Build Your Customer Strategy

"The customer relationships that a company is able to cultivate represent the most important asset that will never appear on its balance sheet." -From Chapter 1 of Build Your Customer Strategy Build Your Customer Strategy: A Guide to Creating Profitable Customer Relationships spells out how to create profitable and lasting customer relationships. It demystifies creating the great customer experience-something that everyone seems to be talking about these days-by showing you how to approach "experience" in ways your competitors haven't even thought of. Praise for Build Your Customer Strategy: A Guide to Creating Profitable Customer Relationships "Jim Barnes has written a down-to-earth, highly readable book that takes you through real examples with concrete ideas you can use today. Fact is, customers are the only source of revenue, and Jim will help your company build the strategy to grow the value of each customer to your firm, by making sure your firm becomes more valuable to each customer." -Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, PhD coauthors, The One to One Future and Return on Customer "Jim Barnes is in a class by himself as a guru who truly understands customer relationships from the customer's point of view. Read Build Your Customer Strategy when you're ready to move past slogans and technology-based CRM projects to create real customer equity and long-term profitability." -Bob Thompson, CEO CustomerThink Corp., and founder, CRMGuru.com "Build Your Customer Strategy is the book for leaders committed to creating genuine connections with clients. Jim goes beyond conventional thinking to help businesses understand, create, and implement a strategy that will result in the type of long-term loyal customers everyone wants-the ones who bring their family and friends." -Anne Lockie, Executive Vice President, Sales Canadian Personal and Business Clients, RBC Royal Bank "Excellent reading. Jim Barnes brings a refreshing perspective to customer service, loyalty and the importance of long-term, sustainable client relationships. Insightful and very educational." -Stephen Foster, Senior Vice President, Operations Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Business Models for Transforming Customer Relationships What if there were a way to turn occasional, sporadic transactions with customers into long-term, continuous relationships--while simultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiency? What if you could break your existing trade-offs between superior customer experience and low cost? This is the promise of a connected strategy. New forms of connectivity--involving frequent, low-friction, customized interactions--mean that companies can now anticipate customer needs as they arise, or even before. Simultaneously, enabled by these technologies, companies can create new business models that deliver more value to customers. Connected strategies are win-win: Customers get a dramatically improved experience, while companies boost operational efficiency. In this book, strategy and operations experts Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch reveal the emergence of connected strategies as a new source of competitive advantage. With in-depth examples from companies operating in industries such as healthcare, financial services, mobility, retail, entertainment, nonprofit, and education, Connected Strategy identifies the four pathways--respond-to-desire, curated offering, coach behavior, and automatic execution--for turning episodic interactions into continuous relationships. The authors show how each pathway creates a competitive advantage, then guide you through the critical decisions for creating and implementing your own connected strategies. Whether you're trying to revitalize strategy in an established company or disrupt an industry as a startup, this book will help you: Reshape your connections with your customers Find new ways to connect with existing suppliers while also activating new sources of capacity Create the right revenue model Make the best technology choices to support your strategy Integrating rich examples, how-to advice, and practical tools in the form of "workshop chapters" throughout, this book is the ultimate resource for creating competitive advantage through connected relationships with your customers and redefined connections in your industry.

CRM first entered the business vocabulary in the early 90’s; initially as a systems driven technical solution. It has since escalated in importance as system providers increased their market penetration of the business market and, in parallel, CRM’s strategic importance gained more traction as it was recognized that CRM was, at its heart, a business model in the pursuit of sustainable profit. This was accentuated by the academic community stepping up their interest in the subject in the early 2000’s. Today, it is a universal business topic which has been re-engineered by the online shopping revolution in which the customer is firmly placed at the center of the business. The current reality, however, is that, for the vast majority of businesses, CRM has not been adopted as a business philosophy and practicing business model. It has not been fully understood and therefore fully embraced and properly implemented. The author addresses this head-on by stripping CRM down into its component parts by delving into and explaining the role and relevance of the C, R, and M in CRM. This is a practical guide but set within a strategic framework. The outage is clear actionable insights and how to convert them into delivery. It is written in an easily digestible, non-jargon style, with case studies to demonstrate how CRM works. This book can be immediately used as the primary practical reference to guide the development and implementation of a CRM strategy.

