Customer Focused

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
 

Seth Godin recently wrote a blog titled, "Avoiding false metrics." His point is one that will resonate with Customer Experience and Voice of Customer (VoC) professionals.

The premise of his blog is that a metric should be accurate and aligned with your goals. There are many different examples of customer metrics that are neither. Consider these two examples:

• Not aligned: A business leader adopts a metric solely because the metric is simple, or the metric was touted in a business book. Many companies are guilty of adopting a metric without doing the necessary homework to determine if the metric is aligned with their goals. It is an easy trap to fall into.
• Not accurate: The sales representative who "cherry picks" who receives the survey, ensuring only those on the list will provide positive responses.

The problem is, finding the best metric isn't easy. But, many customer focused leaders are enlightened (like Seth) and will invest in the right process to ensure the business is focused on the right metrics.

When working to identify the right metric, ask yourself:

• Will this metric predict the business outcome that we are trying to achieve? In other words, is there reliable proof that the metric is aligned with the goals?
• Will the metric engage the enterprise? Do colleagues understand the metric? Does it resonate with their role and responsibilites?
• Does the metric enable action? Are colleagues motivated to exhibit behaviors that will have a positive impact on the metric and thus the business?

Identifying the right metric is a work of art and science and companies that invest in the work are rewarded.

Let's see what I can do in 140 words!

You may have read one of these posts mentioning our Hierarchy of Engagement. 

I like to think of each level of the pyramid as representing proportions of an employee base. At the lowest level are all employees who are aware of customer feedback. However, not all of them will understand what it means, and not all who understand will believe, and so on.

At the pinnacle of engagement, then, are employees who truly believe that being customer-focused makes a difference and take action - the right kind of action. These are true customer advocates, and, unfortunately, they are a subset of employees.

The good news is that the percentage of employees at each level does not have to mirror the triangular shape of the pyramid (it’s a marketing graphic  for goodness sake). In reality, the most effective, customer-centric organizations probably have an isosceles trapezoid of engagement.

This is a false dichotomy. My previous blogs on service-dominant logic tried to make this point in a broad, theoretical way. This post will try to give a concrete illustration of those arguments.

Let's consider two identical products created by two brand-new companies. One company launches the product with a technical sales staff and a prevasive marketing campaign highlighting the core features and functionality of the product.

The second company hires a sales staff focused on value-based selling and conducts a targeted marketing campaign focused on how the product meets the core needs of target customer.

Which company's product is more likely to have long-term success in the market? The second company.

Why? Because customers buy more than the product when they are buying a product. Customers buy value, and that value is NOT inherent in the product. It comes through the customer-centric service, sales and marketing around the product.

The second company realized that their product could only have value when it solved a customer need, so they targeted those customers and proposed the value to them. Customers can then accept the value propostion by acquiring the product. That is customer-centricity, and that is the ONLY way products succeed in the marketplace. There is no way to separate the two.
 

When we think about differentiation in a business-to-business context, our minds tend to go right to how products are unique.  We think about how Apple has been able to differentiate in the market through disruptive innovation or how a company made an acquisition to help strengthen their product portfolio.  We do see and understand, although less frequently, how service-related or customer-focused characteristics of a company can help to drive a competitive advantage as well.  But which is more important?  Differentiating by being a product-focused company or a customer-focused company?

Companies obviously have to pick one angle to stand on, likely supplemented by some level of operational excellence, in order to drive strategy. While that’s true, there obviously has to be a balance.  An extremely customer-focused company won’t succeed without a product that meets some bare minimum threshold of product satisfaction.  The same goes for product-focused companies that need to provide a level of service that allows them to retain customers.  Understanding this balance and the “breaking point” of profitability is what companies today continue to try and understand in order to separate themselves from the competition.

Where we as customer advocates can help our organizations with this balancing act is by helping to define what “customer focus” means.  Customer focus today requires a new approach, particularly with the shift towards customers having more power in the relationship than ever before.  They have greater access to information than in the past, access to many more alternatives, and the ability to communicate with other customers.

The key will be to figure out what’s next and how companies can continue to find their “sweet spot” that allows them to differentiate from their competitors.  One key component to this will be a focus on partnership.  Understanding from customers what you can do as a company to help their business be more profitable and using that as the driving force of strategy is critical.  More focus on customer profitability, less focus on product profitability.

