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Business Intelligence That Supports CX

Benchmarketing is essential to CEM

The obvious aspects of the customer experience are customer-facing processes and interactions. But myriad internal processes impact the customers experience, as well. That’s where business intelligence (BI) comes in.

Customer experience leaders can use business intelligence reporting to surface opportunities and issues with critical business operations. The aim is to use BI to generate actionable information about internal operations that specifically relate to customer experience management (CEM). To increase the impact of any changes you’ll make based on your findings, segment the insights by account type (e.g. tiers one, two, and three) and contact type (e.g. decision maker, influencer). This will help prioritize any changes you’ll want to make to drive customer loyalty overall—but, first, among the highest-value customers.

Some key BI report types that focus on CEM include Balanced Scorecard, delta analysis, key-driver analysis, Net Promoter Score, and vulnerability index.

Taking a data-driven approach to CEM by continually analyzing business performance not only will help surface issues that need to be resolved, but also will allow you to explore new ways of gaining a competitive advantage. Business analytics makes it possible to combine customer satisfaction and operational data to gain deep insight into purchase behavioral overall, as well as by customer type and job role.

One especially valuable approach to using business intelligence is benchmarking. It allows customer experience leaders to see how their organization compares on various dimensions—most important, measurements related to CEM. You can, for example, compare your organization’s customer service ratings against best-in-class businesses or compare your NPS against other companies in your industry.

Benchmarking is an invaluable reality check that reveals how you stack up against competitors and category leaders across industries. The first step, of course, it to select the metrics and values you want to compare. Popular comparisons include overall best-in-class companies, top industry-specific performers, and head-to-head competitive analysis. Our NorthFace ScoreBoard Award recipients are another excellent source of comparison for CEM performance. These award winners have demonstrated that they provide world-class customer service; rated by their own customers as consistently exceeding their expectations for service quality.

Business intelligence, analytics, and benchmarking are three of the elements that comprise the CEMDNA Playbook Strategy.

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CRMI Rebrands as a Membership-Driven Organization Dedicated to ‘All Things CX’

Customer Relationship Management Institute LLC (CRMI) provides one-stop shopping for business professionals and tech vendors devoted to customer experience (CX) management strategy

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass.; May 8, 2017 – The Customer Relationship Management Institute LLC (CRMI), announced today that is has completed the transition to a membership-based organization dedicated to providing a single point of contact for “All Things CX,” recognizing the growing influence of customer experience (CX) management as a critical business strategy in virtually all industries and business sectors.

CRMI has established a new website – http://www.crmirewards.com – where prospective members and technology vendors/service providers targeting the multi-billion dollar CX marketplace can become members and sponsors, respectively. Content categories include Trending in CX (market research and industry news); CX Marketplace, (a directory of CX technologies, blogs, articles, white papers, webcasts, speakers, etc.); Member Services (individual and corporate memberships, training & certification); Events & Courses (directory of CX events and courses), Partners (vendor sponsors) and more. Visitors also can register to receive the new monthly newsletter, CX Playbook Strategy Review. Soon the site will offer a CX Technologies Lab, where members can “test drive” software offered by sponsoring vendors who have proof of earning superior customer service ratings.

“This is the Age of CX,” said John Maraganis, president and CEO of CRMI and Omega. “Delivering a consistently superior customer experience has become table stakes. CRMI has championed that concept since its founding in 1999, and now – as CX becomes a strategic imperative for more and more companies – is taking its mission to a new level.”

CRMI is projecting 15,000 individual members in 2017 and 40,000 members by 2018. Individual membership is free, while fees for corporate membership provides access to more detailed and comprehensive CX information resources.

CRMI continues to provide a wide range of employee engagement services, educational workshops, and employee reward programs designed to help organizations create a workplace where employees are motivated and skilled, customers are valued and relationships are maximized. CRMI’s employee loyalty services include employee incentive and training programs, specifically the Certified CEM Professional (CEMPRO℠) curriculum and award.

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All products, services and company names are the property of their respective owners.

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Welcome to the New CRMI

– Achieving the CXDNA Ultimate Ecosystem℠ brand requires continuous positive customer/employee experiences as the most critical components of a company’s DNA –

It is the Age of Customer/Employee Experiences (CX/EX). Delivering a consistently superior customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) has become table stakes that requires employees who have raised their CX awareness-competence-operational practices. CRMI has championed that concept since its founding in 1999, and now – as CX becomes a strategic imperative for more and more companies – is taking its mission to a new level.

