Building Customer Loyalty

A group of customer strategists recently considered various ways to keep an established customer experience program visible.  All of their programs are fairly mature and they share a common challenge of keeping employees engaged and motivated to take action.

Here are some of best practices identified to avoid these obstacles and keep the VoC initiative front and center:

1. Build Customer feedback into incentive compensation. This is a great motivator to keep employees engaged.  Tips: ensure all employees are impacted, incorporate customer feedback as a fairly small percentage of the incentive plan, and make sure the metric does in fact impact compensation.
    
2. Recognize employees. It’s important to recognize employees to let them know the work they do is valued.  For example, some companies post positive customer comments on intranets or internal blogs when employees are mentioned by name for providing outstanding customer service.  (Be aware of any internal restrictions, privacy issues, and the potential need to remove derogatory comments.)
    
3. Communicate progress. It is essential to communicate progress to keep employees engaged.  One way is to ensure data collection frequency provides visibility into progress on key indicators.  Another option is to define internal metrics that are customer oriented.  Providing regular updates will help to maintain focus on the customer experience.

These are just a few suggestions on ways your Customer Experience Program can stand out at your organization.  What other ideas do you have?

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President
 

In a series of meetings and conversations this week, there was much discussion about discomfort, and the notion that uncomfortable situations are often a signal of opportunity.  The topic reminded me of a past blog post, Can you feel your underwear?, in which I talked about the need to push out of our comfort zones from an account management perspective. 

The same thinking applies much more broadly – really to all aspects of our lives.  Situations that make us uncomfortable are typically situations that we are unfamiliar with – they require us to stretch, to learn, to try something new and risk failing. And let’s face it, as much as we can learn from failure, it’s not something anybody enjoys.

And yet we all know that there are levels of discomfort that need to be accepted and even welcomed in order to grow.  This is particularly true in business situations where we are looking to innovate, an activity that is not only necessary for long-term sustainability, but also one that companies are increasingly being pushed into by customers who are clamoring to introduce their voice to innovation processes.  In these cases, the discomfort extends beyond the personal, to a more organizational level of discomfort, but one that, if accepted, can lead to breakthrough developments in products, services, and processes, and ultimately to happier customers and growth.

To capture this upside, it helps to get proactive in identifying opportunities that, while they may be uncomfortable, come with the promise of significant and mutually beneficial rewards.  After all, if we all just keep doing exactly what we’re doing now, things will get pretty boring.

Image Source Page (and nice blog on extending the comfort zone to the eek zone:
http://vladdolezal.com/blog/2011/build-confidence-gradually/

I am officially declaring spring to have arrived. Living in the Midwest, I realize I could be jumping the gun a little, but my number one sign has recently appeared and the weather has been terrific so I am going out on a limb.

One of the first flowers to bloom each spring is the crocus. There is not much to this tiny flower and many people probably don’t appreciate it. I do. I respect the little guy. This flower has such a thick stalk that it can barely support it own weight. Yet many years, the first crocus to bloom actually finds it way to daylight through a layer of snow.

For me, the crocus is spring. It is the first sign of renewal, the rebirth of flowers and trees after what can be a tough few months of winter (I say “can be” because every once in while our winters are mild like this year).

Spring is also a great time to think about renewing relationships with key customers. Too often we let these relationships roll along, almost taking them for granted. It can be easy to think everything is going along just fine, why rock the boat? It’s time for renewal, but what does that mean? Here are some things to try…

1. The Unexpected. Often the most impactful things you can do to energize a relationship are seemingly insignificant, but because they are unexpected they leave a lasting impression with your customer. Send a birthday card, call and check in for no reason, anything they would appreciate and not expect you to do.
2. The Dramatic. You probably should save this one for times when you really need it … drastic times and drastic measures kind of stuff. Make them an offer that appears “out there.” For example, if a customer has been complaining about the price of a proposed product or solution (and you are confident of its fit and value), tell them to pay you what they think it’s worth. That puts the burden on them and will force them to justify their concerns over the price. Most importantly, and this is where the renewal comes from, they will understand your confidence in your value.
3. The Challenging. This is a great time to sit back and challenge yourself. Are you delivering enough value to your customers? Are you giving them your best stuff, your best thinking, your best work? If you aren’t, now’s the time.
4. The Collaborative. There is nothing more effective at building relationships than working together to solve tough problems. When you and a customer collaborate to tackle challenges, it becomes the two of you against the world.

