CRM

Innovation in Customer Service – The Next Fronteir

By brad on February 17, 2012

Innovation in Customer Service is the next frontier. Yes products evolve and get easier to use, more efficient and streamlined but what do they do to make the customer experience better?

People will use anything that makes life more efficient and are willing to pay for ease, convenience and offerings that cater to their needs, work to fit their lifestyle or circumstances and looks and feels like a personalized experience.

Some hotels for example now let you check in and out on a 24 hour rolling basis making it an innovation that directly impacts the customer experience. If the customer can change their buying patterns to make things easier for themselves then any service offering like this will be successful.

A supermarket chain allows you to call ahead with your list so that when you arrive your order is ready and you can just pick up the items you forgot saving you the long time you spend in the supermarket but still allow for the experience of shopping. They also provide home delivery which is an old model but felt that many of their customers still like the shopping experience to be able to select key items such as fruit, meats and other personal choice items. They are growing at an amazing rate because they offer services that bring innovation to the customer experience and meet multiple needs depending on their customer’s circumstances.

In the mobile world now that the platforms are becoming more widespread and used as everyday tools (iPhones, Droids, Tablets) the success of the appliance will be judged going forward not just based upon the applications that are utilized on the device and for what purpose. The device themselves will gain or lose market share depending on the ergonomic likes and dislikes (style, size, color, ease of use, availability of applications, etc.). However the devices that can bring consistent innovation to the customer experience by changing the way the consumer behaves will rise to the top. Users of these devices will see the utility as something that improves customer service and is a must for their lifestyle.

The monetization of Customer Innovation can be quite large. It will come from repetitive use and mass adoption from consumers which originates from social media acceptance and approval. After all how they bring innovation to the customer experience is always a great story to tell!

Innovation in Customer Service – The Next Frontier

By writeminded on February 6, 2012

By Brad Tornberg

Innovation in Customer Service is the next frontier. Yes products evolve and get easier to use, more efficient and streamlined but what do they do to make the customer experience better?

Reflections on Penn State, the Eagles and Social Media

By marketsimplicity on November 14, 2011

The revelations over the last week concerning Penn State is a sad story that in one single event brought down one of the best known brands in our country – the squeaky clean brand called “Penn State”. Yes it’s still a great academic institution and yes they will survive this disaster because there are so many successful graduates in our business community that will see that it does get fixed but it points out a few things that are worth mentioning in terms of brand and social media.

I used to have a boss who always said – one atta boy equals one oh crap (I’m cleaning it up here folks) and boy did that hold true. It may be a big oh crap but none the less it is this one incident that has brought down the house of Paterno and forever scar his reputation. All those years of building good will is gone. All of the trust in the program and Joe as a coach is gone. A man spends a life time building something great and in an instant it is gone – makes you think doesn’t it?

Your brand is about your reputation. It has to remain pristine at all times. With the speed of information today and social media if you don’t protect your brand you’re doomed. There are a lot of things going back and forth about this on the social pages but it will live forever and making it even harder for the stigma to go away.

Your brand better live up to its expectations also. One bad mark and your competitors have dirt on you and can use it against you. If you say your product or service is great and exceeds all expectations it better! Look at the Philadelphia Eagles – billed as a “dream team” they thought just walking out on the field would be enough to guarantee victory. Someone forgot to tell them this is why they play the game. You may have the greatest individual players but this like a business is a team sport.

This team was branded as the “dream team” by one of their own players. It has been anything but a dream season for the Eagles and what makes it worse is by positioning themselves (or advertising themselves) as better than they really were they created the famous expectation-delivery gap causing criticism from everyone. The bottom line is they didn’t deliver on what they promised. What impact has this brought upon their “brand”? I would bet that merchandise and jersey sales are down. Fans and the media are calling for the head coaches’ job. It’s a mess.

Why? Because the impression that was given was that they are much better than they have been performing. Fans are using social media to abandon the ship. If the Eagles were “listening” to the social sites they would see a diminishing interest in their brand. You’ve work hard to build your brand so make sure you protect it! Remember people are listening…

It’s all who you know – CRM and Social Marketing

By marketsimplicity on October 11, 2011

Perhaps you have noticed the trend towards Customer Relationship Management Solutions incorporating social media into their solution set. Microsoft recently announced that their next release of CRM will incorporate many of the popular social media sites being integrated into their solution. Act has already released and continues to enhance these same social accelerators. Salesforce has many new tools that allow you to monitor and collect information form social sites into their CRM solution.

The real question is why is this trend happening? Is it because of the current popularity of all of these sites or for a bigger and better reason? The answer is simple. The change is occurring in the core definition of social media and the how CRM uses social media to accelerate the velocity of the customer lifecycle and hence the transaction. Businesses are looking for that competitive edge that gets them in front of the client quicker with a better targeted solution at a time they are ready to buy. Listening allows you to identify the pain of the prospect and spot opportunities that are much more targeted and in line with their business goals.

Social Media is no longer just about telling a story or for marketing a business or idea. It’s about listening to what customers are saying about you and your business (and for that matter your service, product quality, the friendliness of your employees, etc.) It’s about spotting trends, collaborating with your customers and prospects to put out product and services that they need and want.

CRM and Social Media have a lot in common. They both help identify opportunities, listen for needs based on responses, feedback or even behaviors. They can identify trends, suggest ideas and add value to the customer or prospect and their overall experience. It gives you the ability to get a jump on your competitors before others do.

Social Listening is important to business success in today’s market. People want to know were experiences with your product or service good or bad? Are there others who preach your product or service? Do people who use your product or service have a platform or place where they can collaborate and from this you gain intelligence through these “conversations”?

The two terms are becoming one in the same and a new term is evolving – Social CRM. The Social media gives the business owner a tool they never really had available unless they called or spoke directly to their customer – the ability to filter through information and gain a clear insight into what customers or products are saying. Is the product to expensive? Are there too many problems? How is the customer service after the sale?

If you aren’t thinking about using any of the listening services (Google Alerts, Twitter, etc.) you are really missing out. It’s just the beginning of the universe for listening in CRM. It gives you the ability to get information before your competitors and after all, it’s who you know when it comes to getting new business.

Innovation in Customer Service – The Next Fronteir

Innovation in Customer Service – The Next Frontier

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