7 Ways To Outservice The Competition Wp

white paper | 2009

Seven Ways to Out-Service the Competition

Exiting the Recession a Leader

©2009 Peppers & Rogers Group. All rights protected and reserved. 2

Executive Overview

It’s a well known fact to every business leader today: hard times have come again. And,

unfortunately, the easiest strategies for survival have been exhausted. As a matter of

fact, 86 percent of Fortune 500 executives admit that the low-hanging fruit of cost-cut-

ting has already been implemented.1 Yet, within every challenge resides undiscovered

opportunities. As the White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recently advised,

“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. …it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t

do before.”2

History supports this thesis. In studying previous recessions, it’s clear that the com-

panies that increase their marketing and customer interaction investments during tough

times improved profit margins, sales, and market share relative to those that do not.3,4

The short-term objective of getting through this recession shouldn’t dilute the long-term

goal of positioning your company to exit the recession a leader. To do so, you need to

first recognize the unique opportunities that today’s downturn provides and second,

capitalize on them while they exist.

This white paper highlights seven such opportunities, each of which—if acted upon—

allows a company to out-service its competition and secure the business benefits that

are desperately needed now and in the years to come.

Seven Ways to Out-Service the Competition

Exiting the Recession a Leader

“Keep your business

safe, but keep building

for the future.”5

—Jeffrey Immelt,

CEO of GE

1. Accelerate customer loyalty and company profits

2. Enhance the customer experience and save money

3. Close the gaps

4. Leverage empathetic and emotional experiences

5. Improve the multichannel experience

6. Leverage a centralized knowledge base

7. Use customer insight to drive agility

The Seven Ways to Out-Service: Climbing Up from the Recession

Today’s recession provides seven unique opportunities for a company to position itself

as a service leader as we exit the recession and transition into recovery.

Opportunity #1: Accelerate customer loyalty and company profits

With fewer customers—and each spending less—in a recession, it is critical for your business

to retain every customer and maximize their potential. Surprisingly, less than half (46 percent)

of senior marketers have good insight into customer retention rates, lifetime value, and prof-

itability. Not surprisingly, however, most (76 percent) believe that the full revenue potential of

their current customers is unrealized.7

Since it is five times more expensive to gain a new customer than keep an existing one,8

retention is key. Achieving that goal is driven by the quality of the customer experience which

correlates with retention, future purchase rate and positive word-of-mouth.9

Where do you start?In challenging economic conditions, your company should be

asking two questions when thinking about each strategic invest-

ment. First, can the initiative produce a return within 60 to 120

days? Second, how will a new initiative impact customers’ expe-

riences with your company? “These questions are intertwined,”

notes Marcus Bragg, Vice President and General Manager of the

Americas for RightNow. “They reflect a recognition of a compa-

ny’s need to deliver a current payback, on the one hand; and, to

ensure that the customer is nurtured on the other.”

A majority of companies agree. 63 percent of firms report

that the customer experience will be more important in the

presence of a continued economic downturn (see Figure 2). For

companies wishing to act on that belief, today’s circumstances

provide seven opportunities to consider. These opportunities

represent a chance for your company to become stronger and

more viable when the economic turnaround arrives.


Map the customer journey. Identify the sequence of key customer-company interactions that

illustrate the path from “need/find” to “buy/get” to “use/support” to “loyalty/profits.” While

each of these critical touchpoints either serve to build the brand (or to damage the relation-

ship), all are not created equal. In times of limited resources, focus on (a) those interactions

that are most influential, as determined by customer feedback; or (b) those products or ser-

vices that are strategically most important for your company.

Treat customers differently. Customers vary in their actual value and in their potential value.

Knowing both types of value allows a company to invest more effectively. Concentrate on

delivering superior experiences that either enhance customer loyalty or tap unrealized value.

