September 2003 eZine
Customer Experience

Introduction

Hooray, we are finally starting to see articles from various experts placing a lot more emphasis on the Customer Experience. We all know that a great experience is the result of good Customer Relationship Management.

We subscribe fully to the definition:

“The Customer Experience is a blend of the companies physical performance and the emotions evoked, intuitively measured against customer expectations across all moments of contact.” - Shaw and Ivens. 

A Customer Experience Statement says what your organisation wants your customers to experience both physically and emotionally. It is a great way of keeping your CRM journey on track whilst  ensuring all other 'projects' are considered in terms of delivering the same experience.

The Role of Customer Insight in Building Your CRM Strategy

Learn the secrets to gaining true customer insight in this in-depth white paper by Dr. Jim Barnes, acclaimed educator, author, consultant and speaker with more than 30 years experience in customer relationship consulting and research. He Discusses the five levels of customer value creation with a focus on the critical emotional elements overlooked by traditional "CRM" systems. The role of Customer Insight (PDF).

Optimizing the Customer Experience to Drive Loyalty, Profitability and Growth

World-class customer service is critical to compete and win in today's challenging economy. This white paper discusses the causes and consequences of poor alignment between internal business objectives and customer needs, and the four key elements necessary to deliver an exceptional customer experience. Optimising the Customer Experience (article not able to be found)  (PDF).

Upcoming Events /Programmes

Many of our clients who are interested in our  breakfast workshops are flat out at the moment and have asked us to hold off for a while. Given that the silly season is fast approaching it may well be the new year before we run them.  The workships will be:

1. ' What should Senior Management get out of CRM & how can we keep them involved? '
2. ' Building Great Customer Experiences'  -  what does it take!

We will keep you informed of when these will take place in both Australia and New Zealand.

Contribution Corner - an idea!

We strongly believe that many of the organisations we work and have contact with, have experience and learning that would be valuable to share with other companies who are on, or thinking about the CRM journey . We would like the recipients of CustomerCentric Times to contribute through writing about their experiences. Those whose papers are published will receive a bottle of Matariki wine courtesy of Burleigh Trading. Please let us know whether you would be interested in contributing:

Email   - Interested in contributing / Not Interested in contributing

Tips/Thoughts

“No longer do customers purchase goods merely for their functional use but also for the experiences created during purchase and use. Similarly, clients do not buy services merely for the sake of having a function delivered by another party but for the memorable events surrounding those services.” B Joseph Pine II and James H.Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard Business Review

Regards

Neil Stewart
and the Team at SRD Group