We have continued to change our focus over time on how we measure customer feedback.  Shifting our thinking again to understand customer profitability and partnerships should be considered a logical next step in this evolution.  Without a focus on customer profitability and partnership aspects of the relationship, companies will struggle to differentiate in the future.

Katie Kiernan
Vice President, Consulting Services

Another in my 140-word series.

As customer experience professionals, we often conduct customer surveys that primarily ask customers to provide answers from a defined set of response options. While I do believe we need to do more qualitative, ethnographic research, I want to take a different direction with this post.

Instead, my hypothesis is that our focus on closed-end survey questions leads us to ask "bad" questions outside of surveys. This hit me as I read this summary of Killer Questions by Phil McKinney. Good survey questions basically ask customers to confirm or disconfirm a hypothesis (our support is great, do you agree or disagree?). These questions are fine in a survey, but we need to use more investigative, Socratic questions within our organizations to drive the learning and innovation necessary to create the customer-focused strategies our companies need to thrive in the marketplace.

Another post in my 140-word blog series (it's harder than you think!).

I once wrote a post on the importance of testing your hypotheses. In it I mentioned the importance of a culture of testing and inquiry. The problem is that many meetings consist of opposing belief statements that are resolved by majority rule instead of actual testing and validation.

Here is my simple idea for creating a stronger culture of inquiry:

• Replace "I think..." with "My hypothesis is..."

If I hear, "I think we can grow market share by offering better support," I immediately think whether I agree or not. If I hear, "My hypothesis is that better support would result in growing our market share," I immediately think about the customer feedback we can use to test it. Maybe this only works for analytical types, but try it for a week and see what you think.

P.S. For a fun meeting game, count how many times "I think..." is used in your next meeting or add it to your business buzzword bingo sheet.

While Channel Partners are customers too, unlike the traditional customer, partners are able to provide a unique perspective. When it comes to Voice of Partner versus Voice of Customer survey research, consider these four differences:

1 - Many Channel Partners sell competing products and services giving them a unique perspective on what drives customer purchase decisions. Their input can help companies understand what causes a customer to purchase one product over another competing product.

2 - In a similar manner, OEMs can use partner input to understand what drives a partner to recommend one product over another.

3 - Many partners are combining an OEM's products with other products to deliver a complete solution. Having a better understanding of solution offerings, can be valuable input for the product group.

4 - Customers who purchase from a channel partner often go to the partner for support. Partners can provide a unique perspective on what is needed to support the indirect customer. This input can also be leveraged for serving the direct customer.

Corporate business strategy can benefit from insights provided by the channel. The partner perspective can be used to grow market share, enhance the product roadmap, and deliver an experience that both direct and indirect customers value.

If you are working to create a customer focused leadership position, consider including the perspective from all customer types.

Photo credit: stevendepolo

You have lots of loyal customers. But, what do you do to make the most of these relationships?

First, let's describe what we really mean when we talk about loyal customers. As described in the framework of the Loyalty Matrix, truly loyal customers are those that are positive in both their attitude and behavior. In other words, they have every intention of continuing to do business with you and they have a positive attitude toward your company. They like working with you and are more likely to increase their spending and recommend your company to others.

Then what strategies and tactics should be deployed to leverage loyal customer relationships? Here are four key initiatives that every company can incorporate into their customer strategies:

1. Support new sales - in most businesses referrals are a key component in closing new deals. Because loyal customers have a positive attitude about their work with you, they are an excellent source of referrals and testimonials.

2. Earn more business - loyal customers typically are planning to increase their spending. This is a chance to up-sell and cross-sell to generate new sales.

3. Team up to innovate - loyal customers are often the best partners. They will be more open and interested in collaborating to consider and test new solutions.

4. Network with other customers - ideally, you want their loyalty to be contagious. Encouraging networking between loyal customers and trapped customers can help convert these trapped customers and earn more loyalty.

Too often, when a company looks at the breakdown of their customers in the Loyalty Matrix framework they focus on the negative - how to improve relationships high risk and trapped customers. Unfortunately, the positive aspect can be overlooked – how to leverage relationships with their most loyal customers. And yet, this may be the quickest way to generate new revenue for the company!