The New CRMI is a membership-based resource that is intended to be your one-stop shop for “Everything CX/EX.” Whether you are new to CX/EX strategy and implementation or a veteran practitioner, as a CRMI Member you will join thousands of like-minded professionals who are eager to learn the latest advances in CX/EX strategies and enabling technologies – and share their experiences in guiding their organizations to the pinnacle of CXDNA success.

Vendors with technology and solutions that fuel the CX/EX marketplace are an important part of the CXDNA Ultimate Ecosystem. Those vendors who are CRMI partners recognize that members are a qualified, highly knowledgeable audience that is constantly seeking the latest innovations to help bring CX/EX perfection to their contact centers, tech support groups, help desks, field service organizations, and other customer-facing operations. So, with our new CX Lab, CRMI Members can test drive these vendors’ solutions and contact them directly for more information.

CX/EX vendors and training consultants and other service providers complete the ecosystem; there’s a directory with information on many of these experts on the New CRMI. Our consulting partners are well versed in the tenets of CX/EX and CRMI’s CXDNA Playbook Strategy. Consequently, they’ll be able to provide assistance with your specific CX/EX needs.

So, welcome to the New CRMI. Please explore all of the information available on our website – from our NorthFace ScoreBoard Awards for product-service-customer facing group(s) certification (CEMPRO CFG) of CXDNA professionals-employee centric companies (Voice of Employee). Also, content-conferences to webcasts-workshops to training-certification, and more. Also, be sure to bookmark our homepage and visit often because we’ll be posting new content and events frequently.

We’re all about “Everything CXDNA” and look forward to exploring this exciting ever-evolving domain together.

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5 Keys to Maintaining Customers Relationships

Consumers and B2B purchasers are spoiled for choice. Nearly any product or service they desire is available at the click of a button, in a 100-page catalog, or a short drive away. And they’re spending on those wants and needs. Consider: Retail sales grew 3.8% in 2016 and is predicted to increase between 3.7 and 4.2% in 2017, according to National Retail Federation. And the Institute for Supply Management predicts manufacturing revenue to increase 4.6% and B2B non-manufacturing revenue to increase 4.1% this year, as well.

But that doesn’t guarantee growth for sellers. In fact, while some companies thrive, others stall or fail completely. What do these growth companies do differently than their less successful counterparts? Businesses that flourish tend to use five key strategies to customer engagement and interactions, laying the groundwork for customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

1. Engage, Engage, Engage

Customers want to be served, but they also want to be noticed. They don’t want to feel as if they’re consumers first and people second. In a retail or B2B setting, don’t just pitch the company’s wares; strike up a conversation with the customer and actively listen to what they’re saying. Respond to their questions or comments in detail. This will give them a sense of belonging and help to build trust.

2. Be Available

You never know when your customers are going to need you. B2C businesses should have multiple touchpoints for service, including chat, social, and traditional contact centers. B2B companies will see significant benefits from monthly courtesy calls to their high-value customers, just to check in. Send customers relevant content, such as links to how-to articles, industry news, and product updates. If you’re available to your customers when they need you, they won’t turn to a competitor.

3. Take Advice

You’re never going to survive as a business if you don’t take customer feedback to heart. Feedback helps to highlight problems and opportunities that those within the organization might never notice. Being attentive and concerned, acting on customer input wherever possible, and keeping customers apprised of your actions and outcomes communicates to customers that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to keep their business.

4. Keep Improving

It’s not possible to make every single customer happy all the time. But if you continuously work to improve your customer experience and always aim for fairness and satisfaction, you’ll come out ahead. Complacency is not an option in today’s customer-driven markets.

5. Focus on the Experience

One of the biggest mistakes that a company makes is attributing customer satisfaction to customer loyalty. It’s more complicated than that. Satisfied customers often leave for a competitor that offers a better customer experience—however customers define it: better service, product, price, attentiveness or responsiveness, etc. Customers are driven by their buying experience. So, understand what aspects of your customer experience keeps them loyal to your company and continue to focus on and excel in those areas.

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3 Ways Customer Surveys Will Benefit Your Business

A successful business needs honest feedback from its customers to evaluate how well those customers’ needs are being met. But customer feedback should be far more than a generic gauge of customer satisfaction. Obtaining customer input is a valuable way to hear firsthand what customers think of your customer experience, products, and services, as well as how to improve them. Just as important, asking customers for their feedback builds customer loyalty and increases retention.

Here are three key benefits of using customer surveys as an information gatherer and relationship builder.

