project of yours wasn't going to be done by the deadline. How did you handle this pressure, how did you communicate it to your management and how did it turn out?
In yesterday's blog I talked about how to create a Customer-focused culture and one of the areas I suggested is hiring the right people for your organization. As I was writing it, I realized right away that I needed to spend more time on this topic. So here are my three suggestions on what you should look for when you are hiring for your company to ensure you hire the right kind of employee that will help you build a more customer-focused company.
1. Teamwork - The first trait I suggest you look for someone who is a team player. For the eight years I managed in call centers, I learned a lot about who makes the best employees. I found out quickly that it's better to hire someone who is a team player than someone who only cares about his/her success. Here are some questions you can ask to help you find that teamwork type of individual that you want at your company:
- Tell me about the best team you ever worked on and what made it such a great team?
- Same question as above but this time tell me about a team that wasn't your favorite and what made it such a challenge?
- On a scale of one to ten with ten being high, how much of a team player would you say you are and why?
2. Passion for Customers - Next you want to find people who truly and sincerely care about customers and are willing to go the extra mile for customer.
- What is your favorite thing about working with customers?
- Tell me about a time when you had an upset customer and how you handled it?
3. Positive Attitude - Wow, honestly I am thinking that maybe I should have put this one first because a person with a genuine positive attitude can make such a difference for a team, department and company. These types of people are such an awesome asset to have at a company. Here are some of my favorite questions to ask around this trait:
- What is one of the biggest challenges you have faced in a job and how did you resolve it?
- At certain times everyone has to work with a person where there is a serious clash of personalities. Have you had this problem before and how did you handle it?
- Tell me about a time when you knew a project of yours wasn't going to be done by the deadline. How did you handle this pressure, how did you communicate it to your management and how did it turn out?
Sunday, August 31, 2008
A Customer-Focused Culture
So you want to instill a customer-focused culture throughout your organization? First thing you should know is there are a few different phases of doing this and honestly it is not an overnight project. In fact it could take years to accomplish this depending on your company's commitment level and the types of employees you have been hiring. The first phase is to communicate the company goal of company focus throughout your company. At my present employer, customer focus was one of our top three objectives for 2008 and we had a communication plan in place ready for January 1st. And months before this our customer care tea had been meeting and evaluating which projects we wanted to do in Q1 2008. Based on our experience, here are some things you can do at your company to ensure a truly customer-focused culture:
1. Support at the Senior Levels - Ensure that this is an initiative that starts from the top and rolls down. If your CEO and executive management team don't support this, then it will be really difficult to role out any changes to support this initiative. A company with a CEO that personally exemplifies strong customer commitments and rewards those in the company who also do this, will notice the rest of the employees will begin to do this as well
2. Appoint a senior marketing officer to drive this initiative. Make someone responsible to drive this and then make sure to give them resources, both in headcount and budget to accomplish this goal.
3. Get outside help if you need it. There are consulting firms and survey companies who specialize in this type of work.
4. Review your company's employee reward system Are you rewarding employees for helping to drive customer-focused culture? If not, think about doing this. Reward customer's who support your company's initiative and go the extra mile to help customers.
5. Consider an in-house training program - This is a great opportunity to provide a consistent message and training to your employees who work with customers. It's not just about customer service, it's about customer delight, it's about caring for your customers so they want to buy from you again, and again, and again. As part of this program, you can train them on one consistent way to answer the phone, how to handle escalations, how to follow-up on concerns etc. Truly teach them how to be customer-focused, don't just tell them.
6. Hiring the Right People - I mentioned this earlier, but honestly if you want a customer-focused culture, you need to hire the right people. I was a manager in call centers for eight years and I learned a ton about people and what makes them tick. I learned a lot about who makes good employees. For example, you need to hire team-players, individuals who are passionate about customer delight, employees that are willing to go above and beyond to ensure your customers are taken care of. I am just realizing that I could devote a whole blog article to this topic, so I'll stop for now. I also suggest this could be the most important of all steps because if you hire the right people, anything is possible!
7. Ask, Listen and Respond - Survey your customers, analyze the results and then follow-up on every single concern. As someone who has worked with surveys for many years, I have found the best comments to be the open-ended comments. On every survey, I will ask "What suggestions or feedback do you have to help us serve you better?" The answers are a great insight into what your customers are thinking and how you can help them be happier.
Few more articles on this topic for those of you who want to learn more:
Sustaining a Customer-Focused Culture
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, provides his 10 tips for building a customer service focused culture.
1. Support at the Senior Levels - Ensure that this is an initiative that starts from the top and rolls down. If your CEO and executive management team don't support this, then it will be really difficult to role out any changes to support this initiative. A company with a CEO that personally exemplifies strong customer commitments and rewards those in the company who also do this, will notice the rest of the employees will begin to do this as well
2. Appoint a senior marketing officer to drive this initiative. Make someone responsible to drive this and then make sure to give them resources, both in headcount and budget to accomplish this goal.
