Every one of us has experienced just bad, horrendous service from a company or organization at one time or another. Aside from all of us being consumers, the fact that we are also customer and marketing professionals makes these customer "experiences" that much more shocking.
Please share any of your bad company customer experiences ALONG with how you would have managed the situation after it occurred or prevented it in the first place.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
What is your definition of CRM?
There are literally hundreds of definitions of CRM (customer relationship management) out there. My own personal one is: a company-wide business philosophy embodied throughout an organization that puts customers first, with the objective of engaging them to build mutually-beneficial long-term, valuable relationships.
What is your definition or what are attributes that you believe it should include?
What is your definition or what are attributes that you believe it should include?
Pre-Launch...10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
Once again, thank you for being a part of the Rich Customer Experience Community. With the launch of this new blog, I wanted to reiterate that its relevancy and value for everyone is driven on your active engagement. However, if you just want to monitor the discussions, that's ok too. Hopefully this new community will become a meaningful resource to you for spurring new ideas, challenging old ones, identifying and sharing best practices (or worst practices), helping a peer to solve a problem or any other useful purpose.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Welcome...
Welcome to the Rich Customer Experience Community!
Before launching into the first topics of discussion, I wanted to first provide just a little background on how I began my career and the path, with its twists & turns, that led me here.
Growing up watching way too much tv during my childhood, in some unconscious way, Darrin Stephens (both of them) and the antics at McMann & Tate exposed me to the glamorous, exciting and "magical" world of advertising. Of course, I was watching re-runs, since Bewitched ran from 1964 to 1972. I can't pinpoint any other significant influences on my career aspirations looking back now, although I somehow knew during my high school days that I wanted to study both advertising and marketing, two discliplines I felt were so inter-connected that I wanted to understand both. That led me to Syracuse University, where I could major in both simultaneously. During this time, my interest in both fields continued to grow and reconfirmed my decision and focus. However, it seemed like another tv drama came along and influenced me further. Although I wasn't even a twenty-something yet, I became hooked on the ad agency world from 1987-1991 watching Michael and Elliott and the travails at DAA on Thirtysomething. I knew then that I had to be a copywriter at an ad agency.
As my graduation in 1990 was now fast-approaching, I soon began to face the stark realization that breaking into advertising, on the creative side nonetheless, would not be easy, especially with the industry heading into an economic tailspin. This is where the path became bumpy...
During my last semester of school, I flew to Chicago (all on my own dime, or I should say credit card) for two days just to drop of my resume and portfolio around town and pound the pavement. I left with blistery, bleeding feet and had to catch the train back to the airport wearing only socks...
Heading back again to Chicago that summer for 9 days, again all on my own...credit card, I managed to obtain 31 informational interviews at almost every major and minor ad agency in town. Of course, no one was hiring, but it was a start...
Realizing that I wasn't going to find a job while still living at home in Upstate New York, I was determined to save up money and move to Chicago one year from my graduation date...
On the morning of May 6, 1991, I hit the road with all my life's belongings (or at least what I could squeeze into my small sports car) and hit the road, never to look back...and arrived in Chicago 12 hours later without a job, a place to live, or even knowing anyone. Well, that is not entirely true. This was not some spontaneous adventure. If you know me, I research and plan out everything. Actually, I had been planning this for a year...
I lived in a tiny but nice dorm room at Northwestern's graduate housing building at 850 N. Lake Shore Drive for $12/night. It fit my budget well. Lived on peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and water as my two meals a day, every day. Ummm...
Outside of my ongoing informational and real job interviews, the only person I ever spoke with was the newspaper guy at the corner of Michigan and Chicago Avenues, who I passed about ten times a day.
Finally, finally, after three months, landed my first job in advertising at a small ad agency off of Michigan Avenue. I had kept in touch with them since speaking with them the summer before. I was earning $10,500/year with no benefits, no paid holidays, no vacation time. It didn't matter. I was in. I could now move out of the dorm. I could now stop eating pb&j.
I was now a copywriter (as well as anything else they asked me to do each day). Nine months later, though, the agency was sold to a larger one and I was let go, but it didn't matter because I was on my way.
