Beauty company Elizabeth Arden takes particular care to streamline its customer feedback mechanism. It has created a platform called Arden Insiders where its female customers can provide feedback on product innovation, servicing and design recommendations. There is complete freedom in customer sentiment declaration. This provides perfect tool to capture business intelligence on its own customers. This started as a year-long experiment but has now been formally incorporated. This method is called VoC (Voice of Customer) Research. Even Wharton states that such massive customer forums provide ideal platform for conducting data warehousing operations so companies can make informed decisions before product launches. Such VoC methodology goes beyond traditional surveys as it reaches out to larger audiences and no limits are enforced nor are questions controlled. There could be attributes of the product beyond the imagination of the marketer which come out through such studies.

Source:https://customerthink.com/does-your-brand-experience-align-with-customers-voices-elizabeth-arden-shows-how/

Uploaded Date: 19th May 2017

Customer experience is the feedback that can in many cases be applied as the barometer of any sales facing organization. Customers value organizations which not only serve them but enhance their overall experience. An example of this would be Amazon. The goal of delivering customer experience can be rounded off by an acronym – DOMORE. Here D stands for Designs something special. O stands for Offers a strong employee experience. Mo stands for Modernizes with technology while the second O goes for Obsesses over the customer. The R stands for Rewards responsibility and accountability. The final E goes for Embraces disruption and innovation. If this acronym is applied then the customer experience can truly be enhanced. A unique experience may be curated, employee feel motivated to go the extra step and technology changes are embraced, not feared. Business innovation and disruption are similarly encouraged. The customer is the king and queen of the entire process. The most deserving of employees get rewarded.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2017/05/09/when-it-comes-to-customer-experience-more-is-more/#6e4d13847f8c

Uploaded Date: 19th May 2017

Listening is a very important component within customer experience. It helps in getting authentic feedback and data which can be analyzed using sophisticated business analytics tools. It also brings to marketers the stories that they would want to share at a later date. This could include tales of excellent trouble shooting, repeat customers or excellent feedback. Customers feel a sense of importance when their views are heard and acted upon, thus improving their retention levels. It eventually impacts customer spending as listening will lead to specific marketing campaigns run for customer sub-groups. Some of the most satisfied customers could later be leveraged to become brand ambassadors. This also impacts talent management as employees relay feedback to their superiors, who if they act accordingly increases employees’ connect with the customer base to further improve retention.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2017/04/29/six-ways-listening-improves-the-customer-experience/#64b4f26272da

Uplaoded Date: 18th May 2017

Customer experience is always double sided. On the one hand, it can lead to great traction for an organization, but if not executed well could end up eroding the brand. With technology disrupting every stage of life and work now, five investments have been identified which if applied now, will lead to multiple benefits in the coming times. First one of them is the Internet of Things (IoT) to connect everything. Business consulting leaders McKinsey and Bain both have extremely positive predictions towards growth of this industry. At this point most of IoT usage is at households or offices with routers or door locks, but soon it will revolutionize the software services. The next investment would be in Chatbots, already being used optimally by the likes of Trip Advisor, Sephora, Nordstrom, Cover Girl and Charity Water. They are more reliable than people. Another innovation would be Voice Activated Everything as implemented by Whirlpool to assist people using voice technology. Then there is Concierge Customer Service which is an automated network that allows which as the name suggests is an application to streamline all customer issues and relay them to concerned persons for trouble resolution. Companies must increasingly start making use of unstructured data as it analysis will provide them with authentic business intelligence on marketer and competitors.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2017/03/27/customer-experience-spring-cleaning-your-5-best-investments/#6d18d5431dec

Uploaded Date: 18th May 2017

There are some clients who respond better to certain delivery practices than others. Thus a common average satisfaction level is rarely possible. Some service professionals feel that quality is of utmost importance while others feel that clients feel the ‘wow’ factor when things get executed at speed. For companies growing fast, or scaling up such as startups it is the latter approach which is better as even funds are strained. The former approach works for larger corporations more concerned with upholding quality and their brand image. There are certain instances where both speed and quality have been made possible. Macros must be seen as positives to imbibe rather than negative. For optimal usage, a brand voice needs to be established. Investment in content writers works well for digital marketing these days as the content gets routed to company website, landing page or social media handles. Emails must also be curated with a view on customer base available. Instead of viewing technology as a threat it must be embraced to improve operations as AI has done for Digital Genius or Wise.io. The agent experience may also likewise be eased up using tools from Salesforce, Zen desk or Talk desk.