Doing so requires insights into each customer’s needs—the “why” behind the “buy.”11

Service is the new sales. Customer service is especially important now, since the service

interaction is one of the few times that companies have to personally interact with their cus-

tomers.12 As indirect sales through channels become the norm, the first time that a company

talks with its customers may be through service. This interaction shapes the perception of the

brand which can influence future purchase consideration. Service experiences allow a com-

pany to further understand a customer’s needs (e.g., the way in which a product is being

used) and to leverage that knowledge to more effectively promote additional items.

Getting It Done

”What is it about trust that

makes customers feel

valued? In part, it commu-

nicates one-half of a part-

nership reaching out to the

other half. And, customers

reward partnerships. The

smart money is on cus-

tomer retention—turning

transient samplers into

long-term partners.”10

—Chip Bell, founder of

The Chip Bell Group

Source: Forrester Research6

Figure 2: Importance of Customer Experience in a RecessionMany companies report that a continued economic downturn willcause customer experience to be more important.

37%

26%

28%

8%

2%

Customer experiencewill be significantly

more important

Customer experiencewill become

more important

No change

Customer experiencewill become somewhat

less important

Customer experiencewill be signicantly

less important

63% of firms think customerexperience willbe even more important

!

Opportunity #2: Enhance the customer experience and save moneyAn economic crisis creates the urgent need to save money. That urgency sometimes hits expens-

es that support the customer experience. If the economic downturn continues, only 20 percent of

customer experience decision makers expect to continue the spending necessary to meet the

desired customer experience levels, and 42 percent expect cuts

at the same or at a higher rate than everything else.13 “During

tough times, it takes courage to stay focused on the customer,”

explains Bragg, “but that’s precisely what is required to thrive in

the upturn.”

Staying focused on the customer allows a company to save

money in three ways:

1. By reducing the number of unsatisfactory customer experi-

ences, companies can reduce the costs associated with

resolving them.

2. When service suffers, the reputation of the brand is dimin-

ished through negative word-of-mouth, making it harder

and more expensive to attract new customers.

3. By delivering excellent customer self-service (e.g., through

customer-to-customer online support forums and dynamic

website FAQs), the company is able to deflect costs.

“Self-service solutions can deliver a 30- to 50-percent reduction

in email volume and a 10- to 30-percent reduction in telephone

calls, all while increasing customer satisfaction,” notes Bragg.


Opportunity #3: Close the gapsGaps arise during turbulent times, both internal and external

to a company. Each gap represents an opportunity for a com-

pany to improve its business performance (Figure 3). The

three key gaps focus on (1) funding, (2) best practices, and (3)

share-of-customer.

1. Funding. There is a gap between (a) the recognition by com-

panies of the importance of customer experience in driving

growth and (b) the extent to which those areas are funded

(Figure 4). By increasing investments in the areas that drive

growth, a company is able to realize business benefits.

2. Superior Service. A gap may exist between a company’s

current efforts to deliver superior customer experiences and

accepted best practices. The size of this customer experience

gap between leaders and laggards differs by industry, and is

greatest for Internet service providers (39 percent), credit card providers (37 percent), medical

insurers (32 percent) and airlines (31 percent). In all companies, a new phenomenon is emerging:

customers are no longer comparing a company’s customer experience efforts against competitors

in the same industry, but against all other companies in all industries. Ask yourself these questions:

• If a customer can easily find the information that she or he needs on the British Airways website,

why is search so difficult on our website?

• If eHarmony offers its customers access to a highly effective foundation of answers to common-

ly asked questions, why is the information on our company’s website limited and out-of-date?

Understand the cost. The expense of mishandled cus-

tomer interactions has a financial impact on customer

satisfaction and the willingness of customers to recom-

mend the brand to a friend or colleague.

Always consider the customer’s perspective. Ask “Will

this new action enhance or reduce the strength of our

customers’ relationships with our company?” Increases

in long-term customer equity from superior experiences

are more valuable than any short-term savings that

damage customer relationships.14

Demonstrate early wins. Show management that the

cost savings from superior experiences isn’t “theory.”

Choose and concentrate on a customer touchpoint that

is (a) especially influential in impacting the customer

relationship and (b) is one where small investments in

automation may have large benefits.

