Tag Archives: customer

Developing Buyer Personae

March 12, 2012 – 11:19 AM

An important shift that I’m seeing more frequently is tailoring marketing content by persona.  Seems like a no-brainer:  focus on the “who” of your customers to be able to address them directly in their voice, about their concerns.  My experience has been that most B2B companies understand that is what they should do, but the pull of talking about their own products and services in their own voice is irresistible.

Marketing Sherpa published in their Chart of the Week some research on the methods of developing buyer personae.  Major emphasis:  interviews – going to the customers and prospects (64%) and talking to sales (56%).

They make a further point to  balance this qualitative data with more traditional quantitative data.  I’m in total agreement with the interview method.  There’s nothing worse than a buyer persona that describes who we “think” the buyer is, as opposed to mirroring the actual buyer.

– Lisa Dennis

By knowledgence associates | Posted in Marketing, Sales | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Customer Fit: Do You Know What You Are Seeking?

August 29, 2011 – 9:04 PM

You’re looking for more business.  The bad news is, so is everyone else in the world.  the good news is, you have a plan.  At least you will after reading this.

Evaluate the makeup of your best customers.  Things to consider:

  • market position
  • revenue size of organization
  • number of employees
  • market type
  • technology platform
  • competitive strategy
  • core business challenge
  • opportunity size
  • core product penetration
  • level of support needed
  • referral or reference potential
  • industry fit.

What common factors do they share?  What trends do you see emerging?

Develop your own set of custom criteria, get internal buy-in for the list, and prioritize by overall value to your business.  Go do this!  Now!

– Lisa Dennis

By knowledgence associates | Posted in Sales | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Fly Me to the Moon

September 23, 2010 – 4:46 PM

People don’t mind paying for premium service.  They don’t mind cost so much when they know what to expect.  But imagine dining in a restaurant, ordering from a nice menu, and then discovering that there are extra charges for the dishes, glasses, and silverware.  That glass of water?  Extra.  Oh, and remember when you asked to move away from the table by the kitchen door, to that empty booth in the corner?  That's another BIG extra charge.

In this crazy scenario, I believe that most level-headed would soon stop dining out.  But isn't this exactly what the airlines are doing?   
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In the 2nd Quarter of 2010, U.S. airlines collected $2.1 billion in fees and extra charges from passengers in the, up 13 percent from the first three months of the year. This is from the US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ recent quarterly report.  This $2.1 billion has been collected for the following "services": baggage fees, reservation change fees and miscellaneous operating revenue, including pet transportation, sale of frequent flyer award miles to airline business partners and standby passenger fees, as well as revenue from seating assignments and on-board sales of food, drink, pillows, blankets, and entertainment.  None of these are listed "on the menu" when one buys a ticket.

Oh, and by the way, I haven’t noticed a whole lot of customer service awards being granted to airlines these days. Seems like all of them regularly run behind schedule, and a lot of their personnel are pretty grumpy. There are a couple of airlines that seem to “get it,” but for the most part, the customer experience is pretty mediocre-to-poor.  So what’s a customer to do?  

Well, the Consumer Travel Alliance , the Business Travel Coalition, and the American Society of Travel Agents have launched the website MadAsHellAboutHiddenFees.com.  To date, they have collected over 50,000 signatures, including mine, on a petition they plan to present to the Department of Transportation (DOT) today (9/23/2010).  I think when fifty thousand of your customers speak up against how you are running your business, and they are mad enough to go to the government about it, you kinda hafta listen, dontcha?

I will be very interested in seeing how this plays out.  At least one of the airlines that “get it” is making the fact that they do NOT charge for checked baggage a big part of their advertising campaign.  Good idea on their part, but at the same time, kind of sad that NOT charging a hidden fee is viewed as a competitive advantage.

 – Chuck Dennis

By knowledgence associates | Posted in Business, Customer Service | Comments (0)

Customer Retention Outside the Box

September 1, 2009 – 12:25 PM

I read an interesting piece today by Australian business consultant Peter Shallard, called Repeat Business and Customer Retention Formula Revealed.

He talks about a coffee shop in Sydney that, in addition to serving good coffee in a timely manner (a baseline for any coffee shop), had Polaroid snapshots all over the walls.  The photos are all of dogs, all taken in the cafe, with each pup's name written on the bottom.  Mr. Shallard then looked around at the other patrons, and estimated that 80% of them had dogs with them!  This is when the light bulb went on for him.