Spring is a great reminder of the power of renewal and the impact it can have. Flowers and trees bloom in the spring and those blooms are the basis for more flowers and trees to grow. Same with our customers. Relationships must be constantly renewed and refreshed, and that plants the seeds for more and better relationships in the long run.

I was recently with a business strategist from a Fortune 500 company who stated there were ultimately three reasons corporate strategies fail. Even though he was speaking of overarching corporate strategies, the three reasons align with what I have seen related to customer strategies:

1. You measure the wrong things – Good strategy is the result of careful, intelligent analysis; however, the old maxim “garbage in, garbage out” applies here. In customer strategy consulting, this can be the result of jumping on the bandwagon of the latest killer metric without a full analysis of whether or not the metric actually applies to your industry. One way to avoid this shortcoming would be to conduct a pre-program strategic assessment – this step will allow you to learn not only the key customer touchpoints, but also identify the critical needs of key stakeholders in the process. It will also help you make certain you are profiling the customers the right way and focusing on the most critical.
    
2. You make the wrong decisions – Even if you measure the right data, there is no guarantee you will make the right decisions. Some of this is related to the data itself – in customer strategy consulting, using statistical methods that allow us to determine which areas of focus will have the greatest impact on customer loyalty will provide some insulation against focusing on the wrong areas. There is, however, another source of potential error – and that is the direction of where the market in total is heading. Every decision is framed not only by the data you observe, but also by your outlook on the competitive environment in general. To ensure you get it right, there are three recommendations I would make:

• Include competitive assessments in your loyalty measurement program – Having an idea on your position relative to the competition can help fine-tune your analysis. You can read more about benchmarking options in this series.


• Commit to ongoing measurement – This does not necessarily mean an ongoing data collection effort; rather, it is about knowing when to re-assess the customer landscape to ensure you are accounting for all the relevant issues. Most clients do this every 18 to 24 months at a minimum.


• Build macro and micro-level strategic plans – The overall strategy that emerges from the statistical analysis is best used in the context of focal areas that have the greatest impact on the greatest number of customers; however, building more micro-level, customer-based action plans will ensure you are accounting for the individual differences that exist among customers.

3. You do not take action – This is the one we tend to see the most. I once worked with a person who was prone to saying “strategy is cheap; execution is hard.” When I first heard him say this, I thought he was saying that strategy was simple; I now realize what he meant was that even though strategy can be hard, it is infinitely more difficult to execute on a plan of attack you know is correct. The phenomenon of acting in ways that are not in your best interest is less about intelligence and more about discipline. I tend to use diet and exercise as an example – I know I should exercise more and eat less, but it is far easier to do the opposite. We at Walker have designed a framework to help navigate the key disciplinary elements needed to take action – namely, organization, process, communication, and motivation.

Certainly there are many reasons strategies can fail; however, I suspect that most of the reasons would fit into this framework. Being mindful of the potential pitfalls that may exist can help you be more proactive in building a plan that will maximize your probability of success.

Mark A. Ratekin
Sr. Vice President, Consulting Services

What do the cloud, social media, and lean innovation have in common? Each are impacting voice of the customer programs and changing the way we measure, manage, and deliver an exceptional and differentiated customer experience.

Cloud computing: The cloud changes the way customers buy products. Customers move from product ownership to product subscription. In doing this, the switching barriers are lessened for the customer and the company is rewarded with recurring revenue. Cloud-based companies need to adapt their voice of the customer program to focus on predicting customer renewals.

Social media: Customers don't need to wait for a company to conduct a customer survey research program to share their thoughts and feelings. With social media, customers have channels to share their feedback with the company, not to mention their closest friends, fans, and followers. Companies are reacting to this trend by monitoring the discussion and engaging in the conversation on public and private social media forums. This has resulted in a voice of the customer platform that companies are still trying to understand.

Lean innovation: Have you ever thought that product development happens in a bubble with engineers, scientists, and innovators isolated in a building and left to their own devices? This paradigm is shifting and the voice of the customer is becoming more important throughout the product development cycle. In this article, Ravi Aron, senior fellow from Wharton's Mack Center for Technological Innovation implies, "[Lean] begins its journey when an organization attempts to hear the voice of the customer." As the innovation process looks to adopt lean principles to reduce time and costs, one essential ingredient is the customer perspective, putting the customer perspective in greater demand.