Detailed Insight

The number one benefit of customer surveys is gathering customers’ honest opinions about various facets of your business. Surveys can help you gain insight into how the customer feels about your company and the experience you deliver. Asking the right questions will help you determine, for example, how much customers value the products or services you offer, which provides additional insight into their likelihood to switch providers. Surveys can be an outlet for customers to share detailed feedback not only on products and services, but also on everything from customer service and sales interactions to billing and shipping to ad campaigns and the website experience. Surveys also can help identify potential areas for growth.

Long-term View

Surveys can be repeated. Running a survey multiple times with a defined control will provide you with data ready for comparative analysis. As you collect more surveys, you will have more data to draw deeper analysis and conclusions about your business. Over time, the data will not only reveal important and perhaps unexpected trends, but also may uncover changes you did not anticipate.

Commitment to the Customer

Asking for feedback shows customer commitment, which helps build loyalty and trust—especially if it’s clear to customers how their feedback will be used. If customers’ values, opinions, and feelings are important to your company, demonstrate that by involving customers in ensuring and improving the quality of your products or services. Their input can uncover opportunities for improvements or expansion that you might not have discovered otherwise. And using their feedback is a powerful way to build engagement and loyalty if you close the loop and communicate back to customers the ways that you’ve acted on (and plan to act on) their input and the outcomes of doing so.

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Do Customers Know You Care?

Retaining today’s fickle customers takes more than discounts and loyalty points. Customers want to know that businesses are there to help improve their life or solve a problem—not just empty their wallet. Here are three ways companies can demonstrate the kind of customer commitment that helps retain customers and bolster loyalty.

Express Compassion and Empathy

Stellar service has long been and continues to be a leading ingredient for promoting a healthy long-term customer relationship. Compassion and empathy during service interactions show that your business cares about its customers. Resolving customers’ issues quickly also highlight that you take their concerns seriously. Acting on customers’ feedback in another way to demonstrate empathy that helps to cement customer loyalty.

Stay Abreast of the Customer’s Contentment

A business should keep in touch with customers from the moment they make a purchase. Automated thank-you emails give the customers a sense of appreciation after they buy from you. An onboarding series can help customers get acquainted with your products, services, and processes, which improves their customer experience. Follow-up messages are also excellent ways to see how customers like a product, as well as proactively uncover any issues.

Frequent check-ups based on customers purchasing habits will increase the likelihood that customers will stay engaged. Personalizing those messages helps keeps customers engaged and allows you to send relevant messages at the right time.

Fresh and Frequent Content

Great content adds value to the customer experience. It engages customers through articles, videos, events, and the like that provide information, education, and entertainment. Savvy marketing teams use content to educate customers on all aspects of their products, services, and brand’s unique abilities. High-value content builds brand affinity and bolsters customer loyalty.

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Avoid These Employee Motivation Killers

It’s essential to arm yourself with various strategies you can use to motivate—and retail—your employees. But, it’s equally important to learn what not to do. Here five are workplace motivation killers to beware of.

Negativity
If you’ve been around someone with a bad attitude, you likely understand how detrimental that energy can be to their colleagues’ work demeanor. Use clear policies and coaching to minimize the risk of employees spreading toxic energy through.

Lack of Growth
If employees aren’t growing, they may get complacent or bored. There should be constant learning opportunities for the betterment of the team, and, thus, the company. Professional development is an investment in the success of your business.

Blurry Vision
Transparent communication and a clear vision and mission set an effective company direction and focus. If the vision is muddled, even the most formidable employees won’t be able to operate at their peak performance levels. Ensure that all employees have a clear understanding of the company’s vision.

Trashed Time
If your organization holds two-hour meetings where nothing is truly accomplished, it’s likely your employees harbor frustrations. Don’t waste people’s time. Make sure the goal of each meeting is explicit , the agenda is clear, and that there is follow up afterward.

Lack of Appreciation
Employees don’t expect a gold star at the completion of each task, but it is important to recognize a job well done–especially when someone goes above and beyond expectations. If an employee puts in an extra few hours each day on a big project, devotes weekends, or exhibits extreme dedication, management should recognize those efforts. Recognition can be as simple as a sincere in-person thank you or god big by circulating an email about the person’s accomplishments to the team or company. As the adage goes, a little goes a long way.

Don’t let these employee motivation killers hurt your business. Improve your workplace by recognizing potential demotivators and creating effective solutions. In doing so you’ll build, strengthen, and maintain passionately loyal employees for life.

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The Key Difference Between Loyalty and Retention

Retention marketers know there is a difference between customer loyalty and retention. Without a proper understanding of the two concepts, it’s not possible to retain valued customers and grow wallet share. Consider: A business that keeps customers at all costs is not effectively managing its resources. It’s more cost effective—and more profitable—to use the concepts of loyalty and retention to ensure that customers are so delighted with current product and service offerings that they’ll stay loyal and buy more. That also means it’s better business to identify customers who aren’t a good fit and be willing to cut the cord.

