Every customer strategist has the responsibility to make sure the voice of the customer gets put to use. Here are some common obstacles that could be encountered with getting your company to use customer insights:They aren't aware. Since they don't know about it or don't receive...Read More

Customers expect an easy experience. For B-to-B companies to successfully simplify the customer experience, effective self-service tools for customers to access is a must have. Here are characteristics for effective self-service:User-Friendly - Make certain the user interface is tailored for the...Read More

I just finished reading our company's Report to Stakeholders and noticed a closing message from our CEO Steve Walker, "I look forward to celebrating our centennial in 2039." Really -- what will CX look like in 2039?A little context - this past year we celebrated 75 years in business which is...Read More

Companies today are challenged with having an overabundance of information about their customers. Managing and obtaining insights from Big Data involves multiple roles.Solution Seeker: This is the champion or person who is seeking an answer to a specific business question.Liaison: This person has...Read More

What is the real question you want your CX program to answer? Here are some tips to establishing the business question:Start with a clear understanding of what customers are trying to accomplishDetermine the business objectiveBe specificDetermine the value of the potential outcomeGet the right...Read More

With the growing amount of data available in companies today, professionals are asking “How do we use this data to create meaningful insights that give us a competitive advantage?” Here are six steps for finding value with Big Data:Start at the End– Have clear and specific...Read More

Does your company deliver extraordinary customer experiences? How does an extraordinary experience happen?  One great tool to help answer these questions is a journey map.A journey map provides a complete picture of the customer experience. By investing time in understanding the customer...Read More

I was talking to someone in HR this week.  At one time, they were a trendsetter in terms of perks offered to employees.  However, they have not done anything really new or innovative in years, and what was once progressive now lags many companies.  Obviously, offering innovative...Read More

If you are a customer experience professional then you are likely called upon to make a number of presentations. And if that is the case, it helps to be a good storyteller. After all, people really want to know the story behind the data. Being a good storyteller gets people engaged and is a more...Read More

The right culture, a solid strategy, good intelligence, and action – all are good, but they don’t always guarantee that change will occur. Follow through is important to ensure that change is implemented effectively, measured carefully, and constantly modified to optimize its impact...Read More

With changing customer demands, the roles and responsibilities of the customer experience team will need to evolve to include the following roles:Chief Customer Office (CCO) - there must be someone in the organization – reporting to the CEO or another top executive – charged with...Read More

Regardless of size and structure of your company, there are several roles that can effectively drive results.Executive sponsor– A chief customer officer or senior executive that is the key sponsor and advocate for the program, typically with direct access to the CEO.Customer strategy owner...Read More

Text analytics certainly has left me scratching my head a few times. Aside from figuring out what it even is, learning how to work with it took excessive time, patience, and - let's be honest here - more than a few sighs (yells?) of frustration. Although I'm constantly...Read More

Here are three things to consider with customer metrics:Find the right customer metric. That will depend on your industry and your business, and might include loyalty, Net Promoter, commitment, and much more. You want to use the most relevant customer information that ties to your business...Read More

Today I read an article in the Journal of Marketing (November 2013 issue) titled “Low Prices are Just the Beginning:  Price Image in Retail Management” by Ryan Hamilton and Alexander Chernev.  The authors hypothesize that price image is more than just a function of actual...Read More

Today I read an article in the Jan-Feb 2014 issue of Harvard Business Review titled, “SodaStream’s CEO on Turning a Banned Super Bowl Ad into Marketing Gold” by Daniel Birnbaum.  First let me just note, I love Super Bowl advertising – like many others, I love the ads...Read More

Today I read an article in the January – February issue of Harvard Business Review titled, “What Marketers Misunderstand About Online Reviews” by Itamar Simonson and Emanuel Rosen.  This was one of those articles that really makes you think!  For example, I think it...Read More

I recently enjoyed an article titled, “When Does Retargeting Work?  Information Specificity in Online Advertising” in the Journal of Marketing Research, October 2013, authored by Anja Lambrecht and Catherine Tucker.  I learned some new online advertising terminology: ...Read More

I recently enjoyed an article titled “Building an Innovation Base:  Exploring the Role of Acquisition Behavior” by Saurabh Mishra and Rebecca J. Slotegraaf in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences.  The idea of the article is that acquisition can result in ...Read More

What strategies and tactics should be deployed to leverage loyal customer relationships? Here are four key initiatives that every company can incorporate into their customer strategies:Support new sales - in most businesses referrals are a key component in closing new deals. Because loyal...Read More

Customer initiatives become more relevant when people at all levels in the workplace understand its purpose and how it is aligned with their individual job responsibilities. To achieve relevance and alignment with your program, follow these guidelines:Ensure the program objectives are clearly...Read More

If your company is challenged with being data rich and insight poor, one place to start is the journey map. Journey maps (or touch point mapping) is a step-wise collaborative process that engages both customers and cross-functional teams in exercises to map out the customer interaction points...Read More

I recently read an article in the Journal of International Marketing titled “Country-Specific Associations Made by Consumers:  A Dual-Coding Theory Perspective” authored by Marc Florian Herz and Adamantios Diamantopoulos.  The authors discussed past learnings of Country of...Read More

I recently read a column in the Harvard Business Review, October 2013 titled “Don’t Spin a Better Story.  Be a Better Company” authored by the former Executive Vice President of Walmart Corporate Affairs, Leslie Dach.  Dach shares some background on Walmart’s...Read More

Here are four key elements that would apply to almost any organization that make action possible:Organization – You need the right team structure to effectively deploy your customer strategies. This refers to everyone involved in the process of collecting, analyzing, reporting...Read More

I recently read an article in the Journal of Marketing Research (August 2013) titled “Temporal Contiguity and Negativity Bias in the Impact of Online Word of Mouth” authored by Zoey Chen and Nicholas Lurie.  Prior research suggests that positive online reviews are less valued...Read More

I recently read an article in the Journal of Marketing Research titled “Consumer Behavior in ‘Equilibrium’:  How Experiencing Physical Balance Increases Compromise Choice” written by Jeffrey S. Larson and Darron M. Billeter.  The proposition of the article is...Read More

The 1960's housewife screamed, "Mother, I'd rather do it myself!" to her mother or in-law trying to help in her kitchen. I remember how this byline in a headache medicine commercial was repeated on playgrounds and campuses, in bridge parties and even sitcom skits. The ad must have built...Read More

Enable sales, account and customer support leaders to more effectively use customer feedback by:Sharing the right information and teaching them how to use it. Craft reports to hone in on the team's subject matter, be it a specific account or a support process such as customer service. Make...Read More

I recently read an article in the July 2013 issue of Journal of Marketing titled, “Retailers’ Use of Partially Comparative Pricing:  From Across-Category to Within-Category Effects” authored by Paul W. Miniard, Shazad iVIustapha Mohammed, Michael J. Barone, & Cecilia M...Read More

I recently read an article in the Journal of Advertising Research titled, “The Power of Evil:  The Damage of Negative Social Media Strongly Outweigh Positive Contributions”, authored by Marcel Corstjens and Andris Umblijs.  Social Media is a hot topic, and while it is widely...Read More

The year 2020 will be here before we know it. Fortunately, Walker's Customers 2020 report offers insight into what B-to-B customer experience professionals can expect. But, the challenges that lie ahead feel like mission impossible. For example, customers will expect us to personalize...Read More

Customers are becoming more empowered and will demand a new level of “customer obsession.” They will expect companies to know their business inside and out and use their knowledge to design products and services that create a “frictionless” experience. To do this...Read More

There are three significant shifts that are happening simultaneously creating the perfect storm for customer experience professionals (among many other professions). These are: Cloud Social MobileIt is an understatement to say that the customer experience industry is in a state of change....Read More

