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- 1. white paper | 2009
Seven Ways to Out-Service the Competition
Exiting the Recession a Leader
- 2. Seven Ways to Out-Service the Competition
Exiting the Recession a Leader
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 “Keep your business
do before.”2 safe, but keep building
History supports this thesis. In studying previous recessions, it’s clear that the com- for the future.”5
panies that increase their marketing and customer interaction investments during tough —Jeffrey Immelt,
times improved profit margins, sales, and market share relative to those that do not.3,4 CEO of GE
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.
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.
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
©2009 Peppers & Rogers Group. All rights protected and reserved. 2
- 3. Where do you start?
In challenging economic conditions, your company should be
Figure 2: Importance of Customer Experience in a Recession
asking two questions when thinking about each strategic invest-
Many companies report that a continued economic downturn will
ment. First, can the initiative produce a return within 60 to 120 cause customer experience to be more important.
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 Customer experience
will be significantly 37%
Americas for RightNow. “They reflect a recognition of a compa- more important
ny’s need to deliver a current payback, on the one hand; and, to Customer experience
will become 26%
ensure that the customer is nurtured on the other.” more important
A majority of companies agree. 63 percent of firms report No change 28%
that the customer experience will be more important in the
Customer experience 63% of !
presence of a continued economic downturn (see Figure 2). For will become somewhat 8% firms think
less important customer
companies wishing to act on that belief, today’s circumstances experience will
Customer experience be even more
provide seven opportunities to consider. These opportunities will be signicantly 2% important
less important
represent a chance for your company to become stronger and
more viable when the economic turnaround arrives.
Source: Forrester Research6
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
”What is it about trust that
retention is key. Achieving that goal is driven by the quality of the customer experience which
makes customers feel
correlates with retention, future purchase rate and positive word-of-mouth.9
valued? In part, it commu-
nicates one-half of a part-
nership reaching out to the
Getting It Done other half. And, customers
reward partnerships. The
Map the customer journey. Identify the sequence of key customer-company interactions that smart money is on cus-
illustrate the path from “need/find” to “buy/get” to “use/support” to “loyalty/profits.” While tomer retention—turning
each of these critical touchpoints either serve to build the brand (or to damage the relation- transient samplers into
ship), all are not created equal. In times of limited resources, focus on (a) those interactions long-term partners.”10
that are most influential, as determined by customer feedback; or (b) those products or ser-
—Chip Bell, founder of
vices that are strategically most important for your company. The Chip Bell Group
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.
©2009 Peppers & Rogers Group. All rights protected and reserved. 3
- 4. Opportunity #2: Enhance the customer experience and save money
An 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 Getting It Done
tough times, it takes courage to stay focused on the customer,”
Understand the cost. The expense of mishandled cus-
explains Bragg, “but that’s precisely what is required to thrive in
tomer interactions has a financial impact on customer
the upturn.”
satisfaction and the willingness of customers to recom-
Staying focused on the customer allows a company to save
mend the brand to a friend or colleague.
money in three ways:
Always consider the customer’s perspective. Ask “Will
1. By reducing the number of unsatisfactory customer experi-
this new action enhance or reduce the strength of our
ences, companies can reduce the costs associated with
customers’ relationships with our company?” Increases
resolving them.
in long-term customer equity from superior experiences
2. When service suffers, the reputation of the brand is dimin- are more valuable than any short-term savings that
ished through negative word-of-mouth, making it harder damage customer relationships.14
and more expensive to attract new customers.
Demonstrate early wins. Show management that the
3. By delivering excellent customer self-service (e.g., through cost savings from superior experiences isn’t “theory.”
customer-to-customer online support forums and dynamic Choose and concentrate on a customer touchpoint that
website FAQs), the company is able to deflect costs. is (a) especially influential in impacting the customer
“Self-service solutions can deliver a 30- to 50-percent reduction relationship and (b) is one where small investments in
in email volume and a 10- to 30-percent reduction in telephone automation may have large benefits.
calls, all while increasing customer satisfaction,” notes Bragg.
