Here's one that I won't dwell on. The Yankees are driving me nuts.I can't find this team's heart. And THAT is heartbreaking. They're starting a 13 game homestand tonight against Pittsburgh (first time since Bill Mazeroski hit the famous (infamous in NY) home run against them to win the 1960 World Series or as Ring Lardner characters called it " the "World Serious") WE HAVE TO WIN. (AHHHHH! But not a Howard Dean AHHHHH) Enough of that. On to more pleasant musings.
I'm at the (usual) annual CRM Guru conference. at the Chaminade in Santa Cruz, California, a lovely resort with a stunning wide-ranging view of mountains and forest from its terrace. I'm a member of the Bob Thompson's CRMGuru Panel of Gurus (very proudly, I might add). One of our obligations and joys is to speak and/or attend the annual conference and then the retreat the day afterward. For those of you who don't know Bob, he is not only one of the leading movers & shakers in CRM, but has always been a true friend for me - helping me figure out this industry back when I first was getting started. Bob has had the foresight to not only put together an interactive portal which is by far the most influential in CRM with over 200,000 subscribers, but he has been able to gather up some of the best independent (I stress INDEPENDENT) minds in CRM worldwide who meet, dispense and gather all wisdom that is CRM at least once a year at a conference and a retreat. Amazing stuff. Amazing man. If you don't know him, get to. Its worth it.
This year, I'm speaking on "Designing and Managing the Customer Experience."
As some of you have seen in a couple of my previous posts, the new model for business is collaborating directly with your 21st century version of a customer - that empowered , muscular, seething, volatile, knowledge-ready, technology-savvy, street-smart person who suffers fools and products/services (when poorly executed) badly,But even worse, provide a poor experience, he won't suffer you alone, he'll work to be sure that many other people suffer you too. Sadly and dangerously, studies done by in the automotive industry, showed that 8 people would hear about the great experience from an advocate of a particular car or company, but it was also found that an unhappy puppy would yap to 16 people about their complaints. People DO talk, you know. I mean, come on, Don't you get a sort of perverse pleasure telling a bad story about a product or company. Or did I just give away more about myself than I wanted you to hear? But I'll bet I'm right about the former though probably the latter too. Complaining always seems to feel so good - even though it actually isn't. But those delicious rants will hurt the rantee recipient's business. Remember what Doc Searls says in the Cluetrain Manifesto "every market is a conversation." Wouldn't it better to have that "market" over a nice dinner and a glass of good wine, rather than have that market yelling at you for a transgression and throwing that glass of wine in your face? You bet it would.
So what do you do? You start to think about mapping the "typical" customer experience at all interaction points and decide what the weight of the interaction against the expectation at each point is. Then you provide the tools for each customer to decide what their own experience with you is going to be and just enough transparency into your thinking, processes, and choices so the customer has the means to make an informed decision that he can be happy with. The details will be outlined to you in the coming months. Sorry to leave you hanging on this but aside from getting too long winded...
Follow That (This) Blog!
It would be good if you keep following this blog which is going to spend a lot of time on what I'm calling the 4th edition of CRM at the Speed of Light. Since the 3rd Edition is the last one that I want to write (I'm tired of writing it, frankly. Though I love the and am addicted to the writing process - especially writing books), I'm going to produce the fourth edition for free here. Probably a bit more randomly and in response to the world of the blog and events, in a more directly timely way. New Yorkers like to talk. What can I say?
Send me a copy.
Andrew
The Darn News
www.darnnews.com
Posted by: Andrew Johnson | June 14, 2005 at 12:57 PM