Loyalty Means Growth

Loyal customers conduct themselves in a way that produces positive outcomes for themselves and the business. They stay loyal to a preferred brand despite, for example, price breaks or promotions that competitors offer. Businesses looking to bolster loyalty of turn to formal loyalty programs designed to encourage specific behaviors, such as achieving certain spending levels. Loyalty programs designed well will encourage habits that benefit the customer and business.

When Retention Means Decline

Retention is commonly thought of as the process of keeping a customer. Loyalty programs are one element of retention efforts that aim to not only keep customers, but also increase their value. Retention efforts that aim to keep customers who aren’t a good fit—e.g., they have a high cost to serve, they only buy on special—are likely to waste money on customers who will leave as soon as a competitor presents a better offer. Instead of focusing on price promotions and specials, companies should focus their retention efforts on the customer experience, such as providing education through content, outstanding customer service, and insider-only access to special events.

Why Use Both

Businesses will see the best outcomes from combining loyalty programs with other retention campaigns. Doing so helps to ensure that customers keep coming back—and have plenty of reasons to do so. Implementing a mix of loyalty and other retention-focused campaigns will also help to make sure that you’re build long-lasting relationships with the right customers: those who will provide the greatest returns, versus those with a high cost to serve.

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How Customer Centric Is Your Organization?

Customer centricity is evident in many ways. These include superior customer service, product quality, personalized communications, and responsiveness. By creating a customer-centric culture from the CEO down to your customer-facing employees, your organization will build and sustain long-term, profitable customer relationships.

Being customer-centric starts by placing the customer at the center of a company’s strategic planning. Doing so will help ensure that you get the buy-in you need from across the organization. It also will help to make sure your organization provides positive consumer experiences not only at the point of sale, but also post-sale and throughout the customer lifecycle.

To achieve true customer centricity, a company needs to commit to a culture of customer success. Elements of a customer-centric culture include:

  • engaging with customers in their channels of choice
  • providing top-down support
  • recognizing individual customers across all lines of business
  • designing and implementing processes from the customers’ point of view
  • measuring what matters most to customers
  • fostering customer innovation

Taking a customer-centric approach adds significant value to a company by enabling it to differentiate itself from competitors who do not offer the same experience. Do you think your organization is truly customer centric? Take our quiz to find out!

This self-assessment will reveal you how your company rates in such essential areas as Corporate Leadership, Employee Engagement, Brand Values, and overall Customer Centricity. The results will highlight your areas of strength and show where improvements can be made to bolster your customer experience management (CEM) Strategy.

Take the CEM IQ Quiz today to see exactly how your company rates on the customer-centricity scale.

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Are You Ready for Customer Experience Management?

Customer centricity will only take hold when it’s woven into the fabric of an organization. And that will happen only when customer experience management (CEM) is embedded into a company’s entire operations.

Getting to the point where CEM is a part of a company’s DNA takes time. There are five key areas to examine to determine what actions to take and improvements to make to embed customer centricity in an organization. These comprise CMRI’s Road Map to CEMDNA.

Review current business performance: This includes all operations that contribute to revenue, costs, and profits. Which ones are most directly tied to CEM? Consider dynamics such as growth, retention, win-back, and return on investment (ROI).

Determine current CEM maturity level: Review the actions in the chart below to determine whether your organization is reactive, tentative, engaged, or customer centric. Knowing your starting point is vital to setting CEM objectives and measuring progress and results.

Conduct management interviews: Interview key senior leaders in all customer-facing areas of the business. Doing so is critical to achieving buy-in on CEM processes and building consensus on the key CEM objectives.

Draft vision and mission statements: These shared principles are essential to making CEM part of your organizational DNA. Vision and mission statements should include customer-centric language to maintain a consistent focus on your CEM goals.

Set long-term goals: Based on your current CEM maturity level and the findings from the management interviews, set realistic, achievable goals for a CEM implementation. Create a detailed timetable for achieving each objective within the implementation.

Brand the CEM program: Show that CEM isn’t just the initiative of the month by branding it; for example, “Customers First.” Branding your CEM activities will make the initiative more memorable, help to ensure high visibility and long-term commitment, and set it up for a successful outcome. It also helps to rally support among stakeholders, include employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, and channel partners.

Road Map to CEMDNA is one of 12 elements that comprise the CEMDNA Playbook Strategy.