Opportunity #3: Close the gaps
Gaps arise during turbulent times, both internal and external
to a company. Each gap represents an opportunity for a com- Figure 3: Close the Gaps
pany to improve its business performance (Figure 3). The For companies seeking to exit the recession in a leadership position,
a recession provides opportunities to close gaps accelerating busi-
three key gaps focus on (1) funding, (2) best practices, and (3)
ness performance.
share-of-customer.
Recognized Importance Funding of Customer
1. Funding. There is a gap between (a) the recognition by com- of Customer Service Service Initiatives
for Business Growth
panies of the importance of customer experience in driving
growth and (b) the extent to which those areas are funded Existing Efforts to Best Practices in
Delivering Superior
(Figure 4). By increasing investments in the areas that drive
growth, a company is able to realize business benefits.
Deliver Superior
Customer Experiences GAP Customer Experiences
Current Share- Potential Share-
of-Customer of-Customer
2. Superior Service. A gap may exist between a company’s
current efforts to deliver superior customer experiences and Source: Peppers & Rogers Group
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?
©2009 Peppers & Rogers Group. All rights protected and reserved. 4
- 5. • 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 “If customer experience is a
practices from you. Unfortunately, only 16 percent of businesses state that their goal for customer differentiation strategy in
experience is to differentiate themselves from their industry. good times, it is doubly so
today. At a time when most
3. Share-of-Customer. A recession may provide a chance for a company to close the gap between firms will cut back, hunker
a company’s current and potential share-of-customer by selling a wider range of products and ser- down and reduce staff, it’s a
vices. Since some competitors will have reduced investments in customer experience, you may wonderful time for those who
now have the opportunity to grow your relationship if you deliver superior service. This positive truly understand the potential
customer experience can help you gain greater share-of-customer, create positive word of mouth, of the customer experience
and acquire new customers. to rise to the occasion.”15
These influences may ultimately enhance your stock price, as suggested by the pattern of results
—James Barnes, Ph.D., Principal,
for companies with above average and rising American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) scores.
Barnes Marketing Associates Inc.
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.
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.
Marketing Categories that Contribute to Growth . . .
Advertising and branding 43
Customer experience 31
Customer service 29
Loyalty/CRM programs 26
Direct sales channels (like eCommerce) 21
Promotion and trade 17
Traditional-media spend 17
Demand generation 16
New-media spend 15
Press and public relations 15
Market research 8
I don't know 8
Marketing technology 5
Sponsorships 1
. . . Are Not Necessarily Aligned with Investments
Advertising and branding 57
Traditional-media spend 34
Promotion and trade 26
Loyalty/CRM programs 22
Customer service 19
New-media spend 18
Press and public relations 17
Customer experience 16
Sponsorships 13
Direct sales channels (like eCommerce) 13
Market research 12
Demand generation 10
Marketing technology 3
I don't know 1 Source: Forrester Research16
©2009 Peppers & Rogers Group. All rights protected and reserved. 5
- 6. Getting It Done
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 ”If the Securities and Exchange
Commission had any sense,
Look broadly for best practices. Adopting customer experience excellence—regard- it would require all publically
less of industry—is a proven way to accelerate closure of a performance gap. It traded corporations to,
requires a mindset of “being humble enough to admit that someone else is better at along with their financial
something and being wise enough to learn how to match and even surpass them at data, reveal their level of
it,” advises APQC (formerly known as the American Productivity and Quality Center).18 customer satisfaction by
some impartial method.“ 19
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 —Claus Fornell, Ph.D., Professor,
value of its customers. Instead of differentiating products from those of the competi- University of Michigan; and
developer of the American
tion, the goal becomes differentiating customers from one another, collaborating with
Customer Satisfaction Index
them, and selling an increasingly large number of products to them over the course
of their lifetime.11
Opportunity #4: Leverage empathetic and emotional experiences
No 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 Getting It Done
Maya Angelou once said, “people will forget
what you said, people will forget what you Capture and leverage the customer’s emotion. Use today’s advanced technol-
did, but people will never forget how you ogy to detect positive and negative emotions in contact center telephone
queues and within email text, and route the communication accordingly. For
made them feel.”
example, when the contact center is integrated with a CRM system, it’s possi-
Communicating concern for customers is
ble to provide high-value customers in a negative state of mind with interac-
part of a company’s character—an important
tion treatments designed to quickly address the problem. In addition, the com-
component for building and maintaining
panies are able to survey or request referrals from happy customers.