I recently read an article titled, “Social Media and Firm Equity Value” by Xueming Luo, Jie Zhang, and Wenjing Duan.  I was interested to learn that while it is true that conventional online behavioral measures (web traffic and Google searches) do have a significantly...Read More

A wise man once told me a secret to success is to be in demand. Well, that makes sense. Right? But, like most things, being in demand is easier said than done. As a customer experience professional, it is our job to create a demand for our customers. Our customers count on us to understand...Read More

I recently read an article titled “How Brand Innovativeness Creates Advertising Flexibility” by Michael J. Barone and Robert D. Jewell courtesy of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences.  In customer experience surveys, we often evaluate consumer perceptions with...Read More

As many of you may know, Big Data has added a 4th 'V' to it's definition - the concept of Veracity. Oh wait, apparently a 5th and 6th 'V' have been added - Value and Viability. A 7th? Not yet? It's only a matter of time. I nominate vaticination.Since Veracity was...Read More

I recently read an article “Not All Repeat Customers are the Same:  Designing Effective Cross-Selling Promotion on the Basis of Attitudinal Loyalty and Habit” authored by Yuping Liu-Thompkins and Leona Tam in the September 2013 issue of Journal of Marketing.  This article...Read More

Do you read the Harvard Business Review daily stat? Recently there was a stat about a phenomenon called "effort aversion." The stat is from an experiment by researchers David A. Comerford and Peter Ubel, who found that more than one-fifth of the participants selected a boring, easy task over a...Read More

Customer experience professionals are like fitness instructors and here are two fitness principles that we must apply:Muscle memory: This is the process of repeating a task so that when the task is performed it can be done without conscious effort. Here are some activities that should be...Read More

Those were the words of a chief customer officer in a recent discussion about trends in customer experience management. It reminded me of the many challenges facing customer experience professionals as they strive to bring about real change within their organizations.  Here's the...Read More

I just read an article in the 2013 September issue of Journal of Marketing titled, “Reexamining the Market Share – Customer Satisfaction Relationship” authored by Lopo L. Rego, Neil A. Morgan, and Claes Fornell.  Often managers assume that various dimensions of marketing...Read More

Playbooks are everywhere today.  I can’t imagine that there are any professional sports teams out there that do not have a playbook they use for each and every game.  Behind those playbooks are data – hard facts – that help guide teams to make decisions depending on...Read More

The customer experience world is changing. The B-to-B companies that will win in the future are beginning to prepare by:Recognizing the shift that’s taking place: Companies need to recognize changing customer expectations and evolve, with emphasis on leveraging big data and advanced...Read More

I just read an article in the September 2013 Harvard Business Review titled, “The Truth About Customer Experience” by Alex Rawson, Ewan Duncan, and Conor Jones. This article really made me think about traditional customer experience surveys and how the results are often used. ...Read More

Acting on the voice of the customer doesn’t (or shouldn’t) happen in just one department or one area of the company.  Here are three common levels where VoC action should be taking place:Customer-facing: This is when action takes place one customer at a time. This is most...Read More

Information gathering forms the foundation of a successful customer listening system, and ensures a company has the right inputs to drive meaningful actions that will impact business performance. Here is the framework for achieving a world-class process for gather information.Multiple listening...Read More

I just recently read an article from the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences authored by Gielis A. H. van der Heijden, Jeroen J. L. Schepers, Edwin J. Nijssen, and Andrea Ordanini Journal titled, “Don’t just fix it make it better!  Using frontline service employees to...Read More

It is the time to present the results of your Customer Feedback program. You’ve done your homework, your audience is engaged, and your delivery has been perfect.  However, you lose them at the end. Consider these five ways to end your presentation: Inviting immediate results...Read More

Top customer experience professionals know how to get things done. In particular, they know how to work through others to drive results. In a series of blog posts I’m taking a look at several personas representing key users of customer intelligence – their role, their needs, and tips...Read More

I recently read an article from the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science titled “It’s not easy being green:  the effects of attribute tradeoffs on green product preference and choice” by Erik L. Olson.  The author discusses and researches the “value...Read More

I recently read an article in the International Journal of Business and Management titled “Evaluating the Impacts of Customer Experience on Purchase Intention”.  The authors, Amir Nasermoadeli, Kwek Choon Ling, and Farsahd Maghnati, were looking to determine what relationships...Read More

I recently read an article in the International Journal of Business and Management titled “Evaluating the Impacts of Customer Experience on Purchase Intention”.  The authors, Amir Nasermoadeli, Kwek Choon Ling, and Farsahd Maghnati, were looking to determine what relationships...Read More

Here are some tips on how your company can become customer-focused and how to maintain that culture: Customer listening is an integral part of the corporate strategy and is regularly discussed at the CEO-staff level. Constant communication is needed to keep the company on the journey...Read More

I recently enjoyed an article “Establishing Profitable Customer Loyalty for Multinational Companies in the Emerging Economies:  A Conceptual Framework” by:  V. Kumar, Amalesh Sharma, Riddhi Shah, and Bharath Rajan in the March issue of Journal of International Marketing...Read More

Companies can enhance their customer retention strategies by combining the solicited feedback from their customer survey programs, complaint management systems, and sponsored communities with the unsolicited feedback that is available through social media.  Doing this can create the...Read More

I recently read an article in the World Applied Sciences Journal called “The Impact of Online Customer Experience (OCE) on Service Quality in Malaysia”.  The authors, Mehrdad Salehi, Meysam, Salimi, and Ahasanul Haque, touch on a hot topic and provide some quantitative findings...Read More

Customer journey maps are a tool for direction; the ultimate goal is delivering an experience that customers value.  Journey Mapping achieves the following:Gets the right people engaged - Journey mapping create opportunities for a large, diverse team to work together, and creates new...Read More

I recently read an article in the June issue of Journal of Marketing Research titled “Putting Brands in Their Place:  How a Lack of Control Keeps Brands Contained” by Keisha M. Cutright, James R. Bettman, and Gavan J. Fitzsimons.  In the past I have had the opportunity to...Read More

Imagine it is the year 2020, here’s what your customers will expect:Personalization: Customers will expect companies to know their business intimately and personalize the experience.Speed: Customers will expect companies to be more proactive, anticipating their current and future needs...Read More

If you’ve read any of my recent blog posts, you know that I have been pushing for the consideration of “trust” within evaluations of the customer experience.  Today I read an article in the Journal of Service Science and Management (March 2013) called “The Mediating...Read More

If you are responsible for gathering and using data to improve the customer experience, take a couple minutes to read this HBR blog writen by Tom Davenport titled, "Data is Worthless if You Don't Communicate it." The essence of the blog is spot on. In his post Davenport writes, "As a...Read More

Opinions vary widely as to who should "own" social media activity…regardless of where it sits in your organization, there are many ways the Customer Experience professional can be involved: Use social media to engage with customers. Social media should be built into our internal and...Read More

Recently I was doing some online research regarding social media’s influence on brand loyalty.  I ran across a University of Texas at Austin graduate student’s thesis*.  The student had devised three hypotheses: H1 Social media use has a significant impact on brand affect...Read More

Based on Walker's report titled, Customers 2020, The Future of B-to-B Customer Experience, Walker identifies one of the major challenges facing companies today - leaky faucets.That is, companies are experiencing DRIP; they are Data Rich and Insight Poor.  At the 2013 B-to-B Customer...Read More

Based on Walker's report titled, Customers 2020, The Future of B-to-B Customer Experience, Walker identifies one of the major challenges facing companies today - leaky faucets.That is, companies are experiencing DRIP; they are Data Rich and Insight Poor.  At the 2013 B-to-B Customer...Read More

Many companies sell their products and services through a third party – this may be a distributor, a systems integrator, or a value-added reseller to name a few.  Knowing what drives a Channel Partner to sell more of their products and services and which Channel Partners are going be...Read More

