Customer Experience Articles

SRD Group has a number of published articles on Customer Experience. Browse through our developing library of Customer Experience articles.

• August 2009 - Story: Harnessing the Invisible Power of Everyday Conversations - Jennifer Kirkby and Favid Firth 
• March 2009 - Do you feel this about Research?
• September 2008 - Re-contact Research Case Study

  A business to business software company wanted to closely and independently track how it was performing in the eyes of their clients.

• May 2008 - Companies fail to define and deliver complete customer experience - Latest research from Strativity Group. SRD Group recently took part in a global study on Customer Experience Management with Strativity Group and what they found was “The pursuit of customer loyalty through customer experience is high on the corporate agenda, yet companies still fail to understand the totality of customer expectations and therefore deliver commodity products and services, Strativity Group’s new Global Benchmark study discovers.”
• May 2008 - The five barriers to measuring customer experience - Jennifer Kirkby. As always, Jennifer has written an interesting article on the barriers that companies face in measuring the customer experience. “Customer experience isn’t just about giving customers a good time. It’s about understanding just how good a time (or not) you are giving – and making adjustments. Customer experience is a leading KPI for the customer-centered organisation, and if it is to have its rightful place in your company it must precede and even supersede operational command and control metrics.
  But whilst many organisations have a strong desire to improve their customers’ experience, they are hampered by barriers to effective measurement – their feedback loop is blocked.
  
• Hey - There is a person in there! – Turn your Brand Message into a Brand Mission - Don Peppers - May 2008
  • Do your employees love your brand?
    
  • Do they enjoy telling friends and relatives what company they work for?
    
  • Do they enjoy their careers with you?
    
  • Would they buy your brand for their own personal use, even at its full retail price?
    
• March 2008 - 23 Facts that you cannot ignore about customer loyalty and customer satisfaction (pdf).
   
• November 2007 -  Market research- making it “useful” (pdf) and not just “interesting” by boosting explanation and cutting drag-nets - By Reg Price and Neil Stewart.l Published on Marketing Profs.com
  
  A wise but anonymous marketer once said that a market research report that gets described as “interesting” has failed.  It’s only when it’s “useful” that it gets the pass mark.  After all, what’s the point of interesting research if it can’t be put to use?
  
  
• Extracting Profitable Growth From An Existing Customer Base - Fuji Xerox case study (pdf) - SRD Group
  
  Fuji Xerox NZ (FXNZ) wanted to boost its growth, profitably.
  
  They believed that by improving the experience their customers had of them that they could get organic growth from their existing customer base. There was a general feeling in the marketing department that FXNZ was providing a pretty average experience for its customers, but this had not been properly quantified. Previous customer satisfaction surveys had shown there was room to improve, but it was not clear just what the areas for focus might be.
  
  
• Two Birds with One Stone - Reg Price and Don Schultz
  
  This strategic philosophy argues that two strategies must be employed in order to maximize growth from a customer base - these are the “two birds”.  The first strategy must be to reduce dissatisfaction by meeting the basic expectations of customers.  To do so reduces the number of “detractors” - negative customers who tend to leave for a competitor and bad mouth the offending firm.
  
  Fixing the problems that cause such dissatisfaction will not in itself, however, overcome the ambivalence customers feel towards a provider.  This requires another strategy altogether aimed at making a company stand out above the rest.  This is the second “bird” in the two birds with one stone strategy.  We like to use the term “spiky experience”.
  
  
• Voice Of The Customer Research: Let Your Customers Do The Talking - By Neil Davey…
  
  “If you go out to your customer base and ask them what is right and wrong with the company, you are asking them to commit time and effort. If you then do nothing about that, and you don’t make your service better on the strength of those recommendations, then those customers are going to feel less inclined to stay with you.
  
  There are firms that merely talk the talk. But those that walk the walk know that it is the customer that should be doing the talking."  Read more here...
  
  
• Driving Loyalty through Fantastic Customer Experiences (PDF) (added October 2007)
  
  It is not just the big brands that can be known for providing high levels of customer experience, you can too. And it does not have to cost more. In fact, it can cost less. Approximately 30% of business costs can result from correcting errors - failing to identify and provide what it was that customers really wanted when they first requested it. Correct the errors and you can satisfy customers, and reduce costs.
  
  
• Customer Experience Management
  
  If its worth doing, then its worth actively managing. Find out some of the fundamentals of Customer Experience Management.
  
  
• The Customers Benchmark (PDF)
  
  Jennifer Kirkby of Mutual Marketing talks about what is it that customers value most, what is the requirements benchmark against which customers measure you? There are seven factors of customer value involving both the rational and emotional aspects of purchasing.
  
  
• Unlocking the value of your Customer Satisfaction Survey (PDF)- Craig Bailey, Customer Centricity, Inc
  
  In today's business environment companies cannot afford to lose a single profitable customer. By effectively leveraging results from a customer satisfaction survey an organization can respond to their customer's needs in ways that increase revenue as well as improve customer and employee, satisfaction and loyalty. Many companies perform customer satisfaction surveys, but don't receive full value from their investments to administer the program. Too often survey results are used simply for monthly reporting on "how we did last month".