posted Jan 20, 2012 7:49 AM by Michael R Hoffman
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updated Feb 7, 2012 3:14 PM
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CRM Backwards explains CRM from customer perspective and exposes critical flaw in trasitional CRM technology and deployment design.
CRM Backwards identifies key areas for innovation and new thinking around managing customers and monetizing customer relationships. The CxC Matrix or Customer Experience Matrix presented is the industry standard for visualizing and monetizing customer experience. The CxC Customer Experience Matrix was designed using a combination of Activity Based Costing (ABC) cost accounting methods for financial department integrity and Zachman Framework-like business process management (BPM) design and structure for design, implementation and rules management integrity
MRHoffman, author Customer Worthy, provides detailed notes for this presentation downloadable below.
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posted Jan 18, 2012 2:35 PM by Michael R Hoffman
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updated Feb 7, 2012 3:13 PM
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posted Jan 5, 2012 10:21 AM by Michael R Hoffman
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updated Feb 7, 2012 3:20 PM
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posted Jan 4, 2012 10:07 AM by Michael R Hoffman
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updated Jan 4, 2012 10:25 AM
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10 Predictions for the greatest forces in
consumerism affecting advertising, marketing, sales, finance, product &
service design, legal, customer service and technology. (download) 1. Local Local Local…
Context
2. Apps – Free or
Fee Nation – $.99 for your thoughts
3. Network of things – you are your devices
4. Data is the robot
5. Geniuses – They are everywhere - Find’em Recognize them
6. Fraud For Granted - Fugetaboutit
7. Real Fake, Fake Real - Fake intimacy at a
massive scale
8. Memory loss, bad experiences “half life” –
9. Algorithms & alerts replace reporting
10.
Notes are on slides and in PDF copy of presentation for download below -
sample: #4 Data is the Robot (notes) The futuristic notion of personal robots doing manual work, obeying verbal commands and defending property never anticipated that people’s actions, routines and interests could be digitally captured and that the resulting information would be used to control a person’s objects, communications and surroundings. 2012 is the beginning of the “data is the robot” age. Personal data exchanged between people and devices combined with meta data observing data exchanges, personal movements, transactions and transaction attributes over time has spawned freely from disparate sources and systems for years. In 2012 and 2013, what appeared to be chaotic and random information exchanges will become categorized and arranged by individual, then by personae then by nanosegment (tightly defined customer/person segments defined by location, life stage, behavior & need history, environment, devices and channels in a time sequence context). This information will be used regularly to: determine how devices operate on a person’s behalf, recommend actions (food choices, medicines, care, navigation, investments, career, social) and continuously monitor and refine recommended actions and projected outcomes on the end user’s behalf (either the customer or the company – see Good Big Brother, Bad Big Brother Essay)
sample # 7. Real Fake, Fake Real - Fake
intimacy at a massive scale In
2012, “fake” is a tremendous spring of innovation also the cause of enormous
financial losses and general distrust of digital transactions and ecommerce
(see prediction number 8 for how long distrust will last).
2012
will see many milestones achieved in digitalization as data bits are assembled
to extend real world capabilities using virtual world constructs. The
definition of a product (hard product) and a service will be blurred more than
ever as new combinations of ordering, subscribing, enhancing and experiencing
goods transforms – look at the number of Youtube views for people ‘unboxing’ a product –
people watching a video of someone opening a new product and sharing their
experience – as a hint to where shared experiences and blurred reality (who
really makes these videos? Are they all authentic? Should you call your agency
and create an authentic opening of your products packaging video?)
Joseph
Pine’s and Kim Korn’s Infinite
Possibility discusses virtual and real world
fusion get it here http://amzn.to/rJznb5
.
Companies
will strive to create differentiated experiences in business to business too as
more sales people, product ambassador’s, guru’s are featured in video’s,
demonstrations, pod casts, simulcasts and co-casts (watch as a virtual
assistant assessable your service by walking through a set of configuration
questions and commands – now imagine this ‘service’ co-managing your product
use on an ongoing, continuous basis.
Customers
will require ‘enhanced’ experiences to continue their stimulation and attention
related to your product and service while fending off competitors. You must
stay engaged with your customers to occupy their time and box-out (basketball
term) you competitors and distractions.
