Customer experience

The case for eschewing the traditional approach to customer satisfaction measurement.

Is your company unintentionally keeping your most senior people from getting the feedback they most need? It can easily happen as an unintended consequence of success. Consider these situations: Senior executives at car companies drive only the newest models: For decades, the top executives at America’s leading automobile manufacturers always drove models fresh from the […]

Executives know that a company's measurement systems strongly affect employee behaviors. But the traditional financial performance measures that worked...

It’s become the mantra of the moment: “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” Leaders everywhere are struggling to make sense of the worldwide economic crisis, to learn lessons that will guide them and their companies going forward. My worry is that too many leaders are learning the wrong lessons — they are becoming […]

Research shows that when firms reallocate it, they have more success.

Now that providing services is more lucrative than making products, the old foundations for success in manufacturing are crumbling. Smart manufacturers are creating new business models to capture profits at the customer’s end of the value chain.

When productivity is a problem in manufacturing, managers turn to the R&D department or operations for help. In services, however, especially ones where there is a lot of contact with the customer, such in-house groups cannot by themselves improve productivity. Because services involve the customer in production, are labor intensive, and are time-bound, consumer behavior […]

Many companies could persuade big spenders to buy even more.

The tech giant chose the wrong moment to sell at a 25% premium over the competition.

Instead of just responding to requests, anticipate people’s needs.

You’re unappreciated in your company, and you’ve begun to doubt your importance there. Huh? How did I know that? I didn’t. But I’m rarely wrong when I make that assumption about people, and especially about potential clients. In fact, that premise is central to my company’s approach to forging an emotional connection with prospective customers. […]

How analytics can mislead marketers.

We all remember the SunChips Episode of 2010. Frito-Lay introduced bio-degradable packaging for SunChips in March, and was surprised to see sales of the...

Rene Carayol of Cass Business School explains how First Direct's commitment to customer service saved a life on 9/11.

[This post is part of Creating a Customer-Centered Organization.] The customer’s voice has a new champion sitting at the highest levels of power in companies. Whether firms call the position Chief Customer Officer (CCO) or some other label, these individuals serve as top executives with the mandate and power to design, orchestrate, and improve customer […]

The “silent majority” in the middle can make or break your business.

It’s a lot different from getting them to buy your products and services.

Emotions come first, behavior comes second.

The days of "buying" loyalty with rewards or rebates are over.

It's all about reducing friction.