Growing Your Business And Profits Quickly

real life examples of how businesses have seen great growth, and how you can do the same

Time for change

I feel that focusing on the customer experience is like having a sat nav for your business. A business plan is like looking at a map and planning your journey. But that doesn’t allow for any changes such as road closures or accidents. A sat nav keeps updating the best route for you, taking into […]

Customer experience – the role of social media

According to a recent Gartner survey: 89% of companies expect to compete on the basis of customer experience by 2016 and social media is a key platform for customer experience. Sales, information, queries and complaints especially. Traditional media such as TV and print is still key, but online is forecast to overtake them in […]

The power of customer feedback

I read recently about a company called Slack. They set up less than 3 years ago, now have 750,000 customers and their value is $2 billion. Having just set up a new business, I’d love to see growth like that so looked at how they had done it. What marketing campaigns worked for them? They […]

The importance of staff training

I collect examples of great and poor customer experience. Here is one example from a holiday (it’s better than looking at my photos!) There were two restaurants near our hotel in the USA. They had similar menus, prices and décor, and the food was good in each. Yet one you could get a table […]

Targeting the right customers – Customer personas

We don’t like to quote from textbooks but we want to share with you one term we love and that is ‘Customer Personas’. Some people call these ‘Marketing Personas’ and they can be brilliant. The team at Krux, a clever bunch, say that: “With personas, businesses can be more strategic in catering to each […]

Offering a little extra

Treating customers as individuals is a great way to build customer satisfaction. Offering different experiences through different media is one way to personalise experiences. Other companies personalise customer experiences through closeness of interactions. Usually, personalised experiences need one-to-one marketing or customers choosing their preferred channel. Clothes2Order takes a photograph of customers’ orders during production. […]

Nuisance or proactive customer?

We’ve all experienced “nuisance” customers – those who pick up on the slightest thing. They delight in writing to the Chief Executive and even write to the Press. Why not turn them on their heads? (no, not that way!). You may see them as serial complainers, but they have an interest in your business. […]

Meeting / exceeding customer expectations

Meeting customer expectations plays a major role in experience. The gap between expected and actual value that customers get is key to customer loyalty. It also influences propensity to spend and brand perception. Creating experiences that generate more value than competitor offerings helps to create unforgettable memories. But, to meet customer expectations, businesses must […]

Making it easy – functional values

Functional values are often neglected when thinking about customer experience. Businesses tend to look for “wow” moments to make their customers love them. But, it is important to have all the basics right! Research suggests that functional values are as key as emotional values for customer experiences. The Apple “showrooming” process is a good […]

Making sure you know what your customers think of you

I often ask business owners if they deliver good or great customer service. About 9 out of 10 say yes. That’s backed up by research which showed that 80% of business owners think that way. Yet, the same research shows only 8% of consumers think they get good or great customer service. My next […]