Getting It Done

Figure 3: Close the GapsFor companies seeking to exit the recession in a leadership position,a recession provides opportunities to close gaps accelerating busi-ness performance.

Funding of Customer

Service Initiatives

Best Practices inDelivering SuperiorCustomer Experiences

Recognized Importanceof Customer Servicefor Business Growth

Existing Efforts to Deliver Superior Customer Experiences

Current Share-of-Customer

GAPPotential Share-of-Customer

Source: Peppers & Rogers Group

• If Overstock.com can provide a personal experience to every individual using its contact center,

why can’t our company?

Customers are making these comparisons and expecting the best practices from others to be best

practices from you. Unfortunately, only 16 percent of businesses state that their goal for customer

experience is to differentiate themselves from their industry.

3. Share-of-Customer. A recession may provide a chance for a company to close the gap between

a company’s current and potential share-of-customer by selling a wider range of products and ser-

vices. Since some competitors will have reduced investments in customer experience, you may

now have the opportunity to grow your relationship if you deliver superior service. This positive

customer experience can help you gain greater share-of-customer, create positive word of mouth,

and acquire new customers.

These influences may ultimately enhance your stock price, as suggested by the pattern of results

for companies with above average and rising American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) scores.

Over the period from 1996-2006, which included both a bull and bear market, these companies

grew more than twice the level of the Standard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) stock index. Even in the

current economic cycle, retailers with improved ACSI scores experienced less of a share price

decline than the S&P 500 in 2008.


Marketing Categories that Contribute to Growth . . .

Source: Forrester Research16

Figure 4: Are Companies Investing for Growth?When comparing marketing categories that (a) contribute more to growth with (b) those that the company most invests in,

there is a gap. Note especially the misalignment of importance versus investment for the categories of customer experience

and for customer service.

Advertising and branding

Customer experience

Customer service

Loyalty/CRM programs

Direct sales channels (like eCommerce)

Promotion and trade

Traditional-media spend

Demand generation

New-media spend

Press and public relations

Market research

I don't know

Marketing technology

Sponsorships

43

31

2926

21

17

17

16

15

15

8

8

51

34

12

2622

18

19

17

13

16

10

13

31

Advertising and branding

Traditional-media spend

Promotion and trade

Loyalty/CRM programs

Customer service

New-media spend

Press and public relations

Customer experience

Sponsorships

Direct sales channels (like eCommerce)

Market research

Demand generation

Marketing technology

I don't know

57

. . . Are Not Necessarily Aligned with Investments

“If customer experience is a

differentiation strategy in

good times, it is doubly so

today. At a time when most

firms will cut back, hunker

down and reduce staff, it’s a

wonderful time for those who

truly understand the potential

of the customer experience

to rise to the occasion.”15

—James Barnes, Ph.D., Principal,

Barnes Marketing Associates Inc.

Understand the growth drivers. For each business objective, identify the customer-

focused initiatives that are most likely to contribute to success and pair them with the

processes and employee skills required to get it done. About 80 percent of businesses

fail to meet their growth objectives for revenue and profitability, because of inade-

quate consideration of opportunities and the lack of organizational infrastructure.17

Look broadly for best practices. Adopting customer experience excellence—regard-

less of industry—is a proven way to accelerate closure of a performance gap. It

requires a mindset of “being humble enough to admit that someone else is better at

something and being wise enough to learn how to match and even surpass them at

it,” advises APQC (formerly known as the American Productivity and Quality Center).18

Grow share-of-customer. By concentrating on fulfilling an expanding set of customers’

needs with excellent experiences, opportunity exists for a company to increase the

value of its customers. Instead of differentiating products from those of the competi-

tion, the goal becomes differentiating customers from one another, collaborating with

them, and selling an increasingly large number of products to them over the course

of their lifetime.11

Opportunity #4: Leverage empathetic and emotional experiencesNo doubt that the current economic crisis is causing anguish among consumers. The

American Psychological Association reports that this economy is a significant cause of

stress for most (80 percent) adults in the US, who recognize its impact on becoming sick

