Prices Not Friendly
Posted on: November 13, 2011
I was strolling in Venice and the sign from the furniture store just hit me "our prices are so low we do not need to be friendly" and here it was the essence of the business decision of every executive. Would you establish your reputation on lowest price or friendly service? What is your value proposition? I of course do not agree with the logic. A smile should cost nothing and an authentic experience should be built into every business that expect to do business with human beings. But apparently the owners of this store see friendliness differently. They are concerned about the expenses associated with being human to the point they would rather reduce their price than succumb to being friendly. WEll for all those executives who see a trade off between price and friendliness, you get what you wish for. Assume that friendliness is expensive and not worth the efforts and very quickly you will drive your prices even lower to compensate for the lack of friendliness and authentic experience. I was strolling in Venice and the sign from the furniture store just hit me "our prices are so low we do not need to be friendly" and here it was the essence of the business decision of every executive. Would you establish your reputation on lowest price or friendly service? What is your value proposition? I of course do not agree with the logic. A smile should cost nothing and an authentic experience should be built into every business that expect to do business with human beings. But apparently the owners of this store see friendliness differently. They are concerned about the expenses associated with being human to the point they would rather reduce their price than succumb to being friendly. WEll for all those executives who see a trade off between price and friendliness, you get what you wish for. Assume that friendliness is expensive and not worth the efforts and very quickly you will drive your prices even lower to compensate for the lack of friendliness and authentic experience.
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Sales Centric Organizations - Selling Despite the Customers
Posted on: November 01, 2011
I used to believe that it is impossible to sell unless there is a willing customer on the other side who agrees to pay. I am no longer convinced that this is true. As we observe the state of relationships many companies have developed with their customers, it seems that it is possible. Many companies have sold despite their customers’ lack of cooperation in this pursuit.
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Customer experience: It’s a strategy not a complaint reduction programme
Posted on: June 23, 2010
At a recent visit in Spain I was introduced to a local bank that describe to me his customer experience challenges. "We are very committed to customer experience," the Spanish bankers declared. "We even commissioned our own scent to be sprayed in all the branches." They reaffirmed the commitment. "So where is your next challenge?" I inquired. "The employees, "they responded, "they are not engaged."
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Social CRM - Stop The Hype! - Get Ready
Posted on: June 02, 2010
I recently attended a panel at SAP annual conference SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando where the subject of social media and Social CRM was discussed. The need to engage with customers through the new channels was iterated multiple times. It is about the communication with customers and listening to what they have to say, it was stated clearly. Recently I noticed the proliferation of new Social CRM stacks by several gurus and analysts. For those of you who are too much in the cloud to remember what a software stack is, it is basically a diagram that illustrates the relationships between different software tools. The new Social CRM stack described the relationships between tools designed to listen to customers, software designed to analyze and to decipher the voice of customer and reporting tools to deliver the message loud, clear and crisp to the executives who need to act on it. It was a beautiful depiction of how all the tools work together. But…
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The Frustration of the Customer Experience Leader
Posted on: April 29, 2010
Throughout our work in designing and deploying customer experience strategies, we often come across a sad phenomenon. We receive calls from customer experience professionals who are seeking help. For many of them, this is a first time launching a customer experience and they have absolutely no experience in it. They are fishing for ideas and seeking frameworks and references to speak to and then comes the critical moment. This is the moment of truth when we discuss the kind of help they need. And you can hear them squirming and eventually saying "we don’t really have ANY budget."
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