In a world where the only constant is change, our voice of the customer programs must be adaptable to support our ever changing customer retention strategies.

Entry # 2 in my macro-microblogging series.

The Service Recovery Paradox says an effective problem resolution can result in a stronger customer relationship than if the problem never happened. A strictly efficient, time-to-resolve mindset will result in few observable instance of this paradox. But combining timely and effective resolution with soft skills aimed at tapping into these 6 psychological phenomena that drive positive customer behavior will greatly increase the chances of experiencing it.

1. Build a relationship by listening, understanding, and taking appropriate action
2. Clear memory of the failure by creating a more recent positive emotional memory
3. Establish mutual understanding by exhibiting sharing and caring behavior
4. Drive customer desire to reciprocate by exceeding customer expectations of the interaction
5. Build customers' trust and confidence in the company through professional behavior
6. Implicitly ask for forgiveness by admitting the company's role in the failure

As I write this, I am sitting in a plane.  High in the sky.  Over an ocean.  And I’ll be up here for five more hours.  And this plane I’m in… the thing is, it’s big.  Also – it’s heavy.  I don’t know exactly how heavy, but I know one thing for sure:  this plane is way too heavy to be able to stay up in the air. Quite simply, it shouldn’t be here. 

But here’s the other thing:  I’m wrong. (That admission took a lot out of me… let’s agree to never speak of it again.) At any given time, there are hundreds if not thousands of planes flying around.  And people who know more than I do about these things understand the why and the how of this.

And my point is this… for every one thing that we ourselves don’t understand or can’t believe is possible, there is somebody who does understand it.  So when I fly, I need to start from a position of trust:  trust that the experts have gone about this whole plane thing in the right way.  Trust that I will arrive safely at my destination.

The same concept applies to any area in which there are experts.  Including Voice of Customer programs – though here there often seems to be one notable difference: Voice of Customer is an area in which many people fancy themselves to be experts. They want to do it themselves, or poke holes in a methodology, or disbelieve the results because they don’t match up with what they were expecting.  But here again is a situation which requires starting from a position of trust: you need to trust in the expertise of those who know about these things, get beyond your doubts, and spend your energy thinking about how you are going to use the results to improve your relationships, help your customers, and drive business performance.  In other words, trust that the experts are going to get you to your destination.

Several weeks ago, I met with a client who had faced exactly this situation in prior presentations of Voice of Customer feedback.  At the end of last year, when it came time for her to share results, she met with the most influential person in her audience ahead of time and they had a candid discussion: either they could spend a day wasting everybody’s time debating and defending the methodology and merits of the research and recommendations, or they could accept that the program was well-designed and well-implemented by a team of experts, herself included, and spend their day productively, building action plans to address customer needs.  Can you guess what they did?

I get a kick out of the AT&T ads (examples here and here) showing how the pace of things is so fast that the savvy user of the HTC Vivid with 4G is always informed and ahead of the game.

While the commercials are informative and entertaining, the application makes sense for how customer strategists build better customer relationships.

The most common example that has gotten attention is the way some companies have monitored social media sites to identify customer complaints and quickly address them. In doing so, they salvage a customer relationship and impress consumers with their attention to customer issues.

I prefer to consider uncommon examples, like complex customer relationships in a B-to-B environment. We've seen terrific examples of companies that have closely monitored feedback from surveys that trigger alerts notifying account managers of customers issues that need to be addressed and opportunities to pursue. In one example a company identified more than 5,000 issues that were logged and prioritized for action. What's more, they prompted sales opportunities that delivered more than $200 million in new sales.

This was all done by setting up a system that included the following:

• Good lists - insights are gathered from the right customers
• Good design - to incorporate triggers to identify issues, opportunities
• Good training - account managers understand their role
• Good buy-in - everybody sees the benefit for them and for the company
• Good tools - an online documentation system ensures follow up
• Good measurement - the ROI is measured to validate the payoff

• Things about you that everybody knows – your hair color, your eyes, your height, weight, etc. (arena)

• Things that others know about you, but you do not see - annoying habits or shortcomings (blind spot).

• Things you know that others don’t – your habits, your secrets (facade).

• Things you don’t know about yourself and others don’t know – subconscious things that make you do the things you do (unknown).