One more note - this blog is part of a series of blogs covering the Loyalty Matrix and each of the other quadrants - accessible, trapped, and high risk. You can also access a position paper on the Loyalty Matrix by clicking here.


Patrick Gibbons
Principal/SVP
Walker

As with any new or strategic initiative, voice of the customer programs are not excluded when it comes to executives asking for a change management approach and process.  It’s a common scenario – companies know they need to be more customer focused and set out to implement some kind of customer feedback process.  After launching a survey or establishing a process to gather inputs, owners of these types of initiatives are charged with creating a formal change management process.

This sounds like a good approach, right?

Wrong.  I think companies that think like this are missing the point.  OK, maybe that is a little harsh.  They aren’t totally missing the point, but they are out of sequence in thought.  Change management seems to be the favorite scapegoat when it comes to the reasons why creating a culture of being customer focused is not as successful as it could be.  I think it is because change management didn’t come first.

Consider the model below.  This demonstrates employees have to first be made aware of why customer partnership and loyalty are important.  Then they have to understand and believe it.  Once that foundation is in place, they can act.  Establishing this up front is critical to the success of customer feedback initiatives.

I’m not advocating that every organization has to undergo a full transformation of being customer focused before embarking on a customer feedback program, but an initial assessment of the situation to identify gaps in awareness, understanding, and belief should be done.  Once the gaps in these areas have been identified, specific actions and communications plans can be created to address weak areas.   Some issues may be more difficult to address than others, but measuring progress with a simple framework will help you to remain focused.

Katie Kiernan
Vice President, Consulting Services

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

Launching a new voice of the customer initiative is a big undertaking. Unfortunately too many companies do just that – they launch! They charge into an initiative without taking the time to develop a thoughtful plan. Given the potential impact of a company’s customer engagement strategy and the importance of doing it right, it makes sense to conduct an assessment to consider all the elements that will be critical to the launch and implementation of a results-oriented program.

The following 11 key elements are the key factors to consider in a well-executed assessment.

1. Scope – The scale of this undertaking is understood and the necessary resources have been identified.
2. Readiness – The degree of organizational readiness has been assessed and it is understood what will be necessary to create buy-in for the initiative across the organization.
3. Alignment – There is a clear line of sight on how customer insights tie to business results.
4. Listening posts –The organization has determined how they will collect and integrate the most important information for making customer-focused decisions.
5. Stakeholders – The information needs of the organization have been assessed and it is understood how customer insights will be distributed and used across a variety of functional departments and customer-facing associates.
6. Education – Programs to drive awareness, understanding, and action have been identified to bring about the necessary corporate culture for customer-focused success.
7. Communication – Communication needs have been outlined to understand how the organization will drive internal awareness, deliver actionable reports, and communicate externally with customers.
8. Technology tools – Technology tools needed to facilitate the collection, analysis, and distribution of customer insights have been identified and it is understood how these tools will integrate with existing technology systems.
9. External resources – There is an understanding of what additional resources will be necessary for methodology, research, technology, training, and additional consulting.
10.  Metrics – The key metrics for the success for the company’s customer engagement strategy have been established.
11.  Roadmap – A detailed plan or roadmap has been developed that includes a timeline of activities and a breakdown of the necessary individuals to be involved in a practical, phased program.

Patrick Gibbons
Principal/SVP
Walker

Usually when we think of relationships, we think of having a connection with another person.  Relationships are so important that Facebook profiles indicate you are “in a relationship” when you have a special connection with someone. 

A friend made the decision to home school her oldest child this year.  The reason?  Family interactions were turning into a series of transactions.  They were losing the key ingredients of a real relationship.  Every day they went through the same routine:  Wake the kids up, get them to school, go to afterschool activities, do homework, have dinner, and then bed time.  By simply going from event to event, they were missing the critical connections of being a family.  Home schooling is changing their interactions – from going through the motions to having a lot more involvement in each other’s lives.  It’s not for everyone, but it is making all of the difference in how this family connects with each other.

As a customer strategist you might think about how this applies to your company.  (Yes, there is a connection…) 

1. Is your company in a relationship with customers?  Or, do you simply have a series of transactions?


2. Is it possible that you might have even fallen out of relationship with your customers?  Are you simply going through the motions?


