Peppers & Rogers Group combines a global perspective, deep expertise in customer strategy and decades of experience serving top companies. Read our latest insights and thought leadership on the customer economy.
January 2012
Walt Disney is noted for saying that he wanted to create an experience that customers enjoy so much they come back, and they tell their friends. As part of Peppers & Rogers Group's Social Media Week last week, 1to1 Media Editorial Director Ginger Conlon and I spoke to several business leaders in New York whose firms were cited by 1to1 readers as having a unique or outstanding customer experience.
Social media when applied in healthcare often comes down to risks versus rewards, because the risk of saying something in a social channel that may violate patient confidentiality is simply too great for some providers.
Executives who grew up in the world of mass media, and -- despite the freshest thinking they can muster -- still ask, when confronted with the new technologies: "How can we use social media to increase sales, increase reach and frequency at low cost, and "create buzz?" It's the wrong question to ask.
I peruse the financial trade press pretty often. In them I read articles and come across ads touting new brands, new products, new technology, justification of new fee structures, announcements of buyouts and mergers, new channels of distribution, and so on. Most of it is interesting - some a little less so. But if you look closely at all of it, there is big pit of missing information.
Seriously, does anyone else notice that "customers" are glaringly excluded from the discussions? They are begging to be heard and are extremely willing to be loyal. But instead companies focus on everything else but their most important asset.
Continue reading "The Financial Industry's Selective Customer Memory" »
James Gaskin has written an interesting article in IT World about why one web site entrepreneur has declared he is fed up with the "freemium" business model. Freemium, widely used in the software and applications industry, allows a product to be distributed free of charge in its basic configuration, but then charges a user for more advanced versions or features. It's free to join LinkedIn and use it to post your profile and connect with others, but LinkedIn Premium services allow you to do things like see who has viewed your profile, search more thoroughly for others outside your connections, and reach out to people you aren't yet connected with. I play chess online for free, but for $5 a month I also get access to 25 chess tactics problems a day. My Xobni application is free, but with an upgrade my Outlook will automatically fill in many more email addresses, and do a number of other things that are highly useful to any heavy email user. Several higher-end media and content offerings are made on a freemium basis, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Times of London, and Harvard Business Review.
Continue reading "Freemium: Why Non-Paying Customers Are Harder to Satisfy" »
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