Thursday, December 19, 2013

Friday, December 13, 2013

Lost and Found: Why Journey Mapping Is Critical to Your Business

just re-posting this interesting article by David Clark of SDL.  I have conducted many journey maps throughout my career and can't say enough about the value they offer if done well.  A few excerpts...


...In theory, an effective journey map highlights the actual flow of the customer experience—from initial awareness of a need to fulfillment of that need. They force a business to look at all of the components of the experience, not just the ones that are well understood, currently surveyed, or well funded for innovation/process improvement.

...Journey Maps are “about the process, not the picture,” and that “different customers go through different journeys. So the most effective CJMs [customer journey maps] look at the paths of individual customer segments. Sometimes there are even different CJMs for individual customers in a single segment

...Each customer will take a different journey—just like snowflakes, no two are alike. The key is to create an optimal set of potential experiences for them, whichever path they take.

...The best journey maps are always created based on ethnographic research, contextual interviews, and, increasingly, analysis of social data.

...Properly executed and measured, your journey map and associated customer feedback will highlight the barriers and the enablers in the journey. Each of these will likely correspond to a part of your organization.

... journey maps are at their best when used to map all customer interactions across the journey to develop an understanding of common pain points and challenges across all the moments of truth in different experiences and across different customer personas

...different customers place a higher value on different experiences

The full article is at
http://www.dmnews.com/lost-and-found-why-journey-mapping-is-critical-to-your-business/printarticle/323279/



Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Marketing, Customer Experience, and Revenue

Walt Disney once said, “Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.”
Disney's wise words encapsulate the power and value of customer experience (CX). Read more at
http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-customer-experience-and-revenue/article/313878/


Thursday, May 9, 2013

When do company apologies make sense?

My wife recently received a "apology" email from the President of G.H. Bass & Co. (see below)letting her know how they had "lost their way over the past few years" which was a surprise to her.

Lately, a handful of companies have taken an "apology" approach to their marketing strategy and branding (ie. JCPenney just released a new ad featuring an apology to customers for recent changes and a promise to start listening more; Domino's campaign a couple years back stating how their pizza had been terrible all these years).  I'm sure declining business results have led these companies to finally realize serious fundamental and operational issues at play.  I think the solution, in addition to actually fixing the key problems (remember Oldsmobile?), doesn't always have to require that they apologize and point out all their past deficiencies to your customers (unless of course they also plan to give them something tangible, like refunds for "not listening to their needs").

In many of these business situations, I think these brands are making matters worse by focusing their attention and perhaps building greater awareness of these so-called transgressions by communicating them with their customers (and non-customers) as part of an overall strategy to introduce some bold new strategies.   I know that I would want my money back for all the pizzas I bought over the past ten years after now realizing I had been duped.

I am not saying that companies should hide serious customer issues or be deceitful in any way.  But it depends on the situation.  Certainly, there are companies that should be required to apologize, like BP, and at a bare minimum, ask for the public's forgiveness, share what significant actions they will take to make things right again (and prevent from happening again) in order to re-store customer trust.

Thoughts?





From: G.H. Bass & Co.
To:
Sent: Wed, May 8, 2013 4:15:52 PM
Subject: G.H. Bass & Co - A Letter From the President.

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

3 Missed Opportunities in Customer Loyalty

Sharing this good article on customer loyalty...

Customer loyalty is an incredibly lucrative opportunity for brands, yet marketers still struggle to maximize their relationships with existing customers even though recent research from Forrester shows that 93% of companies have placed customer experience on their list of strategic priorities, with 28% claiming it as their top priority.

Clearly brands understand the value of each customer, yet there is a disconnect between knowing what customers need and want and the ability to actually deliver in a way that creates an experience that builds long-term loyalty. Recent advances such as runtime modeling, location-based services and the increased use of smartphones as shopping devices have greatly improved marketer’s capabilities to deliver exceptional customer experiences by anticipating customers’ needs in near real time.
Lasting loyalty is built on three basic strategies: acquisition, retention and engagement. Here are three commonly missed opportunities and how brands can best address the needs of an increasingly mobile and connected customer to foster loyal and lucrative relationships.

Read more...
http://www.chiefmarketer.com/promotional-marketing/3-missed-opportunities-in-customer-loyalty-17042013

Sunday, March 17, 2013

MEASURING LOYALTY BEYOND SIMPLY SPEND

Here's a good paper on how brands are benefitting from the power of advanced multi-channel loyalty software which allows them to extend their loyalty programs beyond simply measuring their customers’ spend but also by capturing all the ways a particular customer impacts a brand

MEASURING LOYALTY BEYOND SIMPLY SPEND