Category: Blog
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Is the Customer Always Right? Navigating the ‘Wrong Customer’ Dilemma
I attended a webinar recently, with a really interesting panel of experts on Customer Journey Mapping. At one point, I asked the panel about what Jones and Sasser1 defined as “wrong customers” and one of the experts, quite rightly said: “We have to be careful how we label our customers. We surely don’t have “wrong”…
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Unlocking Customer Experience: A Strategic Approach to Business Success
I was at a wedding recently, in that lovely environment with all the moving speeches and all the warm fraternity floating in the air. It’s one of the rare occasions where it doesn’t feel awkward to speak to strangers. The Wedding Conversation: A CX Insight I was sitting with a mixed group of people at…
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CX OriginsThe Ancient Roots of Customer Experience: A 4,000-Year Journey
When we hear “CX” today, we think of customer satisfaction surveys, Net Promoter ScoreSM, and digital feedback forms. However, the practice of customer experience is as old as commerce itself. CX: More Than Just Modern Acronyms If we travelled back 2,000 years and asked a Roman merchant about ‘CX’, he would tell us it meant…
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Rethinking Loyalty: Lessons from Comparing NPS with Actual Behaviour
In collaboration with one of my clients, I recently conducted an eye-opening experiment that challenged the assumptions many of us have about loyalty metrics. By comparing last year’s survey data, which used the Net Promoter Score (NPS®) to assess loyalty, with this year’s real-world customer behaviour, we uncovered some striking insights. The Experiment Last year,…
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Are Discounts for New Customers Worth It?
Have you ever seen an offer or discount ‘for new customers only’? It’s a great marketing and sales tactic to attract new customers, but what about existing ones? How do you feel when your bank or supermarket offers discounts and promotions to new customers but excludes you? Do you take this as an invitation to…
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Feedback Bias: Navigating the Complexities of Honest Insights
Introduction: The Complexity of Feedback in Close Relationships Have you ever found it hard to be completely honest with someone you care about, even when they ask for your opinion? Now imagine that on a professional scale, where exclusivity and gratitude complicate the feedback process. Feedback isn’t just a simple transaction of thoughts. The relationship…
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Revisiting the Apostles Model: Understanding Customer Behaviour in Today’s Context
The Apostles Model was introduced by James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, and Leonard A. Schlesinger at Harvard Business School in “Customer Satisfaction Is Key to the Extraordinary Success of Service Businesses” (1991). Their foundational work has been pivotal in shaping CX strategies, and their insights remain relevant even as other metrics are more commonly…
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Surveying for Compliments: The Bias in Customer Feedback
The Innocent-Looking Survey Back in March, I received a survey from a well-known financial services company. I hid some bits from the picture but you know the type—they pop up in your inbox, looking all innocent, asking you to “share your experience” after a recent interaction. Naturally, I opened it up, curious to see what…
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The Impact of Ambiguous Survey Questions: Ensuring Clear Data for Effective CX Insights
As a Customer Experience (CX) consultant, I often find myself discussing the intricacies of survey design with clients. Just last week, a client mentioned an issue that struck a chord with me: they’d received feedback from customers who were so puzzled by the questions in their surveys that they actually contacted the company for clarification.…