Serving customers in a way that creates a loyal following is hard. Add in the complexities created by an indirect go-to-market strategy and the degree of difficulty rivals the reverse 4 ½ somersault in the pike position (4.8 out of 5.0).

Why is such a strategy difficult? The main reason is that many of the actual interactions with the customers are conducted by your channel partners, not by your people. It also creates a more complex relationship comprised of several relationships as shown below.

There are several companies that have built a strong channel and leveraged that go-to-market strategy to drive revenues and create market expansion. Here are some of the ways in which these companies have created a strong customer experience with indirect customers.

1.      Listen to your customers. It doesn’t matter so much whether the customers are served directly or indirectly, their demand is still driving your revenues. A strong Voice of the Customer program helps understand the customer experience from their perspective. Make sure to share the feedback and insights with your channel partners—much of the action and follow-up required might come from the partners themselves.

2.      Listen to your partners. Lots to learn here. First, how can you improve the experience of partnering with you? How can you make it easier to work with you? How can you build a preference for your brand? How can we drive more business together, benefiting both our businesses and growing our market share?

3.      Listen some more to your partners. Your partners are dealing face-to-face with your customers and they are learning from your customers every day. They are learning what it is like to experience your products, what unmet needs they have, and how they interact with your partners. These insights can help us to create the consistent experience we know customers thirst for.

4.      Treat your partners like customers. I know we don’t think of them this way, but channel partners are customers. We sell to them (and through them), we invoice them, we collect from them. While they are a conduit to the ultimate customer, they buy from us and help us drive revenues. We need to treat them like customers and focus a little attention on them. Part of being customer-focused is being partner-focused.

The best way to deal with complex situations is to break them down into manageable pieces. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. In this case that means understanding all aspects of the channel and understanding how we interact and create an exceptional experience for channel partners and customers.

This week, Walker hosted a group of channel partner leaders from 10 prominent high tech companies at a Customer-Focused Channels forum designed to dig in to the complexities of managing partner relationships.  While we know that there are many relationships that deserve attention in the customer-partner-company "triangle," this event focused on the partner–company relationship.

One of the many topics that were discussed was how to build strategic commitment to a partner-driven business model – commitment both internally and from the partner organizations themselves.  It was generally agreed that core to achieving this level of commitment is approaching the relationships with an attitude of "we" instead of "us vs them." True, partner relationships can be competitive at times, but that makes it all the more critical to establish clear ground rules for the part of the relationship that will be based on achieving mutually compatible business objectives. 

Further discussion concluded that the best relationships are enabled by elements such as coming to partners with a business proposition that is focused on their objectives, having executive-level conversations that elevate the partnership beyond "today’s deal,"and making the administrative side of the relationship as easy and "resource light" as possible.

This is the fourth part of our ongoing series designed to understand some of the dynamics that help explain how companies in the Walker Index outperform the market by over six-to-one. So far, we have explored the dynamics of Relevance and Alignment, Team and Resources, and Information Gathering. In this entry, we will focus on the role that Communication plays in supporting and reinforcing the customer listening process.

Mary Young and James E. Post published an article in 1993[1] that outlined the approaches that world-class companies use in communicating with employees. Even though the article is a bit dated and focuses on employee communication, the content is still quite relevant. Moreover, I would make the argument that the principles work equally well when considering how to communicate with customers.

The eight approaches outlined by Young and Post were as follows:

1)      The CEO’s role as communicator – Young and Post make the case that the CEO has to not only be the chief communicator, but also must be a believer in communication. Those who excel in this tend to have frequent communication, reinforce their vision, are good listeners, are willing to answer tough questions, and are more disposed to quickly responding to sensitive topics.

2)      Walk the talk – If you talk about being committed to customers, make certain your actions reinforce that – for example, make certain your infrastructure is designed to serve customers effectively, and make certain you view your processes from the customers’ perspective.

3)      Be Open to Two-Way Dialogue – Surveys and other listening methods are a good way to start gathering the perspective of customers, but customers want (and expect) more. In an age of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets, customers expect a two-way dialogue. At a minimum, be certain you are communicating back what you learned, what your action steps are, and when customers can expect to see improvements.

From an internal employee perspective, be certain that employees have an outlet to share their thoughts and ideas on how to improve. This personalizes the experiences for the employee and helps them to see how they can contribute to the bigger picture – plus, from an execution perspective, employees will often be able to identify with the issues the customers articulated and will often have thought of possible countermeasures to address those issues.

