Yesterday I read a disturbing article in The New York Times about cultural change at Twitter. In a nutshell, Twitter brought in an executive to “revamp Twitter’s design team and make it more diverse.” Part of his process: asking employees “to go around the room, complimenting and critiquing one another” in a two-hour meeting. The (Read More...)
I worked at an advertising agency for just over a year. (A year and a day to be exact.) Here’s how our typically engagement worked: The client would provide a brief. We’d quickly get to work on it, far out of sight from the peering eyes of our client. And when we were ready, we’d (Read More...)
“Give me an example of a company that’s made a complete turnaround to embracing their customers.” This request always makes me chuckle. I wish I had an answer, I really do. But the sad reality is that I don’t know of a single organization that’s customer-centered through and through—except for the ones that started out (Read More...)
I stood unsteadily on the side of the mountain, desperately clutching a thick chain that had been anchored deep into the rock next to me. My vision narrowed. My breath became shallow. My legs started to shake violently. I found myself unable to move. Several feet away, the trail that I was on abruptly ended, (Read More...)
Who in your company talks about your corporate brand? My guess is that it’s only the marketing folks. In far too many organizations, I see people in roles like customer service, operations, and finance who view the brand as an elusive concept — one seemingly (and thankfully) controlled by the CMO and ad agency execs. (Read More...)
If you read my last post, you understand the importance of supplementing quantitative customer data with insights gleaned through interviews and observational research. But as shocking as this might sound, deep customer insights aren’t the ultimate objective. Your real aim is to deliver a customer experience that drives customer loyalty, revenue, and cost savings. And (Read More...)