Two months later, I was working in a new position with a large publishing company, doing direct mail, advertising, PR and promotions. I was beginning my strategic shift from creative advertising to integrated marketing. A few years later, went back to school full-time and earned my MS in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern. Then off to Leo Burnett, where I led all database marketing programs for two large brands. Wanting to gain broader industry experience, I entered the world of consulting for the next eight years with Andersen, KPMG Consulting and BearingPoint (all the same company--but that's another long story), where I consulted to Fortune 500 clients across many industries on a wide range of customer, marketing and branding strategic & operational issues and solutions to improve the customer brand experience and the effectiveness of delivering it. My most recent stop was on the client side, leading the database and interactive marketing teams at USG, a Fortume 500 building-materials manufacturer.
Over this Long path, my professional as well as personal life events have shaped and instilled in me a passion for rich customer experiences. Thank you for allowing me to share a little background. Now, on to our discussions!
Before launching into the first topics of discussion, I wanted to first provide just a little background on how I began my career and the path, with its twists & turns, that led me here.
Growing up watching way too much tv during my childhood, in some unconscious way, Darrin Stephens (both of them) and the antics at McMann & Tate exposed me to the glamorous, exciting and "magical" world of advertising. Of course, I was watching re-runs, since Bewitched ran from 1964 to 1972. I can't pinpoint any other significant influences on my career aspirations looking back now, although I somehow knew during my high school days that I wanted to study both advertising and marketing, two discliplines I felt were so inter-connected that I wanted to understand both. That led me to Syracuse University, where I could major in both simultaneously. During this time, my interest in both fields continued to grow and reconfirmed my decision and focus. However, it seemed like another tv drama came along and influenced me further. Although I wasn't even a twenty-something yet, I became hooked on the ad agency world from 1987-1991 watching Michael and Elliott and the travails at DAA on Thirtysomething. I knew then that I had to be a copywriter at an ad agency.
As my graduation in 1990 was now fast-approaching, I soon began to face the stark realization that breaking into advertising, on the creative side nonetheless, would not be easy, especially with the industry heading into an economic tailspin. This is where the path became bumpy...
During my last semester of school, I flew to Chicago (all on my own dime, or I should say credit card) for two days just to drop of my resume and portfolio around town and pound the pavement. I left with blistery, bleeding feet and had to catch the train back to the airport wearing only socks...
Heading back again to Chicago that summer for 9 days, again all on my own...credit card, I managed to obtain 31 informational interviews at almost every major and minor ad agency in town. Of course, no one was hiring, but it was a start...
Realizing that I wasn't going to find a job while still living at home in Upstate New York, I was determined to save up money and move to Chicago one year from my graduation date...
On the morning of May 6, 1991, I hit the road with all my life's belongings (or at least what I could squeeze into my small sports car) and hit the road, never to look back...and arrived in Chicago 12 hours later without a job, a place to live, or even knowing anyone. Well, that is not entirely true. This was not some spontaneous adventure. If you know me, I research and plan out everything. Actually, I had been planning this for a year...
I lived in a tiny but nice dorm room at Northwestern's graduate housing building at 850 N. Lake Shore Drive for $12/night. It fit my budget well. Lived on peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and water as my two meals a day, every day. Ummm...
Outside of my ongoing informational and real job interviews, the only person I ever spoke with was the newspaper guy at the corner of Michigan and Chicago Avenues, who I passed about ten times a day.
Finally, finally, after three months, landed my first job in advertising at a small ad agency off of Michigan Avenue. I had kept in touch with them since speaking with them the summer before. I was earning $10,500/year with no benefits, no paid holidays, no vacation time. It didn't matter. I was in. I could now move out of the dorm. I could now stop eating pb&j.
I was now a copywriter (as well as anything else they asked me to do each day). Nine months later, though, the agency was sold to a larger one and I was let go, but it didn't matter because I was on my way.
Two months later, I was working in a new position with a large publishing company, doing direct mail, advertising, PR and promotions. I was beginning my strategic shift from creative advertising to integrated marketing. A few years later, went back to school full-time and earned my MS in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern. Then off to Leo Burnett, where I led all database marketing programs for two large brands. Wanting to gain broader industry experience, I entered the world of consulting for the next eight years with Andersen, KPMG Consulting and BearingPoint (all the same company--but that's another long story), where I consulted to Fortune 500 clients across many industries on a wide range of customer, marketing and branding strategic & operational issues and solutions to improve the customer brand experience and the effectiveness of delivering it. My most recent stop was on the client side, leading the database and interactive marketing teams at USG, a Fortume 500 building-materials manufacturer.
Over this Long path, my professional as well as personal life events have shaped and instilled in me a passion for rich customer experiences. Thank you for allowing me to share a little background. Now, on to our discussions!
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