Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

ORGANIZATIONAL MELTDOWN

According to an August 2009 study from the CMO Council and the Customer Experience Board (CEB), “free or low-cost interactive digital media channels, social networks, mobile messaging devices, online communities and other forms of content-rich engagement are permanently altering the communications marketplace and redefining customer experience.”

That’s good news for anyone reading this book. As the reconciliatory mantra states, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”. In other words, don’t fear the change; embrace it. Use, integrate, and benefit from it.

And just in the nick of time as more than 84 percent of respondents in the CEB study indicated that it’s costing more to acquire and retain customers, and 63 percent reported seeing higher rates of customer churn and attrition. One of the biggest contributors to defection was inadequate customer service. Sound like déjà vu all over again? Consider yourselves on notice.

Realistically, however, that’s easier said than done.

While 89 percent of the sample believed they need to get better at customer handling and response—which includes better listening—more than 50 percent felt their organization “is not culturally or organizationally aligned around the customer.” This encompassed—among other things—business practices, billing policies, and personnel who were not “customer friendly.”

Get busy living or get busy dying.

The sound you just heard is your number being called to investigate setting up a customer-experience ...