Baking customer loyalty into your overall business strategy
While working on the manuscript for my new book about Starbucks, I’ve been revisiting what Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School framed as the “five forces analysis” of business strategy. While you probably know Porter’s five forces model, I think it is worth examining it from the perspective of building customer engagement and loyalty. …
How to respond to “Pinteresting” times in Customer Engagement
“May you live in interesting times,” is often referred to as the Chinese curse and it aptly applies to the challenge of creating relevant customer experiences online today. Let’s take the moving target of social media websites as our example. The disruptive nature of technology and the proliferation of online offerings have played havoc in…
Gummy Worms and Customer Experience Excellence!
July 15th was National Gummy Worm day and while that might not be the type of information you would expect from this blog, it turns out to have significance in our office. Specifically, National Gummy Worm day served as an opportunity to “surprise and delight” many of our clients and business partners. Additionally, it allowed…
Do you want return calls from sales prospects? Focus on the personal!
I’ve long championed a simple truth “all business is personal.” That’s why I believe customer experience is as much about relationship building as it is about product and transactional excellence. A recent study conducted by Reachable powerfully demonstrates the criticality of relationship building when it comes to gaining access to make sales. Here’s the big payoff…
Can you “Gamify” your Customer Experience? Lessons from the Highway
Have you thought about “gamifying” your customer experience? Over the past number of months, I’ve been spending time with senior leaders on the Starbucks Digital Ventures team. Given the rise of popularity of mobile technology, Starbucks has “gamified” such things as Foursquare check-ins at Starbucks cafes. Designers have also developed a customer reward program interface…
Customer Experience – Understanding Emotional Economics
While working on the new book I am writing about Starbucks, to be released in 2013, I have been digging deeply into research on emotional economics. As you are aware economics is the branch of the social sciences that looks at the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Through much of the history…
You look like a curator…a key to adding customer experience value
Are you are a curator? In today’s time-pressured, information-laden world you should think about adding “curator” to your title! In my youth, I thought of curators as old sophisticates who went around the world securing art works for museums. Today, I think of them as smart business leaders who add value for customers by filtering…
Customer Experience – Art or Science? The answer is YES
Crafting engaging customer experiences requires a blend of art and science. The science often hinges on effective use of empirical data concerning consumer need states, use patterns, and changing trends. To that end, I offer some recent results from Bitly’s research’s on viral social media content. As you probably know, Bitly is a service that…
Customer Experience Limbo – How low can it go?
Dive in – the data is fine! If you want to get a quick pulse on the state of service experiences globally, look no farther than the recently published American Express Global Customer Service Barometer. Beyond painting a woeful picture of tragically dissatisfying service levels, the American Express study shows that much service deteriorates to…
FREE RESOURCES
The Starbucks Experience: Leadership Tips eBook
Elevating Care in Healthcare: Lessons from the UCLA Health System eBook