trust: “a belief that the company has the best
interest of the customer at heart, and can be Train and incent for empathetic customer service. Just as it is possible to
depended upon for respect, openness, toler- understand customers’ emotional states, it is also possible to do the same for
ance and honesty.”23 It’s important, because contact center agents. Those who are empathetic may be rewarded, for
trustworthiness has the greatest impact on example; while those who are less so may be identified for training to
customer loyalty;24 and, in the majority of enhance their level of competency.26
cases when a customer decides not to buy, Convert complaints into satisfying emotional encounters. No company is
the primary reason is lack of trust.25 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
©2009 Peppers & Rogers Group. All rights protected and reserved. 6
- 7. 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- Getting It Done
plete information regardless of channel).
For example, if a customer sends an inquiry through email, Test drive your company’s own multichannel customer experience.
will an agent in the contact center be able to pick up the conver- Was the interaction pleasant, prompt and productive? Did it
sation when that individual later calls about the same incident— develop or diminish the perception of the trustworthiness of your
or, will the customer need to begin again and repeat the company? What’s helping (and hurting) the success of the multi-
description of the problem? Will the customer be routed to channel experience?
the same agent who answered the email? Will that agent Develop a multichannel strategy. Assess how each channel might
have access to prior transcripts of chat sessions with the cus- optimally support your company’s brand promise.
tomer? Will the information that customer receives be com-
Develop a multichannel tactical plan. Design a dashboard of
plementary to the FAQs that she first read on the company’s
performance metrics that will help to establish accountability
website? When continuity and consistency in a multichannel
and drive budgets. Examine existing capabilities within your
interaction break down, customers become frustrated, their
company to identify opportunities for reuse or retooling, then
relationship with the company is fractured, and service costs
look for options to accelerate progress.
escalate. In contrast, when it works well, the customer’s expe-
rience is enhanced and the company’s costs are reduced.
Opportunity #6: Leverage a centralized knowledge base
In 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 “A foundation of knowledge
centralized knowledge base becomes essential for delivering support that is accurate and consistent across is the bedrock upon which
channels. Customers also expect to see a second type of knowledge displayed in the interaction: namely, all successful customer
knowledge of themselves—who they are, what products they own, and a record of their past inquiries. experiences are built.”
Beyond increasing efficiency and effectiveness, a knowledge base further reduces costs by enabling —Greg Gianforte, CEO
self-service. When customers can answer their own questions by accessing a web-based knowledge and Founder, RightNow
source, support costs are reduced.
Getting It Done
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.
©2009 Peppers & Rogers Group. All rights protected and reserved. 7
- 8. Opportunity #7: Use Customer Insight to Drive Agility
In 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 “The capability to support
business planning. ‘learning relationships’—
Customer service interactions provide a mechanism to secure that advantage by capturing one-to-one dialogs that
feedback. When customers are already engaged via a service encounter, the opportunity exists to become smarter with each
glean insight. Customer feedback also allows a company to more quickly detect when a well- interaction—is a powerful
intentioned change to customer service has gone awry. strategic advantage.”
—Don Peppers, Founding Partner,
Peppers & Rogers Group
Getting It Done
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.
Conclusion
In 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- “The world isn’t standing
nology is installed. Today, more than ever before, it’s wise to start with results, adapt as you go, and still.To gain competitive
layer success upon success. It takes an iterative, focused approach that begins with a pilot and grows advantage right now it’s
into a program based upon insights along the way, minimizing risk and maximizing reward. “The time to start out-servicing
key is to start—to map the customer journey and to select the points of pain which, if ameliorated, the competition—and,
will have the quickest and greatest business impact,” notes Bragg. outsaving the budget.”
“When the recovery arrives, we won’t be returning to normal,” explains Don Peppers, Founding —Marcus Bragg, Vice President
Partner, Peppers & Rogers Group. “We’ll be beginning a ‘new normal’—the start of a period in and General Manager of
the Americas for RightNow
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. I
©2009 Peppers & Rogers Group. All rights protected and reserved. 8
- 9. Case Study
Getting it Done at Motorola
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.
