Founder and CEO of Clicktools. Clicktools provides companies large and small with on demand software to collect information and feedback from customers across the customer journey and ingrate it with CRM. David has been involved with the world of customer focused organisations since 1988.
Passionate about customer experience, David is a regular speaker and author on the subject. He combines a sound view of the future with a pragmatic approach to building customer focused organisations.
When not working, David enjoys watercolour painting, a subject where his ambition is way ahead of his ability!!!
People make the difference in customer experience
I attended a conference on customer experience organised by the Henley Centre for Customer Management last week, which raised a number of issues that I thought worth sharing.
You don’t care about your customers if …
As a supplier of software for measuring the customer experience, I take heart from the plethora of commentators that stress the importance of delivering an improved customer experience as consumers tighten their belts.
Their actions, or lack of them, suggest that too many online companies do not believe this. Do you pass the test?
Successful surveys for hard times
In hard times, winners will sharpen their customer experience to focus on what matters most to customers and feedback takes on a crucial role; but only if it provides actionable results.
Happy staff = happy customers. Right?
It has long been believed that to deliver high levels of customer satisfaction, a company needs to have satisfied staff.
But is this true?
Customer retention - you cannot be serious
Retention is high on the agenda for companies struggling to make money from cash-strapped consumers, but their words and deeds are not always in tune.
Research from analytics company SPSS suggests that customer retention tops the concerns of executives, with 34% claiming it is their number one priority.
This compares with 8% rating acquisition as their top concern; a remarkable turnaround from last year, when acquisition was rated most important by 40% of participants.
Marketers don’t care about customers
With economic slowdown in the news everyday, you could be forgiven for thinking that knowing your customer – the foundation of good marketing — is keeping marketers awake at night.
That doesn’t seem to be the case.
Seurat’s lesson for marketers
It seems that many marketers still struggle to build a rich picture of their customers.
They could do worse than study the works of Georges Seurat, the famous French impressionist painter of the 19th century, whose techniques have interesting lessons for today’s 21st century marketers.
Online customers care about customer care – do you?
We have all walked away from a supplier because it has failed to provide the level of care we expect.
New research shows the growing importance of customer care and the role that the internet plays.
Do standards equal service?
The British Standards Institute (BSI) has just launched a standard addressing customer satisfaction, quoting research it commissioned to support the launch suggesting that the great British public is less than happy with much of the service they receive.
But will a new standard help?
Staff first, customers second
The fiasco that was the first month of Heathrow’s Terminal Five is a salutary lesson for any company introducing a new product or service.
I sympathise greatly with the customers that have been delayed, lost luggage and generally experienced a level of service that few would wish on their biggest enemy but my real sympathies are reserved for another oft overlooked group – the staff.
