Dick Lee
Dick Lee
Author & speaker Dick Lee has been encouraging customer-centric business practices for over 30 years. In his latest book "We Are Buyers. You Are Sellers. You're Busted." he changes focus to encouraging customers to fight back against abusive sellers.
Marketing at the Crossroads: the Profession Struggles for Relevance
I used to be in marketing. In fact, I was co-founder and CEO of a high-profile marketing agency – until I sold it in...
Outside-In is a Customer-centric Sandwich: Ready for a Bite?
Traditional process design approaches, including LSS, Lean and Six Sigma, assess as-is process, then design to-be process, often with an eye to improving customer...
For Business, Social Networking is 90% Bovine Waste Matter
I'm not talking about all "social networking." Right now, we're working with a global e-tailer that found us on Linkedin. Their customer experience lead,...
Can only “Born Again” Convert Companies Reach Customer-Centricity?
Lucky companies were born customer-centric. Amazon.com, Fed-X, Nordstrom's, Southwest Airlines, and Trader Joe's practiced customer-driven business from the get-go. But converts including Best Buy,...
You Can Unclench Your Fists — The Big Banks Aren’t Bulletproof
Have you been clenching your fists because our large banks got bailed out and are getting away scot-free with being shamelessly greedy? Are...
“Because That’s Our Policy” – Does Your Company Ever Say That?
Other than "Go to hell," these four words perhaps do more damage to customer relationships than any other phrase used in customer service. Customer...
“They (consumers) are staging a debtors’ revolt” – Suze Orman
I've been yapping away up here and on Linkedin about consumers finally taking matters into their own hands and attacking customer-unfriendly sellers and even...
Clearing the Last Major Hurdle on the Path to Customer-Centricity?
The last big hurdle? Whenever we start a new client engagement, we've known we'd have a hurdle we could not often clear – effectively managing...
Can Companies Charge for Tech Support When They Can’t Fix Their Hardware’s Problems?
Obviously, companies can do whatever the hell they want to do. But "can" companies charge for customer service on their problems regardless of whether...
Off-Shoring Customer Service Results from Inside-Out Process Design
IMHO, designing the customer tech-support process from the Outside-In would prevent companies from even considering offshore contact centers. O-I process designers would reject out...
“On-Shoring” Customer Service?On the Cusp of Becoming a Competitive Differentiator?
Last week, for the very first time, I found myself choosing a technology vendor with the #1 selection criteria being "on-shore" customer service. I...
Have Consumers Fired Another “Shot Heard ‘Round the World?”
The original "shot heard round the world" was a volley enraged Massachusetts farmers fired at British troops in Concord, Massachusetts in 1775. Just a...
The Outside-In Imperative
Want to watch change in progress? Just look at the turnaround in buyer-seller relations in industrialized nations. Business is having a "Galileo moment." After...
Could Circumstances Force At Least One Mega-Bank to Go Outside-In?
Companies switch to Outside-In - the fusion of customer-centric planning with enabling, customer-driven process - for one of two reasons: some, like Best Buy,...
Are We Ready for a Quantum Leap in Collaborative Capabilities?
Among the primary benefits of implementing CRM, SCM, Field Service and other back and front office automation applications has long been raising the level...
In the Customer Experience Hall of Shame, HP Rises to the Bottom
To say that you've experience the nadir in technology service customer experience is saying a lot. But yesterday, HP hit rock bottom. Just over a...
Guess Who’s Putting the “Wow” in Customer Service?
To put this post in perspective, Bob Thompson, founder and President of CustomerThink once asked me to write a monthly column titled, "CRM Curmudgeon."...
Should we take CMOs and CSOs, tie them up back to back (their normal relationship) and plop them down...
Actually, they'd likely struggle to run in opposite directions; go nowhere; and suffer a painful death rather than one give in to the other....
Outside-In Process: The New Path to Customer-Centricity
Peter Drucker famously opined that the greatest risk to organizations was neither doing the right work wrong nor doing the wrong work but not...
Why Can’t Most Companies Identify Breakthrough Customer Strategies?
Lots of talk about customer-centric strategies floating around. Even C-level execs spouting off bromides like, "Have to serve the customer first" (then why don't...