3. Get outside help if you need it. There are consulting firms and survey companies who specialize in this type of work.
4. Review your company's employee reward system Are you rewarding employees for helping to drive customer-focused culture? If not, think about doing this. Reward customer's who support your company's initiative and go the extra mile to help customers.
5. Consider an in-house training program - This is a great opportunity to provide a consistent message and training to your employees who work with customers. It's not just about customer service, it's about customer delight, it's about caring for your customers so they want to buy from you again, and again, and again. As part of this program, you can train them on one consistent way to answer the phone, how to handle escalations, how to follow-up on concerns etc. Truly teach them how to be customer-focused, don't just tell them.
6. Hiring the Right People - I mentioned this earlier, but honestly if you want a customer-focused culture, you need to hire the right people. I was a manager in call centers for eight years and I learned a ton about people and what makes them tick. I learned a lot about who makes good employees. For example, you need to hire team-players, individuals who are passionate about customer delight, employees that are willing to go above and beyond to ensure your customers are taken care of. I am just realizing that I could devote a whole blog article to this topic, so I'll stop for now. I also suggest this could be the most important of all steps because if you hire the right people, anything is possible!
7. Ask, Listen and Respond - Survey your customers, analyze the results and then follow-up on every single concern. As someone who has worked with surveys for many years, I have found the best comments to be the open-ended comments. On every survey, I will ask "What suggestions or feedback do you have to help us serve you better?" The answers are a great insight into what your customers are thinking and how you can help them be happier.
Few more articles on this topic for those of you who want to learn more:
Sustaining a Customer-Focused Culture
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, provides his 10 tips for building a customer service focused culture.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Customer Touchpoints
One important exercise to do in your company is identify customer touchpoints. A customer touchpoint is defined as the communication and interactions your customers experience during their relationship lifecycle with your company. Customer touchpoints can include: talking to someone at your company, going on your Web site and going in to a store or office. How I look at it is that every customer touchpoint is an opportunity for you to strengthen your relationship with your customer.
Last fall, we did an exercise at our company where a team of us mapped out all the customer touchpoints we could think of and we came up with about 70 touchpoints! I don't think any of us had an idea how many touchpoints there are and therefore how many opportunities we have to build the relationship with customers. It was an incredible experience and it helped us figure out which ones we wanted to work on first in 2008.
Here's some good articles on customer touchpoints, if you want to learn more about this topic
"Defining Customer Touchpoints"
The 6 Most Overlooked Customer Touch Points
Customer Touch-Points in Strategic Marketing
Go through an exercise with your company and representatives from other departments. I think you'll be surprised how many touchpoints your company actually has!
Last fall, we did an exercise at our company where a team of us mapped out all the customer touchpoints we could think of and we came up with about 70 touchpoints! I don't think any of us had an idea how many touchpoints there are and therefore how many opportunities we have to build the relationship with customers. It was an incredible experience and it helped us figure out which ones we wanted to work on first in 2008.
Here's some good articles on customer touchpoints, if you want to learn more about this topic
"Defining Customer Touchpoints"
The 6 Most Overlooked Customer Touch Points
Customer Touch-Points in Strategic Marketing
Go through an exercise with your company and representatives from other departments. I think you'll be surprised how many touchpoints your company actually has!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
A Company's Commitment to Customers
Over the years, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how companies can truly show they are committed to customers. As we all know, a lot of companies say their customers are #1 but do they back that up with the money, resources and empowerment to make that happen?
At the company I work at now in high-tech software, we have a Customer Care Team which includes representatives from various departments. But this is only a part-time responsibility which we do in addition to our day job.
I think companies should assign a person or team to own this responsibility which would report right to the CEO. This person/team would have many responsibilities including customer surveys, customer welcome programs and other initiatives that ensure that customers are TRULY taken care of. Lately I have noticed that there are more companies who have departments like "Customer Experience", "Customer Advocacy" and NetApp even had a job opening recently for "Customer Listening Program Manager". That is exciting to watch and I predict that over the next 10 years we will see a lot more companies doing this. Stay tuned!
Netsuite has a Chief Customer officer and I found some others that have similar type jobs at CyberSports and Kana Software. I'm sure there are others but those are a some I've seen recently.
Here are some samples of companies who have launched such programs and some good articles on the topic:
- Pegasystems
- Vantos hires Chief Customer Officer
- Chief customer officers need patience, energy
- Forrestor Research titled "The Customer Experience Journey"
At the company I work at now in high-tech software, we have a Customer Care Team which includes representatives from various departments. But this is only a part-time responsibility which we do in addition to our day job.
I think companies should assign a person or team to own this responsibility which would report right to the CEO. This person/team would have many responsibilities including customer surveys, customer welcome programs and other initiatives that ensure that customers are TRULY taken care of. Lately I have noticed that there are more companies who have departments like "Customer Experience", "Customer Advocacy" and NetApp even had a job opening recently for "Customer Listening Program Manager". That is exciting to watch and I predict that over the next 10 years we will see a lot more companies doing this. Stay tuned!
