Posts Tagged ‘ customer opinion ’

Challenge to say no

Here I am at the lunch restaurant and for the first time I realise what has been bothering me when I pay. It's that question: "would you like to have a receipt?". Why does that question bother me? It is perfectly normal and fits in the context. My take on this is that I am one of those many consumers who in our fast moving world simply cannot take on another thing to make a decision about. That combined with the fear of losing out on something and our not being in the mood for more confrontation makes me stare at the person at the till in strange confusion. I mumble: "errr yes... uh o no, that's OK". So I think it through while I am having lunch, and come to the conclusion that there is more to this. We are simply overloaded with decisions to make just because we have the opportunity to say yes or no. The possibility to have or have not, the right to choose. Now consumers some 50 years ago had the challenge to be able to say "yes". Money and availability had to be forthcoming to say "yes" to something and make a purchase or take receipt of anything, really. In today's developed world, many of us have plenty of access to money and products or services are available in an abundance. That's the challenge. We can have it all. Cheaply. Right now. And then, when we get bored, we can replace it. Cheaper and better. The challenge is not to say 'yes' anymore. The challenge is to say 'no', the challenge is to be selective and focus on the important things available to us consumers. Many of us spend time considering these alternatives. New car, change of phone, what about that satnav? I need a new mp3 player. Where to get it? Who offers the best price? Shall I wait until I can get cheaper and better but later? We have become customers with so many choices and we are at risk of becoming bothered customers who forget to enjoy the ride. A good friend of mine once deliberately moved country and cut all ties to start up a new life elsewhere. I, bewildered at his strength and, in my view, madness, wanted to know why he would deliberately limit his choices so rigorously. His reply was simple and very provoking especially in a world which drives to expand our possibilities and our accessibility to anything our customer hearts may desire. "Choice is choice" he said. Draw your own conclusions[ READ MORE ]

Organisations in Cyberspace: Permission Asset CRM considerations

One of the changes that Cyberspace has brought about is building a permission asset for your organisation. It's the basic principle of asking for permission to approach your customer regarding future commercial opportunities. We have all seen it before: "May we please contact you regarding the following in future:". And then follows list with topics such as customer feedback, new product evaluations, Christmas cards, updates regarding your offering, newsletters, blogs and such. In my opinion, there is intentional permission and circumstantial permission. This article is about how deal with this important distinction[ READ MORE ]

Do you know who your REAL customer is?

Do you know who your customer is? In commerce today, there's a lot of lip-service to CRM, Customer Relationship Management. Millions of Euros, Dollars, Pounds and Yens are spent every year on SAP CRM, Oracle Siebel CRM, SaaS CRM, SalesForce CRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and a lot of other related CRM software architectures. Either the money is well spent and the projects deliver enhanced customer value or they don't, or somewhere in between. For those that don't deliver the desired enhanced customer value - as is the case in some 50% of them in my experience - usually there is an enormous lack of customer focus. How can that be? Lack of customer focus in a CRM project? How can we miss the 'C' in CRM that blatantly? We do[ READ MORE ]

Still not getting the basics right.

Yesterday I referred to not having been treated as I think a customer should. With service and respect. And wouldn’t you believe it. This morning I stroll into a huge retail outlet specialising in elecronics to buy a camera. They have just opened, so shop attendants are still standing around doing nothing, talking, joking with each [ READ MORE ]

Social Networks are ‘organising the world’s people’. Start Nudging your Network Niches.

Slowly but surely social media sites are indeed organising the world’s people. They are creating cyberspace groups or tribes or stakeholder maps of like-minded people. Just to name a few, LinkedIn, MySpace,Yahoo and Twitter are no longer just networks of connected friends. They are becoming influential overlays of groups of people who can approach the web together. Through instant [ READ MORE ]

Self-service or ‘Shelf-service’? Get it right first time.

Self-service is one of the major areas where organisations are going to score major CRM points if they get it right. If they don't, they can do more damage than they could ever imagine. Get it right, first time as it is incredibly powerful in creating a personal customer experience and will shape customer opinion for a long time to come[ READ MORE ]

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