Many companies sell their products and services through a third party – this may be a distributor, a systems integrator, or a value-added reseller to name a few.  Knowing what drives a Channel Partner to sell more of their products and services and which Channel Partners are going be...Read More

A recent article in the European Journal of Marketing, “Creating Customer Loyalty through Service Customization” authored by Pedro S. Coelho and Jörg Henseler, grabbed my attention.  My initial reaction was, well of course --- no new insights there!  Customers feel...Read More

A recent article in the European Journal of Marketing, “Creating Customer Loyalty through Service Customization” authored by Pedro S. Coelho and Jörg Henseler, grabbed my attention.  My initial reaction was, well of course --- no new insights there!  Customers feel...Read More

A customer experience expert recently provided some great advice in a best practice sharing session. Our expert was helping a counterpart from another company who is just starting the journey to improve customer interactions with his support organization.Background: Customer feedback...Read More

A customer experience expert recently provided some great advice in a best practice sharing session. Our expert was helping a counterpart from another company who is just starting the journey to improve customer interactions with his support organization.Background: Customer feedback...Read More

At the Strategic Account Management Association's (SAMA) 49th annual conference, the conversation focused on putting the customer at the center of the business. While this conference was for SAMs, the content was relevant for customer experience professionals. Two good reminders emerged:Many...Read More

At the Strategic Account Management Association's (SAMA) 49th annual conference, the conversation focused on putting the customer at the center of the business. While this conference was for SAMs, the content was relevant for customer experience professionals. Two good reminders emerged:Many...Read More

Customer strategists must anticipate all the twists and turns, ups and downs that can derail their customer strategy. Here are three tools that can help keep you on track:Have a good ROI statement. Nothing is more powerful than being able to show the value of your program with a succinct...Read More

Customer strategists must anticipate all the twists and turns, ups and downs that can derail their customer strategy. Here are three tools that can help keep you on track:Have a good ROI statement. Nothing is more powerful than being able to show the value of your program with a succinct...Read More

In Indianapolis, the month of May is dominated by one thing - The Greatest Spectacle in Racing - and I just realized that we have not posted a single race-themed posting this month. I am going to rectify that situation. Drivers are the face of the racing world. This year's...Read More

In Indianapolis, the month of May is dominated by one thing - The Greatest Spectacle in Racing - and I just realized that we have not posted a single race-themed posting this month. I am going to rectify that situation. Drivers are the face of the racing world. This year's...Read More

Action planning can become more effective by following these five stages:Nail the pain - fix on a key driver of customer loyalty needing improvement.Nail the solution - obtain customer reactions to the improvement with a simple prototype, and then do the same for the various iterations.Nail the...Read More

Action planning can become more effective by following these five stages:Nail the pain - fix on a key driver of customer loyalty needing improvement.Nail the solution - obtain customer reactions to the improvement with a simple prototype, and then do the same for the various iterations.Nail the...Read More

Communication for awareness. To generate credibility for your VoC program broad communication initiatives are needed to create awareness and make your initiative a priority within the company.  This should align with the overall “brand” that is built around your VoC program. ...Read More

Communication for awareness. To generate credibility for your VoC program broad communication initiatives are needed to create awareness and make your initiative a priority within the company.  This should align with the overall “brand” that is built around your VoC program. ...Read More

According to Walker’s Customers 2020 study, the role of the CX professional is changing. (This study is focused on how the customer experience industry will look in the year 2020.) Several emerging leadership roles on the customer experience management team are identified. New roles...Read More

During Walker’s recent Customer Experience summit in San Diego, we focused on two major releases from Walker experts –  Customers 2020 which looks into the future of B-to-B customer experience, and Driving Results which provides a practical guide for using CX to drive action...Read More

As customer strategists, we love to hear stories about how customer insights have been used to drive meaningful results in our organizations.  Unfortunately the road to achieving these results can be long and filled with hazards.  A common obstacle to achieving results is not having...Read More

Many VoC programs collect unstructured comments from their customers, but it can be overwhelming and difficult to manage. Text analytics is a tool that can help to maximize the value of open-ended feedback. Here are three benefits of using text analytics in VOC: Combine expertise in the tool...Read More

At the recent Walker B-to-B Customer Experience Summit, we asked over 100 Customer Experience professionals what business strategies will have the greatest impact on their business in the year 2020. Attendees were given cards representing the following strategies (all color coded) and picked...Read More

Several years ago, I wrote a blog about weird things to say in an interview.  Recently I have been helping out by interviewing some candidates for a position at Walker.  Several of them have been pretty good but several were not.  I recognize I just wrote a blog that the job...Read More

Here are six ways to become a customer expert: An expert would need to know how to measure customer loyalty in a very practical way. This means gathering all the right customer insights so the information can be put to use. They would need to understand what drives loyalty - how it is...Read More

One common challenge customer-focused leadership faces is identifying the real issue. This isn't just a challenge reserved for customer strategists. It is a challenge faced by many leaders. Knowing the real problem that you are trying to address is the first step to developing a customer...Read More

Customer-focused initiatives should be all about generating results for your company. Of course, like many things, it is much easier said than done. Achieving results is a bit like going on a journey - there important stops along the way and there can be lots of twists and turns that make the...Read More

Predictive analytics can be simple or complex, but the objective is consistent, to answer a specific business question in a way that communicates a required action. Predictive analytics can benefit your VoC program in many ways, including: Recommendations that are more aligned with your...Read More

I recently conducted a radio interview on the 5 R's of employee loyalty and retention with MyLocalJobNetwork.com, this was the second interview with them.  The first interview can be heard here.  This interview were based on the HBR article I blogged about previously and we...Read More

Validation involves demonstrating how customer initiatives are impactful on other authoritative sources of information that drive companies’ business success. Characteristics of world-class validation include: Financial linkage is actively understood and used in account planning and...Read More

A lot of companies segment their customer bases into various tiers based on revenue, and possibly a few other metrics.  The top-tier customers usually get some sort of preferential treatment whether that is additional support or even access to premier services.  This can cause...Read More

In complex customer relationships, a company can see a huge impact by implementing a follow-up system that triggers alerts that notify account managers of customer issues and opportunities. This is all done by setting up a system that includes the following: Good lists - insights are gathered...Read More

A few weeks ago I had a truly extraordinary customer experience. The Chris Tomlin Burning Lights Tour came to town. The concert was fabulous and we had a wonderful time!  But, that wasn’t the extraordinary part. My story is actually about the process of getting tickets...Read More

An emerging trend in the study of relationships is how dependent the parties are on one another for success. When there is a good balance of power, there is a greater likelihood of success in the relationship. However, when one party holds the upper hand, the door opens for issues related to...Read More

Here are three common reasons why customer experience initiatives fail:Companies don’t start with the end in mind – Journey maps can be an effective planning tool. With a solid understanding of customer moments of truth and internal stakeholders engaged, customer experience...Read More

When designing a voice of the customer (VoC) program, one common desire is to have some perspective of how your performance stacks up. Here are three options:Add benchmark questions to your survey: Ask the customer to evaluate a benchmark company – this could be direct competitor or a...Read More

Are channel partners interested just in incentives, profits, and compensation for their efforts with customers? The direct compensation VARs receive in return for their investment in a provider relationship is no doubt important, as it contributes to the viability of a partner today and in the...Read More

A few years ago, I wrote a blog about the “Groupon Phenomenon”.  At the time, Groupon was booming.  Everyone was talking about it.  It’s hard to imagine that today the company seems to be barely hanging on, or at least not enjoying the same success they were in...Read More

How do you know whether or not making acquisitions is a smart decision? Here are three success factors to consider:- Know the risk of the customer base you are buying. The due diligence process is critical. This includes predicting the future loyalty and growth of the customer base, in addition...Read More