3. Do you think your customers have started connecting with someone else (e.g. your competition)? 

To be in a relationship, you should take time to understand customers’ needs, expectations, and wants.  Know how well you’re doing and where you need to make changes.  Customer Listening Programs are a great way to obtain information and the insights needed to develop a Customer Strategy to create or enhance customer relationships.

My advice is to make sure you are not just focusing on the transaction at hand.  In addition, be in a relationship with your valuable customers!

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President, Consulting Services

Customer strategists continue to look for creative ways to share their message and to inform others. They are looking for ways to demonstrate why customer focus is important to the business strategy and how customers feel about the organization.

The communication gets complex because the audience is varied, ranging from external groups like customers and shareholders, to internal teams like sales managers, account managers, product developers, product marketing, service reps, executives...the list goes on and on.

When this infographic came through my twitter feed, I couldn't help but think of different ways customer strategists can use this type of an approach to reach their audience. Here are some of the things that came to mind:

Communications to customers: Customers want to know that their feedback is being put to use. An infographic can be used to share some of the insights you learned from their feedback.

Reach an entire sales organization: Sales teams are geographically dispersed, requiring the use of technology to reach them and let's face it, sales teams want simple. They are busy serving customers and want to spend their time that way. Let's give them something that is easy and enjoyable to digest.

The broad organization: I can visualize an infographic that is focused on communicating how customer feedback is being used for customer retention strategies. It would include statistics like the financial benefit of Loyal customers and demonstrate how customer feedback can be used to predict future customer behaviors.   

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.

Several weeks ago I shared a blog from Slingshot SEO's CEO, Jay Love, about the advantages of a four day work week.   He is back at it with another great blog about employee recognition.   I would recommend reading the entire post but I have posted his five types of recognition below.  What most companies do is maybe one or two of these.  Why not do ALL of these, they should not cost that much and will have a huge impact on employee loyalty.

1. Quarterly reviews. Mandate one-on-one feedback sessions between each supervisor and team member on a quarterly basis. To ensure these are effective, have each manager carve out one hour for each employee. (At Slingshot SEO, we review the status of each quarterly goal and career objective, as well as take the time to chat to know each other better. The goals and any progress are summarized in a simple feedback form.)
2. Peer recognition. Each month, I solicit open nominations for Slingshot SEO’s Outstanding Team Member of the Month. Each employee with at least 60 seconds to spare can e-mail me with their recommendations. Although just two are publicly honored at each monthly meeting, many others are encouraged by this program: I always forward the e-mails of the remarkable kudos to all the nominees along with a few comments of my own.
3. Team highlights. Insist on your department heads sharing stories from their departments and highlighting the achievements of team members at the monthly All-Company Meeting. Lively presentations that include photographs, videos and client comments make this one even better!
4. Yearly awards ceremony. Hold an Annual Award Event for your organization. (We award a Rookie of the Year, Most Improved, Innovator of the Year and Employee of the Year, plus we invite our Customer of the Year and Partner of the Year to make the event memorable.)
5. Spontaneous kudos. Insist that every supervisor works hard to catch a team member doing something right or special as they wander around or peruse communications. When they do, have them point it out in front of the person’s peers or via departmental e-mail. (The more often the better, but beware… large smiles might take over your office.)

Love, J. “5 Ways to Reward Your All-Stars”. Inc., February, 8, 2012.  http://admin.inc.com/2012/02/08/5-ways-to-reward-your-all-stars/

Too many companies focus on the employees that are struggling or a "problem" and completely forget about the top performers.  In fact, most companies would be better served giving time and attention to the top performers as they will have a greater return to the company.  

In this video, Allison Melangton, CEO of the XLVI Super Bowl Host Committeee, shares some of her lessons learned while planning and organizing the 2012 Super Bowl.

Allison's advice serves as a nice reminder for those in charge of developing and executing customer retention strategies. Consider these tips:

Be Bold: Allison says, "If you really believe in something, be bold about it, even though you might have some doubters." Are your customer strategies bold? If not, why?

Make it Different: Allison talks about how they decided to use a different approach to submit the bid for the Super Bowl. Instead of sending the bid to the NFL owners via UPS, they decided to have 8th graders deliver the bid. Are your customer retention strategies unique or are you delivering the same customer experience as others?  

