When it comes to segmentation, choosing the right scheme is just the beginning. You must then make it work.

Over the past four months, I spoke with service leaders across industries to understand their challenges to segmentation. Many were concerned about executing a chosen strategy:

Would it require extensive – sometimes impossible – resource investments?

Would they need complex CRM or routing technologies?

Is it even possible to deliver segmented service without rep specialists or tiered staffing models?

Much of the time, these concerns are valid. Segmentation can be expensive. Take, for example, a segmentation approach that tailors service to customers’ value to the company. High-value customers are often routed to better-skilled (or even dedicated) agents, offered personalized web features, and bumped to the front of call queues. To provide this level of high-touch service, resource investment is surely required.

So what happens if you’re constrained by budgets? Are you out of luck if you don’t have the time or money to put into a scheme like that? Read More »

This is the second in a four-part series that the CCC team is writing on New Year’s Resolutions for 2012…as it relates to the customer experience, of course.  Read part one here.

New Year’s observation: If there’s anything longer than the line at the (bar) (buffet line) (dessert table) in December…it’s the line at the (gym) (health club) (Weight Watchers’ meeting) in January.

‘Tis the season to resolve.

If your quest for the new year is to drop a few holiday-induced L-B-S’s…the best advice I’ve ever heard is, “Write down everything you eat during the course of the day.”  Turns out that simply training your brain to become hyper-aware of how many unnecessary calories we each consume every day is the “trigger” to kickstart a whole new mental process, that ultimately makes you eat less, and lose weight.  (BTW, 45 minutes a day on the treadmill ain’t gonna kill ya either, pal!)

But if your resolution for 2012 is to create an even greater customer experience at your company, here’s a small piece of friendly advice that will similarly trigger a new mental process for you and your entire team. It’s a matter of eliminating one simple phrase from your everyday vocabulary.  It’s not a phrase that sounds harmful at any level (in fact, when you use it, you probably think you’re doing something positive). But if you stop using it (although it’ll be hard at first), many amazing things will happen.

Stop saying, “the customer.”

I mean, we say that all the time.  We ALL do.  We all talk about how important it is to listen to the customer. To treat the customer with respect. To reduce the effort the customer has to put forth to resolve their issue.

But here’s where we need to re-wire our brains. ‘Cause there’s no such thing as THE customer. Read More »

Note: this is the second post in a three-part blog series on business-to-consumer segmentation. In this post, we will address the importance of setting goals for segmentation. Read the previous post on common B2C segmentation schemes and stay tuned to learn how to resource against segment needs.

Effective customer segmentation helps B2C companies achieve a number of service goals, such as:

• Increase revenues by driving customer retention
• Improve the customer experience
• Reduce costs by reducing call volume and/or callbacks
• Strengthen customer relationships
• Identify and maximize cross-sell and up-sell opportunities

Given all these potential benefits, it might be tempting to jump right into a segmentation scheme.  Sounds like it could only help an organization, right?

Not so fast.

Our latest research on B2C segmentation finds that many companies dive into segmentation without first defining the goal of their efforts. As a result, many fail to see the ROI of their programs – or worse, they segment customers incorrectly (and actually harm the customer experience) or increase their own costs to serve. Read More »

Note: this is the first post in a three-part blog series on business-to-consumer segmentation. In this post, we will address the five most common B2C segmentation strategies. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to learn more about the importance of setting goals for segmentation and resourcing against segment needs.

This fall, we introduced you to CCC’s latest research initiative on business-to-consumer (B2C) customer segmentation strategies. CCC members, the wait is over—we’re happy to announce the publication of this new research on our website.

Though segmentation has traditionally been a sales and marketing tactic, we find that many customer service organizations also started to segment customers to differentiate support offerings. B2B service organizations led the way, but B2C companies are not far behind. Read More »

Last month, I introduced you to our latest initiative on B2C customer segmentation strategies.  As we work to complete this project later this year, I want to give you an update on some of the ideas we’ve uncovered so far.

