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Building customer loyalty

20 February 2012
You’d be pushed to find an organisation today that isn’t either sold on, or warming up to, the concept of social media as an ideal way to boost brand awareness and improve customer service. But while many companies are sold on the idea, they also recognise the importance of getting their social media outreach strategy just right in order to make the most of the huge opportunities it presents. Natalie Keightley provides some advice on how to implement a social media strategy and achieve social success.
24 January 2012
Social media has fundamentally altered the way in which we communicate as marketers. If your campaign isn’t successful it could result in confusion, turning off your customers and a lot of negative publicity. But by spending a little extra time planning your online marketing strategy you will soon be reaping the benefits. Kristin Hersant shares her nine common social media marketing tips to help companies and customers alike.
11 January 2012
In the second in a series of three articles examining how customer complaints can be better managed, Mike Havard argues that, for the sake of their businesses, customer management departments need to take ownership of social media.
13 December 2011
Brain science is a hot topic in the media, business and government, as we try to make better sense of human behaviour through neuroscience and behavioural economics. Crawford Hollingworth and Jo Davies examine how this applies to today’s pressured contact centre.
01 December 2011
Savvy banks and financial institutions can steal a march on their competitors by using social media to engage with and talk in real time to their customers. Nicole Ghobrial reveals her dos and don’ts for finance companies wanting to make an impression in the social sphere.
14 November 2011
As it grows in popularity, some companies are now using social media to proactively garner customer feedback, make special offers, and so on. But it’s vital to give careful thought to your outbound social media strategy.

Kristin Hersant offers eight best practice rules to make sure it benefits both customer and company.
07 October 2011
How many times have companies given you a loyalty bonus – or marked the anniversary of you becoming a customer?

Carl Adkins examines what companies can do to ensure customer needs are met in terms of recognising preferences and rewarding loyalty, and discovers that having the right information to hand is key.
04 October 2011
The results of the Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service benchmarking programme revealed that even the best contact centres struggle to make the experience of calling the company personal to the customer.

Marlon Bowser from HTK examines the importance of managing the customer experience to make it personal. Read more...
01 September 2011
With more choice than ever before, consumers now expect brands to communicate with them as individuals using personalisation and the full power of the digital landscape. But with email, mobile, social and web all playing an important part in developing loyalty, how can customer strategy managers leverage each tool to drive long-term loyalty?

Simon Robinson explains how organisations can best use loyalty schemes to boost repeat purchases and customer retention.
12 July 2011
With the news that both Santander and New Call Telecom are moving their contact centres from India back into the UK it seems that offshoring has had its day.