Source:https://customerthink.com/in-customer-service-you-must-choose-between-speed-and-wow-or-do-you/

Uploaded Date: 17th May 2017

Due to the proliferation of social media, customer experience can prove to be both a blessing as well as a curse. On the one hand, social media can prove to be the greatest source of digital marketing. But on the other, it can also cause social embarrassment and brand erosion when customers go through negative experiences. Nowadays, unsatisfied customers can simply upload a photo or even a video recording on social media, causing thousands maybe millions through a network to get turned off a brand. To avert such disasters, marketers must try to experience the brand first hand and think from customers’ viewpoint. A walk through the store will alert the decision makers on mistakes or gaps in customer engagement.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2017/04/27/customer-experience-in-the-age-of-social-media/#2f90df36ffe6

Uploaded Date: 16th May 2017

A recent conference called Collision held in New Orleans threw up some interesting insights from some top brands about customer experience. The CMO of We Transfer which is the world’s largest file sharing platform spoke about how the authenticity of several business institutions has been hit. The very fact that this is public discourse means something is amiss. The SVP of T-Mobile, USA claims that customer loyalty cannot be built up simply by reward points or loyalty programmes, but through more defined customer engagement. The CMO of Mozilla meanwhile feels that people in general are more conscious about the ethicality of what they are consuming. Mozilla’s CMO also feels that Big Data is now ubiquitous but it is making marketers far too reliant on it. This vast quantity of data does not yet answer all of business questions. Research conducted by them proved that a bit more than a fifth of internet users can be clubbed as conscious choosers on content. This idea was further given weight by one of the VPs at Patagonia. The Founding Partner of Work & Co feels that the era of design thinking has been upgraded to actually implementing the ideas.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/adrianswinscoe/2017/05/14/five-customer-experience-insights-from-t-mobile-patagonia-firefox-wetransfer-and-work-co/#19169ac073e3

Uploaded Date: 16th May 2017

In spite of the reach of the email and other digital methods, research has clearly identified face-to-face requests for work as more effective. This research first asked the participants to rank chances of their subjects filling out the survey as intended. Two groups were divided, but the one which verbally asked had a thirty four times higher success rate than the one which adopted the tactic of an email blast. This is in spite of both groups predicting their respective success rates as almost equal. This was because those adopting the digital marketing route of emails felt complete confidence at their own authenticity would translate to their clients believing likewise. But this trust did not translate to readers. Instead those asked personally, it was non-verbal cues which sealed the deal.

Source: https://hbr.org/2017/04/a-face-to-face-request-is-34-times-more-successful-than-an-email?

Uploaded Date: 13th May 2017

Companies that are consumer-facing are going through several existential changes right now. The global middle class is shrinking and growth rates have slowed down even in the emerging markets. In such a scenario, it makes particular sense to take care of the “connected spenders”. These connected spenders are those who display certain features such as having constant access to the internet. They possess significant sums of discretionary income that they are willing to spend. Whenever they can afford, they are ready to purchase premium goods. Such connected spenders are also followers of cutting edge consumer trends. They are usually urban dwellers, though the percentage rises to an even higher figure of ninety percent in emerging markets. Certain categories such as travel, electronic gadgets and dining out see them on top of the spending pile. Companies must realize that only three developed economies- USA, Japan and Germany- will be among the top ten of connected spender numbers in less than a decade’s time. Newer markets will emerge such as Nigeria, Indonesia and Pakistan. Companies must be able to tap into these new markets while continuing to woo customers in mature economies. This segment is digitally oriented thus online forms are best methods. Thus e-commerce must be eased up to make it more convenient for this group. Shopping experiences must be designed in such a way as to be relevant to the particular market. In China for example, among the younger people smartphone possession is universal so digital marketing has proven to be the most successful method of advertising. More traditional forms of the same are being adopted in Nigeria. Companies must also display agility in reaching out the last mile to the customer.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/02/your-business-is-going-to-depend-on-connected-spenders-so-youd-better-understand-who-they-are?

The psychological or emotional attachment to any product or brand can be termed as customer engagement. It is essential for the growth of any business, but it has recently been learnt to be get enhanced using the tool of Virtual Reality (VR). Positive feelings can be created which further impacts on engagement that further boosts the final sales. In fact, research has confirmed, that engaged customers one average spend three-fifths more per transaction and shop ninety percent more frequently. VR enables personalized content. This is because purchase experiences get tracked using data based analytics to provide company with authentic business intelligence. Within this field it is Enterprise VR that is emerging as the star at engagement applications. Social VR meanwhile uses 3D technology to empower customers. Traditional communication media are all technology-mediated. Social VR on the other hand can replicate physical presence using webcam.

Source:ttp://rocksdigital.com/customer-engagement-virtual-reality/

A study by professors from the Wharton Business School have developed a new concept called Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) which This theory states that new customer acquisition is complicated, depends on several factors and is expensive. However, retaining customers can bring tremendous value. Instead of trying to retain them simply by providing good service and benefits, CLV looks at predicting their future requirements so that relevant products may be offered to them. Data is collected on past trends to be subsequently analyzed. This provides the retailers with substantive business intelligence to build predictive analytics models on. A lot of marketers have been found to be guilty of falling in to the trap of stereotyping their customers instead of assigning quantifiable values. Zodiac has developed such an algorithm to help predict customer moves in the future. A software platform was developed for this to study customer transactions of the past. For this to succeed, goal alignment with the finance team is necessary. Different industries such as retail, entertainment, travel and pharmacy can tap in to this tool as requirements are similar.

Source:http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/160811b_kwradio_fader-mariychin-mp3-zodiac/