Howard Schneider
Sweat the Small Stuff! Those Little Things You Do Can Win Fans or Tick...
There's an old expression about human relationships: It's the little things that count. That goes for customer relationships, as well. ‘You're not as good a customer as you think you are.’ While marketers spend billions on branding, SEO and SEM, modeling and offer crafting, it's…
Lies, Damned Lies and Customer Data: Past Behavior Is No Guarantee of Future Results
"Past performance is no guarantee of future results." Every investor knows those words. They are the standard caveat in every financial offering, a word to the wise against taking the results of the past—achieved under different circumstances than the present or the unknowable future—too seriously...
Don’t Just Hawk Loyalty, Sell a Full-Rounded Product
Although I've spent 20 years designing and managing loyalty programs, I'll be the first to admit such programs are just one aspect of customer loyalty—and often not the most important one. Most loyalty programs are, to be blunt, attempts to drive "loyal" behavior with a...
Ever a “Duh” Moment
I've been working with email ever since it emerged as a marketing tool. It's one of the most powerful, cost effective media ever invented. It is the first channel that allows for genuine personalization and interaction. As such, it can be a key channel...
More “Worst Practices” in the Airline World
Contrary to appearances, I'm really not blogging about airlines; I'm blogging about customer-centricity. But travel is such a big part of our lives, it seems hard to avoid talking about our airline encounters. Maybe it's just that many airlines provide such good material –...
A Good Example of Customer Un-thinking
A major airline whose initials are AA sent me their e-newsletter today. Among other things, the newsletter, personalized with my name, told me that "we've put this issue together just for you, so whether you're a novice flyer or a seasoned 'road warrior,' you'll...
Focus on Values To Build a Customer-Centric Business
Not long ago I participated in a webinar in which one of the keynote presenters was someone very well known as a thought leader in the customer relationship world. This respected speaker inexplicably (to me, anyway) spent the first third of the session discussing...
A Time for Everything: With Dynamic Mapping, You Can Talk to the Right Customers...
What's your most favored source of consumer insight? Research? Behavior tracking? Predictive modeling? Self-reported profiling? All of the above? How about Scripture? Ecclesiastes asserts that there is "a time to keep silence and a time to speak." But many marketers just don't know the difference.…
All About Me? Not: How Some Online Reward Programs Belie Technology’s Promise
Head: All About Me? Not: How Some Online Reward Programs Belie Technology's Promise Author: Howard Schneider, Metzner Schneider Associates Apparently the "me generation" is over. At least where customer-centric online marketing is concerned. Today's targeted marketing strategies—empowered by easily obtained, inexpensively maintained customer data and…