Netsuite has a Chief Customer officer and I found some others that have similar type jobs at CyberSports and Kana Software. I'm sure there are others but those are a some I've seen recently.
Here are some samples of companies who have launched such programs and some good articles on the topic:
- Pegasystems
- Vantos hires Chief Customer Officer
- Chief customer officers need patience, energy
- Forrestor Research titled "The Customer Experience Journey"
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Who Are Your Customers?
Who are your customers? A customer is someone who buys or uses your products. Before you can sell or market to them effectively you need to understand them. Do you know who your customers are? Do you know how old they are, what problems they are facing etc. There are different types of surveys demographic, psychographic, new customer and ongoing surveys.
* Please note that some of these are sensitive but I don't make those questions required and I tell them in email invite and survey welcome they should only complete what feels right.
I will talk more about customer surveys in later blogs but one good thing to know is that there are a ton of resources to help you survey your customers. You can go all out and get a survey company like NFO who I have used in the past and I was very pleased with or do your surveys yourself with some amazing tools out there. I have used Zoomerang for years and I have been very pleased with it. It's also affordable for smaller companies and has great reporting abilities.
Great resources for customer surveying include:
- Zoomerang Survey Tool
- Quantitative marketing research
- Demographics and Psychographics customer research
- Psychographic segmentation: how to increase communication ROI by examining values, beliefs...
Here are some things I have asked in previous customer profile surveys to help me get to know them better. Here is the list:
- Age*
- Gender
- Income*
- Job Title
- Education
- Company size
- Dept/Company Budget*
- Industry
- Favorite job-related magazine
- Favorite job-related websites
- Biggest challenges
- Preference to receive email
- Biggest challenges
* Please note that some of these are sensitive but I don't make those questions required and I tell them in email invite and survey welcome they should only complete what feels right.
I will talk more about customer surveys in later blogs but one good thing to know is that there are a ton of resources to help you survey your customers. You can go all out and get a survey company like NFO who I have used in the past and I was very pleased with or do your surveys yourself with some amazing tools out there. I have used Zoomerang for years and I have been very pleased with it. It's also affordable for smaller companies and has great reporting abilities.
Great resources for customer surveying include:
- Zoomerang Survey Tool
- Quantitative marketing research
- Demographics and Psychographics customer research
- Psychographic segmentation: how to increase communication ROI by examining values, beliefs...
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Why Customers, Why Now?
It's been almost 30 years since I worked with my first customer. I lived in Fremont, Utah and sold night crawlers one summer and learned more about customers and marketing than in probably most jobs. I was 11 at the time and wanted to earn some money for school clothes. Fremont just happens to be located by a reservoir where many people go fishing in the summer. As many of you know, one of the first rules of business is location, location and location. Since I already had place figured out next I worked on product, pricing and promotion to make my business successful.
But early on I discovered it wasn't just about sales and marketing, a business's success depended on customers. I made many friends that summer that came back time and time again because I built relationships with them. In fact, I think there were some that didn't even need worms for fishing, but wanted to check in to see how I was doing!
Since that time, I have done some exciting projects ran a very successful business selling books online where I made over $100k in two years working part-time, worked in call centers for 12 years as a front-line employee and as a manager, and now worked in sales and marketing for the past 8 years for various high-tech companies. I am currently working as a Customer Programs Manager for a hardware/software company.
And after all these years, I still believe that customers are the most important part of every company! In this blog, I plan to address various parts about how to appreciate, understand and communicate to your customers. Some of my upcoming topics will include:
- Customer touch points
- Customer satisfaction surveys (new and ongoing)
- Customer welcome programs
- Customer communication including newsletters, direct mail etc
- Customer advocacy departments
- Customer reference program
- Customer advisory boards
I also plan to include some research and links to my favorite blogs, books and company sites. Stay tuned for more blogs from a person who is very passionate about customers and is lucky enough to do this for her job.
But early on I discovered it wasn't just about sales and marketing, a business's success depended on customers. I made many friends that summer that came back time and time again because I built relationships with them. In fact, I think there were some that didn't even need worms for fishing, but wanted to check in to see how I was doing!
Since that time, I have done some exciting projects ran a very successful business selling books online where I made over $100k in two years working part-time, worked in call centers for 12 years as a front-line employee and as a manager, and now worked in sales and marketing for the past 8 years for various high-tech companies. I am currently working as a Customer Programs Manager for a hardware/software company.
And after all these years, I still believe that customers are the most important part of every company! In this blog, I plan to address various parts about how to appreciate, understand and communicate to your customers. Some of my upcoming topics will include:
- Customer touch points
- Customer satisfaction surveys (new and ongoing)
- Customer welcome programs
- Customer communication including newsletters, direct mail etc
- Customer advocacy departments
- Customer reference program
- Customer advisory boards
I also plan to include some research and links to my favorite blogs, books and company sites. Stay tuned for more blogs from a person who is very passionate about customers and is lucky enough to do this for her job.
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