- A great value / educational blog that doesn't even mention the software. The blog delivers informative content targeted precisely at their target market (start-ups, entrepreneurs, SME's) and the pains that exist for these individuals when starting up a new business - Fantastic video case studies that again hardly mention the software. The case studies focus on the people running SME's, their lives both in and out of business and how the software and its benefits positively impacts this. And no, I don't work for Infusionsoft...or even use the software - it's just a great example of how to tap into the wider business problems of your target market as a vehicle to drive traffic, subscribers and advocates. Stuart Banbery
Neil - good topic and so widespread. I don't want to spam the group with our Amazon based methods and book "The Best Service Is No Service" but perhaps a few of key questions will help get the debate going
a) Do you know what stops customers buying? Exactly why? Do you know how many don't bother to contact you? What the lost revenues are for each little problem that stops them?
b) Customer contact rates are a diagnostic of online problems - Amazon measure contacts per unit shipped and most etailers measure this. But do you measure it for each reason for contact, do you track it week on week, do you know what the right level of contact is?
b) The contact centres don't cause customers to stop in their buying journey or to generate the contact. So who does? Do they know it? What have you got to do to get them to do something?
Thanks for the recommendation David. I'm happy to give additional info or answer any questions that may arise. We work with a University who currently uses Vivocha to chat with prospective students and help them through the application process. Similar set up could be used to answer multiple student queries. Customization available too! Feel free to send an an email: info (at) vivocha.com
A few thoughts: 1. The level of customer centricity is closely related to the branding and positioning strategy of the business. 2. In addition, businesses being pragmatic, will normally focus on the top few customer concerns, based on the frequency of feedback and ensuring that the actions taken are consistent with the business strategy. 3. Businesses will want to satisfy the needs of the most profitable customer segments. 4. Solutions to some customers' concerns can be built into the service delivery design. A revised service delivery design will avert the occurrence of an event that leads to a feedback. This approach may require some resources in the short term but will have a long term effect on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the business service delivery.
In summary, not all customers' feedback will be treated equally and that most concerns can be resolved with business process redesign.
I agree with Justin. 1. Customer-Centricity is not about satisfying every need of every customer. I don't now anyone who think so. 2. Customer-Centicity is not in contradiction to allocating resources efficiently. It is, for some companies, the way to be efficient.
I agree there is a problem with customer-centricity - it is still not relay and truly adopted by most business leaders. We do need to ask ourselves - why? My opinion: executive understand only the long-term benefit of strong customer equity. Until they will feel the immediate benefit, will be measured and rewarded accordingly and firms' market valuation will be according to customer-centric metrics, we will continue to hear arguments like "limited resources" and "good service is not affordable"
I do not understand what's new with Mr. Lee's argument that companies should focus on the allocation of resources. Isn't it what they already doing for years?
The question we should ask is: what strategy leads to success in an era of empowered customer and growing transition to services? focus on allocation of resources will always be true,... but it is not a strategy.
Justin is spot on. Not all organisations need or want to compete on customer centricity. As a practitioner, I find many organisations feel the need to be customer centric but find it difficult to quantify or articulate tangible benefits from doing so. Organisations who compete on price are not so concerned about delivering great customer service. To them, advocacy comes from being the cheapest. I constantly argue that a competitive edge can still be gained even if the USP is not based on customer centricity. However, I still find that it is this type of organisation that may agree with the statement asserting customer Centricity to be the problem , not the solution. In those organisations, the cost and effort in shifting focus and mindset of its employees and brand is more of a problem than a solution.
Sampson makes some interesting points :) However... as I read it, his arguments are based on the assumption that a business will aim to please *all* (current and potential) customers. That's generally not true. A market-led (or customer-led) business will think about what types of customer it wants to attract, serve and retain. It will create personas. It will model its marketing strategy, CRM and customer loyalty programs on these target personas. And (if it's focused) it will let other customers quietly come and go without paying too much time or attention to them. I agree with Sampson that "you can't and shouldn't try to please everyone" - but a good customer-centric business won't.
Good advice from Andy. You need strong centralised business leadership and all key people engaged to get a good outcome. It is generally a big change programme - not just an IT project. An Independent CRM consultant can add value but cannot solve big internal issues without critical senior sponsorship plus solid objectives, clear requirements and timescales; If you are the sponsor, critical issues to cover include - stakeholder engagement; (contact centre; Marketing; IT; web/ecommerce; Management team); - clarity of objectives, requirements and timescales; - Business requirements and process analysis to ensure later software solutions make sense to your CRM culture, required aproach etc - solid internal project management with good SI and process experience - dont expect miracles from your vendor - numerous areas including those above need to be covered as well
My discussion replies
- A great value / educational blog that doesn't even mention the software. The blog delivers informative content targeted precisely at their target market (start-ups, entrepreneurs, SME's) and the pains that exist for these individuals when starting up a new business - Fantastic video case studies that again hardly mention the software. The case studies focus on the people running SME's, their lives both in and out of business and how the software and its benefits positively impacts this. And no, I don't work for Infusionsoft...or even use the software - it's just a great example of how to tap into the wider business problems of your target market as a vehicle to drive traffic, subscribers and advocates. Stuart Banbery
Comment on this post from the MyCustomer LinkedIn community
My post "Customer Journey Maps: Do This, Not That" points out quite a few missed opportunities in a lot of the popular methodologies -- and how to drive CX differentiation https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140921164343-155828-customer-journey-maps-do-this-not-that
Here's a slideshare that shows some templates, and supports the article referenced above: http://www.slideshare.net/clearaction/customer-experiencejourneymappinghunsakeraug2014
Comment on this post from the MyCustomer LinkedIn community
Neil - good topic and so widespread. I don't want to spam the group with our Amazon based methods and book "The Best Service Is No Service" but perhaps a few of key questions will help get the debate going
a) Do you know what stops customers buying? Exactly why? Do you know how many don't bother to contact you? What the lost revenues are for each little problem that stops them?
