May 2007 Newsletter

eZines: Dec 2005 > May 2007 > June 2007

Dear Clients

We at SRD Group have had a very exciting year! We have enhanced our service offerings, strengthened our alliances and have undergone a re-branding and associated web site makeover.

We are working very closely with a number of subject matter experts including Reg Price and Duncan Stuart in the area of Customer Experience Management. Some of the companies that we have been working with recently include Jade Software Corporation, Fuji Xerox New Zealand and Crop & Food Research. All of these companies are at various stages of their journey and are all making good progress. We will bring you more about what we have been doing with these companies in the coming months.

This month's edition includes:

• Two Birds with One Stone – The Disarmingly Sensible Way to Growth and Profit From Existing Customers - Reg Price and Don Schultz This forms the strategic context for a lot of our Customer Experience Management initiatives.
• Is It Possible Your Customers Don't Notice? - Jim Barnes, Barnes Marketing Associates, Inc.
• First, Define What a Valuable Experience Is for Your Customers - Colin Shaw, Beyond Philosophy

It’s good to be in touch! We hope you find the following articles of interest. Be sure to contact us if you would like to know more about focusing on performance improvement in Customer Experience and Customer Relationship Management.

Kind regards



Managing Director

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Two Birds with One Stone - Reg Price and Don Schultz

Outraged customers are true problem children. They not only defect but also (often) depart in a storm that is time consuming and de-motivating for your staff. Alternatively, delighted customer's actions bring real benefits. Their profit impact brought about by their loyalty has been well documented. They are usually great to deal with and openly show willingness to actively support you. The more of them you have, the better.

The challenge is, what strategies should managers employ to best manage the critically important customers at the extremes—to encourage the advocates and silence the problem children? Given the importance of the two customer extremes, the way forward fits into a disarmingly simple action plan that we call the "two birds with one stone" strategy. Read full article here…

Reg is a subject matter expert and partner of SRD Group. He was co-founder of The Customer Experience Alliance along with Neil Stewart.

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Is It Possible Your Customers Don't Notice? - Jim Barnes, Barnes Marketing Associates, Inc.

Is it possible that you have invested all that money in your CRM system and it has had little or no effect on how your customers feel about your company or your brand? Read full article here...

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First, Define What a Valuable Experience Is for Your Customers - Colin Shaw, Beyond Philosophy

To create a valued customer experience, your organization needs to define what it is; it needs to be based on customer research; and it needs to consider emotions. The great news is that once this is defined and implemented, you can save money and, at the same time, provide a customer experience that is valued. Read full article here...

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The Last Word

Many companies, from the Fortune 500 to SMBs, have seen their CRM investments under-deliver due to the lack of an effective adoption strategy. AMR Research reports that 65 cents of every dollar spent on customer management initiatives are wasted due to a lack of adoption, lack of business process change and limited focus on getting data back out of systems.