(86 percent), having a heart attack or stroke (48 percent), or experiencing insomnia (36 per-

cent).20 Under these conditions, companies have an opportunity to strengthen customer

loyalty by delivering empathetic experiences that strengthen relationships. Ford, Hyundai,

and GM are all now promoting programs that ease the burden of a car payment if a job is

lost; Bank of America waives fees for customers who have lost their jobs; and FedEx Office

invited job hunters to print their résumés

free of charge.21,22 As the American poet

Maya Angelou once said, “people will forget

what you said, people will forget what you

did, but people will never forget how you

made them feel.”

Communicating concern for customers is

part of a company’s character—an important

component for building and maintaining

trust: “a belief that the company has the best

interest of the customer at heart, and can be

depended upon for respect, openness, toler-

ance and honesty.”23 It’s important, because

trustworthiness has the greatest impact on

customer loyalty;24 and, in the majority of

cases when a customer decides not to buy,

the primary reason is lack of trust.25

Capture and leverage the customer’s emotion. Use today’s advanced technol-

ogy to detect positive and negative emotions in contact center telephone

queues and within email text, and route the communication accordingly. For

example, when the contact center is integrated with a CRM system, it’s possi-

ble to provide high-value customers in a negative state of mind with interac-

tion treatments designed to quickly address the problem. In addition, the com-

panies are able to survey or request referrals from happy customers.

Train and incent for empathetic customer service. Just as it is possible to

understand customers’ emotional states, it is also possible to do the same for

contact center agents. Those who are empathetic may be rewarded, for

example; while those who are less so may be identified for training to

enhance their level of competency.26

Convert complaints into satisfying emotional encounters. No company is

perfect, and few customers expect perfection. They do, however, expect that

problems will be resolved promptly and professionally, with courtesy and

compassion. Make it easy for your customers to voice a complaint—and, have

a complaint management processes in place to address the concerns. If han-

dled well, a resolved complaint can actually increase a customer’s loyalty.27

Getting It Done

Getting It Done

”If the Securities and Exchange

Commission had any sense,

it would require all publically

traded corporations to,

along with their financial

data, reveal their level of

customer satisfaction by

some impartial method.“ 19

—Claus Fornell, Ph.D., Professor,

University of Michigan; and

developer of the American

Customer Satisfaction Index



Opportunity #5: Improve the multichannel experience

It isn’t enough for companies to engender trust with their customers through empathetic encounters.

Good intentions must be followed with excellent execution. Building trust requires both character and

competence.28 In today’s multichannel world where customers assess a company’s trustworthiness in

the store, on the web, over the telephone, through email and by using chat, companies can enhance

trust by improving the competencies of continuity (i.e., seamlessly bridging conversations across chan-

nels) and consistency (i.e., receiving equally accurate and com-

plete information regardless of channel).

For example, if a customer sends an inquiry through email,

will an agent in the contact center be able to pick up the conver-

sation when that individual later calls about the same incident—

or, will the customer need to begin again and repeat the

description of the problem? Will the customer be routed to

the same agent who answered the email? Will that agent

have access to prior transcripts of chat sessions with the cus-

tomer? Will the information that customer receives be com-

plementary to the FAQs that she first read on the company’s

website? When continuity and consistency in a multichannel

interaction break down, customers become frustrated, their

relationship with the company is fractured, and service costs

escalate. In contrast, when it works well, the customer’s expe-

rience is enhanced and the company’s costs are reduced.

Test drive your company’s own multichannel customer experience.Was the interaction pleasant, prompt and productive? Did it

develop or diminish the perception of the trustworthiness of your

company? What’s helping (and hurting) the success of the multi-

channel experience?

Develop a multichannel strategy. Assess how each channel might

optimally support your company’s brand promise.

Develop a multichannel tactical plan. Design a dashboard of

performance metrics that will help to establish accountability

and drive budgets. Examine existing capabilities within your

company to identify opportunities for reuse or retooling, then

look for options to accelerate progress.

