Advice & Insight
Reflections on customer advisory boards, customer relationships, and what it takes to strengthen them both.
Looking for a complete primer on advisory boards? Read The Expert Guide to Powerful Customer Advisory Boards.
How to Extend Your Customer Advisory Board's Value
How do you extend the value of a customer advisory board beyond those who participate in the meeting room to the rest of your organization? Here are a few of the most common challenges we see, and some recommendations to tackle them.
From Seller to Advisor: Engage Your Customers to Help You Stop Pitching
At the 2015 ITSMA annual conference, we considered, "If it is all about the customer experience, why are we still pitching?" We share the key takeaways from our discussion with Janis Fratamico, Director, Relationship Marketing at Bloomberg and David Coates, Director, Customer Programs at Iron Mountain, about relationship-based engagement...and four ways your can help your organization work from a customer point of view.
The Pros and Cons of Net Promoter Score - NPS
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty measurement that brings great value and a simple measurement for organizing companies around customer centricity. Here are some pros and cons to the metric.
Lessons from the C-Suite: Digital Disruption
McKinsey's article, “How to Scale your Digital Disruption,” highlights key leadership and organizational changes that help businesses think about digital as more than a sideshow. We share three major themes we hear from c-suite executives about what challenges keep them from making this shift and driving the change fast enough.
Good or Bad Feedback, Customer Advisory Boards are Essential
During a recent council meeting, both our client, and their customers in attendance, acknowledged that it’s difficult to hear the negative advice, and much credit was given to our client for listening to the more challenging feedback. Both parties appreciated the openness of this type of forum, and agreed that if the candid advice turns into actions and outcomes, it’s a win for all participants.
Personalization Matters: Extend the Value of Your Client Relationships
Personalization requires a focused strategy that extends beyond the acquisition phase of the customer life cycle. Tips on how approach the personalization challenge for B2B businesses.
Let’s Stop Pretending We are Good at Multi-Tasking
The brain is not designed to multi-task effectively when you need to focus. If we all stopped multi-tasking in meetings, we believe we could cut meeting time in half.
Why Building a Positive Customer Journey for All Ages Matters
“How can we better engage the customer? What can we do to enhance the buyer experience?” These are common questions that C-suite leaders struggle with.
Time to Slow Down…
I recently wrote an article on how the millennial generation (my generation) devours new technologies and is focused on getting tasks accomplished in a fast, agile way.
Customer Advocates are Your Content Engine
Content marketing is a growing area of investment. Building content that connects to prospects and customers can be most powerful by enlisting your customer advocates.
From One Generation to Another, Technologically Speaking
During a recent meeting I attended, we discussed how this evolution of technology, or digitization, affects the workforce — specifically how millennials are driving culture change and the difference in millennials from past generations.
Customer Advisory Boards: Invest in Your Customer
Deeply understanding the needs and requirements of your customers requires an investment. Investment of time to establish strong relationships and trust with your customers; that trust will lead to hearing their honest assessments of your business model, products, services and people.
Learn the strongest boards’ five characteristics—and the methods behind them.
Set up a new board for success
Diagnose and improve an under-performing board
Make a successful board even better