Understanding Customers
Conducting Customer Satisfaction Surveys – Oklahoma State University Extension -- This fact sheet provides a way for cooperatives to gauge customer loyalty and needs.
Customer Segmentation in Agricultural Cooperatives – Oklahoma State University Extension -- This fact sheet describes how a company can identify who their top customers are and how to better meet the needs of their customers.
Co-opting Customer Competence – HBS Working Knowledge -- The changing dynamics of business in recent years have led manufacturers to draw on the competencies of their supply-chain partners—suppliers and distributors alike—as a source of competitive edge.
Not All Customers Are Created Equal – HBS Working Knowledge -- You may think a buck is a buck, a Euro is a Euro, no matter who pays you. But not all customers are of equal value. The link between customer loyalty and profits is weak. Here is what you can do about it.
Real Time: Getting Up to Speed With Customers' Needs – HBS Working Knowledge -- Customers in the information age expect and demand immediate attention and instant gratification. This article tells how companies today need to manage the transition from economies of scale to economies of time.
The Customer Knows Best? Better Think Again – HBS Working Knowledge -- It’s important to listen to customers—but not follow their words without skepticism. Ask them to design your next product and you’re likely to miss the mark.
The HBS Toolkit: Lifetime Customer Value Calculator – HBS Working Knowledge -- How do you measure the value of a customer or group of customers to a company? This downloadable interactive workbook from the HBS Toolkit is designed to help estimate the cost of acquiring a customer and the Net Present Value (NPV) of that customer's business during his or her economic life.
Three Common Myths About Customers That Undermine Results – HBS Working Knowledge -- Successful leaders create customer results through firm equity—the allegiance customers have to doing business with a particular firm. But on the road to equity, common myths about customers and customer relationships can lead a firm astray.
What's a Customer Worth? – HBS Working Knowledge -- This customer equity approach introduces an innovative marketing system by which the serious marketer can understand and measure customers as financial assets.
Working with Customers
Keeping Your Balance With Customers – HBS Working Knowledge -- Using the Balanced Scorecard approach you can analyze the four essentials of customer management: customer selection, acquisition, retention, and growth.
The Six Forces of Marketing Momentum – HBS Working Knowledge -- If you want your product to be more than a one-hit wonder, customers need to know that it has staying power. Here are six ways to help you convince them.
Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing – HBS Working Knowledge -- In today's hyper-competitive world, your sales and marketing functions must yoke together at every level—from the core central concepts of the strategy to the minute details of execution.
Which Customers Don't Fit? – HBS Working Knowledge -- Asking yourself which customers, products, and services don't fit your business model can reveal quickly whether your company is managing profitability effectively, and whether your key managers' actions are aligned.
Your Customers: Use Them or Lose Them – HBS Working Knowledge -- Companies can differentiate on service profitably. Here's how a new-thinking bank, insurance provider, and software company are using customer power to win.
Motivating Your Customers
Let Customers Call the Shots – HBS Working Knowledge -- Opt-in advertising, interactive TV, group buying clubs—these are all examples of cutting-edge intermediaries that are changing the rules for both marketers and consumers.
Tease Your Customers – HBS Working Knowledge -- Is pandering passe? Kowtowing kaput? You want it? Can't have it. Learn how some good old-fashioned teasing can make your product irresistible to customers.
Wake Up! Energizing Your Tired Customers – HBS Working Knowledge -- Your customers know all your tricks. They are sick and tired of irrelevant products, unending marketing messages, and a growing string of broken promises. How can you get through to them again? Treat them as customers, not as consumers.
Customer Relations
Customer Complaints and Types of Customers – University of Florida Extension -- Three important aspects of the complaint process are actively seeking customer complaints, recognizing the type of customer that is complaining, and responding appropriately based on the type of complainer.
Customer Service – Small Business Administration -- The Golden Rule, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," may seem self-evident in the way we try to conduct our personal lives. Yet this axiom is assuming new importance as a guiding principle in the world of business.
Keeping Customers Satisfied – Ohio State University Extension -- They are the lifeline of any business, and it is important to keep patrons by avoiding or minimizing customer dissatisfaction.
The Dilemma of Customer Service – HBS Working Knowledge -- Service differentiation is the solution to the high cost/poor service spiral. The dilemma of customer service can be resolved by thinking carefully about your customers’ real product requirements, your customer relationships, and your supply chain economics.
Customer Service – Small Business Notes -- The climate of the recession-ridden early 1980s, when customers blithely traded away high-quality service in exchange for price reductions or convenience is no more.
Customer Service that Puts the "Ritz" in Ritzy – HBS Working Knowledge -- The manager mantra is "Put the customer first." But what about the employees who deliver the goods and services?
Don't Lose Money With Customers – HBS Working Knowledge -- Executives talk a good game about managing customer relationships. But then why do many companies persist in money-losing arrangements?
Is Your Organization Built for the Consumer? – HBS Working Knowledge -- Efficient consumer response is a "win-win-win" process for consumers, suppliers, and retailers.
It's Time to Reinstall the 'R' in Your Customer Relationship Management Programs – HBS Working Knowledge -- Customer relationship management (CRM) programs have become too much about the technology, not enough about the customer relationship. Here is how to restore the proper balance.
The Secret to Happy Customers in a Bad Economy – HBS Working Knowledge -- Think of the lean economy as a chance to strengthen your business, improve relations with customers, and even make your employees more loyal. This article outlines steps for dealing with customer service when the economy goes south.
Customer Relations Management – Mplans.com -- CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a term used for methodologies, software and Internet applications that help a business manage their customer relationships.
What's the Real Secret to Sales Effectiveness? - Customer Commitment – SalesVantage.com -- Businesses that invest in CRM practices and systems properly see a larger percentage of sales representatives attaining their sales quotas then those that do no invest in CRM.
Before You Implement: Ready, Set, Stop and Think! – SalesVantage.com -- When implementing a CRM solution think the plan through or you may find yourself in for a few surprises that could sabotage your CRM plan.
Importance of the Consumer
Is Your Organization Built for the Consumer? – HBS Working Knowledge -- Efficient consumer response is a "win-win-win" process for consumers, suppliers, and retailers.
Ten Commandments of Good Business – Iowa Small Business Development Centers -- The importance of our customer.
Understanding Your Consumer
Taking your Cues from Customers – HBS Working Knowledge -- Your customers are no longer just product purchasers—they are partners.
The Subconscious Mind of the Consumer (And How To Reach It) – HBS Working Knowledge -- 95 percent of our purchase decision making takes place in the subconscious mind. But how does a marketer reach the subconscious?
Articles on Customer Service – SalesVantage.com -- A series topics relating to working with customers.
Consumer Legal Issues
Consumer Protection Laws – Lawyers.com -- The Federal Trade Commission uses what they call industry guides and trade regulations to define what’s an unfair or deceptive trade practice.
Consumer Protection Laws – NOLO Law for All -- Business owners should familiarize themselves with consumer protection laws, including rules against deceptive advertising and pricing.
Class Actions – Lawyers.com -- A series of articles on class action suits.
Consumer Contracts – Lawyers.com -- A series of articles on consumer contracts.
Small Claims Court – Lawyers.com -- A series of articles on small claims court.
Unsafe Products – Lawyers.com -- A series of articles on unsafe products.
Warranties – Lawyers.com -- Warranties are promises that a business owner makes to stand by his product and protect consumers against damages or injuries caused by defective products.