Getting It Done

Opportunity #6: Leverage a centralized knowledge baseIn a recession when the resources of a company are limited, each must be used to its fullest. This is

especially true for customer-facing personnel who have a direct impact on the strength of customer

relationships.

When customers contact a company, they expect to interact with an informed person who knows the

company’s products and procedures. Today products are constantly being introduced and updated, so a

centralized knowledge base becomes essential for delivering support that is accurate and consistent across

channels. Customers also expect to see a second type of knowledge displayed in the interaction: namely,

knowledge of themselves—who they are, what products they own, and a record of their past inquiries.

Beyond increasing efficiency and effectiveness, a knowledge base further reduces costs by enabling

self-service. When customers can answer their own questions by accessing a web-based knowledge

source, support costs are reduced.

Start simply. Make a core set of answers to FAQs available and searchable. This improves the experi-

ences of customers and the productivity of agents. Once the knowledge infrastructure is in place, it will

be easy to add new information gradually.

Push and pull content. Actively push content from the knowledge base to users to enhance its visi-

bility, relevance and impact. Use artificial intelligence techniques such as collaborative filtering (i.e.,

suggesting content based upon the pattern of information consumed by other users) and automatic

usefulness rankings (i.e., ordering the sequence of answers to a question based upon their stated

helpfulness to other users). Actively pull content from agents, other internal functional areas and

from partners to enhance the knowledge base.

Include the community. Customers increasingly use search, and social networking sites for self-service.

These tools extend the depth and breadth of the knowledge base and the support experience. The

dialog that occurs in these communities may be captured and used as the basis of new entries in the

centralized knowledge base; and, agents may reach out and directly participate in discussions.

Getting It Done

“A foundation of knowledge

is the bedrock upon which

all successful customer

experiences are built.”

—Greg Gianforte, CEO

and Founder, RightNow


Opportunity #7: Use Customer Insight to Drive AgilityIn turbulent economic times, it is especially important to say on top of the pulse of customers.

Knowing more about your customers than your competition is a potent advantage that allows you

to respond quickly to changing conditions. In addition, during a recession the pain of wrong deci-

sions is exacerbated, placing a higher premium on fact-based, customer-centric knowledge in

business planning.

Customer service interactions provide a mechanism to secure that advantage by capturing

feedback. When customers are already engaged via a service encounter, the opportunity exists to

glean insight. Customer feedback also allows a company to more quickly detect when a well-

intentioned change to customer service has gone awry.

Don’t delay. Customer feedback is especially rich when it is collected immediately after an inter-

action, when both the memory and the emotion of the incident is fresh. Doing so typically ele-

vates response rates significantly. For example, an email containing a survey may be automati-

cally sent when a support ticket is closed. Beyond assessing satisfaction, the survey can also

solicit information that aids in understanding the customer’s needs and propensity to engage in

beneficial behaviors (e.g., word-of-mouth referrals). Survey participation has also been shown to

positively impact the likelihood of purchases and the responsiveness to promotions.29

Keep it brief. Ask a small set of core questions that are stable over customers and over time.

Allow ongoing comparisons; and supplement as needed with items specific to the customer

segment or a timely business issue. Closed-end (i.e., rating scale) questions are easiest for

customers to answer, but you should always give the option of providing open-end text com-

mentary. Integrating all this data into your CRM system also allows your company to better

customize communications and increase their relevance.

Tune up the touchpoints. Because resources are limited in a recession and because not all touch-

points are equally important, it may be beneficial to use customer surveys to gain insight into

ways in which the customer experience may be improved—for example, the extent to which the

channel(s) that were employed during a customer support incident were easy to navigate.

Getting It Done

ConclusionIn today’s economic environment, opportunities exist for astute companies to improve their mar-

ketplace position when the recovery occurs. Yet, opportunities do not guarantee business benefits—

it’s the action you take to capitalize on them that propel profits. The opportunities described in this

white paper simply can’t wait 12 to 24 months while enabling processes are established and tech-

nology is installed. Today, more than ever before, it’s wise to start with results, adapt as you go, and

layer success upon success. It takes an iterative, focused approach that begins with a pilot and grows

into a program based upon insights along the way, minimizing risk and maximizing reward. “The

key is to start—to map the customer journey and to select the points of pain which, if ameliorated,

will have the quickest and greatest business impact,” notes Bragg.

