How many of us follow the same purchasing habits today as we did even five years ago? Very few. How many businesses rely on the same sales and marketing approach as they did five years ago?
More than you would think.
In the rapidly evolving digital era, the rules have been (and are still being) fundamentally rewritten. It used to be the supplier who created interest in their products and services, pushing out information and offers as part of lead generation campaigns. But now it is the consumer who is firmly in charge of their journey to purchase.
https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2018/mar/01/customer-journey-smooth-path/
In a corporate environment, it's easy to get too focused on performance measurement. While individuals within departments concentrate on achieving their personal and departmental key performance indicators (KPIs) by necessity, these, in isolation, must be aligned with other departments and their goals within the organisation.
Occasionally, one department can succeed at the other's expense. Streamlining channels, optimising processes that link back- and front-offices, and monitoring of productivity ensure that competitive behaviour is harnessed in a productive manner, suggests Wynand Smit, CEO of INOVO: "Aligned company-wide goals require a strategy that unifies objectives and provides an environment that works for everyone, one that can be scaled to mirror company growth."
https://www.itweb.co.za/content/KWEBb7yakkA7mRjO/
Established in 2001 in the Netherlands, Translink operates as the connecting force behind the OV-chipkaart. One card used for accessing all sorts of public transportation, the OV-chipkaart is an easier and more secure way for people to travel. The OV-chipkaart also allows Dutch public transportation companies to make more efficient use of capacity, resources and staff.
Translink aims to give its customers a personal, relevant and seamless online experience using a mobile-first approach – so that customers can access their personal OV-data at any time or place.
https://mopinion.com/translink-provides-seamless-online-experience-with-customer-feedback/
Ensuring customer experience success is an ongoing effort. Just as brands evolve, so too do their customers. We see customers evolve in their interactions with products and services, their complex and varied needs, and the channels through which they express feedback. Customer journey maps document those interactions at scale and help companies better understand the actions, thoughts, expectations and feelings of the people that connect with their brands. These maps help businesses capture customer analytics and track critical pain points to maintain quality customer experiences and address problems.
https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/dont-let-journey-mapping-fatigue-keep-you-from-cx-success/
It sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn’t it? How can you optimise a journey with friction when for many it is considered the nemesis of growth and success? It is annihilated at every opportunity in the digital world for fear the customer might abandon a purchase or fail to sign up for a newsletter. This is not necessarily the case in physical locations like stores, restaurants and service centres. Sometimes a little friction can be a good thing.
http://customerthink.com/improve-customer-experience-by-introducing-friction/
New Medallia study finds that companies with ‘robust listening posts’ were 60% more likely to improve CX than those without.
California based software company Medallia has released its latest report on analysing and implementing unsolicited consumer feedback, ‘Breaking The Code – Customer learning and innovation’ to improve customer experience (CX).
In partnership with Accenture, the report seeks to advise businesses on how to best develop consumer engagement strategies based on customer feedback. The report highlights listening posts, learning systems and customer-centric alignment as key focus areas for firms looking to enhance CX.
https://www.marketingmag.com.au/news-c/news-report-feedback-strategies-improving-cx/
One of the things that almost everyone of us does is to optimize. We optimise our time, our money and at times even our relationships. We want maximum efficiency in almost everything that we do. In organisations, we compensate sales guys on sales made, product managers on product development, marketing folks on leads generated, manufacturing folks on operational efficiency. Everywhere we look, we can find efforts to maximise efficiency in that part. This, in general, is our attempt to gain local optima. We try to reach optimal performance in that specific domain with no regards to the effect it has on the global performance.
This is why we have sales teams ending up selling something that is easier to sell than selling one that the company strategy is betting its future on. This is why we have manufacturing teams producing more stock of an item then needed to improve their operational efficiency. This is the reason why we have well-meaning folks from Dell outsource everything to their Chinese suppliers leading to the disruption of Dell as the leader of the PC revolution.
http://customerthink.com/to-succeed-optimise-the-one-variable-that-matters/
Customers demand relevance and real value from marketing in exchange for loyalty now. The true value of personalization can only be harnessed when organizations work on capabilities that are founded on enhancing Customer Experience (CX).
https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/re-tales/how-can-brands-personalise-customer-experience/2929/
Collecting feedback from your shoppers and customers allows you to better cater to their needs, preferences and values, and a few rather unorthodox questions can provide the information needed to direct your attention to a plethora of possible solutions.
Customer feedback surveys are a little boring, but they’re important. If you don’t know what people think, then you have no real way to gauge how well you’re doing. If you aspire to innovate and grow, these surveys can give you the information you need to make those changes happen. Asking a few unorthodox questions can open your eyes to even broader possibilities.
https://retailnext.net/en/blog/7-meaningful-questions-to-add-to-your-customer-feedback-survey/
Of course, every small business is different and has it’s own unique challenges when it comes to reaching new customers and achieving growth. However, there are a variety of tactics for new customer acquisition in 2018 that can apply across regions, target markets and demographics if applied correctly. With that said, here are several approaches to consider when looking to grow your customer base in 2018 and beyond.
https://www.business2community.com/small-business/make-2018-year-net-new-customer-growth-02016830/
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