Bob Thompson
CustomerThink
Coronado, CA, United States
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Past articles by Bob:
CX ROI: Making the Case to Improve the Buying Experience
Sure, marketing and sales leaders want satisfied customers. But they won’t fund a CX initiative if that’s the main benefit. CX pros must show they are a valued contributor to the “revenue team.” Marketing and sales organizations want the same thing: Growth. Marketing wants credit for building the brand and driving prospect engagement that ultimately results in new orders closed by Sales… → Read More
What is Customer Experience Management (CXM)?
This article is an excerpt from the CustomerThink research report Customer Experience at a Crossroads: What Drives CX Success?, based on a study of 200+ CX initiatives in 2018. While industry experts generally agree that customer experiences include all interactions and the resulting customer perceptions[1], there is more confusion about what Customer Experience Management (CXM) entails. These… → Read More
SAP to Acquire Qualtrics, Changing the Game for CX, CRM, and ERP Industries
Finally. That’s my first reaction to the news that SAP will acquire Qualtrics in a deal valued at $8 billion. It appears that as Qualtrics was preparing for an IPO, SAP swooped in and made an offer that founder/CEO Ryan Smith couldn’t refuse. The SAP move is part of consolidation trend I predicted last year in my article “Voice of Customer Industry Trends: Consolidation, Disruption, and the Rise… → Read More
Dumbed Down CX: Just Make It Easy, Stupid!
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. — H. L. Mencken Source: Carol M. Highsmith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The CX movement has been going strong for more than a decade now. Unfortunately, less than 1/3 of CX initiatives have been truly successful — meaning organizations have seen tangible business results or competitive differentiation.… → Read More
Dumbed Down CX: Just Make It Easy, Stupid!
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. — H. L. Mencken Source: Carol M. Highsmith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The CX movement has been going strong for more than a decade now. Unfortunately, less than 1/3 of CX initiatives have been truly successful — meaning organizations have seen tangible business results or competitive differentiation.… → Read More
Relentless Execution: The Key to TELUS International’s Customer Experience Success
I wish I lived in Canada so I could experience the TELUS brand firsthand as a cell phone user. You see, I’ve had an opportunity to learn how TELUS operates over the past 10 years or so, and I think it’s one of the world’s best stories of customer-centric strategy and execution. Having recently switched providers here in the U.S., I can tell you that we’re fortunate to have several strong… → Read More
What does “Customer Experience” really mean? Text analytics sheds some light
A couple of years ago I bought a new bike at a local shop. My 20-something sales rep said my bike was “sick.” Why would I buy a diseased bike? Seriously, the dictionary says the top 3 definitions are: 1. afflicted with ill health or disease; ailing. 2. affected with nausea; inclined to vomit. 3. deeply affected with some unpleasant feeling, as of sorrow, disgust, or boredom: Did I buy a… → Read More
Introducing the CXtech 100K, a $1 Trillion Market. You’re Welcome.
Over the past few years the Martech (Marketing Technology) has expanded to over 5,000 vendors. Scott Brinker has done an amazing job cataloging this dynamic space and creating graphics to organize vendors in a number of different subcategories. The 2018 “Martech 5000” graphic actually contains 6,829 marketing technology solutions from 6,242 unique marketing technology vendors, up 27% in just the… → Read More
Pega Infinity: A platform for Digital Transformation… but something is missing
Last week I attended PegaWorld 2018, one of the best tech conferences I’ve been to in years. Kudos to the event staff for producing a first-class event, and for arranging for me to meet with Pega executives and customers. My motivation for attending was to try to figure out where Pega fits in the tech landscape. Pega’s roots are in workflow and BPM (Business Process Management) where it has been… → Read More
Is There a Blockchain in Your Future?
Image source: Pixabay The IT industry has an amazing knack for hyping the next big thing every year or two. In recent years we’ve progressed through Big Data, AI, and now — right on cue — it’s time for blockchain to change the world as we know it. Sorry if that sounds a bit jaded, but it can be hard to sort out truly disruptive technologies and those that are simply being promoted by tech… → Read More
The power of FOCUS helps Infusionsoft and Zendesk stand out
Back in the olden days circa 2000, it was easy to figure out who the CRM leaders were in the SMB market. Goldmine, ONYX, Pivotal, Sage, and SalesLogix were among the top brands, with maybe a dozen or so others trying to establish mind- and market-share. Now, thanks to the ease of launching a cloud-based solution, I have no idea. I don’t follow the CRM tech space closely enough to render an… → Read More
How to Fix Cable: Better CX, More Innovation, or Lower Prices?
Image Source: Pixabay Psst. I have a confession to make. Don’t tell my cable company, but I’m preparing to make “the call” to become another cable cutter. Joining over 3 million traditional TV subscribers that defected in 2017. I’ve been a customer of one of the major providers for many years, perhaps a couple of decades. Our family got the basic cable package and we’ve stuck with that over the… → Read More
Ryanair: Low Prices + Unhappy Customers = CX Success Story?
Gartner defines CEM as as: “the practice of designing and reacting to customer interactions to meet or exceed customer expectations and, thus, increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.” Most of the commentary and research around customer experiences is about how to increase customer satisfaction or loyalty. More satisfied/loyal customers are more likely to buy more, return again, and… → Read More
Questions About Qualtrics: Will a Marketing Magician Lead the CX/VoC Industry?
I attended the Qualtrics annual Summit a couple of weeks ago to learn more about a vendor that appears to be on the rise in the CX / Voice of Customer (VoC) arena. It was an impressive event that felt more like a rock concert attended by 7,000 screaming fans. But, I came home with some lingering questions. Keynotes from luminaries in business, media, and politics were certainly enjoyable. My… → Read More
An Inconvenient Truth: 93% of Customer Experience Initiatives are Failing…
… to Differentiate. Why is that important? Because according to a 2014 Gartner statistic repeated ad nauseam: > by 2016, 89% of companies expect to compete mostly on the basis of customer experience Folks, that was two years ago. Ok, so maybe differentiation is too high a bar for “success.” How about getting tangible benefits? You know, what CEOs are looking for to fund CX initiatives. My… → Read More
SAS ups the ante on machine learning, cognitive computing. How will it improve CX?
Last week I geeked out at the SAS conference Analytics Experience 2016 in Las Vegas. It was a heady mix of business and technical sessions on how to take advantage of the power of analytics. Of course there are innumerable applications for analytics, from fraud detection to supply chain optimization to garden variety business intelligence. For this post I’ll focus mainly on customer-related… → Read More
Are You Competing on Customer Experience to Keep Up, Get Ahead, or “Leave a Dent”?
Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is. —Jackson Pollack Three years ago, MassMutual embarked on a journey to reconnect with its customers. This 165-year-old financial services firm realized that “you can’t spray paint excitement” on largely set-and-forget products. Furthermore — and listen up marketers, because this is meant for you — customers don’t want mass marketing… → Read More