Laurence Buchanan
Laurence Buchanan
Laurence is CEO of EY Seren and leads EY’s global Customer & Growth practice. He works with clients to help them re-imagine growth through human-centered design, innovation and the transformation of Marketing, Sales & Customer Service functions.
He is a recognized authority on digital transformation, customer experience and CRM, he has worked across a wide range of sectors, including telco, media, life sciences, retail and sports.
He received an MA in Modern History from the University of Oxford.
Left Brain and Right Brain must work together to deliver success in Digital Transformation
The words "but of course CRM is not a technology" prompted a collective sigh of relief from the audience. The speaker hadn't fallen into...
Killing 2 birds with one stone – why cost reduction within customer service doesn’t mean decreased customer satisfaction
I often meet with clients who want to kill two birds with one stone; reduce customer service costs, whilst also increasing customer satisfaction....
What comes next after Facebook and Twitter and the challenges of skating to where the puck is going to...
I've been thinking recently about what comes next after Facebook and Twitter. I looked at interesting initiatives like the Future of Facebook project...
Is control still an issue for brands?
Mitch Joel, author of the must read "Six Pixels of Separation" wrote an interesting post recently that got me thinking about control. Mitch...
Improving social media monitoring
As Social Media Monitoring travels through the technology hype cycle it's clear that many early adopters are experiencing disappointing results. Having heard the stories of start-up...
Gaming the system in social media care
Social Media customer care seems to be a pretty hot topic at the moment. Many clients I work with either have, or are talking...
Solid Foundations, Cool Innovations – the importance of CRM to SCRM
I went to a Gartner CRM conference in London a few years ago where the theme was "Solid Foundations, Cool Innovations". The theme stuck...
Amazing customer service from Flightcentre!
I thought that I had written my last post of 2010. I thought that by this time I would be in New Zealand on...
The fast & easy path to social media success
You could take any number of easy decisions with Social Media, all of which you could get up and running fast. You could, for...
GiffGaff – a case study of customers in control
It's relatively easy these days to find point examples of social CRM in action across marketing, sales or customer service; but few organisations have...
Fighting fires or building firewalls
Why is it that we often reward fighting fires rather than building firewalls?The sales person who pulls in a last-hour, unforecasted deal at the...
Sailing towards the island of Social bliss
Michael Maoz wrote a terrific post this week: "You failed at Customer Service, so now try Social Processes". As ever, his post is short,...
Characterising different approaches to social media.
I gave a presentation today at the Exact Target Connections conference in London. The purpose of the presentation was to take a light-hearted look...
Facebook Connect & Social Commerce – examples from the consumer world
Mark Zukerberg, CEO of Facebook first talked about Social Graph at the Facebook f8 conference in May 2007. Since then Facebook has quietly extended...
Lies, lies and dammed statistics – do social media storms really affect a stock price?
I was reading some provocative headlines the other day about "United Breaks Guitars". One from the Daily Mail stood out: "The sweet music of...
How is Social CRM relevant for B2B organisations?
Most content produced around Social CRM relates to B2C scenarios and describes the shift in the balance of power from provider to consumer. Recently...
Three lessons from Paul Greenberg’s Social CRM Summit
Paul Greenberg's inaugural Social CRM summit earlier this year was severely disrupted by a snow storm. It was volcanic ash and a BA cabin...
What’s driving Social CRM – opportunity or fear?
Most clients that I have discussed Social CRM with so far have fallen into one of two camps: those motivated by the opportunity presented...
Measuring the ROI of Social CRM
For some reason ROI is often a dirty word when used in the context of a Social CRM initiative. Metrics are abundant but dollars...
The sports fan experience at Saracens RFC
I recently went to a rugby match - Northampton vs Saracens in the semi final of the Anglo Welsh cup. A friend of mine...