“When the recovery arrives, we won’t be returning to normal,” explains Don Peppers, Founding

Partner, Peppers & Rogers Group. “We’ll be beginning a ‘new normal’—the start of a period in

which customers’ view of companies are forever colored by their experiences during this reces-

sion.” The trustworthiness exhibited by companies during these times—both in their character

and in their competence—will be long remembered, and the residual impact will be long lasting.

By capitalizing upon today’s opportunities to out-service the competition, companies will be wise-

ly securing both short-term gain and laying the foundation for long-term success. �

“The capability to support

‘learning relationships’—

one-to-one dialogs that

become smarter with each

interaction—is a powerful

strategic advantage.”

—Don Peppers, Founding Partner,Peppers & Rogers Group

“The world isn’t standing

still.To gain competitive

advantage right now it’s

time to start out-servicing

the competition—and,

outsaving the budget.”

—Marcus Bragg, Vice President and General Manager of the Americas for RightNow


Getting it Done at Motorola

Opportunity:Accelerate customer loyalty and companyprofits. A key objective for Motorola has been to improve

the customer experience and enhance loyalty. The compa-

ny has succeeded: customer satisfaction is up 15 percent

year-over-year, as a direct consequence of the “One World,

One Desktop, Any Channel” initiative. Critical to this trans-

formation has been the implementation of a global CRM

platform providing integrated eService, Agent Desktop,

IVR, and a common knowledge base.

The initiative is guided by Motorola’s vision: “Great

Support Experiences Today: Accelerating Innovation

Tomorrow.” For Motorola, “great” is defined by criteria

including responsiveness, accessibility, effectiveness, and

pleasantness. “Our goal,” explains Dacia Hurter, Senior

Director of Customer Care at Motorola, “is to ensure that

customers are ‘always up’—always operating, always live,

and always successful.” Making the vision real has

involved a cultural change, a shift in emphasis from the

device to the customer’s experience with the device. “It is

not enough that the mobile device itself works fine—the

phone is now part of an ecosystem of components (for

example, bluetooth connectivity to a PC), and the cus-

tomer’s experience is based upon how well the entire

ecosystem works,” notes Hurter.

Opportunity: Enhance the Customer Experience andSave Money. Motorola’s efforts are not only enhancing cus-

tomers’ experiences, but also delivering significant savings:

about $15 million to $20 million annually, driven by

improvements in first call resolution (13 percent), average

handle time (32 percent), email deflection (66 percent), tele-

phone deflection (29 percent) and cost per contact (25 per-

cent). “We’ve seen dramatically higher right-channeling

and self-service rates,” reports Glenn DuBois, Senior

Operations Manager at Motorola, “with live agent channel

usage decreasing by 26 percent, for example.”

And, there is yet more to come. “We are in the process

of rolling out CTI, which will allow for customer segment-

based routing to the most appropriate agents,” explains

DuBois, “as well as on-device help (allowing customers to

view knowledge base articles on their phone) and syndi-

cating our knowledge base content to the carriers’ websites

(making it easier for customers to access the content).”

Opportunity: Improve the multichannel experience.When using 22 different and totally disconnected agent

desktop systems, Motorola was hindered in its ability to

preserve conversations across channels and to provide a

seamless customer experience. Today, however, the com-

pany has implemented a single global platform and a

standardized set of processes to provide agents with com-

plete visibility to a customer’s support interactions.

Additionally, because the customer support and CRM sys-

tems are intertwined, a customer doesn’t need to repeat

information (e.g., product ownership details) when inter-

acting with the contact center, saving expense for the

company and reducing frustration for the customer.

