The Seven Myths of Customer Management (eBook)

How to be Customer-Driven Without Being Customer-Led

John Abram, Paul Hawkes (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF

2005
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
9780470858813 (ISBN)

Infos

In this lively and readable book, the authors argue that in recent years far too much has been made of customer satisfaction, and that this has come at the expense of hard-edged consumerism. Whether or not 'the customer is king,' the first rule of business is to make money. Pragmatic and practical, the book destroys seven key myths about customer management that have gained almost folkloric status, and provides a step-by-step action plan for linking customer service with commercial goals.

John Abram began his career selling industrial textiles to major customers in industries as diverse as mining; water treatment and pollution control. He was promoted to head the firm's business development functions in the UK, where he was responsible for introducing one of the earliest examples of automated customer management systems used in the UK.

He was recruited by American Express in 1978 and appointed Marketing Manager, with responsibility for Cardmember recruitment and retention, as well as cross-sales of complementary products and services.

In 1981, backed by a leading publishing firm, he started his own business promoting a range of products and services to entrepreneurs and business managers. In 1984, he bought out his original backers and took the business on to become a significant innovator in the promotion of investment products by phone and post, being the first in the country to sell personal pension plans direct to consumers.

Paul Hawkes joined American Express Card Division in 1975 and subsequently became Marketing Manager for the merchant network in the UK and Ireland. In 1979, he moved to Time-Life Books and was promoted to become European Mark eting Vice President. In this role, he was responsible for mail order and retail marketing and sales, new product development and co-publishing relationships across 14 countries within Europe and Africa.

He was a director of the British Direct Marketing Association and a Council Member of both the Association of Mail Order Publishers and the Mail Order Publishers' Authority; and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He is now a director of the Virtual Partnership Ltd.

John and Paul co-founded Abram, Hawkes plc in January 1987. Over the next 13 years they built and managed the company to become the UK's foremost consultancy specialising in marketing and customer management; or, more simply, advising and assisting organisations on how to grow revenues and build customer profitability. They sold the company at the beginning of 2000 to Valoris, a major European consulting firm. Their clients included many of the country's largest and most successful organisations, such as Norwich Union, Centrica, Switch Card Services, Thomas Cook, Lloyds Bank, MBNA, Visa, Barclaycard, Axa Sun Life, GUS Catalogue Order, and many others.

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In this lively and readable book, the authors argue that in recent years far too much has been made of customer satisfaction, and that this has come at the expense of hard-edged consumerism. Whether or not "e;the customer is king,"e; the first rule of business is to make money. Pragmatic and practical, the book destroys seven key myths about customer management that have gained almost folkloric status, and provides a step-by-step action plan for linking customer service with commercial goals.

Autor

John Abram began his career selling industrial textiles to major customers in industries as diverse as mining, water treatment and pollution control. He was promoted to head the firm's business development functions in the UK, where he was responsible for introducing one of the earliest examples of automated customer management systems used in the UK. He was recruited by American Express in 1978 and appointed Marketing Manager, with responsibility for Cardmember recruitment and retention, as well as cross-sales of complementary products and services. In 1981, backed by a leading publishing firm, he started his own business promoting a range of products and services to entrepreneurs and business managers. In 1984, he bought out his original backers and took the business on to become a significant innovator in the promotion of investment products by phone and post, being the first in the country to sell personal pension plans direct to consumers. Paul Hawkes joined American Express Card Division in 1975 and subsequently became Marketing Manager for the merchant network in the UK and Ireland. In 1979, he moved to Time-Life Books and was promoted to become European Marketing Vice President, responsible for mail order and retail marketing and sales, new product development and co-publishing relationships across 14 countries within Europe and Africa. He was a director of the British Direct Marketing Association and a Council Member of both the Association of Mail Order Publishers and the Mail Order Publishers' Authority; and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He is now a director of the Virtual Partnership Ltd. John and Paul co-founded Abram, Hawkes plc in January 1987, the UK's foremost consultancy specialising in marketing and customer management; or, more simply, advising and assisting organisations on how to grow revenues and build customer profitability. They sold the company at the beginning of 2000 to Valoris, a major European consulting firm.