It is
worthwhile to for executive management to evaluating experience monetization
strategy by asking “what would Google do?” to add “what would Disney do?”
On
the extremely dark side, consumers and companies will be defrauded at
unprecedented scale in 2012 due to the low cost of creating extremely
realistic, if not mirrored or fully replicated, ecommerce and direct marketing
scams. Virtual identities replicated in mass numbers will be used to defraud
companies in various industries but particularly those that have achieved early
efficiencies in electronic transaction processing. Individuals will be deceived
by hybrid companies using a mix of real business practices and identity
stealing, profiling infiltrating schemes. Government, police and judicial
systems will continue to be inadequately prepared, skilled, staffed and
empowered.
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posted Aug 11, 2011 11:36 AM by Michael R Hoffman
Simplified Customer Experience Management Monetized MR Hoffman IQPC Interview |
Customer Experience Simple Customer Plan, Monetized Customer Worthy HoffmanSimple Customer Plan: Monetizing the Customer Experience by Michael R HoffmanIQPC interviews Michael R Hoffman, of Client X Client. The interview explores the evolution of customer expectations within utilities. Michael lays out a simple plan for monetizing consumer touch points and explores how utilities can achieve cost savings through intelligence planning. Could you firstly explore what customers expect and how this has changed over the last few years?Customer expectations are not set by the utilities, nor by a set of ‘utilities best practices’ - they originate from all of a customer’s experiences, things like; their Amazon experience, cable TV, cell phone, and banking. This includes their experiences on a variety of different channels; on their phone, emails, web, and commerce experiences. This is why customer management is hard; customer expectations are formed with all their other interactions at work and at home. The other big issue for utilities is that customer experience isn’t usually an issue until something goes wrong, like a service outage or billing issue, by which point the customer is distraught at the point(s) of contact. Frankly, customers don’t pay attention until a) something goes wrong b) competition c) news alerts their interest d) they want to change their existing service With so many customer interfaces (social media, online, phone, etc) – how do you determine where to focus your efforts? Is an integrated approach better? The test for ‘simple’ is that any person (especially the customers) can understand what channels are available to them for information and assistance. All options need to be clearly laid out – then reviewed and tested against different customer situations, customer groups, regions, etc. ‘Simple customer view – excerpt from Customer Worthy by Michael R Hoffman Asking the question, “What would a customer do if…? Once the basic customer plan is laid out, the company can articulate what information and resources are needed based on meeting their customer needs. Scoping resources can be accomplished by adding dimensions to the simple plan like; who is responsible for message, systems and technology required, cost/benefit, regular and exceptional volume, disaster recovery, local and enterprise solutions – this is where the simple plan (the customer’s view) becomes complex internally.
Internal view of ‘simple customer experience, excerpt from Customer Worthy, by Michael R Hoffman Quick tech tip: Companies should also build a customer memory – this customer uses x channels – they emailed us, they called us, they have been to a location – you can also look at this for different types of transactions – they pay bills in person, they call with problems and they email with general questions – this builds a profile of how customers can, and should be contacted. What would your advice be on configuring systems and processes to manage customer demand for service?My simplest advice or guideline is to monetize every customer interaction. Every customer contact has a real cost and a potential or actual benefit – so make those figures explicit and keep them front and center while making configuration and resourcing decisions. Companies are often surprised by the innovations that come from monetizing interactions – and again, there are examples in other industries everywhere. It may seem counterintuitive to actually charge customers a fee when they request service, or to charge them to move to the front of a service queue (phone call or installation) but this is becoming more common practice as theme parks have a ‘pay to cut in line,” express service, other companies have preferred customer plans where customers pay an annual premium for ‘personalized’ service while some companies charge a service guarantee fee – all inclusive fee rider for ‘exceptional service.” A slightly more unique and effective approach may be to apply a service fee credit to every customer then debit the balance with each customer contact. This type of monetization raises the perceived value of customer service, and highlights exceptional customer service resource consumption, service abusers (or highly problematic service issues), for both the company and the customer. In your opinion how should you decide which technologies to pursue and which processes to change, adapt, and invest in?Technology and process decisions are all based on monetizing the benefits, weighing the expense of new technologies, outsourcing options, process redesigns versus the monetary and strategic benefits. I have to point out that many of the benefits are not obvious until they are laid out on the simple plan above – the customer schematic. For example, managing messages in each channel probably does not, Looking at all of the information and contact management requirements across all channels and contact points may justify investing in a knowledge management system, or packaging information about services and utilization may create new revenue generating or consumption balancing services that would not otherwise be possible. How can utilities achieve cost savings through improved ‘customer understanding and intelligence planning’ – what does this mean?“Follow your customers” – nowadays technology’s capabilities far outweigh our capacity to use them right now.
