01.2007 Welcome to 2007.  May this year bring us all wonderful, personal and professional experiences.  In the spirit of renewal, this newsletter has gone through an evolution.  With practical tips and a section to share the best and worst that we are witnessing, we hope to bring you more relevant knowledge to help you transform your customer strategy challenges into great successes. In this edition we share with you some exciting news such as our new partnership with IZO System of Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Mexico, as well as our expanded customer education program - Evolve Your Performance™.   As we prepare to close our annual benchmark CEM study, we want to invite you to take a few minutes and join us for this important study. While you make your plans for 2007, know that we are always here to listen to your ideas and provide any advice. The Only Question You Should Ask Yourself ?What would you do if I could provide you with a new business model that would allow you to meet all of your financial goals without ever having to deal with a single customer? Would you still be attending this presentation, looking for ways to excite and delight your customers?? These are the questions that I recently posed to attendees at a customer experience management conference. The response to these questions was total silence as I could see chief executive officers, VPs of customer service and other customer-focused professionals smile at the prospect of never again having to deal with a single customer. The smiles and silence illustrates the distinction between customer relationship authenticity and customer relationship superficiality. Those organizations and individuals which are truly committed to customers relish the opportunity to serve customers and improve the customer experience any way they can. These companies and individuals are genuinely committed to their customers and are motivated by a sincere desire to help customers, not just increase the bottom line. Those organizations with a superficial commitment to their customers will drop their customer-centric strategies, processes and policies the moment they find a cheaper method to increase revenue, cut costs or improve margins. The desire to work with customers and seek new and innovative ways to delight them is the basis of a long-term, healthy and profitable relationship. Sincere customer-centric organizations cannot be built on the cheap and customers can recognize insincerity immediately. If your attempt to build customer relationships centers on utilitarian and conditional policies, the result will be higher attrition, lower profit and higher costs. Customer loyalty cannot be built on empty slogans and a superficial commitment to customers. Utilitarian and conditional relationships form the basis of most customer experiences. These experiences are typified by a steady decrease in the overall value delivered to customers, declining product and service prices, growing customer dissatisfaction, high attrition rates, increasing customer acquisition costs, mounting competitive pressures, and product and service commoditization. Organizations and customers in these relationships are locked in a vicious cycle whereby utilitarian and conditional relationships weaken customer loyalty as well as the organization?s commitment to customers ­ further weakening customer loyalty. This cycle continues and shows no sign of changing. As you approach your strategic planning sessions for 2007, it is time to address the root cause of high customer attrition, growing costs and declining margins. When you stop applying superficial band-aid solutions and begin addressing the root cause, your organization and the experiences you deliver, will be better as a result. Click Here for the full article. In this section we share practical ideas and principles for customer strategies. These ideas were created through successes and failures of professionals like yourself. Here, we look at the top 10 ten best practices for conducting customer surveys. Don?t ask if you can?t act Ask strategy related questions Do not seek validation - explore new ideas Obtain internal buy-in for desired actions Communicate results in a non-threatening way Prioritize findings Act! Customers seek action when they respond to your surveys Focus on quick wins - actions that will deliver immediate impact Demonstrate and communicate impact internally Communicate with customers - let them know the actions you?ve taken Last Chance to Participate in Strativity Group?s Annual Customer Experience Management (CEM) Study - Receive Complimentary Study Report The study takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Some topics addressed are: Organization-wide attitudes to customers Organization-wide attitudes to employees Importance of customer strategies Customer metrics Study Closes January 23, 2007! Please click on the link below to participate now. http://www.customersat3.com/TakeSurvey.asp?si=x7lxzKRrjEE%3D The study report will be distributed in mid February to all participants who provide their email address. Strativity Group Announces a Strategic Partnership with Izo System Strativity Group announces a new education workshop series called Evolve Your Performance™ - Customer Leadership Program targeting customer-facing managers. At the heart of the Evolve™ series are three key programs: Experience, Empowerment, and Excellence. Interlinked, these components create a unique formula for developing vision and executing excellent performance. The programs are designed to inspire and inform managers with methods to maximize employee engagement at work, which results in higher quality performance. Going beyond skills and motivation training, Evolve™ is designed to help employees reach their peak performance and deliver superior results. Evolve™ education programs are experiential and geared to disseminate ideas and insight through interactive sessions. Notable Mentions Destination CRM Shall We Dance? It takes two to tango - a customer-company relationship with only one partner doing its part will fail CIO Magazine Missed Opportunity USA Today Customer surveys might be wasted A recent DHL advertisement caught my attention. Beginning with ?we speak customer fluently,? the advertisement went on to say that the ?fact is, our phone reps answer 90% of their calls in ten seconds or less.? Although I was initially impressed (any company that is willing to use call center performance as a competitive differentiator will get my attention), I was more interested in knowing the percentage of problems they solved during the first call or the percentage of customers delighted with their respective interactions. These are the measures that truly demonstrate a company?s ability to speak fluent customer. Merely answering calls quickly will not suffice. Nice try DHL, but you still have a ways to go. Share this Newsletter with a Friend! Strativity Group, Inc. 2007. Published by Strativity Group, Inc. Visit us at www.StrativityGroup.com | Email us at info@StrativityGroup.com Strativity Group USA: +1 (973) 796-5310 | Strativity Group Europe: +44 1483 549888 All registered and non registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.