We have coined a phrase around our company: Be Customer Intelligent For years we have studied customer relationships and now, probably more than ever, customer continue to change. They are more demanding and they expect you to know them and deliver products and services in a manner tailored to...Read More

This blog series focuses on some trends and themes that I predict will have a great impact on the discipline of customer experience in 2013. In my last blog, I forecasted that we will continue to see great volatility in customer sentiment in 2013; this time, I want to focus my attention on a...Read More

Journey mapping is a relatively recent term – one that’s generating a lot of buzz in the market.  This activity, in all its previous names, is something that Walker has conducted for companies for decades.  Journey Mapping engages both customers and cross-fuctional...Read More

The last business book I was reading took a familiar path when it came to the discussion of customer experience. They raved about Zappos, Southwest Airlines, and Apple. Yawn. Don't get me wrong - they are great companies to hold up as role models. It's just that they seem to be cited all...Read More

Journey Mapping engages customers and cross-functional teams in exercises to illustrate the customer interaction points, moments of truth, unique strengths and common challenges present in relationships between companies and their customers. The five steps for creating a journey map are...Read More

In my last post I made the case that the future of business will require more reliance on powerful, computer-based analytics that interact with (not supplant) skilled data scientists who bring both analytic and business context knowledge into the process. Modern, effective customer...Read More

I saw this article this week on how much time is wasted at work.  According to this article, almost 50% of employees waste between one and five hours a day on non-work websites and 64% visit non-work websites every day.   I have seen articles like this before, especially when...Read More

As January comes to a close, I thought it might be beneficial to pause for a moment and provide some thoughts on what trends we see emerging in the science of customer listening. Over the next several blogs, I will comment on a key trend and discuss the implications for customer strategists...Read More

This McAfee blog recently caught my attention as I realized that although our businesses are very different, the premise is the same as you think about securing your organization.  From McAfee’s perspective:  “While traditional antivirus technology continues to...Read More

Here are five common obstacles companies encounter when implementing their customer strategies:Is anybody listening?  Unfortunately, many companies simply don’t have a good system set up to gather insights from their customers.Too much information, not enough action. Too many...Read More

Here are six guiding principles to follow that will help you build on or enhance your customer strategies: Vocal and visible executive engagement:  gotta have it, hard to get it. Employees are a powerful influence – internally and externally, ambassadors are key. Broad...Read More

Interest in capturing and quantifying the voice of employees is growing – and in this case, I’m not talking about "employee satisfaction" but rather "voice of the customer" THROUGH the employee’s view point. This is something companies do all the time, but often in...Read More

For the past few weeks, it seems as though all people are talking about in the US is the potential for going over the “Fiscal Cliff”.  However, I would like to suggest taking time to reflect on another topic.  This is when we traditionally reflect on the year past and look...Read More

A recent TED Talk by Shyam Sankar (also the subject of this recent blog post by Leslie Pagel) nicely argues that man-machine cooperation is the real story of technological development. In a 2010 article, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who famously played IBM'...Read More

In a recent HBR article, the authors give five things companies need to be doing to retain employees.  You might be wondering why employee loyalty is important right now.  It is important because they found 40% of employees plan to start looking for a new job and 69% are passively...Read More

Seven approaches that world-class companies use in communicating with customers.The Role of the CEO – To be the chief communicator and believer. Use capabilities such as video and social to showcase this communication.  It’s inexpensive and high impact.Walk the Talk – If...Read More

I recently conducted a radio interview with LocalJobNetwork.com radio on the state of employee loyalty.  One of the things I liked about the discussion was we got into the role of both the employer and employee in having a loyal workforce.  Far too often the emphasis is on what the...Read More

Engaging various stakeholders and motivating them to act is a common challenge among customer intelligence professionals. One best practice is to tailor the insights to each stakeholder group based on their unique interests and desired outcomes. Since it is not always clear what topics are most...Read More

Focused attention usually generates better results than acting haphazardly without a plan.  I believe that.  And, that belief was reinforced to me a few times this week already. First, a customer strategist I’m working with – who is conducting their annual Voice of the...Read More

One of the first rules of acting on customer insights is to simply let them know that you're listening. Unfortunately, too often, customers feel like their feedback goes into a deep dark black hole. Here is a real-world example: I attended a meeting recently with a small group of customer...Read More

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, researchers set out to determine which types of hotels are more likely to post fake reviews on websites such as Yelp!, TripAdvisor and Expedia. They found that independent, small-owner, and small-company hotels appeared to be more likely to...Read More

Customer insights are becoming an increasingly important part of how service organizations are measuring their performance and driving improvements.  Transaction satisfaction programs are a standard, and these enable a broad range of customer analytics that integrate perceptions of...Read More

Last week I was at the TSIA’s 2012 Technology Services World event in Las Vegas, where I had the pleasure of speaking during John Ragsdale’s Power Hour session: Big Data – Three Inspiring Stories of Service Analytics. Walker used our time to play a new version of Face Value...Read More

Is it just me, or do you find the acronym for Data Rich, Insight Poor appropriate? Whenever I hear companies talk about this challenge, I think of a leaky faucet. But, instead of water going to waste, I see customer intelligence drip, drip, dripping away. Companies continue...Read More

Predictive analytics and big data are some of the hottest buzzwords. So how can this be used to improve customer intelligence in service organizations? Here is one simple example: Large contact centers regularly respond customer complaints. To improve the way they serve customers they are...Read More

Many companies overlook branding their customer intelligence program. What often occurs is the program being called something generic like, “The Customer Survey,” or even “The Walker Survey.” If this sounds familiar, consider these three reasons to brand your...Read More

Isn’t that a basic assumption we make as customer strategists? After all, why would we gather feedback and listen to the voice of the customer if they don’t tell us the truth? Unfortunately, people are not always completely honest in their daily lives. There are reasons...Read More

One common mistake customer strategists fall into when using predictive analytics is believing the analytics process alone will find the answer to the key business question. This Ted video from Shyam Sankar highlights the benefits of problem solving when the right...Read More

If your engineering organization craves more granular customer insights, think about trying these 3 approaches -NPI Feedback– NPI stands for New Product Introduction.  In companies with a large product development focus, a lot of highly valuable information can be collected from...Read More

Although often overlooked, an essential element of well-run customer-focused initiatives is good communication. Too often, companies can get caught up in the details of gathering customer insights and analyzing data, but forget to really get the word out within the company. This leads to...Read More

In this week’s season premiere of “New Girl” (Tuesdays on FOX), one of the main characters, Schmidt, after a summer of problems, decided he needed to re-brand himself and thus threw a big party inviting everyone he knew to attend and be introduced to his new “dangerous...Read More

Last month I blogged about how the Business Confidence Index is at its lowest. I have seen the results for the latest survey and it does not look like things are improving, nor do I think they will until the election is over (at the earliest).  During these times, it is common for someone...Read More

The acquirer should look to their customer due diligence partner to be their strategic advisor during the integration process. This post discusses how and why acquirers should expect more.Lesson 6: Acquirers should expect more There are three dimensions acquirers should consider here &ndash...Read More

The feedback of the target’s customers is crucial for the timing and also the success of the customer due diligence program. That is the theme of lesson number five.Lesson 5: The end customer ultimately drives the project cycle Even when all of the mechanics of the project come together...Read More

The relationship and communication between the target company and the acquirer is very important in the customer due diligence process. That is the theme of lesson number four.Lesson 4: Having the target and acquirer be on the same page is key By the time customer due diligence is occurring...Read More

A quick, true story -- when delivering buyer insights years ago to a global manufacturing client -- a name we all would recognize -- the client leaders in the meeting were stunned by one of our key findings. Their products were top-notch as expected, but customers of all stripes were unhappy...Read More

