CRM - November 2007 - (Page 17)

Insight REQUIRED READING PROTECTING YOUR BRAND AT ALL COSTS T he Brand Who Cried Wolf is a as massive and confusing phone systems handbook for companies and to navigate through. The fact is, cutting individuals who want to out human interaction erodes your establish and sustain their brand. With no people to connect to and get emotional over, most powerful and sucthere is no possibility of cessful brands. It presents a building brand loyalty. blueprint for turning typCRM magazine: That ical customers into raving said, how does a brand evangelists for life. In the that does deliver on its book, author Scott Dempromises help to drive cusing explains that great tomer loyalty and positive branding doesn’t come word-of-mouth marketing from gimmicks or even for a company? from good advertising. Deming: With consisGreat branding begins and tent, sincere, emotional, ends with exceptional, and unique interactions innovative customer service. Great companies are those that not with every customer, every time. Your only deliver on their promises to cus- customers become your PR agents. tomers, but also transcend those prom- They become your evangelists. People ises to create one-of-a-kind emotional get emotional over experiences and they become loyal to people, not to the prodexperiences. CRM magazine: Name one or two of uct. They will talk about you and not the biggest reasons you think brands fail your products, which is paramount to deliver on their promises to customers. because chances are they can get the Deming: First and foremost, manage- same products somewhere else. If you ment fails to train, empower, and inspire follow this simple process, you will creproperly. We are typically dealing with ate your powerful, emotional brand. CRM magazine: What will readers minimum-wage, commissioned, or parttime workers in the customer service find most interesting about your book? Deming: The simple, easy-to-follow industry, such as retail and fast food. These people do not fully understand processes that are almost, like, “Duh!” their role in creating and preserving when you read them. You know this stuff, but you either forgot their company’s brand, about it all, or you think because they are focused When your focus is profit you’re too busy to go back on protecting their jobs, instead of service, and try it again. Each making their money, getting through the week. It’s your success is short-term, chapter starts off with a famous children’s fable, to management’s responsi- just like your goals. help bring the reader back bility to help these employees understand their role, the impor- to the early-in-life lessons and values tance of their position, the fact that they that made us the good and decent peoare important to the customer service ple we are today. Then it launches into process. Second, most companies are the chapter’s lesson. As adults, we focused on the bottom line. When your become very busy and our perspective focus is profit instead of service, your becomes somewhat distorted. My goal success is short-term, just like your with this book is to get the reader to goals. Most companies today are so understand a process and some lessons focused on the bottom line that they’re that will quickly and forever improve replacing people with technology, such their personal and professional brand. OTHER PAGE-TURNERS: ■ Salespeople are under tremendous pressure to battle the price war, but at what cost? A sales team with a poor understanding of what is valuable to the customer—and of what makes its product superior—turns its salespeople into value spendthrifts. In Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Superior Value in Business Markets, authors James Anderson, Nirmalya Kumar, and James Narus introduce a set of business techniques to estimate the value of your market offerings and create propositions that resonate with customers. ■ In today’s world, business is all about being genuine, sincere, and authentic. But in this increasingly cynical world, how do consumers choose what—or even if—to buy? Jim Gilmore and Joe Pine are back to help implement a new business imperative: authenticity. Their new book, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, provides tools and tactics to enable businesses to cut through the clutter, evaluate their offerings, and render the most authentic experience from their customers’ perspective. ■ Every company strives to balance customer service quality and efficiency with the pressures of cost-cutting and profitability, but achieving this balance is often difficult within the contact center. In his new book, Customer Centricity through Workforce Optimization, author Bill Durr, principal global solutions consultant at Verint Witness Actionable Solutions, examines how companies can sustain long-term competitive advantage by re-engineering human resource allocation and employee management processes to become more customer-focused. —Colin Beasty 17 www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2007 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - November 2007

CRM - November 2007 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity Have You Caught It? The Mother of Enterprise Information Market Focus: Technology: The Simple Truth about Complex Manufacturing Q&A: Gianforte Talks CRM Required Reading Predicting Profitability Checking the Pulse of the Contact Center Cast a Narrow Net Modern Times, Modern Methods Primos Hunting Calls Snares Efficiency Nailing It Down Moving in on Mortgage Delinquencies RDS Delivery Delivers on Service Secret of My Success Re:Tooling The Tipping Point Pint of View

CRM - November 2007

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