The Art of Asking and Connecting with Customers [TED Inspired]

Greg's most recent post, Get Back to the Trenches, reminded me of a session I attended at the recent Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit. Where Ken Chow, CMO at LogiAnalytics, Tom Kohn, Former EVP of Digital at Cygnus Business Media, Bob London, Founder & President of London Ink, and Bob Ragsdale, VP of...read more

The Similarities Between Athletes and Employees

Here’s an analogy for you Employees : Company :: Athletes : Team Why am I making this relation? Well, I recently read an article on Virginia Tech’s spring football practice and it got me to thinking about how athletes and employees have very similar positions and expectations that they need to meet....read more

Celebrating Get to Know Your Customers Day (Song Parody)

Happy Get to Know your Customers Day! In honor of yesterday’s holiday, we wanted to remind you that you should get to know your customers at every chance ‒ communicate with them, collect feedback, learn what they like and what they’d like to see changed. After all, they are the key to your success,...read more

Ad Testing 101

There was a day not long ago that advertising testing involved sitting large numbers of people in a room and showing them ads embedded in pilot television shows with a pre-exposure survey and a post-test assessment following the programming and ad exposure. My how things have changed! With the...read more

AWKWARD! Avoiding Awkward Moments in Employee Feedback

Collecting feedback from employees and asking the right questions can be difficult. And, let's be honest, sometimes it's downright awkward! But it's critical if you want to improve employee satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Couple those goals with the fact that employee engagement is the next...read more

Tasty Satisfaction Treats: Feedback Tips for Restaurateurs

If there were one industry that could truly benefit from consumer insight research, it is the restaurant industry. Granted there are the giants of the industry, e.g. McDonalds or Chik-fil-A, that have teams dedicated to dissecting every aspect of the customer experience, but the biggest gains can...read more

Do Something Others Dont—Listen to Your Customers

I read a great article by Donna Fluss in CRM Magazine recently, Surveys Alone Are Not the Answer. What really hooked me was this statement: After years of analyzing exceptional service organizations, it's clear to me that the organizations that deliver great service do something that others...read more

7 Steps for Gathering Customer Testimonials

A customer testimonial is a great way to gather feedback that you can share with others, whether they are current customers or prospects. The idea is to share happy customers’ experiences and praises, ultimately influencing others. Social networking and word of mouth are so important today, that...read more

20 Most Popular Posts of 2012

While we highlight the most popular posts from a given month in our newsletter, one of my favorite activities is to look back and see what posts were the most popular overall each year. Keeping with tradition, here's a look back across the 20 most popular posts of 2012!   Customer Loyalty Month: 25...read more

The Transformation: Data to Insights

In the world of marketing, it’s common for reports to be swarming with data and benchmarks drawn from hundreds of different touch points like email, website, search, social, mobile, reviews, comments, and more. However, even with the plentiful amount of data we collect, insights are hard to develop....read more
The Rise of the Smart Phone: Are you Leverging Mobile? 10 Tips for Mobile-Friendly Survey Creation