In part 1 (Going Beyond Lean Thinking to Define Value) of this column, I challenged how the lean tenet regarding delivering value to our customer has been practiced. I discussed the imperative need to understand your customers' needs without just asking them and shared that observation is key in this process.
Clearly understanding what the customers value and why they value it helps with waste elimination. There are three wastes that are most prevalent when we don't understand our customer.
http://www.industryweek.com/operations/serving-your-customer-observation-and-feedback/
Metrics, metrics, metrics. The word gets thrown around a lot. How do we establish and define them, let alone use them? And which metrics are actually useful and yield the best results for our businesses?
All hail the Customer Effort Score (CES)!
Customer Effort Score, established in the HBR article “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” is a metric that allows companies to determine how to reduce the amount of effort customers have to put in to achieve their intended goal. Businesses measure CES by asking just one question: “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your request?”
The HBR study led to the development of CES because of these two conclusions: First, customer loyalty is built by reducing effort—defined as the work they must do to get their problem solved—not through over-the-top customer service. Second, focusing on reducing effort alone can lead to lower customer service costs and higher customer retention. By assigning ratings from 1 to 5, with 5 representing very high effort, CES measures the effects of how companies can create a more effortless customer experience.
http://customerthink.com/make-it-easy-how-to-improve-your-customer-effort-score/
My crystal ball says winning experiences will deliver.
I lay no claim to my prognostic ability, but when it comes to the future of customer experience delivery, I’m willing to venture an educated guess.
I predict future retail wars will involve online brands (whose value proposition will be an expansive choice, “best pricing” and quick delivery) pitted against traditional retailers who will rely on (reasonable prices, reduced customer effort, sufficient selection, and immediate product availability). Ok, I imagine some of you are saying, “That isn’t a prediction. That is a description of the current state.” To that, I might generally agree – with an evolving caveat!
http://www.customerexperienceupdate.com/?open-article-id=8022469&article-title=the-future-of-customer-experience-delivery&blog-domain=josephmichelli.com&blog-title=michelli-experience/
Good or bad — customer feedback promises to make its mark on your top line.
Rave reviews can help attract new customers and even keep existing ones coming back for more. Nearly 90% of Americans trust online reviews to help them choose between local businesses. Meanwhile, negative reviews help highlight ways to improve the customer shopping experience. Or, at least they should.
https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/features/executive-viewpoints/getting-the-whole-customer-feedback-story/
Consumers have grown more confident of voice-enabled technologies, and are uttering “Alexa”, “Okay Google” and “Hey Siri” more than ever before. Online sales of voice devices were up 103% year-on-year, with 22% of voice device owners already use their devices to shop using voice commands, according to Adobe Analytics Cloud data in 2017.
Just last month, Fintech Innovation reported on how customers of OCBC bank in Singapore can now check their bank account balances and various information using Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant.
https://www.enterpriseinnovation.net/article/how-brands-can-harness-voice-more-personalized-experience-767673185/
Head of digital and customer marketing talks about the marketing technology transformation she's led and how executive buy-in and cultural change was achieved.
https://www.cmo.com.au/article/635405/how-village-roadshow-brought-voice-customer-into-heart-business/
Many people over the years have said that email marketing’s days are numbered and that it will soon become a dated, perhaps even obsolete technology. But actually, this assumption couldn’t be more wrong. Email marketing still remains one of the most effective marketing channels with the highest return on investment (ROI). Much like other marketing channels however, email campaigns do offer up their fair share of challenges. Surprisingly, many of these challenges revolve around a lack of understanding and engagement with the target audience. It seems that with many campaign emails, communications are only outbound, leaving marketers with no real insight into how their email was received by their readers. This lack of insight into the performance an email campaign is precisely why it’s important to start collecting email campaign feedback.
https://mopinion.com/how-to-collect-email-campaign-feedback/
How do we know our customers are happy? How can we find out if we’re doing a good job? Or maybe more importantly, how can we find out if we’re doing a bad job?
We need to know what our customers, clients, members, guests, etc., think about doing business with us. It’s validating to know we’re doing a good job. And, if we happen to learn that we’re not, then we can do something about it. Not just for that individual customer who has a complaint, but for all future customers who might have the same complaint. So, how do we find out?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2016/07/16/nine-ways-to-get-customer-feedback/
Customer-centric marketing has several layers of meaning. The most popular layer means personalization of communications, toward increasing customer lifetime value. Without the other vital layers, though, much potential customer lifetime value will be squandered.
First Layer: All Customer Touch-Points. Communications is only one touch-point of many that marketing has with customers. Channel partners, alliance partners, market research, events, customer engagement and loyalty marketing are other touch-points with customers that certainly should be customer-centric.
http://customerthink.com/customer-centric-marketing-align-for-growth/
Businesspeople are just people, after all, with the same problems, apprehensions, feelings and dreams as everyone else. However, B2B buyers are also usually very busy. So, with that in mind, here are several steps you take to amplify your sales to them:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/311029/
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