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Bob Thompson

Bob Thompson
Bob Thompson is CEO of CustomerThink, an independent research and publishing firm focused on customer-centric business management, and Founder/Editor-in-Chief of CustomerThink.com, the world's largest community dedicated to customer-centric business. Thompson is a popular international keynote speaker, blogger and author of Hooked On Customers: The Five Habits of Legendary Customer-Centric Companies.

Five Customer Experience Milestones on Your Journey to Digital Transformation

Last year my wife and I decided to buy a condo in Coronado (near San Diego). Since we were new...

What is the “X Factor” in Customer-Centric Success?

Leading by example. Not collecting feedback. Not finding the right loyalty metric. Not paying people to increase NPS scores. Not journey mapping. Not predictive analytics....

Does Customer Experience Management include Products? Pricing?

As the Customer Experience (CX) movement has taken hold over the past few years, there's been a near consensus emerge in the industry that...

Can you share an example of a customer-centric executive who “walks the talk”?

In my recent customer-centric benchmark study, one attribute that stood out in better-performing companies was "managers setting a good example." Can you share a...

Closing the Loop with Customers: CX Leaders Have a Bias to ACT

A few months back I had a bad experience with Thrifty Car Rental. They enticed me with a great offer,...

Top 10 Practices of Customer Experience Leaders

I recently had the pleasure of keynoting two Contact Center Day conferences in Santiago, Chile and Lima, Perú. The events, attended by about 300...

Ongoing learning, monotasking key to success with “Agile Selling” — Q&A with Jill Konrath

Jill Konrath's new book AGILE SELLING is a good read. Instead of pushing yet another sales methodology, you'll find practical advice that most any...

Customer Experience vs. Customer Engagement — A Distinction Without a Difference?

In recent months I've been seeing and hearing the term "customer engagement" pop up more and more. Mostly from the technology community (vendors and...

The Journey to Customer-Centric Success — 9 Key Insights from Hooked On Customers Summit

Over the past two weeks we conducted a series of four webinars that collectively comprise the Hooked On Customers Summit. Over 260 people attended. The...

Predictive Lead Scoring — The Future is Here for B2B Marketers

"The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet." --William Gibson. The market for Predictive Lead Scoring (PLS) solutions is starting to take shape.…

Sorry for saying “sorry.” Can service rep apologies undermine customer satisfaction?

Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. So concludes a Zendesk study of how customer satisfaction relates to the frequency...

Social Customer Care: Time for More Social, Less Media

Guy Stephens asked for a five-year retrospective on social customer care from many of the world’s innovators and thought leaders. I’m honored to offer...

New TouchStore solution says “in your face” to showrooming threat

There's been a lot of press about "showrooming" the past couple of years. Traditional retailers are worried that customers will use their expensive stores...

Dell finds happy marriage of customer experience and sales enablement

“Customer Experience is no longer a program, it’s how we do things.” -- Bobbi Dangerfield, VP of Global Sales Operations, Dell When you say "customer…

Study: Voice of Customer, Customer Experience Tops in Primary Text Analytics Applications

Seth Grimes of Alta Plana just published an insightful new text analytics report. In short, the industry is maturing, the ROI story is improving,...

Are you listening to the real voices of your customers? Speech analytics can help

Listening to the Voice of Customer (VoC) is incredibly important to any customer-centric business. To Listen effectively is one of the five habits of...

SDL: “Frictionless” customer experiences can accelerate journey to brand commitment

Last week I enjoyed attending a dinner and a Customer Experience Executive forum in San Francisco, organized by SDL. The company is doubling down...

Interactive Intelligence launches PureCloud platform, plus a service experience that’s truly social

This week I attended the Interactive Intelligence (InIn) annual conference in Indianapolis, along with a day-long program for consultants, media and analysts. I'll comment...

In top customer-centric firms, everyone is in “Customer Service”

This past week I had the pleasure of keynoting the awards dinner at SCORE in Boston, a conference run by Omega Management Group for...

5 Questions for Chris Cabrera About “Game the Plan”

Incentives matter. But getting them right is a daunting task, if business leaders want to motivate the right actions, avoid unwanted "gaming" behavior, and...

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