Posts Tagged ‘customer experience’

The Art of Seeing Customers

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

It sounds esoteric, but it’s not. ‘The Art of Seeing Customers’ is my term for a concrete, effective process that organizations can use to transform their services based on focusing on their customers. The approach helps businesses refine their services by considering not only on ‘what’ customers seek, but “how’ and ‘why’ they seek it.

By balancing customer needs with business objectives, companies can design more pleasing services and and engage customers in the kind of dialogue that encourages them to buy.  My team and I use this technique with our clients on a regular basis. We begin by determining the customer’s “purchasing drivers” — what are customers’ needs, desires and expectations.

Why is this important? As organizations mature and grow, they can lose sight of the human factor and they lose their ability to adapt their services to customers. The Art of Seeing Customers is a counterbalance that helps shift the organizational focus back to the customer.

(more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Service design, customer experience management | Comments

Why Do Customers Behave That Way?

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

next_customer cropped blog=desat light copy

“So you got to let me know, should I stay or should I go?” ~The Clash

Why customers do what they do

It feels like we’re at the dawn of a new era in understanding how people — namely our customers — make decisions, and some businesses will benefit enormously. More importantly, customers will soon enjoy more kinds of services designed to better meet their needs.

Our collective thinking is being informed by discoveries in behavioral sciences and behavioral economics about the role of the unconscious mind and the centrality of emotions in driving behavior. Many of these findings are now verifiable through neuroimaging tools.

Among other things, we’re realizing that people aren’t Vulcan-like beings who make choices on a cold, purely rational basis. Individuals — our customers — are complicated and swayed by factors beneath the level of consciousness.

(more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Behavioral Science, Innovation, Service design, What's Next? (WILD CARD), customer experience management | Comments

Succeeding in a Challenging Environment

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

The events of the last quarter have radically changed the game plan for service providers around the world. Business rules are being rewritten; success is being measured by new criteria. Investments in your business must produce greater returns as “breakevens” are reduced.  In these times, it makes sense to rethink what you offer and how you present it to your customers. 

While it seems like everything has changed, the axioms of business remain constant. Customers still want exceptional “value” – in fact they’re demanding it. They’re more motivated than ever to look for it. If they can’t get it from you, they’ll go to your rivals. They’ll find value in new, atypical ways to get their needs met.  Help them solve their problems and the market will beat a path to your door.

Delivering exceptional value in lean times requires smarter tools and an atmosphere that encourages collaboration and continuous innovation—always thinking: how can we make this better, cutting out what’s unnecessary.

(more…)

Tags: ,
Posted in Business Practices, Innovation, Problem solving | Comments

Virgin Connect Invades Russia

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has announced it will team up with Swiss telecom Trivon to launch Virgin Connect in Russia. Virgin Connect will deliver services over a WiMAX network that covers 32 regions throughout Russia. The venture will offer broadband, voice and other services.

Branson said, “I am delighted to announce Virgin’s first business in Russia – Virgin Connect. We have entered Russia with Virgin Connect because we believe the potential for growth in the Russian broadband market is extremely exciting. Virgin‘s fundamental business principle is: ‘Delivering an outstanding customer experience’.”  He added, “We will provide a fresh and human customer experience to Russians and believe that Trivon is the ideal partner to deliver this. Virgin Connect plans to gain a market share of 10% within 5 years in this promising market”.

Trivon, founded in ‘04, has bought up several Russian communications operators. They grabbed up the 5.7-5.9GHz spectrum licence across Russia and also acquired a 5.9-6.4GHz spectrum in some regions to set the stage.

It’s a shrewd move. The venture wants to exploit a fragmented, underserved market which only has a 5% broadband penetration rate.  The Russian market still suffers from the legacy practices of their monopolistic, post-Soviet era culture.

The company didn’t provide details about its service model yet but judging by the Virgin Group’s progressive approach to consumer services in other verticals, they could reshape the services industry in a region that lags far behind the rest of the developing world.  I’m betting on Virgin’s succeeding and, in any case, this should be interesting.  Stay tuned…

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Business Model, Telecommunications, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | Comments