This cafe, one of many within the area, had built a loyal clientele by providing a good product with good service, and then combined that with another, unrelated, aspect that many customers were drawn to. 

To Mr. Shallard, and to me, this is brilliant in it simplicity.  For almost any product or service being sold, there are no doubt dozens, if not hundreds of other competitors selling the same thing.  Quality, price, service, and locale may not be enough to win a customer's loyalty.  But combining a business' primary product with another unrelated (but interesting) concept may seal the deal for certain customers to whom that unrelated concept appeals.

I imagine this was the thinking behind the first sports bar.  People get thirsty and hungry, so let's open an establishment to provide them beverages and food.  But wait, many people like sports, too, so lets decorate the place with sports memorabilia, and put a bunch of strategically-placed TVs throughout, showing sporting events or sports-related programming! Genius!

So, let's look at our own businesses.  We all work hard to provide a quality product and great service.  But what else can we add to that, that will appeal to a significant segment of our buying audience?  It doesn't have to be big, expensive, or complicated.  Polaroid snapshots of dogs on the wall – hello?

This is a great way to increase customer loyalty and retention, and have fun while doing it!  What a concept!  What can you add to your business to lock in loyalty from a significant segment of your prospects?  Please comment and share your ideas, and feel free to link to your site!

By knowledgence associates | Posted in Business, Marketing | Also tagged , | Comments (2)

The Future of Customer Care has Arrived

January 8, 2009 – 8:49 PM

I continue to be fascinated by the possibilities of Web 2.0 applications.  Things that were initially developed as amusement and entertainment are now being mined for business applications.  This explains the proliferation of geezers such as myself on Facebook (wanna be my friend?), YouTube, MySpace, etc.

Now, YouTube, the Internet’s favorite video site, is being used by some progressive businesses to enhance their total customer experience.  T-Mobile has created a YouTube channel where customers can get video answers to their specific questions, demos for various products, tips and hints for users to get the most out of their new phones.  This, good people, is where customer service must be headed.

Businesses need to keep up with the applications most favored by their customers.  And ultimately, they all will.  It’s just that some are doing it now, and that is pretty cool.

- Chuck Dennis

By knowledgence associates | Posted in Business, Customer Service, Marketing | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Apple – A Company that “Gets” Its Customers

September 14, 2007 – 12:06 PM

While we are not currently Mac or iPod or iPhone users, we have a lot of respect for companies that focus on their customers, and inspire loyalty from them. 

Fellow blogger Rich McIver, in his blog InsideCRM, writes about this in his entry 12 Effective Strategies Apple Uses to Create Loyal Customers.  He discusses some of the techniques used by Apple to create customer evangelists.

    — Chuck Dennis

By knowledgence associates | Posted in Marketing | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Measure of Success

October 20, 2006 – 11:46 AM

I am reading an interesting book about building an organization around the customer, called Chief Customer Officer by Jeanne Bliss. She has worked in executive positions for Land’s End, Microsoft, and Mazda, to name a few, and she has primarily been the customer advocate in these organizations.

Her book is very tactical, and instructs people on how to “fight the good fight” regarding dedication to the customer. I had the good fortune to speak with Ms. Bliss on the phone, as I was (and still am) reading her book. She recommends what she terms “guerilla metrics” in measuring business success. These metrics go beyond simple sales goals, and other inane customer service metrics like average length of call, number of calls taken, etc. Her metrics are:

  1. What is the value and volume of your new customers in any given time period? Are you bringing in new business, and more importantly, is it the right kind of business?
  2. What is the value and volume of your lost business, and what are the reasons behind their defections. It is critical to know why customers no longer do business with you.
  3. What is the value and volume of your renewals, or repeat business? What reasons are behind this? You need to know what you are doing right for each customer.
  4. Analyze revenue and profitability by customer group. Sales figures alone do not tell the whole story. If a customer brings in tons of revenue, but requires huge amounts of attention and hand-holding and special treatment, they may not be your ideal client. You want to shrink your most costly customer group, and grow your more profitable groups.
  5. Referrals by customer group. Who is, and is not, referring your business to others, and for what reasons? This is quite possibly the most important metric, in my mind.

These metrics get to the heart of the matter. Is there more business coming in than leaving? If so, why? If not, why not? And, are people sufficiently enamoured with your business that they would recommend you to their friends and colleagues? This is called Trust, and it is the most important asset a business can have.

— Chuck Dennis

By knowledgence associates | Posted in Books, Business, Customer Service | Also tagged | Comments (0)
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