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	<title>Customers Are Cool &#187; customer retention</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.customersarecool.com/tag/customer-retention/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.customersarecool.com</link>
	<description>Putting the customer back in focus</description>
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		<title>Challenge to say no</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/03/17/challenge-to-say-no/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/03/17/challenge-to-say-no/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:08:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[March 2010]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer information]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[challenge to say no]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[challenge to say yes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cool customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer choice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer possibilities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer retention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer selection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[modern world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mp3 player]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retail questions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[self service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[where's my stuff]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=185</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/03/17/challenge-to-say-no/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Interactive Voice Response Blunder</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/02/05/the-interactive-voice-response-blunder/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/02/05/the-interactive-voice-response-blunder/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:58:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[January 2010]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[...then please press 1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abandon rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alternate flow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Automated Customer Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Avaya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business analyst]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Processes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call center]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Call center agent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Call Center automation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call centre]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[churn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer experience ivr]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer retention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erik van Geest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gatekeepers to real people]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inbound call]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inbound customer interaction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Interactive Voice Response]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IVR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IVR integration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IVR options]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[main flow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[maze of ivr options]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[please make your selection]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=174</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sure it has happened to us all. We've all been the victim of the Interactive Voice Response system, the gatekeepers to the 'real people'. 

An Interactive Voice Response system is that automated voice that you hear when you call your energy supplier, your local council or any other organisation dealing with many incoming calls. They are meant to be a two-way winning setup.

The company wins because they save money and allow the customer to select options so that the call is correctly routed for queueing and handling. The customer wins because supposedly the call can be handled more efficiently....

To me, any customer arriving in an IVR curses under his or her breath. It is a necessary evil, grudgingly accepted because the product or service is competitively priced. 

No study shows that you can really only ask your customer to make an IVR selection twice, with a maximum number of options of 3 in each. Go beyond that, and the abandon rate (when the customer hangs up out of sheer frustration) skyrockets.

Yet the temptation to automate talking to your customer is strong. I baffle at  that variation which tries to answer before I even asked my question. 'If your call is regarding your invoice, press 1', 'If your call is regarding a service outage, press 2', If your call .... Some of them have the nerve to state: "Please listen to all options" before they present all eight of them. You finally make a choice and if you are unlucky the automated voice responds: 'We are experiencing high call volumes right now and cannot be of service at this point. Please call back later'. Don't you just love that one? Or the other classic in which a serious male voice explains the entire terms and conditions regarding your question without actually answering anything, finishing off with 'for more information, please visit our website, www.answeryourownquestion.com... 

Ever been through three levels of IVR menu, hanging by the fingernails only reach one of these dead ends? It makes you wonder who put these together and whether they ever, ever put themselves into the customers' position and walked through the scenarios.

I find this fascinating and wonder what motivates large, professional organisations to make blunders like this and then not even ever correct them. "So what do you do when the customer has a question?" "Yeah, we send them into our IVR maze, tire them out until they give up in the end". 

The tip for today is that if you cannot build a customer friendly IVR, which in most cases leads to a human being, then don't do it at all. The money that you save by getting rid of a handful of warm customer service agents you will lose many times over on the effort you send on customer retention and sales efforts to counter your disproportionately high churn rate. 

And you know, I don't even think it is technology that creates these Monster IVR setups. It is the organisations who implement them without thinking through the paths, the options and anticipating the customer experience.

Call into your own customer service, pretend you have a real problem and see how it feels. Then do it again with a different problem, and another problem, and another. Exhaust the possibilities. 

Still feel happy? Then please forgive me for publishing this blog post.

Not so happy anymore? Then get in some good business analysts, map out the paths, clean them up and reimplement.

Quickly]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/02/05/the-interactive-voice-response-blunder/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Still not getting the basics right.</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/30/still-not-getting-the-basics-right/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/30/still-not-getting-the-basics-right/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Case Studies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[November 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[airport transport service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[b2c]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[basic ingredients]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Processes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Commercial arrogance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cool customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[core business processes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crm blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer relationship management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer retention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customers are cool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customersarecool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[electronics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erik van Geest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Remedy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SaaS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[salesforce.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SAP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Siebel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[struggle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the next big thing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=120</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday I referred to not having been treated as I think a customer should. With service and respect.
And wouldn&#8217;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 ]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/30/still-not-getting-the-basics-right/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>21</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Customer Retention Tension</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/20/customer-retention-tension/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/20/customer-retention-tension/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:54:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[November 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bonuses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business case]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business expansion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business process architecture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[commercial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cool customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer retention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customersarecool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[decision making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drive in sales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[future turnover]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lost customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new orders from existing customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[profit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[promotions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales budget]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shareholder dividend]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shareholder payouts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shareholder value]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=72</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It's in our human nature to be drawn to the excitement of new things.
 
Same thing applies to commerce. New customers and new orders from existing customers are the coolest of all things commercial. They rule. 
 
Most organisations when they talk CRM have fantasies of a business process architecture with supporting software and integration built to drive in more sales from new customers. The intention to make life better for existing customers is usually there as well, but always gets less focus. 
 
It's because the business case for investing in customer rentention is a fuzzy one]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>CRM is not a fashion accessory, it’s elementary clothing.</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/11/crm-is-not-a-fashion-accessory-it%e2%80%99s-elementary-clothing/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/11/crm-is-not-a-fashion-accessory-it%e2%80%99s-elementary-clothing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:21:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[November 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[B2B]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[best practise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Knowledge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Processes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[C2B2C]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[C2C]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[closed loop feedback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer retention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customersarecool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[industry specialisation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[industry specific]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Industry Verticals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[integration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oracle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[self service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Siebel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software integration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tom Siebel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Transparency]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=15</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[CRM is not a fashion accessory, it’s elementary clothing.

Don’t get caught naked on the high street shopping for a scarf is my advice to you.


]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/11/crm-is-not-a-fashion-accessory-it%e2%80%99s-elementary-clothing/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The issue of being not-boring</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/10/the-issue-of-being-not-boring/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/10/the-issue-of-being-not-boring/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:02:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[November 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[boring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[closed loop feedback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[core business processes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer retention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entertainment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feedback to feedbck]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[not boring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[problem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[self service]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=12</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Is the danger of becoming or being boring a problem for your organisation?

Sooner or later when the company's core business processes are in order what do you do. Do you roll over and become boring or do you entice your customer with ravishing new ideas to support the customer life cycle]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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