Customers are tracking brands and how they interact with customers. And they’re giving their friends all the dirt they find on your brand! They’re sharing information like who to contact to get things done, and when’s the best time to call and actually get an answer. They may not contact you directly about it, but customers are […]

Brands need to keep innovating. To stay ahead of the market, they need to offer the “what’s next” to stave off the competition. Innovation is about responding to the market, anticipating needs, and using a little magic to appeal to customers. I often wonder about the companies that don’t innovate. And then I remember some of […]

Do we live in a throwaway culture? Probably. It feels that way to loyal customers sometimes, thanks to customer rewards reserved for those walking in the door. Those shiny, new customers get all the perks, not the old dusty ones paying their bills on time each month and providing most of the company revenue. When […]

There’s a joke about being at the top in any small business. The title of founder or president, in its deceptively simple way, covers a multitude of jobs. You can’t just run the business by doing the work, you have to run the business by stepping in as chief technology officer, chief financial officer, chief […]

What if the future of mobile has nothing to do with the phone in your hand? While “Mobile First” has been the mantra for at least the last few years for most smart companies, it’s really only taking off now. And now it’s almost too late. After attending several sessions, keynotes and panels at the […]

A client was really excited to share something: “We have finally done all our process maps!” She was the newly appointed customer service director, and she had heard mapping was important. Several months later, and they had stacks of pages of process flows outlining what they believed to be the processes which interacted with customers. […]

I heard this question while speaking to a group not too long ago. It’s a great – and surprisingly complex – inquiry. When I quizzed the group, here are a few ideas I heard: “The minute someone decides to buy, that’s when they become a customer.” “The first time the customer has a problem or […]

So content is king, right? Or is it context? What about the once and future king, conversion?? Content continues to be a driver for smart companies who want to attract the right prospects, market to those who want to buy and eventually convert those prospects to sales! Yee haw. Inbound sales and content marketing are […]

You only know what you know. That’s the insurmountable truth about each human’s perspective. Our lens is just that – ours. This is a particular challenge in customer experience. Think about it. Not only do you only know what you know – but your customers are each individual human beings, too. (And yes, this also […]

One of the most rewarding parts of being a Customer Experience Investigator™ is when a client and I gather people from all departments of their organization to map the customer journey touchpoints. We  call these CXI® Touchpoint Discovery Workshops because they are not only about the actual touchpoint mapping, but about seeing the customer journey from a […]