Comments on: Customer Lenses

By: Marketing Like a Rock-Star « Customers Rock!

Marketing Like a Rock-Star « Customers Rock! — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:25:59 +0000

[...] lingo and assume our customers will “get it.” We need to look at our company using customer lenses. This will help us understand what our customers see in our offerings, how they talk about it, [...]

By: Becky Carroll

Becky Carroll — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:43:45 +0000

Lewis, you are all about the people aspect, so I am not surprised you pointed this out! Thanks for your comment, as always.

By: bizsolutionsplus Featuring Solutions to Grow Your Business

bizsolutionsplus Featuring Solutions to Grow Your Business — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:25:25 +0000

Want to Get Noticed? Get Out of the Office

Building a business, whether start-up or established, requires you to get noticed and to be remembered. The first is keen advice for the start-up; the second is a must for established businesses. And both begin and end with you getting out of the offic…

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:21:12 +0000

Great post Becky. I agree with the mantra: It’s not about our business, it’s about people.

By: Becky Carroll

Becky Carroll — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:27:53 +0000

Nancy, I agree with you 100% that businesses need to find out their customers’ needs, then do something about it! Understanding the needs of individual customers is so much stronger than understanding the needs of “customer segments”, as we can do something differently in our action plan for THAT customer. Listening is one part of the equation; taking action puts what we have learned to work. Following up to see if we met the mark is the third piece!

There are so many triggers for customer perspective: their “prism”, their role or hat, their place in the customer lifecycle, their place in the product lifecycle. A solid customer strategy puts all these pieces together into actionable treatment strategies for our customers.

By: Becky Carroll

Becky Carroll — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:19:55 +0000

Hola Enrique! Thank you for sharing your customer’s experience with us. A lot of organizations forget a customer can be a large purchaser of business products by day and a consumer by night (such as this father trying to give his reward to his little girl). What was your final solution for him?

By: Becky Carroll

Becky Carroll — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:13:15 +0000

Ryan, psychographics moving towards behavioral understanding are indeed much more relevant to getting to know our customers and their needs than demographics. By knowing our customers this way, we can move away from lumping customers into one group and even begin to service “the long tail”. I appreciate you chiming in, Ryan! Keep it up.

By: Becky Carroll

Becky Carroll — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:05:05 +0000

Valeria, I agree: the need for a continuous conversation, hopefully leading to relationship, is critical for ongoing understanding. We might understand a customer today, but we may not understand their needs the next time they interact with us unless we keep the conversation going. Eventually, when they see the value we can provide them, they may begin to volunteer how we can help them – again, something we find out if, and when, we listen.

Thanks so much for getting this conversation going!

By: Nancy Heifferon,The Phelon Group

Nancy Heifferon,The Phelon Group — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:57:02 +0000

Businesses, of course, should be routinely asking customers about their perceptions. It should be part of a regular program of listening–not a one-off when the thought arises. So many times, though, businesses ask and then they don’t really know what to do with the answers. That’s usually because they get aggregrate data. What do they do, for example, with a satisfaction rating of 3.1 on a 5-point scale? If they were to tie results to specific points in the customer life-cycle, they might begin to get the kind of insights that they can turn into actions that really turn up the loyalty dial. If for example, they ask customers who have just redeemed points in the loyalty program how they perceive the company (I’m referring to Enrique’s comment), it might turn out that everyone is happy and loyal and eager to recommend, except for the one father who didn’t get the PSP he selected. The action to take could be pretty simple then. On the other hand, it might turn out that a significant number of high-value customers have issues with the loyalty program at that point. That would be a real bummer considering what a loyalty program is for, but finding out who’s discontented and why at that particular point in the customer relationship could lead to action–along with follow up with customers about the actions taken–that saves, and even strengthens relationships with very important customers. That’s not lumping people into one pile, as Ryan mentions. Segmenting by customer lifecycle triggers is a powerful way to identify trends and actions that can move loyalty (and retention and repurchase). So my point is merely asking is only the tip of the iceberg. Businesses have to be able to make sense of the answers and see what the right actions to take are, and then, of course, measure the the effect of these actions in some way.

By: Enrique Burgos

Enrique Burgos — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:06:22 +0000

Absolutely agree. I have one customer experience few days ago. He was a great customer of express delivery service, but in our loyalty program he selected PSP for its little girl. We couldn’t send it to him because we havent any more. In that moment he was a father, not a customer, he felt very angry with us. WE have to know how can change our customers in a while, predict it and plan the solution.