‘Tis the Season to Ruffle Some Feathers

September-October is typically the time that most organizations begin their strategic planning process.  Most will focus on answering the following questions:

Where are we now? (current state)
Where are we going? (future state)
How will we get there? (strategy & tactics)
What resources will we need? (people, money, technology, etc)
Who will do what? (strategy owners, participants, etc.)
How will [...]

Do You Care if a Customer is Still YOUR Customer?

  It turns out that 44% of customers who stopped doing business with a teleco company believed the company didn’t even know. (Study by RightNow & StollzNow).  Turns out most of the defection is due to poor customer service, with the following list of industries as the worst offenders (no real surprises here):

telecommunications
ISPs
finance
travel & hospitality
online retail
insurance [...]

The Big D’s – The Two Keys That Make or Break a Customer Initiative

  After years of working on “customer” projects it always seems to be the same two “keys” that get a project to show results quickly, or force us into endless meetings to discuss these two mysterious “keys.”  With all the thoughtful strategy, market analysis, and product development that happens around “customer” projects you will hit a [...]

Wal-Mart to Online Customers: “Don’t Call Us – Ever!”

  According to a story from NPR, Wal-Mart doesn’t want it’s online customers calling them so much.  So they removed the customer service phone number from their website and want customers to use the online help instead.  This sounds a bit like Sprint’s firing of those “pesky” customers who called Customer Service too often.
I don’t have the [...]

How to Grow a Professional Association

 Over the years I have served on the Boards and Committees of several professional associations.  It’s great networking, and the meetings are usually great learning opportunities.  I often get asked to serve on the Membership Committee due to the nature of my ‘customer relationship’ work.  The challenge facing associations is often the same – how to grow and [...]