The map – customer flow – is very familiar design for utility executives – similar to how gas flows, water flows through pipes and distribution systems, we are looking at how customers flow, don’t flow, and the efficiencies across the utilities ecosystem or piping. Seems simple, right? Counting customers across each interaction point, by customer type, customer segment, etc. depicts the company’s current operation and quickly identifies inefficiencies, process bottlenecks, service redesign opportunities and opportunities for innovative solution. This is also the purpose of monetizing each customer – so we can isolate and quantify the affects of changes at each channel, interaction point – or process step to see what the yield or benefit will be and share the results of proposed changes to all concerned parties. Customer and stakeholder transparency enables better solution making and monetization of each contact and experience quantifies cost savings and revenue generation opportunities. Customer Worthy derives from the most fundamental business fact, customers are responsible for a business’s success or failure. Without customers there is no business. The longer title of the book, “How and why everyone in your organization must think like a customer,” comes from a finding that customers are the final arbiter of what is a good or poor business decision. Plain and simple, if the customer doesn’t realize the benefit of a technology investment, a system improvement, or a new service then the company can’t realize any benefit. If the change does not result in new customers and referrals, additional business from existing customers or customers increasing their tenure with the company then how can you justify the change? This works for cost reductions and alternative sourcing too, if customers don’t experience change, but company reduces cost, than both parties benefit. Customer Worthy provides a template for every company to map their customers’ experience and then provides a method to visualize, monetize, analyze and optimize customer experience so that everyone at the company can articulate their role, function and performance in the context of how it affects customers. From introduction in Customer Worthy – following common customer service nightmare:Customer satisfaction surveys—Net Promoter Score, J.D. Power, and other “everything is all right” customer satisfaction measurement methods—miss the point. They are too far away from the customers, the interactions, and the phone call. The “long tail” is on the phone right now. This is “long tail” meets the Pareto Principle. This is why the CxC Matrix that you will learn about in this book is so important. It can be used to fix the customer problems and improve service delivery from the moment a customer begins the journey to fulfill a need all the way to product or service disposal. Poor customer experience leads to incredible expense—not just for companies, but for customers. (At the time of this writing, the wireless phone company’s annual report says that it spent $21 billion in “selling, general, and administrative expense.”) Even if I discount the cost of my personal experience by 90 percent, it means that my wireless company cost its customers nearly ten billion dollars that goes unreported. The point is that with all of the investments in product development, sales, marketing, and customer service systems, companies continue to waste an unfathomable amount of customer time—waiting for the technician to arrive to load software or install cable, waiting for a salesperson to return a call, waiting for the answer to an emailed question, trying to figure out how to use a product. Will I ever do business with the wireless phone company again? Reluctantly, I already have.  About Michael R HoffmanMichael R Hoffman is a customer experience and customer management expert. He founded CLIENT x CLIENT to help companies leverage technology to create superior customer experiences and grow revenue per customer. Customer Worthy is the synthesis of his work with major brands, marketing, and CRM innovators where he honed the elements of the CxC Matrix presented in the book. Mr. Hoffman held executive positions at Experian, DoubleClick and Sitel before founding CLIENT x CLIENT. Hoffman is the founder and CEO of CLIENT x CLIENT, a consulting firm that excels in customer centric innovation and customer experience transformation. With over 20 years of experience consulting to customer-centered executives in technology-aggressive businesses across many industries. He is a visionary thought leader with the unique ability to bring clients and lead customers together to co design business strategies, innovative solutions, and ideal customer experiences. Hoffman is a highly acclaimed keynote speaker at business conferences and industry symposia worldwide. His visionary insight and experience in designing customer-centric processes and measurements make him sought after by business, customer advocacy and technology audiences. His latest book, Customer Worthy, describes the new approach to the process of customer-centric innovation, customer ecosystem design and measurement.