Every customer strategist has the responsibility to make sure the voice of the customer gets put to use. Here are some common obstacles that could be encountered with getting your company to use customer insights:They aren't aware. Since they don't know about it or don't receive...Read More

Customers expect an easy experience. For B-to-B companies to successfully simplify the customer experience, effective self-service tools for customers to access is a must have. Here are characteristics for effective self-service:User-Friendly - Make certain the user interface is tailored for the...Read More

I just finished reading our company's Report to Stakeholders and noticed a closing message from our CEO Steve Walker, "I look forward to celebrating our centennial in 2039." Really -- what will CX look like in 2039?A little context - this past year we celebrated 75 years in business which is...Read More

Companies today are challenged with having an overabundance of information about their customers. Managing and obtaining insights from Big Data involves multiple roles.Solution Seeker: This is the champion or person who is seeking an answer to a specific business question.Liaison: This person has...Read More

What is the real question you want your CX program to answer? Here are some tips to establishing the business question:Start with a clear understanding of what customers are trying to accomplishDetermine the business objectiveBe specificDetermine the value of the potential outcomeGet the right...Read More

With the growing amount of data available in companies today, professionals are asking “How do we use this data to create meaningful insights that give us a competitive advantage?” Here are six steps for finding value with Big Data:Start at the End– Have clear and specific...Read More

Does your company deliver extraordinary customer experiences? How does an extraordinary experience happen?  One great tool to help answer these questions is a journey map.A journey map provides a complete picture of the customer experience. By investing time in understanding the customer...Read More

I was talking to someone in HR this week.  At one time, they were a trendsetter in terms of perks offered to employees.  However, they have not done anything really new or innovative in years, and what was once progressive now lags many companies.  Obviously, offering innovative...Read More

If you are a customer experience professional then you are likely called upon to make a number of presentations. And if that is the case, it helps to be a good storyteller. After all, people really want to know the story behind the data. Being a good storyteller gets people engaged and is a more...Read More

The right culture, a solid strategy, good intelligence, and action – all are good, but they don’t always guarantee that change will occur. Follow through is important to ensure that change is implemented effectively, measured carefully, and constantly modified to optimize its impact...Read More

With changing customer demands, the roles and responsibilities of the customer experience team will need to evolve to include the following roles:Chief Customer Office (CCO) - there must be someone in the organization – reporting to the CEO or another top executive – charged with...Read More

Regardless of size and structure of your company, there are several roles that can effectively drive results.Executive sponsor– A chief customer officer or senior executive that is the key sponsor and advocate for the program, typically with direct access to the CEO.Customer strategy owner...Read More

Text analytics certainly has left me scratching my head a few times. Aside from figuring out what it even is, learning how to work with it took excessive time, patience, and - let's be honest here - more than a few sighs (yells?) of frustration. Although I'm constantly...Read More

Here are three things to consider with customer metrics:Find the right customer metric. That will depend on your industry and your business, and might include loyalty, Net Promoter, commitment, and much more. You want to use the most relevant customer information that ties to your business...Read More

Today I read an article in the Journal of Marketing (November 2013 issue) titled “Low Prices are Just the Beginning:  Price Image in Retail Management” by Ryan Hamilton and Alexander Chernev.  The authors hypothesize that price image is more than just a function of actual...Read More

Today I read an article in the Jan-Feb 2014 issue of Harvard Business Review titled, “SodaStream’s CEO on Turning a Banned Super Bowl Ad into Marketing Gold” by Daniel Birnbaum.  First let me just note, I love Super Bowl advertising – like many others, I love the ads...Read More

Today I read an article in the January – February issue of Harvard Business Review titled, “What Marketers Misunderstand About Online Reviews” by Itamar Simonson and Emanuel Rosen.  This was one of those articles that really makes you think!  For example, I think it...Read More

I recently enjoyed an article titled, “When Does Retargeting Work?  Information Specificity in Online Advertising” in the Journal of Marketing Research, October 2013, authored by Anja Lambrecht and Catherine Tucker.  I learned some new online advertising terminology: ...Read More

I recently enjoyed an article titled “Building an Innovation Base:  Exploring the Role of Acquisition Behavior” by Saurabh Mishra and Rebecca J. Slotegraaf in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences.  The idea of the article is that acquisition can result in ...Read More

What strategies and tactics should be deployed to leverage loyal customer relationships? Here are four key initiatives that every company can incorporate into their customer strategies:Support new sales - in most businesses referrals are a key component in closing new deals. Because loyal...Read More

Customer initiatives become more relevant when people at all levels in the workplace understand its purpose and how it is aligned with their individual job responsibilities. To achieve relevance and alignment with your program, follow these guidelines:Ensure the program objectives are clearly...Read More

If your company is challenged with being data rich and insight poor, one place to start is the journey map. Journey maps (or touch point mapping) is a step-wise collaborative process that engages both customers and cross-functional teams in exercises to map out the customer interaction points...Read More

I recently read an article in the Journal of International Marketing titled “Country-Specific Associations Made by Consumers:  A Dual-Coding Theory Perspective” authored by Marc Florian Herz and Adamantios Diamantopoulos.  The authors discussed past learnings of Country of...Read More

I recently read a column in the Harvard Business Review, October 2013 titled “Don’t Spin a Better Story.  Be a Better Company” authored by the former Executive Vice President of Walmart Corporate Affairs, Leslie Dach.  Dach shares some background on Walmart’s...Read More

Here are four key elements that would apply to almost any organization that make action possible:Organization – You need the right team structure to effectively deploy your customer strategies. This refers to everyone involved in the process of collecting, analyzing, reporting...Read More

I recently read an article in the Journal of Marketing Research (August 2013) titled “Temporal Contiguity and Negativity Bias in the Impact of Online Word of Mouth” authored by Zoey Chen and Nicholas Lurie.  Prior research suggests that positive online reviews are less valued...Read More

I recently read an article in the Journal of Marketing Research titled “Consumer Behavior in ‘Equilibrium’:  How Experiencing Physical Balance Increases Compromise Choice” written by Jeffrey S. Larson and Darron M. Billeter.  The proposition of the article is...Read More

The 1960's housewife screamed, "Mother, I'd rather do it myself!" to her mother or in-law trying to help in her kitchen. I remember how this byline in a headache medicine commercial was repeated on playgrounds and campuses, in bridge parties and even sitcom skits. The ad must have built...Read More

Enable sales, account and customer support leaders to more effectively use customer feedback by:Sharing the right information and teaching them how to use it. Craft reports to hone in on the team's subject matter, be it a specific account or a support process such as customer service. Make...Read More

I recently read an article in the July 2013 issue of Journal of Marketing titled, “Retailers’ Use of Partially Comparative Pricing:  From Across-Category to Within-Category Effects” authored by Paul W. Miniard, Shazad iVIustapha Mohammed, Michael J. Barone, & Cecilia M...Read More

I recently read an article in the Journal of Advertising Research titled, “The Power of Evil:  The Damage of Negative Social Media Strongly Outweigh Positive Contributions”, authored by Marcel Corstjens and Andris Umblijs.  Social Media is a hot topic, and while it is widely...Read More

The year 2020 will be here before we know it. Fortunately, Walker's Customers 2020 report offers insight into what B-to-B customer experience professionals can expect. But, the challenges that lie ahead feel like mission impossible. For example, customers will expect us to personalize...Read More

Customers are becoming more empowered and will demand a new level of “customer obsession.” They will expect companies to know their business inside and out and use their knowledge to design products and services that create a “frictionless” experience. To do this...Read More

There are three significant shifts that are happening simultaneously creating the perfect storm for customer experience professionals (among many other professions). These are: Cloud Social MobileIt is an understatement to say that the customer experience industry is in a state of change....Read More

