David Schoen's Notes on Customers.com

Several years ago, I started making notes when I read books on business and other topics that are of interest to me. The reason I started making notes is I would read a book and want to refer to a portion of it at a later date. I would then wonder ... what book was it? ... where was the section I wanted to re-read? My solution is to make notes as I am reading the book.

Why place my notes on the Web? I'm not always at home when I want to look something up and I'm not always on the same computer at home. The solution: put my notes on a site so I can access the info at any time and from almost anywhere.

You will find my notes on some books are only a couple of lines. Others are pages long. Some of my notes are direct quotes and some are paraphrases. As I read a book, I'm usually searching for information on particular subjects. My notes may not contain information about other subjects or perspectives covered by the book. Following are my notes on Customers.com. I recommend you read the book. It has lots of great info and case studies.

David Schoen's Notes On
Customers.com
author of book: Patricia Seybold

How do on-line businesses create fanatical customer loyalty? They carefully streamline every aspect of the customer�s interaction with them. They ensure that nothing ever falls into a �black hole.� And they reassure the customer at every step of the way. Before the customer has time to wonder whether something�s been taken care of properly, he receives notification that it has. p xiv

What�s the winning formula? You guessed it! It starts by focusing on your existing customers, figuring out what they want and need and how you can make life easier for them. Then you can expand your efforts to reel in prospective customers. Once you lure prospects to you, closing the sale and cementing a profitable, long-term relationship becomes a snap, because you�ve already made it easy for customers to do business with you! p xvi

There�s a new breed of executive in ascendancy in today�s organizations: the technology � literate executive. These are the people I talk with everyday. They are not afraid of technology. Nor are they enamored by it. They�re not early adopters of hot new gadgets. They�re pragmatists: they wait for proven , reliable solutions that will enhance their quality of life and help them run their businesses better. What they want is for their organizations to run better, faster, smoother and to be much more proactively responsive to their customers. They�re frustrated by antiquated information systems and organizational silos that get in the way of streamlining customer-facing business processes. p xvii

The eight critical success factors in electronic commerce and e-business
1. Target the right customers
2. Own the customer�s total experience
3. Streamline business processes that impact the customer
4. Provide a 360-degree view of the customer relationship
5. Let customers help themselves
6. Help customers do their jobs
7. Deliver personalized service
8. Foster community

How To Create A Profitable Electronic Business Strategy
Five topics covered
1. Make it easy for customers to do business with you
2. Focus on the end customer for your products and services
3. Redesign your customer-facing business processes from the end customer�s point of view
4. Wire your company for profit: design a comprehensive, evolving electronic business architecture
5. Foster customer loyalty � the key to profitability in electronic commerce.

Redesign processes from the outside in
When companies reengineered their processes several years ago they did not do it correctly

They did not start with the customer and work in
They did streamline the companies and saved them a lot of money

Most of the reengineering efforts that took place in the 1990�s didn�t involve the end customer, so they didn�t focus on the key priority of making it easy for customers to do business with the firm. They haven�t made a difference in keeping customers happy and loyal, coming back for more, and telling their friends about your great products and service.

What your Web site highlights, in an unflattering way, is all the black holes that exist in your company operations. Today you have people who know where the problems in your processes are. They do workarounds. They fill the gaps. They do their best to provide your customers with seamless service.

There is nothing more annoying to prospective customers than to be ready to place an order on the Web only to be told they have to �call 1-800-��

Look at the profitability of each customer
Divide customer group into quartiles by profitability
Target e-commerce initiative towards most profitable group
Examine how to reduce cost of doing business with least profitable
Most often, customers defect not in anger but because of their perceived value of product offering
Design program to attract profitable customers and avoid unprofitable ones
Make unprofitable customers profitable by reducing costs or increasing revenue obtained from them

Or encourage them to go to a provider that is a better match

Challenge: moving from a product-centric to a customer-centric model
Many companies with multiple product lines often treat each one as an island of business.

Adding to the problem, sales efforts focus on identifying new customers-qualified leads-rather than on delighting the existing customer base so that each customer will spend more and more on the organization�s products and services.

Today, companies that are measuring customer profitability and have organized themselves to retain customers have a strategic advantage.

Identify some of your most profitable customers, and then design electronic commerce solutions to help cement your relationships with them.

Own The Customer�s Total Experience

Deliver a consistent, branded experience.
Focus on saving customers time and irritation.
Offer piece of mind.
Work with partners to deliver consistent service and quality.
Respect the customer�s individuality.
Give customers control over their experience.

A brand name doesn�t just evoke a product, it also invokes a set of feelings in the customer.

Processes That Impact The Customer

Start by identifying the end customer.
Streamline the process from the end customer�s point of view.
Streamline the process for key stakeholders.
Continuously improve the process based on customer feedback.
Give everyone involved a clear view of the process.

Loyal customer are more profitable because:

The longer you retain them, the more money you make.
They cost you less to serve.
They invest more in your products.
They cross-sell and upsell themselves.
They generate referrals.

Don�t let current technology capabilities limit your vision.

Let Customers Help Themselves
Today�s customers value their time above all. They want to be able to conduct business at the time that�s most convenient to them.

Let customers help themselves to information and perform transactions on-line.
Let customers check on the status of orders, pay or adjust bills, and access service.
Let customers interact using whatever media they choose.
Give customers the ability to design their own products.

Case: Cisco Systems
In 1993 & 1994 company�s vice president looked at growth of router business. To support upcoming increase in sales volume, he would have to increase support engineers from a few hundred to over 10,000

Customers would search for answers to problems, if no answers were found, they posted the problem

Cisco engineers would begin researching the problem and post a response
Customers who had found a solution posted responses and workarounds
When answers hit the database, an e-mail was sent to customer requesting help, asking customer to check Web site
Customers were happy that they could help themselves

The evolution of Cisco�s Web business
Was not based on a grand strategic plan

Constant customer survey � asked them what they wanted
Customer complained about things that annoyed them and wasted their time
Cisco streamlined the site and fixed the time wasters

Results
Cisco estimates savings to be $550 million a year

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws