The human click
Posted by admin in All topics on October 23rd, 2009
Having worked in the professional service business (nearly) for quite some time now, I’ve had the pleasure of working with clients in a wide range of industries and not to forget, people of different ages with different backgrounds and cultures. Obviously, one works on a basis of mutual respect and the fact that the services you offer complement the client’s needs.
But next to this, there’s still this element that goes beyond good project management, clear communication, solid advisory etc. I’m talking about [the human click] here.
Is one considered just a supplier, or are you teaming up with your client working on the basis of a solid partnership? And if so, what is the reason behind a successful match?
I do believe the human click has a major impact on the overall success of a partnership. Do the personalities complement each other? Aren’t the two too much alike? Is there an understanding that one needs one another? Are the individual goals not too far apart – which could result in a struggling working relationship.
What do you think? What makes the perfect client-partner relationship?
Be inspired
Posted by admin in All topics on May 30th, 2009
Lester Wunderman
We all have our inspirors, our tutors, friends who share their wisdom, that give us a hold and take us through challenging times, or help us with our daily work. Some of my favourite advices come from Lester Wunderman, who in his excellent and fun-to-read ‘Being Direct’ shares more than one experience, from which we all can learn. Here’s two I’d like to share with you:
“When I go to the client, I always have an idea with me”
and
“When in doubt, go to the store – the customer has all the answers”
Isn’t it amazing how in these times, advices like these still hold their strength? The first reminding us over and over again why we do what we love to do, adding value to the clients business by continuously bringing ideas to the table.
And the 2nd, I mean, in times of online stores and e-commerce solutions, customer experience management can and should be facilitated by user-feedback loops, both attitudinal and behavioural. This will help focus and improvement of the overall experience.
So please share, who inspired you?
Customer Experience
Posted by admin in All topics, Customer Experience Management on May 4th, 2009
There is only 1 experience: the Customer Experience.
Brand experiences, product and service experiences, these cannot and should not be treated separately as the customer does not separate them either.
Customer experience management is often touted as the successor to customer relationship management. Can it live up to it’s name? It’s been around for many years and mostly in the realms of blue-chip companies, shouldn’t this be relevant to all businesses that are customer-centric in their thinking?
Program & Project Management
Posted by admin in All topics, Program & Project Management on April 16th, 2009
In capturing the essence of a problem and bringing solutions to the table, the challenge is to do so with effective use of resources. Controlling cost, time, scope and achieving great quality products and services.
I.e.: Doing the projects right!
In identifying which projects should be prioritized over others, there’s the challenge: how do I prioritize budgets between e.g. marketing efforts and after-sales service support?
I.e.: Focus on the right projects!
So, in short – we need to focus on doing the right projects right! Right?
User experience design
Posted by admin in All topics, User Experience Design on March 17th, 2009
If the product interface is great to look at and fun to use, isn’t the product than more likely to be used, i.e.: what is was designed for in the first place?
Great user experience design creates fans.
Obviously, this is only one aspect of this specialist field dealing with making our lives easier, while being able to perform complex tasks. But one that shouldn’t be ignored. In the great book ‘Designing Interactions’ by Bill Moggridge, David Liddle talks about the 3 stages in the development of a technology.
Stage one is the enthusiast stage. They don’t care if the technology is easy or hard to use, because they’re so excited by the technology itself, or what it will do for them. They want it, however difficult to use.
Stage two is the professional stage, when those who use the technology, are often not those who buy it. Purchasing departments don’t care about the difficulty, because they don’t experience it. Price, performance specifications, after-sales support – that’s what gets them excited… Interestingly enough – there’s a surprising effect here: Some people have an interest in the technology being difficult, because they’re selling their ability to use it: the harder it is, the more valuable their skills.
The third stage is identified by Liddle as the consumer stage. People are now less interested in the technology itself than in what it can do for them. They don’t want to spend much time learning how to use it. If it’s hard to use, they won’t buy it. This is the current stage in the use of computer and telecommunications technology: it’s no longer used only by professionals but by a wide range of non-experts, who just want to use it to pursue their everyday lives.
So, think about this and let me know what changes you see coming…
Part four – The key areas
Posted by admin in All topics, Customer Experience Management, Program & Project Management, User Experience Design on February 4th, 2009
If we wish to bring this all together, how can we do so in a structured and measurable way? Which areas of the organisation do we need to look at and what tools do we need? Let’s first look at the key areas that need a re-positioning, in order to introduce or improve on the customer-centric approach in the organisation:
1 User Experience Design
1.1 Make it more fun to use 
Do we have a word for this in design terms?