I recently read an article titled, “Social Media and Firm Equity Value” by Xueming Luo, Jie Zhang, and Wenjing Duan.  I was interested to learn that while it is true that conventional online behavioral measures (web traffic and Google searches) do have a significantly...Read More

A wise man once told me a secret to success is to be in demand. Well, that makes sense. Right? But, like most things, being in demand is easier said than done. As a customer experience professional, it is our job to create a demand for our customers. Our customers count on us to understand...Read More

I recently read an article titled “How Brand Innovativeness Creates Advertising Flexibility” by Michael J. Barone and Robert D. Jewell courtesy of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences.  In customer experience surveys, we often evaluate consumer perceptions with...Read More

As many of you may know, Big Data has added a 4th 'V' to it's definition - the concept of Veracity. Oh wait, apparently a 5th and 6th 'V' have been added - Value and Viability. A 7th? Not yet? It's only a matter of time. I nominate vaticination.Since Veracity was...Read More

I recently read an article “Not All Repeat Customers are the Same:  Designing Effective Cross-Selling Promotion on the Basis of Attitudinal Loyalty and Habit” authored by Yuping Liu-Thompkins and Leona Tam in the September 2013 issue of Journal of Marketing.  This article...Read More

Do you read the Harvard Business Review daily stat? Recently there was a stat about a phenomenon called "effort aversion." The stat is from an experiment by researchers David A. Comerford and Peter Ubel, who found that more than one-fifth of the participants selected a boring, easy task over a...Read More

Customer experience professionals are like fitness instructors and here are two fitness principles that we must apply:Muscle memory: This is the process of repeating a task so that when the task is performed it can be done without conscious effort. Here are some activities that should be...Read More

Those were the words of a chief customer officer in a recent discussion about trends in customer experience management. It reminded me of the many challenges facing customer experience professionals as they strive to bring about real change within their organizations.  Here's the...Read More

I just read an article in the 2013 September issue of Journal of Marketing titled, “Reexamining the Market Share – Customer Satisfaction Relationship” authored by Lopo L. Rego, Neil A. Morgan, and Claes Fornell.  Often managers assume that various dimensions of marketing...Read More

Playbooks are everywhere today.  I can’t imagine that there are any professional sports teams out there that do not have a playbook they use for each and every game.  Behind those playbooks are data – hard facts – that help guide teams to make decisions depending on...Read More

The customer experience world is changing. The B-to-B companies that will win in the future are beginning to prepare by:Recognizing the shift that’s taking place: Companies need to recognize changing customer expectations and evolve, with emphasis on leveraging big data and advanced...Read More

I just read an article in the September 2013 Harvard Business Review titled, “The Truth About Customer Experience” by Alex Rawson, Ewan Duncan, and Conor Jones. This article really made me think about traditional customer experience surveys and how the results are often used. ...Read More

Acting on the voice of the customer doesn’t (or shouldn’t) happen in just one department or one area of the company.  Here are three common levels where VoC action should be taking place:Customer-facing: This is when action takes place one customer at a time. This is most...Read More

Information gathering forms the foundation of a successful customer listening system, and ensures a company has the right inputs to drive meaningful actions that will impact business performance. Here is the framework for achieving a world-class process for gather information.Multiple listening...Read More

I just recently read an article from the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences authored by Gielis A. H. van der Heijden, Jeroen J. L. Schepers, Edwin J. Nijssen, and Andrea Ordanini Journal titled, “Don’t just fix it make it better!  Using frontline service employees to...Read More

It is the time to present the results of your Customer Feedback program. You’ve done your homework, your audience is engaged, and your delivery has been perfect.  However, you lose them at the end. Consider these five ways to end your presentation: Inviting immediate results...Read More

Top customer experience professionals know how to get things done. In particular, they know how to work through others to drive results. In a series of blog posts I’m taking a look at several personas representing key users of customer intelligence – their role, their needs, and tips...Read More

I recently read an article from the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science titled “It’s not easy being green:  the effects of attribute tradeoffs on green product preference and choice” by Erik L. Olson.  The author discusses and researches the “value...Read More

I recently read an article in the International Journal of Business and Management titled “Evaluating the Impacts of Customer Experience on Purchase Intention”.  The authors, Amir Nasermoadeli, Kwek Choon Ling, and Farsahd Maghnati, were looking to determine what relationships...Read More

I recently read an article in the International Journal of Business and Management titled “Evaluating the Impacts of Customer Experience on Purchase Intention”.  The authors, Amir Nasermoadeli, Kwek Choon Ling, and Farsahd Maghnati, were looking to determine what relationships...Read More

Here are some tips on how your company can become customer-focused and how to maintain that culture: Customer listening is an integral part of the corporate strategy and is regularly discussed at the CEO-staff level. Constant communication is needed to keep the company on the journey...Read More

I recently enjoyed an article “Establishing Profitable Customer Loyalty for Multinational Companies in the Emerging Economies:  A Conceptual Framework” by:  V. Kumar, Amalesh Sharma, Riddhi Shah, and Bharath Rajan in the March issue of Journal of International Marketing...Read More

Companies can enhance their customer retention strategies by combining the solicited feedback from their customer survey programs, complaint management systems, and sponsored communities with the unsolicited feedback that is available through social media.  Doing this can create the...Read More

I recently read an article in the World Applied Sciences Journal called “The Impact of Online Customer Experience (OCE) on Service Quality in Malaysia”.  The authors, Mehrdad Salehi, Meysam, Salimi, and Ahasanul Haque, touch on a hot topic and provide some quantitative findings...Read More

Customer journey maps are a tool for direction; the ultimate goal is delivering an experience that customers value.  Journey Mapping achieves the following:Gets the right people engaged - Journey mapping create opportunities for a large, diverse team to work together, and creates new...Read More

I recently read an article in the June issue of Journal of Marketing Research titled “Putting Brands in Their Place:  How a Lack of Control Keeps Brands Contained” by Keisha M. Cutright, James R. Bettman, and Gavan J. Fitzsimons.  In the past I have had the opportunity to...Read More

Imagine it is the year 2020, here’s what your customers will expect:Personalization: Customers will expect companies to know their business intimately and personalize the experience.Speed: Customers will expect companies to be more proactive, anticipating their current and future needs...Read More

If you’ve read any of my recent blog posts, you know that I have been pushing for the consideration of “trust” within evaluations of the customer experience.  Today I read an article in the Journal of Service Science and Management (March 2013) called “The Mediating...Read More

If you are responsible for gathering and using data to improve the customer experience, take a couple minutes to read this HBR blog writen by Tom Davenport titled, "Data is Worthless if You Don't Communicate it." The essence of the blog is spot on. In his post Davenport writes, "As a...Read More

Opinions vary widely as to who should "own" social media activity…regardless of where it sits in your organization, there are many ways the Customer Experience professional can be involved: Use social media to engage with customers. Social media should be built into our internal and...Read More

Recently I was doing some online research regarding social media’s influence on brand loyalty.  I ran across a University of Texas at Austin graduate student’s thesis*.  The student had devised three hypotheses: H1 Social media use has a significant impact on brand affect...Read More

Based on Walker's report titled, Customers 2020, The Future of B-to-B Customer Experience, Walker identifies one of the major challenges facing companies today - leaky faucets.That is, companies are experiencing DRIP; they are Data Rich and Insight Poor.  At the 2013 B-to-B Customer...Read More

Based on Walker's report titled, Customers 2020, The Future of B-to-B Customer Experience, Walker identifies one of the major challenges facing companies today - leaky faucets.That is, companies are experiencing DRIP; they are Data Rich and Insight Poor.  At the 2013 B-to-B Customer...Read More

Many companies sell their products and services through a third party – this may be a distributor, a systems integrator, or a value-added reseller to name a few.  Knowing what drives a Channel Partner to sell more of their products and services and which Channel Partners are going be...Read More

