“The truth of the matter is, true differentiation – sustainable differentiation – is rarely a function of well-roundedness;” writes Harvard professor Youngme Moon, “it is typically a function of lopsidedness.” (Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd). Youngme Moon illustrates this with stories about IKEA – a throwaway brand in a traditionally permanent industry, Dove – using pictures of average women in a traditionally photoshopped, airbrushed industry, and Google – creating a stripped down search interface in an industry cramming search pages with every button and pop-up imaginable. And while we all understand intuitively the answer to the question “Why do these brands work?,” it becomes much more difficult to answer this question about ourselves.
Posts Tagged ‘Customer experience’
How Customer Feedback Can Help Create Meaningful Differentiation
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011Beginner’s Guide to the Value of Great Customer Experiences
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011People call them “satisfied,” “loyal,” or “happy campers,” we call them “Fully Engaged.” All of us are referring to a customer who loves doing business with you. And whatever you choose to call them, the point remains - positive experiences create happy customers, and dissapointing experiences create a substantial lost opportunity.
Evaluating the Consistency and Quality of Your Customer Experiences
Monday, November 7th, 2011
We love the “wow” moments of customer service – when a committed employee goes above and beyond to make someone’s day or when a company goes out of its way to correct a service failure. But a customer experience strategy that relies only on superhero moments of great customer service is little more than a nice-sounding dream. A customer experience strategy must focus on creating experiences that are replicable and consistently great. To do this we have outlined seven important areas to evaluate:
Three Customer Experience Truths from the Restaurant Industry
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
There are some elements of the customer experience that are unique to a given industry – things like baggage fees, claims departments, and billing practices. But there are some universal customer experience truths that apply regardless of the industry you happen to work in. This post examines three of these truths as uncovered through our partnership with one of our clients, Service Inspired Restaurants®.
What Social Media Means for your Voice of the Customer Strategy
Monday, September 26th, 2011
Within the customer engagement field, “social media” has become a sort of catchphrase for the latest, shiniest voice of customer program technology. Every day seems to bring the publication of a slew of press releases announcing the latest social media customer engagement gadget. These tools promise to integrate tweets, Facebook posts, comments, and every other bit of social media data with a company’s customer feedback program.