Category Growing a Business
Consumer Voice Is Not Effectively Leveraged By Companies
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
According to a new study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, with Satmetrix, 58% of the 480 executives surveyed said their companies do not compensate any employees or executives based on customer loyalty, satisfaction improvements or analytics. 38% said their companies have no programs in place to track or propagate positive word of mouth among customers, and only 29% said their companies rate highly in their ability to handle and resolve customer problems or complaints.
Senior marketers admit their companies are failing to take decisive, company-wide action to integrate customer voice and experience into key business and marketing processes, says the report. The study underscores critical deficiencies in the way companies measure, optimize and leverage customer experience to drive loyalty, improve brand value and increase business performance and growth, including:
a. Insufficient availability and aggregation of real-time customer experience data across touch points that should be shared across the organization
b. Poor use of customer interactions to collect insights and intelligence or maximize up-sell and advocacy opportunities
c. Lack of Internet processes and systems to track online word of mouth and drive customer advocacy
Intermittent or deficient monitoring of customer experience that fails to provide true and timely insights into problems and opportunities
d. Too few compensation programs tied to customer experience, loyalty and satisfaction gains
Posted by Tom Polanski in Growing a Business on February 10th, 2009
Smart companies with sound strategies will use this recession to grow their brand
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
As a friend of mine said recently, when someone is going down, someone else is coming up. We’re seeing that today. In 2008 we saw a number of companies go under. It seems to me that most of them found their niche, fame and fortune in the rising tide of the internet and debt driven consumerism fueled by rising home prices and easy access to credit. Those companies were myopic in that they didn’t take the time to look down the road. If they did so they would have seen that their business model would only remain viable as long as credit and real estate conditions stayed the same.
Starting in late 2004 and regularly through 2005, alarm bells were being rung by the UCLA Anderson Forecast, and other leading think tanks. The information was there. We were living an illusion of wealth. Unfortunately, that means many of the businesses we’ll see go bankrupt in 2009, probably weren’t real businesses. I read an article about a poor lady who is being forced to close her hand picked pear business. After years of taking home a six figure salary, she’s living off of credit cards now. My heart goes out to her, but on the other hand, would anybody who was based in reality think that they had a sustainable business selling pears?
Granted, I’m using an extreme example but my point is valid; her business, as is the case with many existing businesses today, was rooted in the illusion that we would always have an endless supply of luxury dollars to throw around.
Starting a business? Don’t be seduced by easy access to low hanging fruit, if there is any left. If another great opportunity to monetize appears like the Wall Street, Internet and Real Estate bubbles, know the economic reality for what it is so that you can formulate a cogent, coherent plan for the future. Use your successes as a springboard for sustainability.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Growing a Business on January 2nd, 2009
Dennis Consorte and David’s Cookies are class acts. They ROCK!
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
I’ve been in business a long time but it still thrills me when I run into a company that treats customers, employees and vendors with class. To be sure there are a number of definitions of class, but for me, class is when somebody, or a company, does everything the right way effortlessly. When that person or company extends itself, with graciousness, for the sake of others, even when it doesn’t have to, it’s classy.
Dennis and David’s Cookies, which includes Ari Margulies, and others, are by application of my definition, class acts. I include Ari in this because it all starts with ownership and management. The people they hire are a reflection of their beliefs and core values. I’ve never spoken or met Ari but think highly of him based on my interactions with Dennis.
I’m extremely confident that David’s Cookies treats it employees well because I am of the belief that a man of Dennis’s merit would’ve left long ago if he didn’t find his work environment engaging and fulfilling. I suspect that he feels that he is part of a team where his opinion is valued and his efforts appreciated.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Growing a Business on December 9th, 2008
eBrand Interactive discloses 10 common website design mistakes you should avoid
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
Since 2002, we’ve been evangelists of marketing efficiency but not too many people wanted to listen. Why would they when there was so much low-hanging fruit? Every year an increasing number of people, flush with cash and credit, went online to shop. But those days are over and it really is time for companies to become more fully focused on efficient marketing.
My team of expert web designers and analysts have reached out to over 800 companies regarding providing a report that would include detailed, page by page analysis, of their site for the purpose of identifying anxiety inducing friction points, and other impediments, that cause abandonment of the shopping process.
Recommendations for site and conversion rate improvements were to be included in the report. To our surprise only two companies took us up on our offer (although several did attempt to learn as much as they could for free). Each of the companies we provided reports for have seen their conversion rates double.
Here is what Internet Retailer has to say about the importance of web site design based on good e-tail principles, and if you’d like, they’ve built a three day conference around it for you to attend: Web Design ’09 Conference
You may think your web store looks just great and you have a right to be proud of it. But did you ever sit with a focus group to see what problems they had with it? Did you ever have top web site designers analyze it to find flaws? And have you listened to e-retailers tell you how they’ve vastly improved online sales and conversion rates just by making basic design changes that eliminated the most common web site design faux pas?
Here are just 10 commonly known but often overlooked design mistakes referred to by Internet Retailer (we know of many more):
Posted by Tom Polanski in Growing a Business, Website Optimization, eBrand Interactive on November 19th, 2008
eBrand Media introduces Mel Ronick as a guest eBizine contributor.
By Tom Polanski
Mr. Ronick’s first article will appear in eBizine tomorrow, Wednesday, the 16th. So that you get to know a little about Roncik we’ve taken the liberty of preparing an over view.
Mel is President of Stacks and Stacks, www.stacksandstacks.com, an e-commerce business which offers storage, organization and furnishing products. He started his career at IBM and has worked in computer sales, shopping center development and as a national retail leasing agent.
Mr. Ronick started Stacks and Stacks in 1984 when shopping center development slowed because of high interest rates. He thought he might be able to grow the original store into a 50 store chain and go public. Instead he closed the stores he’d opened and went online in 1999 – 2000.
He feels his biggest risk was when he decided to open on the Internet and close all of his stores. At that point in time big-box stores were coming into the Bay Area and each opening diminished his sales. His solution was to try something else, Stacks and Stacks. Ronick has stated that his business took off rather quickly and that it’s been growing 25 to 40 percent year after year.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising, Customer Centric, Growing a Business on July 15th, 2008