Each year when I read an annual Customer Experience report, my wish is that Customer Experience finally makes it into the mainstream. I remember reading the findings from Accenture's 2015 B2B Customer Experience Report. I was encouraged to read that approximately eight in 10 executives believe delivering a differentiated experience links directly to business results [...]
I have done my share of reading about who owns the customer experience and who should own it. There are two schools of thought on who should own the customer experience. Some think it should be one functional group that owns the customer experience. Which group should it be? Marketing? Customer Success? Sales? Another customer-facing functional group? [...]
As many of you know, I have spent the last two years in a rigorous two-year MBA program at UC Irvine. I graduated with my MBA this past June. While the grand result of my MBA studies was a degree, there was another result, an accumulation of more than 21,000 emails of various content types [...]
Did you know that by 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator, and Bain & Company says it’s 6 to 7 times more costly to acquire a new customer than it is to retain one? So, if it’s really 6 to 7 times costlier to acquire a new customer [...]
For marketers to be successful, they can’t muddle through with blinders or rose-colored glasses on. They must be informed and know which marketing activities work, and which don’t. That means understanding the mechanics of measurement. Marketing and measurement are like lock and key. You need both to be successful and grow. Unfortunately, some marketers still [...]
Recently I was talking with my pal, Robert Scoble, about startups, content, leaving 2014 and going into 2015, so it got me to thinking, what can startups do now to help them create wins for 2015? This list of 5 Wins for Startups to Achieve Growth in 2015 will get you moving in a direction [...]
I consider myself a student of life. I always want to be in learning-mode so that I can improve and can continuously add value to those I help: clients, potential clients, and colleagues, to name a few. As Carol Dweck notes, in her amazing book, Mindset, that’s the growth mindset—changing, growing, and stretching oneself through [...]
In Part I of "How To Conduct Win-Loss Analysis To Achieve Strategic Growth", I discussed the pre-interview and interview phases of Win-Loss Analysis. The post-interview phase is the most important element of the Win-Loss Analysis process. During this phase, you will gain insights on how to actually improve your processes, and as a result, better [...]
On October 7, 2014, Customer Experience (CX) professionals celebrated #CXDay for the second year in a row. The event, put on by The Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), is an all day celebration of Customer Experience around the globe. It brings together companies and people that are creating great experiences for customers. Where Does Customer Experience Fit? [...]
To many people, Labor Day signifies the end of summer. To me, the changing season, such as the weather cooling down or leaves changing color, football and baseball playoffs signify the end of summer. Baseball playoffs start on September 30th this year. In baseball, the "utility" player, by definition, is one who can play many [...]
Retention marketing efforts don’t receive nearly the attention that customer acquisition efforts do. For many companies, that’s a big mistake that results in a lot of missed opportunities. Why? For starters, here are a few stats: According to Bain & Company, it costs 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing [...]
A few weeks ago I read an interesting article by Barry Feldman about whether content curation is news or noise. He made some good points. As he notes, "In the end, the acid test is to ascertain whether or not people like what you’re doing." That provides some of the backdrop of this article. When [...]
I write a lot about customer experience, and that customers are smarter now and are in control of the conversation. I was happy to read a similar opinion from Brett Adamson, co-author of The Challenger Sale, who gave the opening keynote at Content2Conversion Conference last week. He posits that “we need to disrupt the learning journey [...]
With the availability of data for analytics plus an aggressive push for thought-provoking and relevant content to help buyers, there is a dynamic change going on in marketing organizations causing a shift from a traditional marketing engine to a customer one. There are significant strides being made that sales and marketing lines are blurring for [...]
I recently asked a marketing director about customer testimonials on his company website. He openly said, "The testimonials aren't real, I made them up. Everybody else does it, so why can't we?" My second thought, after "Two wrongs don't make a right," was "Aren't you in the business of building trust? What does that say [...]
Will Content Marketing earn you business?To this, I say it depends. To this, I say it depends. Let me give you some background to frame this post. I participate in a variety of Twitter chats. Not only do I enjoy the engagement, but I can learn and disseminate information, and give my creativity a workout. [...]
