If you think about it, intention, action and reaction is only about 1/4 of a brand’s value. The customer controls the remaining 3/4 of the brand’s value based on their perceptions of how the company delivers, whether it be product quality, service and fit with the customer’s needs, values and expectations.

Company’s influence their brand value through interactions. Customer’s control brand value.

If you got up this morning believing your company is in control of its brand, your year is already off to a rocky start.

The good news is it’s only January 3. You still have a few days to make changes.

Will you make them?

You cannot control your brand | Dave Harkins

Customer loyalty, like friendship, is built on a mutual understanding and acceptance of one another. At minimum, the relationship between the customer and the organization requires:

> Honesty

> Integrity

> Consideration

> Empathy

> Respect

> Humor (maybe not required, but certainly helpful)

While the customer easily gives these qualities, organizations with which they purport to have a relationship often do not reciprocate. From an organization’s perspective, a customer relationship is all too often built only on revenue generated. Specifically, the value of that relationship is measured on the number of purchases made and the size of those purchases. When a customer recognizes that their loyalty is measured only by these factors, such as with supermarket loyalty programs, they become fickle about the relationship. Laziness creeps in and whoever has the best sale prices or is closest to home gains the customer’s favor. When this happens, the relationship becomes a commodity for the customer, as it is already for the organization.

To prevent customer laziness, organizations need to think of customers more as friends, than as dollar signs. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask yourself the same questions you might ask about your friendships, for example:

Do my customers…

1. Feel like they’re “my only customer” whenever we get together?

2. Talk about our relationship in a positive light with their other friends?

3. Tell me when I’ve done something wrong and give me an opportunity to make it right?

4. Share their lives and stories with me because they know I care about them and the relationship?

5. Count on me to deliver whenever they’re in need?

6. Desire to spend more time with me and take every opportunity to do so—wherever I may be?

7. Show passion about our relationship (brand)?

8. Believe that every action I take is in their best interests?

9. Feel that they’re desired?

10. See tangible and long-term value our relationship?

If you can truthfully answer yes to most of these questions, your customer relationships—and long-term customer loyalty—are in good shape. If not, you have some work to do.

Do keep in mind social media tools make it very easy to build and cultivate customer loyalty today. You can connect anywhere at any time and have a meaningful conversation with customers. There’s really no excuse for not putting time and effort into building these relationships. Not doing so will make it easy for the customer to decide if he’s really loyal, or just lazy.

Can you afford lazy customers? No, I didn’t think so.

Are your customers loyal or lazy? | Dave Harkins

One can hear, but not be listening.  One can listen, but not really hear what’s being said.  Either way, the conversation goes on just the same.  People are talking to you and about you, but you may not be making the connection that its “you” who is the topic of the conversation.  Take it from a guy who has had the benefit of hearing impairment most of his adult life.

Those same conversations go on about organizations and brands every day.  Everyone talks, but few organizations really listen.  It seems to me that most organizations are “hearing or listening impaired,” and the older the organization the worse the problem.  Granted, most organizations try to hear what is being said, but some are still using an old-fashioned hearing aid (ear trumpet).  There are others who let their hearing aid batteries weaken, or worst of all, still others have removed their hearing aids because they don’t like what their hearing.

Don’t believe me?  Do you work for any of these organizations?

The Ear Trumpets
Organizations listening to customers with the ear trumpet funnel many voices down a long tube where only the loudest are heard.  In an organization, this is like sending all the calls to “customer service” or the “help desk.”  The ear trumpet solution works poorly for the hearing impaired and even worse for organizations.  Think about it: just because the organization is not hearing the softer voices doesn’t mean friends, neighbors, and competitors aren’t.

The Weak Batteries
Those organizations that operate on weak batter power for their hearing device miss critical elements of the conversation with their customers.  The conversations continue, but the organization picks up only bits and pieces—like a conversation with your mom on a bad mobile phone connection.  She keeps talking; unfortunately, you’ve dropped enough of what she is saying that don’t realize you’ve been offered a free trip to the Bahamas…  and declined to go.  The same thing happens with customers when an organization only hears parts of the conversation—good opportunities are lost.

