Bob Thompson
Citrix, NetScout, and Haemonetics share secrets of award-winning B2B customer service
I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the awards dinner of SCORE, an annual conference by Omega Management Group. In all, 40 companies were recognized for excellence in customer service. What's very cool and I believe unique in the CX industry is that the...
Smart Practice for #CustServ Channel Optimization: Less is More
Recently my car battery died and I resigned myself to a few hours of inconvenience. I'd have to find a local repair shop, figure out how to jump my car to get it there (hello, neighbor!), wait for the replacement to be installed,...
Qubit Helps Digital Marketers Shift Gears on the Road to a 1-to-1 Future
If you’re an avid cyclist looking for components, clothing, or even a shiny new set of wheels, online searches will eventually take you to ChainReactionCyles.com. A business that started as a local bike shop in Northern Ireland in 1984 now runs the world’s biggest...
Creating and Selling Change (X>XY>Y) — 5 Questions for the Authors of “Selling Vision”
Everyone knows that buyers today are behaving differently now, thanks to easy access of information via the Web. The problem is that while buyers are changing, sellers have struggled to keep up. I was pleased to review a new book that doesn't dodge the core...
Top 5 signs you’re doing a REAL Customer Experience Management (CXM) initiative
What does it really mean to do a "Customer Experience Management" (CXM) initiative? Theoretically, it could include anything because customer experience includes everything. Identifying Critical Success Factors (CSFs) is a planning technique to focus on the important few things. If it's truly "critical" and...
5 Questions for Richard Shapiro About Saving “The Endangered Customer”
Richard Shapiro’s book The Endangered Customer: Eight Steps to Guarantee Repeat Business is an exclamation point on his three decades of experience in customer service. Learn how to make customers welcome, earn their trust, and surprise them in ways that keep them coming back,...
Are You Competing on Customer Experience to Keep Up, Get Ahead, or “Leave a...
Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is. —Jackson Pollack Three years ago, MassMutual embarked on a journey to reconnect with its customers. This 165-year-old financial services firm realized that "you can't spray paint excitement" on largely...
Innovation: The Art of Implementation — 5 Questions with Robert Brands
We've all seen those magazine lists of "most innovative" companies. Typically included are companies like Apple or, more recently, Tesla. Some are little more than popularity contests, others like Forbes do a better job of assessing how innovation is contributing to business success. Without change,...
3 Strategies to Sell the CEO on Customer Experience Management (CXM)
These days everyone seems to be on the CX bandwagon. Various studies find that upwards of 70% of executives believe CX is the key to differentiate in a world where it's not enough to offer a competitive product or price. And, in recent years...
Can You Trust B2B Software Review Sites? Doveryai, No Proveryai
Short answer: No. I mean Yes. Let me explain. There is no such thing as a completely unbiased review. So if you're looking for one and only one source of B2B software info to help you decide which software is "best" for your business, you're...
New Study: What Separates Innovation Leaders from the Rest?
A new report by PA Consulting finds fear of failure one the big reasons that companies aren't more successful. There is some indication that innovation is related to better business results. Of the group of "innovation leaders" (identified as those who strongly believe their...
Customer Success Management: Training Wheels for CXM?
A couple of years ago a Forrester analyst told me that "Customer Success Management" would be the next big thing. I'm beginning to think he may be right, but I have some concerns. The term has been popping up more and more of late, so...
Has CXM “Jumped the Shark,” trying to be the Theory of Everything?
The term "jump the shark" originated in a 1977 episode of Happy Days, when the Fonz literally jumped a shark on water skis. In common usage it means "the moment when a brand, design, franchise or creative effort's evolution declines." I'm worried that's what...
Inside Scoop with Jeanne Bliss: Chief Customer Officer 2.0
Interview was conducted on June 17, 2015. Transcript edited for clarity. Bob Thompson: Welcome to another episode of Inside Scoop. Today, I’m joined by Jeanne Bliss, who pioneered the Chief Customer Officer position. She has three decades of experience, not only performing the job, but…
Extraordinary CX will Require Thinking, Feeling, and Leadership
This week Walker's annual B-to-B CX Summit in Seattle reinforced a number of topics that I've been researching and writing about in recent months. The conference is a highlight of the year for me, because Walker puts so much into making it a true...
SDL and Tahzoo surf digital transformation wave
Last week I enjoyed spending some time at SDL’s annual customer conference, and wanted to share a few observations. On the product side, the company continues to build out its platform. The most interesting one for me was enhancements to social analytics, which can be...
What word best describes Infusionsoft? Love.
It's been a couple of weeks since I attended Infusionsoft's annual small business love-in AKA ICON conference in Phoenix. "Love" is the one word that keeps sticking in my mind. Because after several days of keynotes, sessions, interviews and just wandering around, it's clear...
What do you call this ‘customer’ stuff within your company?
If you think about popular business trends of the past 20-30 years, they all ended up with a short label or TLA. Total Quality Management (TQM). Six Sigma. Business Process Reengineering. Management by Walking Around. Disruptive Innovation. The 'customer' world I've been a part of...
Want to Grow Your Business? Take a Peak Inside Your Customer’s Wallet
My family splits our grocery shopping budget between three stores. Trader Joe's is our favorite. We like the selection, pricing, and interaction with employees who genuinely seem to enjoy working there and helping customers. A great experience overall. Why don't we spend all our...
Why Delight Matters in Customer Service: 5 Questions for Chip Bell about Sprinkles
Everyone is talking about Customer Experience (CX) these days. Unfortunately, "improving CX" usually means fixing something that's broken. Yes, of course companies should fix problems that annoy customers and motivate them to take their business elsewhere. But business leaders should also realize that fixing...