Conversation Management | Everything you need to know to survive the age of conversations

The satisfied customer paradox

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by Steven Van Belleghem on January 28, 2014in the categories business to the heart, digital customer service, Marketing 2020, Opinion, social business3 Comments

Satisfied customers lead to a successful business. This is a hypothesis that many of us take for granted. However, recent research has shown there’s more to it than that. The study indicates there is no correlation between satisfied customers and business results. Also, a negative correlation exists between satisfied customers and market share. The satisfied customer paradox is almost like a parabola: a small company tries to please its customers, an attitude that builds your market share. At that point, chances are you will create dissatisfied customers and lose market share. This company life cycle has become shorter over the years.

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Four new ways to earn customer loyalty

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by Steven Van Belleghem on January 21, 2014in the categories business to the heart, Marketing 2020, Opinion1 Comment

Customer loyalty is in decline. Loyalty programs do not work anymore. In fact, everyone agrees most loyalty programs are discount programs. As I described in a previous post about loyalty, I’m not ready to give up on loyalty.

In this post, I would like to share four approaches that can help companies restore the emotional relationship that may result in loyalty.

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The consumer: your best friend and your worst enemy

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by Steven Van Belleghem on January 14, 2014in the categories Marketing 2020, OpinionNo Comments

2013 was the year of customer centricity. When every product becomes a commodity, the only thing left to invest in is the customer relationship. It is great to see and feel the change in mentality that companies around the world exhibit towards their customers. More than ever, I see companies that are willing to change their stance on ‘customer first’ attitude. Of course, such a change in mentality doesn’t just happen overnight. It is a process, it’s a journey. And for most companies with a changed attitude towards their customers, the ride will be a bumpy one.

2014 is the year we will distinguish between two types of customer relationships. We will treat our customers as a good friend, but we will also find that some customers have become fierce competitors.

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This was 2013 on social media

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by Steven Van Belleghem on December 17, 2013in the categories social business, Social Web11 Comments

The year is coming to a close so it’s time for the traditional end-of-the-year roundup. All year long I’ve collected striking facts, information and tidbits from all over the world in relation to social media. Obviously a lot more has been going on than what you’ll find in this overview but these are the stories that stayed with me somehow. I hope you’ll enjoy this little trip down memory lane.

As usual you are free to complete this overview with high or low points that made an impression on you.

As befitting any self-respecting annual overview there is also a video summary on ‘social media in 2013′.

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CCO Talk: Consumers in the boardroom of… Schoenen Torfs

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by Kristof De Wulf on December 9, 2013in the categories social businessNo Comments

This guest post is written by Kristof De Wulf, CEO at InSites Consulting. Meet the InSites Consulting CCO (Chief Consumer Officer) Talk series, offering people from the C suite a chance to share their views on driving consumer centricity and activation in their organizations. This time, I had the opportunity to talk with Wouter Torfs, CEO of Schoenen Torfs. Schoenen Torfs is a Belgian family-owned shoe retailer, originated right after the First World War by Louis Torfs. Wouter Torfs took over as CEO in 1986, being a descendant of the third generation. Today, Schoenen Torfs realizes a turnover of more than 100 million euro, employs 570 employees and has been awarded 4 times as ‘Best Belgian Employer‘ by the Vlerick Business School. During my talk with Wouter, I wanted to find out about the recipe of success which brought Schoenen Torfs to where it is today.
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