4)      Face-to-Face Communication – Customers want you to close the loop and to do it in a way that is personal; when possible, a face-to-face session can help to not only address issues that you have learned about that particular customer’s experience, but can also have an ancillary benefit of providing a framework for strategic account planning.

Employees, too, want to engage in a face-to-face conversation. Given geographic dispersion of companies, it may not be feasible (or cost-effective) to have the CEO (or Chief Customer Officer) visit every single location; however, the management of each location can and should endeavor to engage in a face-to-face communication process to ensure the core messages are being sent and to engage in the two-way dialogue that Young and Post recommend.

5)      Having a Shared Plan of Communication – While the CEO can be the chief communicator, it is incumbent that all employees be aware (and committed to) the key messages you wish to send to customers. This means that a rigorous, detailed plan of communication should be developed to ensure messages are reinforced in a consistent manner at the level that makes the most sense. One method in a B2B context divides the core messaging between two groups:

Senior Management – Addresses the “why,” “what,” and “when” of changes customers can expect related to strategic initiatives that emerged from a customer listening program

Account Managers – Address the “who,” “how,” and “what” of the changes – in other words, those that are generally more focused at a customer vs. systemic level.

6)      The Bad News/Good News Ratio – It is tempting to focus only what is working well; however, if you focus on only the positive, it can suggest that you did not hear the pain points that customers are experiencing, which can further imply that you are not really customer-focused. So, you should plan to share some of the less-than-stellar feedback – it will not only illustrate that you are listening and that you are intent on improving, but it will also make the good news more believable.

7)      Tailor the content to the audience – When communicating, it is important to consider who your intended audience is, what their needs and expectations are, and what methods work best in communicating with them. Even within an account, there are often different strategies for communicating – for example, the way you communicate with your client’s CEO will no doubt be different from how you communicate with your front-line contacts.

Also realize that your employees are a target audience as well. This means making certain you are communicating a consistent set of core messages both internally and externally in ways that best resonate with the unique stakeholder groups.

8)      Communication is a process, not an event – Young and Post suggest that companies migrate from communication being a transactional event that is focused on tactics to building a focus on process and strategy. They further recommend that firms focus on some specific aspects in this process:

a.       Communicate the what, why, and how – Tell a comprehensive story in order to set the expectation of what will occur from this point forward.

b.      Be timely in communicating – This is more important in our fast-paced, highly connected environment of today than it was when this article was published in 1993. It is better to communicate in a timely fashion, even if that means you do not have all the answers. Not doing so risks a loss of engagement and trust from your customers.

c.       Continuously communicate – This is particularly important if you are being timely in your communication – new information and details will emerge, which means you should communicate that not only as soon as possible, but also in an iterative fashion to reinforce the message.

d.      Make the connections – When describing what you learned, be sure to connect how your actions at a macro level will impact the experience the customers has at a micro level – in other words, make certain the message is relevant. For employees, tying how their work will lead to greater levels of customer loyalty (and the financial impact this has on the firm) is extremely important in securing commitment and buy-in.

Having a disciplined approach to communicating both internally and externally will help to ensure that what you learned in your customer listening process is internalized by both customers and employees. However, this internalization by itself is not enough – the communication must represent the initial action that the company takes on the results. This initial action must be followed up by action in both a macro (company) level as well as a micro (account) level. We will tackle the topic of Action in the next entry of this series.

Mark A. Ratekin
Senior Vice President, Consulting Services

The volume and types of information available in today’s customer service organizations, while overwhelming at times, also offers a gateway to better customer experiences. 

It’s true; companies are tracking multitudes of operational metrics, customer perceptions, transaction measures, financial measures, employee perceptions, public perspectives, case histories, and on and on and on…  Instead of letting this data bury us, it can and should be put to use to build and support service strategies that are three things:

Predictive:  By applying advanced analytic techniques, models can be generated that will be predictive of future performance of key customer metrics, as driven by experiences and incidents. 

Proactive:  These models will enable service organizations to become more proactive in addressing service needs, by putting resources in the right places more quickly, and driving strategies to improve the areas predicted to be trouble spots.

Pre-emptive:  What we should be most excited about is the emerging ability to provide pre-emptive support - - - being able to identify which customers or cases are predicted to ‘turn bad,’ identifying them before they that happens, then intervening early to make sure it never does.