According to Mark Pritchard , companies have often turned to offshoring as a way of delivering cost advantages. However, companies that bring their contact centres back to the UK to improve customer service can still make significant cost savings.
27 May 2011
It has been just over a year since a cloud of volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland spread across Europe, causing unprecedented interruption to flights.
17 February 2011
So RBS and NatWest have been fined £2.8million for mishandling customer complaints. Then why is it so hard for banks to get customer complaints right? James Clark gives some answers.
14 February 2011
There is more to successful marketing communications than making sure the who, what, where, when, and how are executed effectively, says Damian Traynor. Companies also need to analyse the 'well'. As in, how well did the communication perform against targets.
14 February 2011
Simple pro-active steps can be taken to ensure your contact centre is always working to improve customer perceptions, says Mary Cook. By thinking strategically about the contact centre's role, adopting customer-focused metrics and making use of appropriate technology, you can strike the right balance.
08 January 2011
How much longer will my customers be mine? Craig Pumfrey examines the brave new world where the consumer grapevine is bigger than ever ? and has the potential to stifle the future growth of your company.
08 January 2011
The overall aim in business is to have clients pull your services from you as opposed to you going out and pushing them. Lindsey Agness explains how to influence customers with integrity using major elements of NLP such sensory acuity and rapport.
30 September 2010
The concept of first contact resolution (FCR) is not a new one, but it is one of the most powerful metrics for improving customer loyalty at the lowest possible cost to your organisation.
08 September 2010
Many customer contact operations now measure first call resolution, but how do you know when a call is truly resolved first time? Ask your customers, says Gary Schwartz, and you can't go far wrong.
01 September 2010
Creativity in marketing is usually reserved for customer acquisition campaigns, points out Ian Bates. But companies may be missing a trick by not using more creativity in their management of existing customers. Its time to ditch boring CRM campaign.
11 August 2010
More than half of UK broadband customers have switched suppliers at some point. Keith Gait investigates what might be behind this phenomenon and what companies can do to avoid such huge customer churn.
10 August 2010
Gaining customer insight through an effective loyalty scheme can be invaluable, according to Simon Helliwell. But if customers forget to carry their cards with them, where does that leave the retailer and their investment in scheme?
10 August 2010
Patricia Wheatley Burt maps children's observations about love against what companies should be doing for their customers. It might sound a bizarre exercise, but it's more insightful than you might think.
09 August 2010
Ladbrokes may have saved its call centre, but West says it has missed the point of why phone support is so valuable today.
29 June 2010
People in the UK have less and less tolerance of sloppy customer service and are increasingly prepared to move to a competitor in search of a better experience, says Faraz Khan. But even worse, they can now spread the word about that negative experience.
17 June 2010
Just as more contact centres embrace customer-centricity, a new problem has arrived. How can agents serve the customer in the best way via the telephone when the whole world has gone multi-channel? Faraz Khan discusses the difficulty.
22 April 2010
Ol Janus argues that brands should avoid diluting the customer experience through letting their imaginations run wild. When it comes to good customer service, consistency is key.
16 April 2010
"I recently decided to cancel two long term mobile phone contacts, one for myself and one for my son, both which were used as business phones. After making multiple phone calls to the supplier with little success, I finally went into the shop. Jean Harvey gets answers to her questions.
24 March 2010
In the financial and insurance sectors, very few brands have managed to create a complete set of perceptions in peoples minds. A question such as 'What does Barclays offer which is different from Lloyds TSB?' would probably lead to a puzzled silence. Michael McDonald investigates the importance of differentiating.
24 March 2010
Sam Tucker has an issue with a lost payment with a major bank, and has made five phone calls trying to resolve it. Each time, he has been made promises that were not kept, and now Sam has become increasingly irate with staff. CCF gives him advice on what to do.
19 March 2010
Why is it that some brands seem to have something special about them, something almost invincible? Tim Bleszynski examines what certain brands have in common and why they evoke such intense loyalty.
19 March 2010
Excellence in customer service has been touted as the big differentiator in a struggling economy. Ian Turner believes that despite the phone remaining the dominant communication channel when contacting a call centre, many companies fail to grasp the potential to improve the customer service experience through this medium.
08 March 2010
Rapid changes in modern consumerism mean data consultancies must constantly review their processes to keep track of what people want, says Kevin Slatter. He takes us through the five key attributes needed to achieve this.
25 February 2010
In the face of growing competition, brand loyalty programmes will need to deliver more immediate value, choice and personal relevance whilst still creating long-term brand equity. Andrew Mitchell , says brands will have to work harder than ever to win and retain customers.
22 February 2010
Many organisations face turbulent times ahead, not just because of the ongoing economic landscape, but due to the fact that they may have missed the boat when it comes to analysing and utilising information on their customers, says Ol Janus.
17 February 2010
Back in the day, 90 per cent of branding stopped with the purchase of a product or service. But today, the entire customer experience contributes to branding. Post-sales brand activities are every bit as important as pre-sales brand management. Andrew Cohen explains.
17 February 2010
Faraz Khan attended a Genesys Experience Summit to gather more insight from its partner on the latest thinking around customer experience. Some of the market research presentedconfirms what he instinctively knew: people in the UK have less and less tolerance of sloppy customer service.
12 February 2010
Inspired by Insight 100's customer loyalty workshops that focus on 'loving the customers you're with' and the impending Valentine's Day, I got to thinking 'could the need for businesses to retain existing customers and build brand loyalty, really be achieved through 'loving?' their customers?' Frea O'Brien investigates.
05 February 2010
Marketing has undergone something of a revolution in the past decade. Companies are no longer focusing on customer acquisition and are increasingly looking to maximise retention and drive Customer Lifetime Value.
05 February 2010
Even in the recession, many organisations are still not giving customers the attention they need, says Stephen Hewett. Why do so many organisations still do so little to win their customers hearts? Why do organisations all too frequently become less customer-focused, the larger they get?
04 February 2010
It was busy this New Years Eve in Cape Town, and maybe that is why the police (apparently in the next street) didn't hear the gunshot fired at my famil's taxi. The five of them were going to HQ night club, Very VIP guests of Johnnie Vaughan and were in a great mood for fun. Patricia Wheatley Burt explains .
20 January 2010
The UK has become nation of switches, costing businesses £3.39 billion. Three out of four consumers has shifted to a new supplier in the past two years amounting to 20 million lost customers. Professor Merlin Stone says businesses must work harder.
12 January 2010
The fact that customers can simply up-sticks and buy services from a competitor virtually instantaneously, still confounds many companies. But Sandeep Aggarwal argues that by providing a consistent and outstanding customer service from end to end, can companies ever provide the added-value necessary to stop customers ending up down the road.
24 December 2009
Consumers are becoming increasingly unhappy with the online experience offered by most major organisations, and are now looking for improvements. Rene Hermes outlines six areas which can result in continued loyalty.
25 November 2009
Consumer empowerment is the biggest business movement of the 21st century and the only way to grow a business is now through word of mouth. This is the view of Greg Gianforte .
20 November 2009
Ryan Pellett outlines seven golden rules that are needed to keep your customers satisfied, loyal and profitable to your organisation. In a market characterised by ever-changing customer demand, it is no longer sufficient for companies to compete based on the “four Ps” of product, price, place and promotion.