 WebProWorld Search Forum |
SEO
Sales and Services - Consulting Cuts Complexity
Over the past two years, both the business and practice of search engine marketing
have become much more complex. The same is true of the websites search engine
marketers work with. The evolving design techniques and technologies that have
made the website of today far...
Google’s
Financial Times Dilemma
Isn’t it interesting the places Lady Drama chooses to drop her robe, spinning
everybody into gawking with covered mouths and gossip to spread? The whispers
immediately crescendoed into a web-rattling holler across the servers—Financial
Times was busted for hidden links!
SEO
Roadmap; Carpooling With Content
If you’re reading this then chances are that you’re not an Internet purist. You
don’t build websites for artistic reasons, spilling your guts about what is philosophically,
transcendentally, or intrinsically eminent to your soul and being.
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Articles |
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Is
Your CRM System Destined to Fail?
It's time to put your trusty CRM software to work; to let it earn its keep. You're
about to blast an email out to several thousand potential customers.
Microsoft Calls Up CRM 3.0
The new version skips from CRM 1.2 to 3.0 and will be available to current users
at the end of 2005.
Sugar
And Open Source – The Recipe For CRM Success
WebProNews chats with SugarCRM CEO John Roberts about customer relationship management
software, two of the biggest names in open source, and the shockingly simple reason
why SugarCRM is wired, Salesforce.com is tired, and Siebel has expired.
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07.19.05
Improving Customer Relationships:
Beyond The Buzz
 By
Hank Brigman
Customers are always a hot topic. But lately the discussions on customer relationships,
including retention, satisfaction, and loyalty, have intensified. What is the
basis for these discussions, and more importantly, what are leading organizations
actually doing to improve customer relationships?
Savvy organizations have begun to realize that customer relationships are not
the domain of an individual, team, or department. If the accuracy of invoices,
or the professionalism of installers or the cleanliness of your store or office
is lacking, then the relationship can suffer no matter how well the salesperson
or "owner" of the relationship performs. Savvy organizations know that they can
best enhance relationships with customers by improving customer interactions -
or "touchpoints" - across the entire enterprise.
Touchpoints are all of the communication, human and physical interactions your
customers experience during their relationship lifecycle with your organization.
Whether an ad, Web site, sales person, store or office, touchpoints are important
because customers form their perceptions of your organization and brand based
on their cumulative touchpoint experiences.
To help improve customer relationships, there is an innovative new movement called
Customer Touchpoint Management, or CTM. CTM reflects an organization's concerted
efforts to improve customer relationships through the management or optimization
of customer touchpoints. Touchpoint optimization can include filling identified
gaps with new touchpoints, modifying under performing touchpoints, or eliminating
redundant touchpoints. This process can include optimizing individual touchpoints,
or groups of related touchpoints, such as those that make up a process.
However, it is not easy to get your hands around the myriad ways in which your
organization "touches" its customers. To understand and improve your touchpoints,
the process of "Touchpoint Mapping(TM)" can be used to inventory and map your
organization's touchpoints along the seven stages of the Customer Relationship
Lifecycle, and then identify your customer's needs in each stage. This process
delivers insights into your current touchpoint performance, and helps with identifying
how your performance can be improved. An important component of CTM efforts to
improve the consistency of touchpoint performance is to establish touchpoint standards,
and manage to these standards.
Improving your customer relationships can deliver tangible results to your organization.
For example, as a result of consistently superior touchpoint experiences with
her local Lexus dealer, the marketing executive of a $5 billion dollar division
of a Fortune 10 conglomerate became motivated to improve the customer-centricity
of her own organization. She recognized the impact of consistently positive touchpoints
on her brand perception of Lexus, her purchase decision, and her resultant advocacy
of the automaker. By applying Touchpoint Mapping, Touchpoint Metrics recently
helped this executive's organization dramatically improve touchpoint performance
across the organization. Both "voice of customer" customer satisfaction and employee
satisfaction scores have increased, and these indications of enhanced customer-centricity
are expected to translate into added sales and profitability.
Avis implemented a CTM initiative to understand and improve key customer touchpoints.
As result, Avis gained market share in key travel markets and became a leader
in customer loyalty and satisfaction as measured by Brand Keys and JD Powers.
Both of these companies, along with other forward thinking organizations, are
applying the concepts of Customer Touchpoint Management to improve customer relationships,
touchpoint by touchpoint. The benefits are powerful, creating happier customers
and employees, and improving the financial metrics that create happier owners.
About the Author:
Hank Brigman is President/CEO of Touchpoint Metrics, the research consultancy
that pioneered Touchpoint Mapping(TM), and author of the upcoming book “Touchpoint
Power!.” For more information and to download the white paper, “Touchpoint
Mapping: Improve Customer Experiences and Relationships Through Touchpoint Optimization,”
visit http://www.tpmetrics.com. |