Many companies sell their products and services through a third party – this may be a distributor, a systems integrator, or a value-added reseller to name a few.  Knowing what drives a Channel Partner to sell more of their products and services and which Channel Partners are going be...Read More

A recent article in the European Journal of Marketing, “Creating Customer Loyalty through Service Customization” authored by Pedro S. Coelho and Jörg Henseler, grabbed my attention.  My initial reaction was, well of course --- no new insights there!  Customers feel...Read More

A recent article in the European Journal of Marketing, “Creating Customer Loyalty through Service Customization” authored by Pedro S. Coelho and Jörg Henseler, grabbed my attention.  My initial reaction was, well of course --- no new insights there!  Customers feel...Read More

A customer experience expert recently provided some great advice in a best practice sharing session. Our expert was helping a counterpart from another company who is just starting the journey to improve customer interactions with his support organization.Background: Customer feedback...Read More

A customer experience expert recently provided some great advice in a best practice sharing session. Our expert was helping a counterpart from another company who is just starting the journey to improve customer interactions with his support organization.Background: Customer feedback...Read More

At the Strategic Account Management Association's (SAMA) 49th annual conference, the conversation focused on putting the customer at the center of the business. While this conference was for SAMs, the content was relevant for customer experience professionals. Two good reminders emerged:Many...Read More

At the Strategic Account Management Association's (SAMA) 49th annual conference, the conversation focused on putting the customer at the center of the business. While this conference was for SAMs, the content was relevant for customer experience professionals. Two good reminders emerged:Many...Read More

Customer strategists must anticipate all the twists and turns, ups and downs that can derail their customer strategy. Here are three tools that can help keep you on track:Have a good ROI statement. Nothing is more powerful than being able to show the value of your program with a succinct...Read More

Customer strategists must anticipate all the twists and turns, ups and downs that can derail their customer strategy. Here are three tools that can help keep you on track:Have a good ROI statement. Nothing is more powerful than being able to show the value of your program with a succinct...Read More

In Indianapolis, the month of May is dominated by one thing - The Greatest Spectacle in Racing - and I just realized that we have not posted a single race-themed posting this month. I am going to rectify that situation. Drivers are the face of the racing world. This year's...Read More

In Indianapolis, the month of May is dominated by one thing - The Greatest Spectacle in Racing - and I just realized that we have not posted a single race-themed posting this month. I am going to rectify that situation. Drivers are the face of the racing world. This year's...Read More

Action planning can become more effective by following these five stages:Nail the pain - fix on a key driver of customer loyalty needing improvement.Nail the solution - obtain customer reactions to the improvement with a simple prototype, and then do the same for the various iterations.Nail the...Read More

Action planning can become more effective by following these five stages:Nail the pain - fix on a key driver of customer loyalty needing improvement.Nail the solution - obtain customer reactions to the improvement with a simple prototype, and then do the same for the various iterations.Nail the...Read More

Communication for awareness. To generate credibility for your VoC program broad communication initiatives are needed to create awareness and make your initiative a priority within the company.  This should align with the overall “brand” that is built around your VoC program. ...Read More

Communication for awareness. To generate credibility for your VoC program broad communication initiatives are needed to create awareness and make your initiative a priority within the company.  This should align with the overall “brand” that is built around your VoC program. ...Read More

According to Walker’s Customers 2020 study, the role of the CX professional is changing. (This study is focused on how the customer experience industry will look in the year 2020.) Several emerging leadership roles on the customer experience management team are identified. New roles...Read More

During Walker’s recent Customer Experience summit in San Diego, we focused on two major releases from Walker experts –  Customers 2020 which looks into the future of B-to-B customer experience, and Driving Results which provides a practical guide for using CX to drive action...Read More

As customer strategists, we love to hear stories about how customer insights have been used to drive meaningful results in our organizations.  Unfortunately the road to achieving these results can be long and filled with hazards.  A common obstacle to achieving results is not having...Read More

Many VoC programs collect unstructured comments from their customers, but it can be overwhelming and difficult to manage. Text analytics is a tool that can help to maximize the value of open-ended feedback. Here are three benefits of using text analytics in VOC: Combine expertise in the tool...Read More

At the recent Walker B-to-B Customer Experience Summit, we asked over 100 Customer Experience professionals what business strategies will have the greatest impact on their business in the year 2020. Attendees were given cards representing the following strategies (all color coded) and picked...Read More

Several years ago, I wrote a blog about weird things to say in an interview.  Recently I have been helping out by interviewing some candidates for a position at Walker.  Several of them have been pretty good but several were not.  I recognize I just wrote a blog that the job...Read More

Here are six ways to become a customer expert: An expert would need to know how to measure customer loyalty in a very practical way. This means gathering all the right customer insights so the information can be put to use. They would need to understand what drives loyalty - how it is...Read More

One common challenge customer-focused leadership faces is identifying the real issue. This isn't just a challenge reserved for customer strategists. It is a challenge faced by many leaders. Knowing the real problem that you are trying to address is the first step to developing a customer...Read More

Customer-focused initiatives should be all about generating results for your company. Of course, like many things, it is much easier said than done. Achieving results is a bit like going on a journey - there important stops along the way and there can be lots of twists and turns that make the...Read More

Predictive analytics can be simple or complex, but the objective is consistent, to answer a specific business question in a way that communicates a required action. Predictive analytics can benefit your VoC program in many ways, including: Recommendations that are more aligned with your...Read More

I recently conducted a radio interview on the 5 R's of employee loyalty and retention with MyLocalJobNetwork.com, this was the second interview with them.  The first interview can be heard here.  This interview were based on the HBR article I blogged about previously and we...Read More

Validation involves demonstrating how customer initiatives are impactful on other authoritative sources of information that drive companies’ business success. Characteristics of world-class validation include: Financial linkage is actively understood and used in account planning and...Read More

A lot of companies segment their customer bases into various tiers based on revenue, and possibly a few other metrics.  The top-tier customers usually get some sort of preferential treatment whether that is additional support or even access to premier services.  This can cause...Read More

In complex customer relationships, a company can see a huge impact by implementing a follow-up system that triggers alerts that notify account managers of customer issues and opportunities. This is all done by setting up a system that includes the following: Good lists - insights are gathered...Read More

A few weeks ago I had a truly extraordinary customer experience. The Chris Tomlin Burning Lights Tour came to town. The concert was fabulous and we had a wonderful time!  But, that wasn’t the extraordinary part. My story is actually about the process of getting tickets...Read More

An emerging trend in the study of relationships is how dependent the parties are on one another for success. When there is a good balance of power, there is a greater likelihood of success in the relationship. However, when one party holds the upper hand, the door opens for issues related to...Read More

Here are three common reasons why customer experience initiatives fail:Companies don’t start with the end in mind – Journey maps can be an effective planning tool. With a solid understanding of customer moments of truth and internal stakeholders engaged, customer experience...Read More

When designing a voice of the customer (VoC) program, one common desire is to have some perspective of how your performance stacks up. Here are three options:Add benchmark questions to your survey: Ask the customer to evaluate a benchmark company – this could be direct competitor or a...Read More

Are channel partners interested just in incentives, profits, and compensation for their efforts with customers? The direct compensation VARs receive in return for their investment in a provider relationship is no doubt important, as it contributes to the viability of a partner today and in the...Read More

A few years ago, I wrote a blog about the “Groupon Phenomenon”.  At the time, Groupon was booming.  Everyone was talking about it.  It’s hard to imagine that today the company seems to be barely hanging on, or at least not enjoying the same success they were in...Read More

How do you know whether or not making acquisitions is a smart decision? Here are three success factors to consider:- Know the risk of the customer base you are buying. The due diligence process is critical. This includes predicting the future loyalty and growth of the customer base, in addition...Read More