The Not Listenings
The organization that removes its hearing device, or has decided not to buy one in the first place, does not want to participate in the conversation with its customers.  It would rather yell at a customer and hope a few want what it’s selling, than open up a conversation with the customer about needs, values, and expectations.  Who likes to be yelled at all the time?  Not me, and I’ll bet not you.  Aside from great products and exceptional service, all customers really want is to be heard.

Social media tools help level the playing field for organizations that are “hearing impaired.”  It’s like having a pair of super-charged, digital hearing aids that help you amplify just those frequencies you need to hear.  This ability to listen, hear and actively engage in conversations 24/7 allow your organization unbelievable opportunities to learn from your customers, correct your mistakes, and build a loyal following.

Now, turn on those hearing aids and engage in conversation.  You’ll be surprised what you will learn when you start listening again.

People are talking. Are you listening? | Dave Harkins

Most told us they just punched the last prompt they heard, but 99% of those misdirected callers should have chosen the first prompt they heard. I suppose one way of looking at this is that they customer was interested enough to listen to all the prompts before deciding. I think what truly happens is customers are waiting for a better “fit” with their needs and are responding to the last thing that they hear because they can’t remember what came before.

You do this, don’t you? I certainly do. We are always looking for something that better meets our needs, so we filter information that we don’t believe is relevant at this moment. We say to ourselves, “I don’t need that now. I’ll look for it again, when I do need it.” Things you don’t need never make your radar; the last thing you hear always does–even if it’s not what you need at the time.

For marketers, this is a huge problem. What it means is that we cannot just strive to be first name that comes to mind, we must also be the last name heard.

This is a task more difficult that it sounds.

Accomplishing both means your brand has to be everywhere, or at least seem like you are everywhere your customer. To be sure, it means you have to look for alternative ways of reaching customers. It definitely means you have to go to the customer and stop waiting on them to come to you. You also have to engage in the conversation and make sure your voice is heard. You have to understand your customer better and anticipate their needs to the best of our ability. However, more than anything, this means you have to be where you’re not expected, as well as where you are expected.

Be everywhere. Be relevant. Be unexpected. Any one is good, but achieving all three will help keep your brand both first and last in your customer’s mind. That’s where you want your brand to rest. Nothing between really matters.

The last thing you hear | Dave Harkins

It strikes me odd that so many supermarkets have loyalty cards. First of all, nearly every supermarket offers the programs with price-off incentives. In other words, have the card, get a special price. Where’s the loyalty in that? Many people (including those in my immediate family) have cards to all the local supermarkets and take advantage of the special pricing on key merchandise at all of the stores. Again, where’s the loyalty?

I know that some people are afraid to join the programs for fear of “Big Brother” tracking purchase patterns and products. The fact is, most supermarkets do little with the data collected other than, well, collect points. Worst of all, you can’t usually do anything with the point that you’ve collected and often you don’t really know how many points are in your piggy bank.

So, here’s a supposed loyalty program that accumulates points; does little with them to build an individualized relationship; gives you (and everyone else who holds the card) discounts on merchandise they want to “sell” but not necessarily what you want to “buy”, and; provides no incentive to shop only with this supermarket.

Odd, isn’t it?

Supermarket loyalty? | Dave Harkins

Please note that this presentation is Dave Harkins’ work created in other partnerships or organizations and the design templates have not been changed. Additionally, this content may now be dated but can still be used as an idea starter for your specific needs.

PRESENTATION: Keeping Promises | Dave Harkins

Please note that this presentation is Dave Harkins’ work created in other partnerships or organizations and the design templates have not been changed. Additionally, this content may now be dated but can still be used as an idea starter for your specific needs.

PRESENTATION: Inside the customer’s mind | Dave Harkins

Please note that this presentation is Dave Harkins’ work created in other partnerships or organizations and the design templates have not been changed. Additionally, this content may now be dated but can still be used as an idea starter for your specific needs.

Customers Are Channel Neutral

WHITEPAPER: Customers are Channel Neutral | Dave Harkins

Please note that this presentation is Dave Harkins’ work created in other partnerships or organizations and the design templates have not been changed. Additionally, this content may now be dated but can still be used as an idea starter for your specific needs.