1.2 Make it better to use – Optimisation
1.2.1 Attitudinal
1.2.2 Behavioural
2 Program and Project Management
2.1 Quality Management
3 Customer Experience Management
3.1 Conversational Capital
Please see this as a guideline in order to change your company’s mindset into a customer-centric one and start professionalising and improving in each area…
Part three – The methodology
Posted by admin in All topics, Customer Experience Management on January 4th, 2009
So, all fine of course - but how do we marry our effort in bringing the customer’s satisfaction to a higher level, whilst doing so in a cost-effective and efficient way and prioritising on the right activities? Here’s where the frontseat-backseat approach comes in.
The thought came from my agencies’ every day challenge in designing and executing marketing campaigns. Typically, a client’s marcom calendar is developed around product launches, seasonal activities, etc. On the agency side, the challenge was to be able to plan resources in such a way, that the quality of the delivery was not hampered by trivial issues like lack of time. With both sides (client and agency) working hard to sync all activities as good as possible, it was clear operational success was mostly achieved, where the calendar of activities or the main project plan was a transparent one and shared between the parties involved. You probably know this is challenge in itself, that relies on teaming up dedicated hard-working people, following unified processes, and being able to rely on the right tools.
But wait…
If all this is in place - do we really have successful approach?
Hmmm, here’s my take - not necessarily so…
We are forgetting about the customer entirely… Cases where a single customer gets bombarded with eMails, simply because he falls under a multitude of business units is more common than we wish to believe. Applying methodologies like customer relationship management (CRM) deals with this issue, but only partly. Why? Because it is still a sales-organisation centric approach, that looks into ways how to develop a cold-lead into a returning customer, while maximising profits in every single stage of this cycle.
So when we talk about ‘placing the customer first’, let’s take on the challenge and work out an approach that starts with the customer. Let’s call this the frontseat:
- Integrated customer dashboard (attitudinal and behavioural data)
- Marcom
- CRM
- (e)Commerce
- Service
- Sentiment (online conversations, web 2.0, communities…)
Now, onto the internal processes. Ingredients range from doing the right projects right, supported by the right selection of programme and project management methodologies to total quality management to ensure a methodical monitoring and improvement of all business areas. This is an area that opens up many a discussion between the various business units. Not unexpected, most organisations are governed by long-lived management processes including personal performance reviews that are based on KPI’s that seldom span across departments. So, to manage this successfully, there’s a couple of things that need to be considered: Let’s call this the backseat:
- Integrated KPI setting
- New scoring system required
So, to summarise:
In any customer experience related project, one should consider the 2 sides to the story:
- The customer-side, i.e. what’s in it for me and does this add value to my overall experience?
- The organisation-side, i.e. do we prioritize correctly and focus on those projects that make the difference?
In JesTyl - we identify this and bring them together in the frontseat-backseat approach. By mapping the various customer touch-points on one end and model and monetize the initiatives on the other end, we can find the right balance and therefore focus on the right activities.
Part two – The package
Posted by admin in All topics on December 4th, 2008
What is it that makes a customer tick? In ‘Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About’ by SidLee’s Betrand Cesvet, he analyses successful cases like Cirque du Soleil and identifies the secret ingredients in the mix. In my view, some ingredients are more critical than others, so here’s my list of must-haves:
1 Exclusive Product Offering
2 An experience exceeding the customer’s expectation
2.4 Icons
2.5 Rituals
2.6 Initiation
2.7 Myths
2.8 Sensual stimulation
2.9 We-feeling
3 Consistency
3.1 Who we are
3.2 Who we say we are
3.3 Who people say we are
3.3.1 Endorsement
What do you think?
Part one – The proposition
Posted by admin in All topics, Customer Experience Management on November 4th, 2008
It’s all about the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
This is the result from ALL customer touch-points
Therefore only an INTEGRATED business approach can succeed
So:
- research
- product development
- marketing
- sales
- services
What else…?
The idea
Posted by admin in All topics on October 4th, 2008
Ok, here we go.
I’m starting to put my thoughts together and see if I can create a clear and unified vision from it, and above all supported by a working approach, a toolkit if you will to be able to operationalise the idea.
In the next few posts, I will take you with me on this journey in marrying great customer experiences with operational excellence…
Bring it on!