This level of service has the potential not just to surprise and delight customers, but also to drive internal efficiencies and the business performance of the service organization and the company as a whole.

I love Trefoils. Thin Mints are a close second (and apparently the top seller nationwide). Every year my family looks forward to Girl Scout cookies. We buy a bunch of cookies, yet they have a tendency to disappear very quickly.   

My family has a tradition of girl scouting. My mother was a scout, I was a scout, and my nieces are girl scouts. Given that tradition combined with my love of Trefoils, one could say that I am Truly Loyal. 

Imagine my excitement to learn there is a new Customer Loyalty badge for Girl Scouts. "Girls told us they want more challenge, and we've responded with substantive, focused, fun new badge offerings that will prepare girls for lifelong success," said Kathy Cloninger, Chief Executive Officer, Girl Scouts of the USA. 

The new badge is part of the Senior Scout Cookie Business badge. According to the Girl Scout website, their Cookie Program prepares girls for their future by developing business building skills such as goal setting, decision making, and people skills.

To earn a badge, a scout goes through a five-step test to prove her knowledge on the topic. In this case, she will know how to build her cookie business by increasing customer loyalty. 

Although I wasn’t able to find the specific requirements for earning the customer loyalty badge, I was reminded of a Walker client who developed a training program for their employees.  At the end of the training, each participant needed to prove their knowledge on the topic.  A certification exam was used to “earn the badge” for Customer Loyalty. Incorporating the exam into the training ensures employees understand both the importance of customer feedback and how to act on that information. 

I can’t wait for Girl Scout cookie time to see how the Customer Loyalty effort impacts their Cookie Program! In the meantime, should you consider a Customer Loyalty badge for your associates?

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President

Last week marked the inaugural Members Insight Exchange meeting of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA): more than 150 professionals, including practitioners and providers, came together for two days to talk about customer experience best practices, trends, and the emergence of this area as a recognized and fulfilling profession.

In an atmosphere of open sharing and dialogue, it became clear that many companies are making great progress in bringing the voice of their customers into the design of better customer experience and ultimately supporting corporate growth.  It also became clear that even the leading companies have struggled or still are struggling with familiar challenges as they work to evolve their programs. 

In this post, I highlight six themes that I heard over the course of the two days… things to think about as each us builds or enhances our own customer strategies.

Customer strategists can’t do it alone. They need an army of ambassadors to make sure people are aware of the organization’s customer initiatives and that a customer-focused spirit is engrained in the corporate culture.

To evaluate what you have in place, do this simple exercise. On a sheet of paper, draw a line down the middle. On the left side, write – who do I have? On the right side, write – who do I want? Then, on the left side, list all those that are ambassadors of your customer initiatives. In other words, who believes in the customer strategies that are in place? Who can you count on for support? Who's on-board? Then, on the right side, think about who else you would like to have in your army.

Don’t limit yourself to certain departments or areas. Include executives, people on your direct team, managers, users of information, and any others across the organization.

Who’s in your army of customer advocates?

Patrick Gibbons
Principal, SVP

Customer strategists must anticipate all the twists and turns and ups and downs that can derail their customer strategy. This was the topic of my last blog, which encouraged customer strategists not only to create effective plans, but to anticipate the things that can derail them. Following up on that, here are three tools that can help keep you on track:

1. Have a good ROI statement. Nothing is more powerful than being able to show the value of your program with a succinct description of the return on investment. If a new executive arrives,  there is a reorganization, or budget cuts are looming, justifying your program in financial terms will be the most effective way to ensure you sustain momentum.

2. Show that customer information is being used. One of the sharpest arguments for inadequate customer strategies is that nobody takes action on customer insights. Smart customer strategists will make sure they track the way people in their company use customer insights. They build an infrastructure to show that people not only receive reports, but there is accountability and action that pays off.

3. Have great stories. The first two items appeal to the rational side of the brain. But there is an emotional side of the brain as well that can be much more powerful. People love to hear a good story about how an employee used customer insights to make an important decision that paid off. It could be an account manager who turned a strategic account around. It could be an engineer who implemented a cost-saving process change. Or, it could be an executive who shifted strategy to provide a competitive edge. Great stories stick with people.

As a customer strategist, if you experience these common items that frequently derail programs, be armed – have a good ROI story, show that people put customer insights to use, and have compelling stories that will showcase how the use of customer insights makes a difference in your company.

Patrick Gibbons
Principal, SVP