Inhalt

Figures ix

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction xii

1 The seven myths of customer management: Debunking some established wisdom 1

The dangers of customer leadership 1

What is really happening? 5

Myth 1: Customer retention is the key to increased profitability 6

Myth 2: Divesting unprofitable customers will increase profitability overall 9

Myth 3: Customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty 12

Myth 4: Repeat purchase is the same as customer loyalty 15

Myth 5: Organizations should develop relationships with their customers 18

Myth 6: One-to-one marketing is the ultimate goal 21

Myth 7: Technology is the primary enabler of customer focus 25

A different approach 28

2 Testing the water: Understanding where you are today 29

Picking up customer signals 32

Business-to-business customers 36

What research does not tell you 39

New technology, new danger 42

Substituting benchmarking for thought 44

Ten ways to gain real customer insight 46

3 Look before you leap: Developing a customer-focused strategy 50

What is customer-focused strategy? 52

Strategy in context 55

Developing customer-focused strategy 58

Appraising the world outside 62

Seeking to be different 66

Leading on cost 69

Focusing on markets or customers 70

The customer lifecycle 73

Deciding and evaluating alternatives 77

Action planning 80

4 Measuring your way to success: Allocating resources for maximum effect 83

The failure of measurement 85

Customer attitude measures 86

Customer retention measures 87

Customer value measures 89

The failure of management information systems 93

Towards customer value 97

Customer value analysis in action 102

The pitfalls and problems 107

The benefits of value-based management 109

5 Don't keep it too simple, stupid: The need for a segmented approach 111

Segment or die 113

Understanding customers' needs and motivations 114

Collecting the data 120

From data to intelligence 120

From intelligence to hypothesis 126

From hypothesis to appraisal 130

From appraisal to strategy 131

From strategy to results 133

Pitfalls and problems 136

Segmentation: a postscript 138

6 Lining up the ducks: Aligning the company for customer focus 140

Aligning finance 142

Aligning product strategy 143

Aligning the proposition: from product to profit 146

Brand alignment 148

Aligning distribution 150

Aligning customer communication 152

Loyalty programmes 158

Alignment: a postscript 163

7 Are you the problem? The role of leadership in creating customer focus 164

Data-less decision making 166

Rearranging the deckchairs 168

The pitfalls of project teams 169

Best practice is sometimes best left alone 170

Incentivizing inappropriate behaviour 172

Technology turmoil 175

Everyone embraces change enthusiastically 179

Reorganizing for focus 183

Changing a light bulb 187

8 Bringing the focus alive: A practical action plan 188

An action plan for customer focus 190

Managing the customer focus process 190

The internal review 193

Customer dynamics and needs 195

Segment objectives and propositions 198

Customer-management objectives, strategy and tactics 200

Channel strategies and implementation 207

Testing and performance measurement 208

Customer and market knowledge management 211

Change planning 213

Technology strategy 214

Index 218

Rezensionen

"...is a stimulating canter through some marketing mantras,
dismantling them fairly and frankly before suggesting
alternatives..." (Marketing, 16 October 2003)

"... iconoclastic..." (Admap, February
04)

"...The myths put CRM into perspective, explaining what to use
and what to discard." (Brand Strategy, September 2006)

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.8.2005
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Marketing / Vertrieb
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Schlagworte: Antidote • Book • Business & Management • challenges • Conventional • Customer • dangerous • everyone • experienced • impacts • INK • interacts • Job • LESS • Lot • Management • many • misconceptions • Myths • potentially • Powerful • Practical • Reading • Strategic Management • Strategisches Management • two • whos • Wirtschaft u. Management • youll
• ISBN-13: 9780470858813 / 9780470858813