b) Customer contact rates are a diagnostic of online problems - Amazon measure contacts per unit shipped and most etailers measure this. But do you measure it for each reason for contact, do you track it week on week, do you know what the right level of contact is?
b) The contact centres don't cause customers to stop in their buying journey or to generate the contact. So who does? Do they know it? What have you got to do to get them to do something?
Message from Brady Mower, Business Development Manager at Vivocha, on the MyCustomer.com LinkedIn page.
Thanks for the recommendation David. I'm happy to give additional info or answer any questions that may arise. We work with a University who currently uses Vivocha to chat with prospective students and help them through the application process. Similar set up could be used to answer multiple student queries. Customization available too! Feel free to send an an email: info (at) vivocha.com
A few thoughts:
1. The level of customer centricity is closely related to the branding and positioning strategy of the business.
2. In addition, businesses being pragmatic, will normally focus on the top few customer concerns, based on the frequency of feedback and ensuring that the actions taken are consistent with the business strategy.
3. Businesses will want to satisfy the needs of the most profitable customer segments.
4. Solutions to some customers' concerns can be built into the service delivery design. A revised service delivery design will avert the occurrence of an event that leads to a feedback. This approach may require some resources in the short term but will have a long term effect on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the business service delivery.
In summary, not all customers' feedback will be treated equally and that most concerns can be resolved with business process redesign.
I agree with Justin.
1. Customer-Centricity is not about satisfying every need of every customer. I don't now anyone who think so.
2. Customer-Centicity is not in contradiction to allocating resources efficiently. It is, for some companies, the way to be efficient.
I agree there is a problem with customer-centricity - it is still not relay and truly adopted by most business leaders. We do need to ask ourselves - why? My opinion:
executive understand only the long-term benefit of strong customer equity. Until they will feel the immediate benefit, will be measured and rewarded accordingly and firms' market valuation will be according to customer-centric metrics, we will continue to hear arguments like "limited resources" and "good service is not affordable"
I do not understand what's new with Mr. Lee's argument that companies should focus on the allocation of resources. Isn't it what they already doing for years?
The question we should ask is: what strategy leads to success in an era of empowered customer and growing transition to services? focus on allocation of resources will always be true,... but it is not a strategy.
Justin is spot on. Not all organisations need or want to compete on customer centricity. As a practitioner, I find many organisations feel the need to be customer centric but find it difficult to quantify or articulate tangible benefits from doing so. Organisations who compete on price are not so concerned about delivering great customer service. To them, advocacy comes from being the cheapest. I constantly argue that a competitive edge can still be gained even if the USP is not based on customer centricity. However, I still find that it is this type of organisation that may agree with the statement asserting customer Centricity to be the problem , not the solution. In those organisations, the cost and effort in shifting focus and mindset of its employees and brand is more of a problem than a solution.
I never looked at customer centricity that way before. You can order your steak at the pancake house, but it will never be as good as the pancakes!
Response from Philip Burton from the MyCustomer.com LinkedIn Group.
Sampson makes some interesting points :)
However... as I read it, his arguments are based on the assumption that a business will aim to please *all* (current and potential) customers. That's generally not true.
A market-led (or customer-led) business will think about what types of customer it wants to attract, serve and retain. It will create personas. It will model its marketing strategy, CRM and customer loyalty programs on these target personas. And (if it's focused) it will let other customers quietly come and go without paying too much time or attention to them.
I agree with Sampson that "you can't and shouldn't try to please everyone" - but a good customer-centric business won't.
Comment on this post from the MyCustomer LinkedIn community
Good advice from Andy.
You need strong centralised business leadership and all key people engaged to get a good outcome. It is generally a big change programme - not just an IT project.
An Independent CRM consultant can add value but cannot solve big internal issues without critical senior sponsorship plus solid objectives, clear requirements and timescales;
If you are the sponsor, critical issues to cover include
- stakeholder engagement; (contact centre; Marketing; IT; web/ecommerce; Management team);
- clarity of objectives, requirements and timescales;
- Business requirements and process analysis to ensure later software solutions make sense to your CRM culture, required aproach etc
- solid internal project management with good SI and process experience
- dont expect miracles from your vendor - numerous areas including those above need to be covered as well