Opportunity: Accelerate customer loyalty and company Opportunity: Improve the multichannel experience.
profits. A key objective for Motorola has been to improve When using 22 different and totally disconnected agent
the customer experience and enhance loyalty. The compa- desktop systems, Motorola was hindered in its ability to
ny has succeeded: customer satisfaction is up 15 percent preserve conversations across channels and to provide a
year-over-year, as a direct consequence of the “One World, seamless customer experience. Today, however, the com-
One Desktop, Any Channel” initiative. Critical to this trans- pany has implemented a single global platform and a
formation has been the implementation of a global CRM standardized set of processes to provide agents with com-
platform providing integrated eService, Agent Desktop, plete visibility to a customer’s support interactions.
IVR, and a common knowledge base. Additionally, because the customer support and CRM sys-
The initiative is guided by Motorola’s vision: “Great tems are intertwined, a customer doesn’t need to repeat
Support Experiences Today: Accelerating Innovation information (e.g., product ownership details) when inter-
Tomorrow.” For Motorola, “great” is defined by criteria acting with the contact center, saving expense for the
including responsiveness, accessibility, effectiveness, and company and reducing frustration for the customer.
pleasantness. “Our goal,” explains Dacia Hurter, Senior “A link between all channels,” explains Hurter, “gives us
Director of Customer Care at Motorola, “is to ensure that the ability to bridge together customer support in a global
customers are ‘always up’—always operating, always live, on-demand environment, and to provide information that is
and always successful.” Making the vision real has always correct, consistent, and seamless across channels.”
involved a cultural change, a shift in emphasis from the
device to the customer’s experience with the device. “It is Opportunity: Use customer insight to drive agility.
not enough that the mobile device itself works fine—the Motorola is now efficiently collecting voice of the customer
phone is now part of an ecosystem of components (for information through an automated email process that
example, bluetooth connectivity to a PC), and the cus- invites the individual to complete a standardized survey fol-
tomer’s experience is based upon how well the entire lowing each incident. On a weekly basis, insights are
ecosystem works,” notes Hurter. shared across the world-wide organization to drive ongo-
ing enhancements. For example, using analytics on this
Opportunity: Enhance the Customer Experience and rich customer feedback allows the company to identify
Save Money. Motorola’s efforts are not only enhancing cus- consistent trends between products and to address the
tomers’ experiences, but also delivering significant savings: common ‘pain points’ in the design of future products.
about $15 million to $20 million annually, driven by The insight also enables continuous improvement in the
improvements in first call resolution (13 percent), average customer support experience. Issues are able to be priori-
handle time (32 percent), email deflection (66 percent), tele- tized based upon an examination of customer dissatisfac-
phone deflection (29 percent) and cost per contact (25 per- tion and of failures to achieve first call resolution, which
cent). “We’ve seen dramatically higher right-channeling may result in the the addition of new content into the
and self-service rates,” reports Glenn DuBois, Senior knowledge base or of a proactive communication to cus-
Operations Manager at Motorola, “with live agent channel tomers to help them better understand a product’s fea-
usage decreasing by 26 percent, for example.” tures. Additionally, by examining customer feedback by
And, there is yet more to come. “We are in the process agent, Motorola is able to recognize and share best prac-
of rolling out CTI, which will allow for customer segment- tices as well as to improve agent training.
based routing to the most appropriate agents,” explains “Customer data is shared across the organization,
DuBois, “as well as on-device help (allowing customers to including engineering, quality assurance, manufacturing,
view knowledge base articles on their phone) and syndi- and sales—all the way up to the CEO,” explains DuBois.
cating our knowledge base content to the carriers’ websites “Marketing is using the customer service database to tar-
(making it easier for customers to access the content).” get and segment opt-in customers for campaigns, too.”
©2009 Peppers & Rogers Group. All rights protected and reserved. 9
- 10. RightNow
RightNow (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 Group
Peppers & 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
Author
With 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.
©2009 Peppers & Rogers Group. All rights protected and reserved. 10
- 11. Endnotes
1 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
5 Prokesch, S. (2008) Crisis Advice from GE’s Immelt: Stay Committed to Growth. Retrieved June 1, 2009 from:
http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/hbr/hbreditors/2008/10/leading_in_tumultuous_times_ad.html
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