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posted Jul 19, 2011 12:03 PM by Michael R Hoffman
Michael R Hoffman to Speak at North American Conference on Customer Management
Topic: It's 2012, Are You Customer Worthy?
Date: November 16, 2011
Disney's Contemporary Resort, FL
Customers Vote with their Feet, their Clicks and their Wallets In 2011 customers took over brands, messaging and even countries. 2012 demands companies be customer worthy at every contact through every process – or else. To succeed companies must marry corporate objectives to customer expectations and continuously be customer worthy in every interaction. Best & worst examples Plus Tools!
KEY TAKEAWAY: Predicting each customer’s next move and exceeding their expectations is critical to success in 2012 – it seems impossibly complicated – this session makes it simple for everyone…even customers.
Discussion: 2012 forecasts for customer experience - People, Process, Technology, Analytics, Customer Satisfaction |
posted May 13, 2011 5:33 AM by Michael R Hoffman
Marketers, customer service and IT Customer Worthy report by D. Murali in TheHindu.com http://bit.ly/mOxRR2
Identify the customer, recognise, fulfil, upgrade, cross-sell, expand, educate, collect, and generate referrals. These are the nine treatment objectives for each contact, says Michael R. Hoffman in ‘Customer Worthy: Why and how everyone in your organization must think like a customer’ (www.macmillanpublishersindia.com). Defining ‘contact’ as any connection between a customer and a company, its products, services, and partners, the author observes that customer contacts are the new battleground for companies looking to secure more business and fend off competition. Though each ‘contact’ is an asset and a pivot point for company success, with a potential for tremendous revenue, customer interactions are the most underused asset in most companies, he rues. Identify, recognise Begin, therefore, by identifying the customer, as ‘repeat,’ ‘first-time,’ or ‘anonymous.’ Think of this as having caller ID at every customer contact point, the author guides. “This initial identification dictates the contact’s messaging and objectives to best suit the customer’s situation.” Recognising the customer – the second treatment objective for the contact – involves the ability to access and use the customer’s prior contacts, purchase history, and service history, Hoffman explains. At the minimum, he says, it is important to know and acknowledge whether the customer had prior contacts and to somehow acknowledge the customer’s investment of time and effort. “Platinum, gold and silver levels and loyalty programmes are obvious customer recognition tags that can be used to designate and prepare treatments in each contact and channel.” Fulfil, upgrade Fulfil, the third objective, calls for simply delivering what the customer expects in the contact. While ‘fulfil’ may seem simple, it can often be difficult to achieve when customers do not know the best solution or the right product configuration, as the book highlights through many ‘what if’ scenarios that can lead to frustration. Next comes ‘upgrade,’ because each customer contact is an opportunity to strengthen the relationship. Encourage customers to join a frequent buyer programme, automatic replenishment, or automatic renewing service programme to protect their investments and make ongoing purchases and service easier, Hoffman instructs. “Encourage customers that call customer support to buy the latest and greatest product versions to replace their obsolete product or service.” Cross-sell, expand, educate Every contact should be evaluated for its ability to sell another product or service, either from your company or from a partner company, the author insists. He advises companies to design propositions that best fit the needs of the customer and to continuously test what sells best and grows total customer lifetime value. Urging companies to see each contact as a milestone that should strengthen, not weaken, the relationship, the author recommends expanding the customers’ participation in the company network and community. Techniques for trying out include encouraging customers to experience another channel, explore the web, visit a store, and use a coupon from the web. The ‘educate’ objective is served by educating customers on your business, processes, and how to better use your product, services, and resources for their benefit. Be the single source and primary conduit to best practices for your most valuable customers, the author counsels. “Provide links to community websites, forums, and commentary.” Collect, generate referrals To meet the ‘collect’ objective, you need to capture all the elements and attributes associated with each contact. That way, you can best understand the customer’s experience and opportunities, and also improve the performance of future contacts, the author notes. As for referrals, he mentions examples such as coupons for friends in an envelope, emails with simple forwarding instructions, invitations for friends and colleagues to attend social events, and asking customers on support calls if they know of anyone else who can use the solution. The book cautions companies that not seeing contact flow data can lead to surprises about revenue shortfalls, inventory outages, resource cost overruns, and diminished customer satisfaction. For, “Traditional financial measures lag too far behind customer activities to be effective for timely business decision-making. Operations and quality metrics are too far removed from a customer’s interests, intent, and preferences.” Worthy addition to marketers’ shelf. |
posted May 5, 2011 9:39 AM by Michael R Hoffman
Epsilon's email crisis is a wake up call to all companies to tag every email address with an identifiable marker - so the company, the client and third party servicer(s) all know where the email address and personally identifiable information goes, who has touched it, how and why they have used it - and that the whereabouts of this information can be tracked by customers http://bit.ly/lV7Q0H ;)
The current "trust me" system isn't working (you think?)