Why B2C Companies are Segmenting

Though segmentation is often used by marketing or product development teams, we find that many customer service organizations have also started to segment customers to differentiate the service offering.  B2B companies were first to do this, but B2C companies have started to follow suit. The reasons for this shift reflect broader changes in the service landscape:

• Customer service is increasingly viewed as a competitive differentiator and this trend is expected to intensify over time. According to a 2011 report written by the Economist Intelligence Unit, 55% of global business leaders believe that service will trump quality as a key differentiator in 2020.

• Advances in technology, thanks in part to increasingly effective CRM systems, have made it easier for companies to gather customer data and understand preferences.

• Service organizations must manage a growing customer base with increasingly complex needs. By tailoring service offerings to different segments, companies can optimize service to customers while maintaining profitability.

Sure, these reasons help explain why companies often choose to segment their service offerings – but what about the how? Read More »

Customer segmentation has traditionally been a sales and marketing tactic. But as companies begin to look to customer service as a market differentiator, many have also started to segment customers for service delivery.

With this in mind, we’re excited to announce a new CCC project: Developing an Effective Consumer Segmentation Approach in Customer Service (B2C).

Over the next two months, we will consider how Business-to-Consumer (B2C) service organizations make the decision to segment or not to segment their customers and we will map the benefits and drawbacks of different segmentation schemes. Read More »

This post was written by Neha Ahuja, an  Analyst with our broader Sales, Marketing, and Communications research team.

Many of your customers are already visiting your Web site to resolve their issues. But, how many of them are able to really find solutions? Our research indicates not many.

While many companies believe that the challenge lies in getting customers to the Web site, CCC research finds that the problem is actually in getting customers to stay long enough to problem solve.

So, if customers come looking for answers on your Web site, why do they abandon it so soon?  This happens because often, Web sites focus on providing ‘everything to everyone’ and are not designed to guide the right customers to the right self-service channel. Companies need to realize that different customers have different channel preferences and that Web sites need to be redesigned to guide customers to their preferred channels.

Let’s examine how Cisco improved its Web self-service and drove call volumes down by 79%. Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

It’s no secret that the millennial generation is a game-changing force. Recently, we talked about millennials in the workplace, and the generational differences managers need to recognize. But now that you know your employees…do you know your customers?

Our sister company, Iconoculture, recently conducted a study on millennial consumers, their attributes, and how market research and marketing teams can reach them effectively.  We think service professionals should know these things too.  Here are some key takeaways from the webinar:

Who is the millennial consumer?

The millennial consumer—most commonly thought of as born between 1982 and 2000—can’t be confined to one box. They embody a variety of identities at one time, which are constantly in flux—the “me of the moment.” Some other attributes at a glance: Read More »

Customer Service News

• The Voice of the Employee is important to pay attention to. [1to1 Media]

• Will the future of service include a social media caste system? [NYT]

• Is editing customer reviews acceptable? Maybe if you’re correcting their grammar and spelling.  [BNET]

• Be kind about your customers- how you talk about them speaks volumes.  [HBR]

• Get Satisfaction’s app turns Facebook pages into active sites for customer support.  [Washington Post]

• Reverse Groupon? Listening to what customers say to give them the discounts they want.  [WSJ]

By Kirsten Robinson

(This post was originally written for the Sales Challenger blog, which focuses on critical topics for sales professionals.  We think, however, that there is relevance here for our B2B customer support readers, particularly on the topic of segmentation strategy.)

It’s hard to get key account programs right. First, companies must figure out which customers to elevate to key account status (a challenging task in and of itself)—but most organizations stop there. Key account selection is often a ‘once-and-done’ event, and customers that have been designated as key accounts remain in that position for years.

Despite changing markets and performance, most companies treat key accounts as tenured positions. There are a variety of reasons for this—a fear of jeopardizing relationships and revenue. Account Manager loyalty that skews their relationship assessment. The feeling that they just can’t “give up.”

The reality is that keeping low-performing customers in your key account program wastes more time and profit than it brings in.

What’s the solution? Firing, or de-selecting key accounts.

Though it sounds like a risky strategy, there are ways to accomplish key account de-selection without putting revenue at risk. Read More »