Delivered with Cindy Tanton, Director, Database Marketing, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida

Developing Continuity of Contact Program

PRESENTATION: Developing a Continuity of Contact Program | Dave Harkins

The acronym CRM is a confusing one. Many people say it stands for Customer Relationship Management, while others suggest Customer Relationship Marketing. Let’s take a look at how both of these acronyms are playing out.

Customer Relationship Management

In the mid-90′s while many of us were working on Marketing Information Systems (MkIS) to support customer focused strategies, most software and systems vendors were busy building and selling “Customer Relationship Management” software as a way to capitalize on the growing interest in the acronym “CRM”. Fueled largely by this influx of CRM software and systems, most people began to accept that “CRM” stood for Customer Relationship Management, and began their attempts to manage relationships with customers. Most organizations taking this approach have found that their CRM initiatives have failed to live up to expectations-both financially and with stronger relationships with their customers.

CRM-as defined through systems and technology-relies heavily on customer data, information, buying patterns, and the like. It assumes we’re able to gain the data we need to do a better job of “managing” the customers needs, values and expectations with our business. However, customers don’t tell us everything and assuming they did, there are so many external factors that will influence a purchase decision, or loyalty to a business, we could never hope to have databases large enough or powerful enough to allow us manage relationships for any length of time with any sustainable success. Yet we try anyway. As a result, most of us are data rich and information poor, and have learned the hard way that CRM is not about systems and technology. High hopes that having more customer data would lead to more effective and targeted marketing programs that would lead to higher revenue for the company, have been dashed. Simply
capturing the data and trying to sell the customer more things doesn’t do a darn thing improve the relationship-a fact that many have learned the hard way.

Customer Relationship Management is perhaps a misnomer. A better term for the systems and technology aspect might be Customer Information Management.

Customer Relationship Marketing

The term Customer Relationship Marketing-or the other CRM-seems to have fallen by the wayside. This is perhaps the better term to use in describing what we do with customer information. We gather it, analyze it, identify patterns, and then make offers to customer based on this data. We can make those offers through the mail, online, by telephone, by email, or in person. We can test our offers, our messages and our channels to see which combination produces the best results
for our business. Customer Relationship Marketing? It seems like we once called this database marketing, and before that direct response. But, it should go further.

Customer Relationship Marketing should take advantage of the data and information gathered from all of the customer touch points in determining the best offer, message and channel for the marketing efforts. Unfortunately, most organization don’t yet go this far. Most don’t have enough of the customer information needed to develop effective messages and compelling offers; and have too much information that provides little value for marketers charged with increasing revenue. An example of which is the large volumes of transactional data that can be found with many catalogers. Most catalog operations can tell that a customer had purchased 25 pair of blue shoes, but they often can’t make the correlation between those blue shoes and other blue things that this customer may have purchased. If this correlation could be made, they would be able to determine what blue things the customer has already, and what blue things it could offer next.

Customer Relationship Marketing then is a term that describes a more deliberate approach to delivering the right products, to the right customer, at the right time based on the data and information-purchase history, personal information, channel preferences, and more-an organization has been able to collect. Is it anything more than glorified database marketing? Probably not as it’s now practiced. But, it has the potential to be so much more.

Can we really hope to manage a relationship with the customer? Not in our wildest
dreams. Customers can be identified, developed and nurtured, but never really managed based on the data that we collect. Unlike personal relationships with family or friends, organizations don’t have the personal context for the data collected. Organizations can’t look at the Ms. Jane Doe and know that she doesn’t like high-heeled shoes because she has problems with her feet. At best, it may only know that she never buys high-heeled shoes. That’s not-and never was intended to be-a relationship from the customer’s perspective. It’s a business transaction, that’s all.

In today’s world most organizations require systems and technology to manage the vast of amounts of customer data we now collect. These systems, though, have nothing to do with managing the actual customer. Since most organizations now have this data, the focus should be on how to turn it into information to better deliver value to our customers, which will with any luck help create more revenue for the organization.

On the other hand, maybe organizations should stop trying to manage relationships with customers and began providing value for prices paid, along with a little friendly, helpful customer service. It would probably go a long way toward improving revenue. This approach worked long before the CRM acronym appeared, and will undoubtedly work long after it’s gone.

CRM: Management, Marketing or both? | Dave Harkins