eWeek $4B Epsilon Data Breach Article http://bit.ly/kYrHCY Email has been deceptively cheap for companies and marketing vendors since day one - and conversely - incredibly expensive for customers since day two. How many spam emails, urgent messages, FYI brand emails do customers have to cull through every day simply because email is the path of least resistance (and cost) to reach customers (yes, can text be far behind?) The $4billion gives marketing service organizations a windfall - yes, counterintuitive, but companies should be scared of email data bases (part of why you go to Epsilon is to house customer and prospect databases - where companies don't have rights and IT does not have interest in maintaining non-customer email addresses and info - by the way - no one has alerted non-customers of these companies that their email addresses and contact information has been compromised...should they?) Now email service companies can raise prices (finally) for added data protection, verification, authorization - etc - all of which they already do - but expect the documentation to get more detailed (thicker... and more liability references). Meanwhile the arbitrage between the cost of a stamp + printing versus email will keep email marketers busy and $4 billion, even if they were hard dollars, will not reduce the number of emails sent - just the cost per thousand that companies pay.
Michael R Hoffman, CLIENTxCLIENT
Think Like a Customer
Author, Customer Worthy
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posted May 5, 2011 8:49 AM by Michael R Hoffman
Whose credit cards do kids use to access Sony?
Sony's brand is tarnished beyond playstation and gaming as parents will slowly realize that Sony's problem is their problem.
"Which card did you use to sign up?"
http://bit.ly/mORGA8 CIO Insight article where this comment published At a meeting I attended yesterday, the speaker asked for a show of hands from people who've received an email or letter in the past thirty days notifying them that their online data may have been compromised - half the room raised their hands - worse news - this was an online marketing and media session - these people were not newbies or naive - but they are absolutely vulnerable - and with Sony - their kids, kids friends, entire households are vulnerable. This is a reminder that we are still in the wild west days of the internet and hackers/coders - can ruin a peaceful town - or brand - by riding in and shotting the place up - then riding off. Do you know where your data's been? http://bit.ly/lV7Q0H It's time companies - and their outsourced vendors - bolted down their data and privacy processes, but then registrations might slow down - and time required to secure identities etc. may reduce shopping cart conclusion - Is this really the trade off? Be prepared for innovation to change the dynamic - The current environment is not Customer Worthy Michael R Hoffman, CLIENTxCLIENT Think Like a Customer! |
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posted Apr 29, 2011 12:30 PM by Michael R Hoffman
Maximum customer value = sum(max value * interaction)/customer life cycle
... or as CSN sang, "Love the one (customer) your with http://bit.ly/igF5wD ." .. maximize the value of each contact, in call, web site, in front of you, the customer holding the box, opening the envelope, the sum of each interaction.
Segment for value in the interaction (yes, you can make money from customers who aren't buying what you sell, those who already bought all they can and even those that never want to speak/contact you again: http://bit.ly/igF5wD
Meet the customer's expectations be deemed customer worthy of the next interaction and more frequent interactions.
Give advice, get advice, give referrals, get referrals and make sure you accomplish at least these http://bit.ly/igF5wD
Michael Hoffman - customer cartographer author, Customer Worthy |
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