This document discusses emerging trends in customer management. It notes that to differentiate, companies must obsess over customers. Innovation and disruption must be embraced, and there is an increasing need for transparency and fairness. Influence is becoming an important channel that must be managed. Customer feedback collection is becoming continuous, and staff culture has a big impact on customers. New channels can simultaneously reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction.

1. What‟s
happening in
Customer
Management?
September
2011

2. What we are finding………
• To differentiate you need to obsess over customers
• Disruption and innovation need to be embraced
• There is an increasing need for transparency and fairness
• Influence needs managing as a channel
• “Insight-to-Action” has got to be closer to real-time
• No regions can „opt out‟ of the changes (but some industries
appear to be trying)
• Co–creation is going way beyond „ideas schemes‟
• Prospects and Customers want to be more involved
• The clever techniques are focussing on emotions
• Collecting customer feedback is becoming “Always-on”
• Staff Culture has a massive customer impact
• New channels can reduce costs AND increase satisfaction at
the same time

3. To differentiate you need to obsess over customers
• Very few brands or products can really
differentiate
• Almost all organisations are talking
about Customer Centricity or
Customer Focus
• The new „must have‟ role is a Director
or VP of Customer Experience
• But very few of these are real
„Customer Professionals‟
• The only real change comes with
CUSTOMER OBSESSION
Jeff Bezos of Amazon is a great example of a
Customer Obessed CEO
Josh Bernoff from Forrester on Customer
Obsession
Source: Beyond Philosophy research of
135 CE Professionals

4. Disruption and innovation need to be embraced
• Standing still is increasingly equivalent to going backwards
• Change is being thrust upon organisations by their customers who
have realised they have the power to bring down governments
• Which will be the first organisation brought down by customers? It is
only a matter of time
• Disruption from customers needs to be embraced and managed
Disruptive input from an HSBC Business Customer
• Innovation is widely becoming accepted as one of the only possible
strategies for Growth
The importance of innovation in achieving growth
• A whole new concept of „Disruptive Innovation‟ is emerging
Disruptive Innovation in the Motor Industry

5. Increasing need for transparency and fairness
• Customers are increasingly demanding transparency and fairness
• They want organisations to tell them what they can expect from
them
TV Advert for NatWest Bank Customer Charter
• They want it to hurt for the organisation when they get it wrong
Nedbank's AskOnce approach to getting it right first time
• They want visibility of the process at work
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AskOnce-Nedbank/205028758639
• They are starting to challenge some widely used marketing
techniques as unfair
O2 Fairdeal proposition to safeguard existing customers

6. Influence needs managing as a channel
• „Influence‟ is becoming both a communication media and a sales
channel in it‟s own right
• Word of Mouth has always been the most powerful media / channel
but Social Media has given the „mouth‟ a much bigger voice
• It is tapping into a human trait which is the love of being influential
The Influence Project
• Combined with digital channels it makes marketing techniques
possible that previously would not have been feasible without huge
PR support
Ford's use of influencers in pre-launch phase of the new Fiesta
• But influence needs to be earned, not expected
Kaspersky sponsoring ThreatPost community for IT Security Professionals

7. No regions can „opt out‟ of the changes
Source: Beyond Philosophy research 2011

8. Co–creation is going way beyond „ideas schemes‟
• Co-creation is a powerful way to involve customers……
Dell Idea Storm on-line ideas submission website aimed at a very wide
consumer audience
• and partners
P&G Connect Direct on-line ideas and collaboration forum aimed at potential
business partners and industry innovators

9. Prospects and Customers want to be more involved
• Even if they can‟t co-create, customers increasingly want to be
involved with the organisations they buy from
• Especially if there is an incentive
Jimmy Choo getting customers involved
• But even if there is no incentive, they want involvement
Macy's driving customer involvement in store
• And even unhappy customers appreciate involvement
Emaar Street Party for unhappy purchasers

10. The clever techniques are focussing on emotions
• Call centres realise that great experiences come from the softer
skills
• Marketers need to resist the temptation to „brand‟ everything
O2 using unbranded communications for exit management
• Customers even appreciate it when good things happen to others
KLM Random acts of kindness
• Who couldn‟t feel great after this…….
T Mobile Make Heathrow Feel Good
And the result

11. Collecting customer feedback is becoming “Always-on”
• “Half remembered experiences are always „OK‟ experiences”
• Listening to customers needs to happen all the time
NTL Ongoing Feedback
• Across every single media
PepsiCo listening for dissati sfaction on social media
• With instantly visible results
Instant Feedback on Pizzas
• While ensuring that the „signal to noise‟ ratio is clearly understood

12. Staff Culture has a massive customer impact
• CEO‟s need to understand the directness of the relationship
The CEO's dilemma Happy employees or Happy Customers first
Ritz Carlton measure Customer and Employee engagement together
• Staff culture is infectious to customers…… especially if you make it
so
The Zappos tour
The Zappos Culture Book
• This really isn‟t anything new
Parsons Buick
• And it doesn‟t have to be high cost
KFC Northway

13. New channels can reduce costs AND increase
satisfaction at the same time
AT&T on-line video explaining their first bill to new customers
GiffGaff manage to get customers to help themselves and enjoy it
And so do Intuit with their TurboTax software Customer Community
Best buy use twitter to create a support centre of thousands without
employing a single extra person