Net Promoter Community

Jeanne Bliss, Author and President of Customer Bliss

A tough economy like the current one we’re experiencing brings lots of stresses on customer relationships. We can all relate to our own stresses as consumers, which, honestly, are tough to ‘leave at home’. We also know well the stresses of our professional responsibilities to increase profitability when revenue is down. In an engaging participant Q&A and discussion, Jeanne Bliss shared strategies for making sure our customers feel less of the stress and more LOVE. Why is this so important?  When the economy begins to recover, customers will remember those companies that brought creative solutions to help them survive the downturn. Here are some of the ideas Jeanne discussed: 1. Love your front-line employees…..they have the greatest opportunity to influence customer relationships every day. Empower them to take care of customers as they feel is appropriate given the situation. Host roundtables with cross-functional teams and leaders that give front-line employees a chance to share their frustrations and allow other departments to hear what the customer is experiencing. 2. Listen and empathize – Given the challenges during these times, customers may spend more time than usual telling you about their concerns and frustrations. Listen, repeat what you heard and empathize. Then, don’t just let that information go in one ear and out the other, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!  What can you do to help weaken some of those concerns? Encouraging even small heroic acts of kindness can make a difference.

3. Love your best customers – Proactively reach out to customers before they call you. Make sure you understand each others’ challenges and how your resource alignment might change.  Proactively offer solutions that can help your customers bridge through a tough time. Be creative…. Think of the things you can do to better serve customers that don’t cost anything. You’ll be surprised how many ideas you come up with.

4. Demonstrate the value of “Customer Love” to your leadership - Partner with the VP of Sales / CMO / CFO to understand how ‘customer love’ influences the movement of your customer base and the increased value in revenue and profitability that can be realized.

You’ll want to visit www.customerbliss.com and pick up Jeanne’s books to learn more.

Remember, so many ways that you can ‘love your customers’ cost nothing or very little.  CUSTOMERS WILL REMEMBER AND REWARD YOU!  I dare you to try it and see!!

How is this economic downturn affecting your business? More importantly, how is your company responding?

No matter what industry you're in, your company is feeling the impact from the credit crunch, commodity inflation, and increasing unemployment. With declining sales & margin, it's easy for leaders to focus on the short-term cost containment efforts that help us make the current quarter. What we fail to realize is the tremendous opportunity we have to leverage the greatest asset in our portfolio... our customers!

When you have fewer dollars to spend on customer acquisition, one of the most important areas of focus is on maintaining and growing your current customer base. But, customers will often look for a better price in this type of environment. So, how do you create customer "stickiness"? Improve the "value" you bring in helping your customers grow and the "experience" they have in working with you. Create promoters! (Net Promoter is one of the key strategies we at GE are benefiting from to do just that!)

Why is this really important and what actions do you take to realize greater "value" and to create a better "experience" for your customers?

Learn from the Experts

We are fortunate to have three experts in this area to share their strategies and best practices with you. You'll also have a chance to ask questions about the tough issues you're facing.

Aaron Cheris, a partner with Bain & Company, will share his perspective on how to leverage specific interactions with your customers to shape their overall opinion of the relationship with your company.

Jeanne Bliss, Managing Partner, CustomerBLISS, will share "ideas that will bring you dividends in rising above the fray and in soothing the frayed nerves during this time of spending woe." I attended Jeanne's awesome session last year and am honored to work with her as chair of this year's track.

Bruce Temkin, VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, brings years of experience in the area of customer experience and will bring insights from his research and work with other companies. I know you'll find his work fascinating and will have lots of questions for Bruce.

As "Point of View Q&A" track chair, I promise you three engaging and useful sessions! I look forward to meeting you at the conference!