“A link between all channels,” explains Hurter, “gives us

the ability to bridge together customer support in a global

on-demand environment, and to provide information that is

always correct, consistent, and seamless across channels.”

Opportunity: Use customer insight to drive agility.Motorola is now efficiently collecting voice of the customer

information through an automated email process that

invites the individual to complete a standardized survey fol-

lowing each incident. On a weekly basis, insights are

shared across the world-wide organization to drive ongo-

ing enhancements. For example, using analytics on this

rich customer feedback allows the company to identify

consistent trends between products and to address the

common ‘pain points’ in the design of future products.

The insight also enables continuous improvement in the

customer support experience. Issues are able to be priori-

tized based upon an examination of customer dissatisfac-

tion and of failures to achieve first call resolution, which

may result in the the addition of new content into the

knowledge base or of a proactive communication to cus-

tomers to help them better understand a product’s fea-

tures. Additionally, by examining customer feedback by

agent, Motorola is able to recognize and share best prac-

tices as well as to improve agent training.

“Customer data is shared across the organization,

including engineering, quality assurance, manufacturing,

and sales—all the way up to the CEO,” explains DuBois.

“Marketing is using the customer service database to tar-

get and segment opt-in customers for campaigns, too.”

Case Study

Delivering a superior support experience can be challenging—especially when you have 28 contact

centers around the globe. Yet, Motorola is getting it done. Consider how the company has capitalized

upon the following opportunities.

RightNowRightNow (NASDAQ: RNOW) delivers the high-impact technology solutions and services organizations

need to cost-efficiently deliver a consistently superior customer experience across their frontline ser-

vice, sales and marketing touch-points. Approximately 1,900 corporations and government agencies

worldwide depend on RightNow to achieve their strategic objectives and better meet the needs of those

they serve. RightNow is headquartered in Bozeman, Montana. For more information, please visit

RightNow.com. For more information, please visit www.rightnow.com.

Peppers & Rogers GroupPeppers & Rogers Group is dedicated to helping its clients improve business performance by

acquiring, retaining, and growing profitable customers. As products become commodities and

globalization picks up speed, customers have become the scarcest resource in business. They hold

the keys to higher profit today and stronger enterprise value tomorrow. We help clients achieve

these goals by building the right relationships with the right customers over the right channels.

We earn our keep by solving the business problems of our clients. By delivering a superior 1to1

Strategy, we remove the operational and organizational barriers that stand in the way of profitable

customer relationships. We show clients where to focus customer-facing resources to improve the

performance of their marketing, sales and service initiatives. For more information, visit

www.peppersandrogersgroup.com

AuthorWith over fifteen years of marketing experience and advanced study in cognitive psychology,

research methodology, and statistics, Thomas Lacki, Ph.D., is privileged to contribute to the cre-

ation of higher value solutions through best thinking for the clients of Peppers & Rogers Group. In

the role of Senior Advisor, Peppers & Rogers Group Faculty, he leverages his own expertise in

understanding individuals behaviorally and analytically to achieve measurable marketing results

today, and to elevate the practice of one-to-one marketing tomorrow. Lacki has shared his insights

with conference audiences throughout the world, has published research about CRM, and serves

on the editorial board of an international marketing journal.


Endnotes1 Couto, V., Divakaran, A., Mani, M. and Lantz, C. (2009) Survival vs. Success: How Companies are Responding to the Recession, and Why It’s Not Enough.

Retrieved June 1, 2009 from: http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/Survival_vs_Success.pdf

2 (2009, January 28) A 40-Year Wish List. Retrieved June 1, 2009 from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310466514522309.html

3 Bartold, J. (2009) Fire Insurance: How to Survive an Economy in Flames. Retrieved June 1, 2009 from: http://www.colloquy.com

4 (2009) The Opportunity of This Recession. Retrieved June 1, 2009 from: http://blog.willowcreativegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/willow_article_short.pdf

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29 Borle, S., Dholakia, U., Singh, S. and Westbrook, R. (2007) The Impact of Survey Participation on Subsequent Customer Behavior: An EmpiricalInvestigation.


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