John Aves
Does your business have the loyalty gene? And does it matter?
Let’s jump right in. Businesses that want to improve customer loyalty usually start too far downstream to build the plan. Customer data and feedback is forensically analysed for clues about why people leave. Marketing and customer service teams pour ov...
Culture clash – why customer experience improvements fail
When customer experience improvements run into trouble the problem isn’t necessarily rooted in strategic thinking. It’s because the CEO is often detached from the plan (if there is one).This is a big problem. To make a success of changes to your CX you...
Bad behaviour: why businesses struggle with customer loyalty
We want to go out on a limb here. From our experience, most brands that struggle with customer loyalty spend too little time focussing on what they are doing internally. Fixing issues with loyalty is difficult. And it’s made worse by bad behaviours tha...
Sea of sameness – worn out metaphor or wake up call?
Let’s not waste any time. Sea of sameness was originally used to describe the more or less generic offerings by resorts in the early 2010s. You probably flicked through the ‘palm tree and white sands’ brochures yourself. Fast forward a decade and it’s ...
Consumer Duty – how to overcome the challenges in your Dear CEO letter
You’ll have already seen the FCA’s February Dear CEO letter about implementing Consumer Duty. After reviewing the plans of some firms, the regulator reports that while some are making good progress, others are facing significant risks and challenges. A...
If customer satisfaction is not enough, how do we create fans?
Simply satisfying customers doesn’t cut it anymore in the loyalty stakes. Consumers are mired in adequate experiences from brands jostling to stand out. Yes, they’re satisfied. But brands need to do way more than rely on high levels of customer satisfa...
How to sustain customer loyalty as the cost of living crisis deepens
“75% of brands could disappear … and most consumers wouldn’t care …” What’s going wrong with the UK services sector? As I ended last week as Mr Angry, having had bad experiences with my bank, utility provider, and delivery company, I reflected on what...
Trusted advisor: How to avoid the parity trap in professional services
We have worked with very successful law firms, accountants / tax advisors and management consulting firms over the past 25 years. Combined with my personal experience of leading two professional service firms (PSFs), I have outlined some insights and o...
Implementing a customer-driven change strategy in three phases
In a recent post we discussed the four pillars of successful CX transformation. We explored the reasons why programmes will most likely fail if a business misfires on any one of these pillars: leadership, organisation-wide alignment, capability develop...
The four pillars of successful CX transformation
Many businesses know that customer experience is their most important battleground. Scan the latest research headlines and organisations tell us that CX transformation is a top strategic priority. Forrester reports that 76% of executives say improving ...
Customer journey mapping: time for a rethink
Even in normal times – and we live in anything but normal times – there are aspects of customer journeys that you won’t have seen or anticipated. New journeys need to be identified and pieced together – end to end. But the methods most companies…
Why there’s a CX empathy gap and how to close it
We humans are not limited by rational thinking. We can be unpredictable. The decisions we take are weighted by our emotions. We use emotional intelligence (EI) to understand, use and manage these emotions in positive ways. Empathy, the ability to under...
The store of the future will be as human-centred as it is futuristic –...
The digital bandwagon is unstoppable. The Institute of Customer Service UK Customer Satisfaction Index recorded, for the first time last July, that 50% of customer experiences were digital. We’ve gone way past the tipping point. But investing in digita...
How to prove CX ROI – a winner’s story
Businesses are swimming in CX metrics. But most organisations are still data rich and insight poor when it comes to measuring the business impact and return on their efforts. By their own admission, about one-in-six companies are unable to link custome...
6 CX trends uprooting 2022 planning
There are evergreen CX trends like omnichannel, digital, self-serve and personalisation that are part of the strategic fabric of every customer-centric business. They have been shaping customer experience plans for years. These trends have gradually ch...
The (in)convenient truth about insurance claims
The insurance sector is notoriously low touch. There are arguably only four key customer journeys: taking out a policy, renewal, making a claim and cancellation. Customers tend to only hear from their insurer once or twice each year, and these are usua...
10 purposeful employee engagement ideas
The past year has made us all re-evaluate what’s important to us. People’s thoughts on how work brings a sense of purpose to their lives, and what they want to achieve, is part of that thought process as we all seek more solid ground.As an…
Post lockdown shopping at its best
We have all got so used to shopping online that some commentators have sounded the alarm and warned that the high street is dead and the future for bricks and mortar retailers is bleak.There is no doubt that online will continue to grow. It is…
23 customer experience statistics shaping the new reality
Your customer experience has changed and there’s no going back to how things were. You know the narrative for the past year because you’ve lived through it – we all have. The world’s gone digital. This much we know. But how is the rest of…
What the Boohoo story tells us about customer loyalty
Sustaining customer loyalty is notoriously difficult in the world of fast fashion, which is built on low prices and fast turnover. When you think that 2 in 5 consumers feel no loyalty to fashion retailers, and they will only stay loyal if they perceive...