Quality control expert Edward Deming said: “Eighty percent of American managers cannot answer with any measure of confidence these seemingly simple questions: What is my job? What in it really counts? How well am I doing?”

What do customers value? Of course they value high-quality products. Beyond that they value access. In fact, I propose that customer access is the single most important issue once a prospect becomes a customer.
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Word of mouth can make or break a company’s success. The customers who spread the good word about a company’s products and services are in many ways its most valuable customers. They are worth identifying and worth developing customized marketing treatments for.

Customers are the one asset that will grow a business. Take a look at the fastest growing companies, in terms of profit difference between 2003 and 2004, and you’ll see that many find their most growable customers by first finding growable markets…

Ivan writes about design. Mike discusses his jetlag. Dawn encourages young readers to become confident.

Instead of simply focusing on its value-priced roots to grow its online business, cataloger Fingerhut has recently launched a redesigned site that uses sophisticated data-collection techniques and Internet search technologies to identify and interact with its most valuable customers.

B2B companies face unique challenges in developing their most growable customers. Here are four strategies to help…

HCI Direct is one of the trailblazers in joint marketing and contact center operations, a process that began with a new marketing team and a new vision.

Tom Henske, of Lenox Advisors, has been my financial advisor for about 10 years.
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I stick with Tom not just because he makes sound recommendations but because since day one he has always treated me like an A-list client, and believe me, among his clients I’m more like a “Z.”

Over the past decade contact centers have been driven—some might say ruthlessly so—to be operationally excellent. What has often been lost in the drive to optimize handle times and self-service deflections is the core message of the company: the brand image and the opportunity to reinfoce it.
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