Don't Let Logistics Stand in the Way: As a customer strategist, we often face logistical challenges such as, how are we going to train our entire sales organization, or how can we get the right customer names and contact information for our customer survey research program. We can no longer let logistical challenges stand in our way. What logistics are holding you back?

Focus on Your Strengths: Whether or not someone tells you that, "all of your work is self-inflicted," we must focus first on our strengths. What strengths are your customer retention stratgies focused on?

How does your company operate? Are you “winging it” or do you have a plan and a process to get things done?  

According to urbandictionary.com “winging it” means to improvise with little preparation.

There may be successful companies that don’t plan much. But in my experience, without a plan and process to improve the customer experience - nothing happens. 

Companies are much more likely to achieve their goals when their systems and processes work together. This was recently reinforced when a business colleague shared a successful example of using customer feedback in a very tangible way. 

• The VOC program identified issue resolution as a priority area for the support organization. Open case age was over 50 days. A customer could easily get lost in the shuffle. Eventually many had to call in again and start all over. (How frustrating would that be?) 

• The team put a big focus on managing and reducing open case age in their action plan. They created global visibility around the issue and built accountability into the process. (No winging it here!)

• As a result, open case age has dramatically declined. The customer experience is better and customers are more satisfied with the time it takes to resolve issues. 

Case age has been reduced by 67%, but they’re not done yet. The team is working to reduce it even more - and they will. They have the discipline to stick with the process and make a difference.

“Winging it” usually isn’t enough to execute a customer focused strategy. Aligning the customer results effort with process improvement is critical to your success. 

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President, Consulting Services

One common challenge customer-focused leadership faces is knowing the right question to answer or problem to solve. This isn't just a challenge reserved for customer strategists. It is a challenge faced by all leaders.

In the movie Moneyball, this challenge surfaces during a meeting where the Oakland A scouts discuss how they are going to replace their most valuable player. The discussion went something like this: 

Scout 1: "We're trying to solve a problem here Billy."

Billy Beane: "Not like this you're not. You're not even looking at the problem."

Scout 1: "Look Billy. We all understand what the problem is."

Billy Beane: "Good. What's the problem?"

Scout 1: "The problem is, we have to replace three key players."

Billy Beane: "No. What's the problem?"

Scout 2: "Same as it's ever been. We have to replace these guys with what we have existing."

Billy Beane: "No. What's the problem Barry?"

Scout 3: "We need 38 home runs 120 RBIs."

Billy Bean: Makes a buzzer sound indicating another wrong answer and goes on to explain the real problem.

Knowing the real problem that you are trying to address is the first step to developing a customer strategy that will ensure success. Before you get too far down any path, take a step back and challenge the problem you are trying to solve.

Once you've identified the real problem, you can design a customer satisfaction and loyalty program that is aligned with the true business need. 

The cloud is changing a variety of customer interactions, one of which is the purchase process. We've seen a shift from buying, to renting, and now to subscribing.

Consider movie viewing as an example. Years ago, to watch a movie at home, we bought a VHS or DVD. Shortly thereafter, we went to Blockbuster and rented the movie. Today, many subscribe to Netflix, where they pay a monthly fee and get unlimited rentals. 

This change is happening across many industries, including those providing business-to-business products and services. In the report titled, "Sizing the Cloud," Forrester predicts the "global market for cloud computing will grow from $40.7 billion in 2011 to more than $241 billion in 2020."

This shift is impacting the role of customer strategy consulting. Historically, customer strategy consulting has focused on predicting repeat purchases by identifying which customers are likely (or not likely) to purchase again, when the need arises.

With the cloud, customer strategy consulting is focused on protecting the ongoing and recurring revenue. It is focused on predicting which customers will continue their service versus those who will cancel.

While there are many similarities between the historical role of customer strategy consulting and the role for companies with cloud offerings, consider these differences.

- The switching barriers are minimized for cloud customers, shifting the risk from the customer to the company. To help protect their investment, the company needs to have an intimate understanding of their customer segments, sophisticated analytics to understand and predict renewals within each segment, and systems or business processes that optimize the renewal potential.

- For many cloud-based companies, one sales manager could have many customers. Having a clear line of sight into each customer becomes difficult, if not impossible. Companies need a system that leverages the various sources of customer information to help sales managers prioritize where and how to spend their time.