We have coined a phrase around our company: Be Customer Intelligent For years we have studied customer relationships and now, probably more than ever, customer continue to change. They are more demanding and they expect you to know them and deliver products and services in a manner tailored to...Read More

This blog series focuses on some trends and themes that I predict will have a great impact on the discipline of customer experience in 2013. In my last blog, I forecasted that we will continue to see great volatility in customer sentiment in 2013; this time, I want to focus my attention on a...Read More

Journey mapping is a relatively recent term – one that’s generating a lot of buzz in the market.  This activity, in all its previous names, is something that Walker has conducted for companies for decades.  Journey Mapping engages both customers and cross-fuctional...Read More

The last business book I was reading took a familiar path when it came to the discussion of customer experience. They raved about Zappos, Southwest Airlines, and Apple. Yawn. Don't get me wrong - they are great companies to hold up as role models. It's just that they seem to be cited all...Read More

Journey Mapping engages customers and cross-functional teams in exercises to illustrate the customer interaction points, moments of truth, unique strengths and common challenges present in relationships between companies and their customers. The five steps for creating a journey map are...Read More

In my last post I made the case that the future of business will require more reliance on powerful, computer-based analytics that interact with (not supplant) skilled data scientists who bring both analytic and business context knowledge into the process. Modern, effective customer...Read More

I saw this article this week on how much time is wasted at work.  According to this article, almost 50% of employees waste between one and five hours a day on non-work websites and 64% visit non-work websites every day.   I have seen articles like this before, especially when...Read More

As January comes to a close, I thought it might be beneficial to pause for a moment and provide some thoughts on what trends we see emerging in the science of customer listening. Over the next several blogs, I will comment on a key trend and discuss the implications for customer strategists...Read More

This McAfee blog recently caught my attention as I realized that although our businesses are very different, the premise is the same as you think about securing your organization.  From McAfee’s perspective:  “While traditional antivirus technology continues to...Read More

Here are five common obstacles companies encounter when implementing their customer strategies:Is anybody listening?  Unfortunately, many companies simply don’t have a good system set up to gather insights from their customers.Too much information, not enough action. Too many...Read More

Here are six guiding principles to follow that will help you build on or enhance your customer strategies: Vocal and visible executive engagement:  gotta have it, hard to get it. Employees are a powerful influence – internally and externally, ambassadors are key. Broad...Read More

Interest in capturing and quantifying the voice of employees is growing – and in this case, I’m not talking about "employee satisfaction" but rather "voice of the customer" THROUGH the employee’s view point. This is something companies do all the time, but often in...Read More

For the past few weeks, it seems as though all people are talking about in the US is the potential for going over the “Fiscal Cliff”.  However, I would like to suggest taking time to reflect on another topic.  This is when we traditionally reflect on the year past and look...Read More

A recent TED Talk by Shyam Sankar (also the subject of this recent blog post by Leslie Pagel) nicely argues that man-machine cooperation is the real story of technological development. In a 2010 article, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who famously played IBM'...Read More

In a recent HBR article, the authors give five things companies need to be doing to retain employees.  You might be wondering why employee loyalty is important right now.  It is important because they found 40% of employees plan to start looking for a new job and 69% are passively...Read More

Seven approaches that world-class companies use in communicating with customers.The Role of the CEO – To be the chief communicator and believer. Use capabilities such as video and social to showcase this communication.  It’s inexpensive and high impact.Walk the Talk – If...Read More

I recently conducted a radio interview with LocalJobNetwork.com radio on the state of employee loyalty.  One of the things I liked about the discussion was we got into the role of both the employer and employee in having a loyal workforce.  Far too often the emphasis is on what the...Read More

Engaging various stakeholders and motivating them to act is a common challenge among customer intelligence professionals. One best practice is to tailor the insights to each stakeholder group based on their unique interests and desired outcomes. Since it is not always clear what topics are most...Read More

Focused attention usually generates better results than acting haphazardly without a plan.  I believe that.  And, that belief was reinforced to me a few times this week already. First, a customer strategist I’m working with – who is conducting their annual Voice of the...Read More

One of the first rules of acting on customer insights is to simply let them know that you're listening. Unfortunately, too often, customers feel like their feedback goes into a deep dark black hole. Here is a real-world example: I attended a meeting recently with a small group of customer...Read More

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, researchers set out to determine which types of hotels are more likely to post fake reviews on websites such as Yelp!, TripAdvisor and Expedia. They found that independent, small-owner, and small-company hotels appeared to be more likely to...Read More

Customer insights are becoming an increasingly important part of how service organizations are measuring their performance and driving improvements.  Transaction satisfaction programs are a standard, and these enable a broad range of customer analytics that integrate perceptions of...Read More

Last week I was at the TSIA’s 2012 Technology Services World event in Las Vegas, where I had the pleasure of speaking during John Ragsdale’s Power Hour session: Big Data – Three Inspiring Stories of Service Analytics. Walker used our time to play a new version of Face Value...Read More

Is it just me, or do you find the acronym for Data Rich, Insight Poor appropriate? Whenever I hear companies talk about this challenge, I think of a leaky faucet. But, instead of water going to waste, I see customer intelligence drip, drip, dripping away. Companies continue...Read More

Predictive analytics and big data are some of the hottest buzzwords. So how can this be used to improve customer intelligence in service organizations? Here is one simple example: Large contact centers regularly respond customer complaints. To improve the way they serve customers they are...Read More

Many companies overlook branding their customer intelligence program. What often occurs is the program being called something generic like, “The Customer Survey,” or even “The Walker Survey.” If this sounds familiar, consider these three reasons to brand your...Read More

Isn’t that a basic assumption we make as customer strategists? After all, why would we gather feedback and listen to the voice of the customer if they don’t tell us the truth? Unfortunately, people are not always completely honest in their daily lives. There are reasons...Read More

One common mistake customer strategists fall into when using predictive analytics is believing the analytics process alone will find the answer to the key business question. This Ted video from Shyam Sankar highlights the benefits of problem solving when the right...Read More

If your engineering organization craves more granular customer insights, think about trying these 3 approaches -NPI Feedback– NPI stands for New Product Introduction.  In companies with a large product development focus, a lot of highly valuable information can be collected from...Read More

Although often overlooked, an essential element of well-run customer-focused initiatives is good communication. Too often, companies can get caught up in the details of gathering customer insights and analyzing data, but forget to really get the word out within the company. This leads to...Read More

In this week’s season premiere of “New Girl” (Tuesdays on FOX), one of the main characters, Schmidt, after a summer of problems, decided he needed to re-brand himself and thus threw a big party inviting everyone he knew to attend and be introduced to his new “dangerous...Read More

Last month I blogged about how the Business Confidence Index is at its lowest. I have seen the results for the latest survey and it does not look like things are improving, nor do I think they will until the election is over (at the earliest).  During these times, it is common for someone...Read More

The acquirer should look to their customer due diligence partner to be their strategic advisor during the integration process. This post discusses how and why acquirers should expect more.Lesson 6: Acquirers should expect more There are three dimensions acquirers should consider here &ndash...Read More

The feedback of the target’s customers is crucial for the timing and also the success of the customer due diligence program. That is the theme of lesson number five.Lesson 5: The end customer ultimately drives the project cycle Even when all of the mechanics of the project come together...Read More

The relationship and communication between the target company and the acquirer is very important in the customer due diligence process. That is the theme of lesson number four.Lesson 4: Having the target and acquirer be on the same page is key By the time customer due diligence is occurring...Read More

A quick, true story -- when delivering buyer insights years ago to a global manufacturing client -- a name we all would recognize -- the client leaders in the meeting were stunned by one of our key findings. Their products were top-notch as expected, but customers of all stripes were unhappy...Read More