Engage hearts, minds and organizations to make customers happierWe will show you howYou probably have lots ideas that will make things better for customers, but you don't have the time, money or people to implement everything. How should you go about choosing the best ideas? How can you secure the resources you need to be successful? How can you bring more customer focus to your entire company? I want to help you to make all of that happen. Three keys to successI learned about customer experience in the clothing industry, and went on to lead it in three of the largest high-tech companies. Three things remained constant throughout that time. First, you are probably wrong if you think you know what customers want, but have not actually asked them. Second, it can be really hard to get the people and other resources you need to improve things for customers. Third, unless you take a systematic approach to creating and implementing a customer experience improvement strategy, you cannot possibly be successful. Use my experience to accelerate yoursWhether you are starting a new position in customer experience or have many successful years behind you, I believe I can provide new insights that will help you to get things done quickly. I have made many mistakes over many years. I learned from them, and have now documented what I learned. I have faced all sorts of problems. I have solved almost all of them, perhaps not perfectly. Hopefully you can learn what I learned, and do even better. Strategy is all about resource allocationI have learned one fundamental thing about designing business strategy and customer experience strategy. It is all about allocation of resources: people and money. Any investment you make in people and money must return more than it costs. If you don't already have the people and money, you have to ask for them. The people you ask will want you to justify your proposal, based on facts. You will also have to appeal to their emotions. I will show you how to do that. Engage both hearts and mindsI have also learned one thing about persuading leaders and employees to adopt, fund, and implement a customer experience strategy. You can only be successful by engaging people's emotions, rather than simply presenting the facts. My work was far more successful once I understood exactly how to engage both hearts and minds, based on the principles of behavioural economics. Artwork that makes it memorableI have the good fortune to have a brother who combines two rare talents. He has an Oxford doctorate in cognitive psychology, and he is a successful artist. He also has a weird sense of humor. He has used this special combination to make many points in the book far more memorable. You won't find this in any other strategy books. Updated in March 2019I updated my research on the relationship between customer and employee satisfaction (now covers 398 large businesses selling to US consumers) in March 2019, and updated the corresponding section of the book. This and a series of other minor improvements brought new versions of the Kindle and print editions of the book in early March 2019. Now what?So, how do you go about deciding what to do next? That is what this book is all about. It provides a straightforward methodology for studying what your customers and partners want, and other major factors that drive decisions. There is a special focus on communication. I have used it successfully at large and small scale. I have used it at HP to drive country strategies, business unit strategies and M&A strategies. I have used it for a small software company with only four employees. It scales well. I believe it is the best possible way of developing a customer experience strategy in a short time. It does work. You do need it. You are just a click or two away. You know what to do now.

This text shows how to use the Internet to keep customers, increase sales, and improve profits. It offers practical, easy-to-understand and apply advice based on proven marketing principles and on real, detailed case-studies of how well-known corporations are using the Internet successfully.

In today’s competitive marketplace, customer relationshipmanagement is critical to a company’s profitability andlong-term success. To become more customer focused, skilledmanagers, IT professionals and marketing executives must understandhow to build profitable relationships with each customer and tomake managerial decisions every day designed to increase the valueof a company by making managerial decisions that will grow thevalue of the customer base. The goal is to build long-termrelationships with customers and generate increased customerloyalty and higher margins. In Managing Customer Relationships, DonPeppers and Martha Rogers, credited with founding thecustomer-relationship revolution in 1993 when they invented theterm "one-to-one marketing," provide the definitive overview ofwhat it takes to keep customers coming back for years to come. Presenting a comprehensive framework for customer relationshipmanagement, Managing Customer Relationships provides CEOs, CFOs,CIOs, CMOs, privacy officers , human resources managers, marketingexecutives, sales teams, distribution managers, professors, andstudents with a logical overview of the background, themethodology, and the particulars of managing customer relationshipsfor competitive advantage. Here, renowned customer relationshipmanagement pioneers Peppers and Rogers incorporate many of theprinciples of individualized customer relationships that they arebest known for, including a complete overview of the background andhistory of the subject, relationship theory, IDIC(Identify-Differentiate-Interact-Customize) methodology, metrics,data management, customer management, company organization, channelissues, and the store of the future. One of the first books designed to develop an understanding ofthe pedagogy of managing customer relationships, with an emphasison customer strategies and building customer value, ManagingCustomer Relationships features: Pioneering theories and principles of individualized customerrelationships An overview of relationship theory Contributions from such revolutionary leaders as Philip Kotler,Esther Dyson, Geoffrey Moore, and Seth Godin Guidelines for identifying customers and differentiating them byvalue and need Tips for using the tools of interactivity and customization tobuild learning relationships Coverage of the importance of privacy and customer feedback Advice for measuring the success of customer-basedinitiatives The future and evolution of retailing An appendix that examines the qualities needed in a firm’scustomer relationship leaders, and that provides fundamental toolsfor embarking on a career in managing customer relationships orhelping a company use customer value as the basis for executivedecisions The techniques in Managing Customer Relationships can help anycompany sharpen its competitive advantage.

Boost profits, margins, and customer loyalty with more effective CRM strategy Managing Customer Experience and Relationships, Third Edition positions the customer as central to long-term strategy, and provides essential guidance toward optimizing that relationship for the long haul. By gaining a deep understanding of this critical dynamic, you'll become better able to build and manage the customer base that drives revenue and generates higher margins. A practical framework for implementing the IDIC model merges theory, case studies, and strategic analysis to provide a ready blueprint for execution, and in-depth discussion of communication, metrics, analytics, and more allows you to optimize the relationship on both sides of the table. This new third edition includes updated examples, case studies, and references, alongside insightful contributions from global industry leaders to give you a well-rounded, broadly-applicable knowledge base and a more effective CRM strategy. Ancillary materials include a sample syllabus, PowerPoints, chapter questions, and a test bank, facilitating use in any classroom or training session. The increased reliance on customer relationship management has revealed a strong need for knowledgeable practitioners who can deploy effective initiatives. This book provides a robust foundation in CRM principles and practices, to help any business achieve higher customer satisfaction. Understand the fundamental principles of the customer relationship Implement the IDIC model to improve CRM ROI Identify essential metrics for CRM evaluation and optimization Increase customer loyalty to drive profits and boost margins Sustainable success comes from the customer. If your company is to meet performance and profitability goals, effective customer relationship management is the biggest weapon in your arsenal—but it must be used appropriately. Managing Customer Experience and Relationships, Third Edition provides the information, practical framework, and expert insight you need to implement winning CRM strategy.

Stop closing sales. Start opening relationships. It's time to design your business for profit. Management practices from last century are no longer enough to grow your business. This book spells out a formula you can use to take a deliberate approach to building a profitable customer portfolio.