"A plea for happy customers" for Sint Lucas Ghent about customer satisfaction, customer experience and conversations.

1. A plea for happy customers
And why you should forget everything your teacher said
Polle de Maagt for Sint Lucas Ghent

2. Hello. I am Polle de Maagt.
I create impact through
conversations at a pretty cool
company called InSites Consulting.
We work mostly because we’re
committed to take research
forward, but brands like
Ben&Jerry’s, Telenet, Danone and
Philips agreed to pay us for it.

3. “
Advertising is the fee for being unremarkable.
“
Robert Stephens (GeekSquad)

4. Simple question:
When was the last time you were a
happy customer?

5. Simple question:
When was the last time you talked
positively about a brand?

6. Honestly, sentences like the world has changed,
power has shifted to the consumer, increase your
share of conversation, consumers trust each other
most, shifting power from marketers to consumers,
marketers are no longer in control, social media
strategy and learn to lose control make me puke in
my mouth a bit.
While it is really really simple.

7. People talk. A lot.
Internet made it pretty easy to talk. But
still: 80% of the talking is done offline.
You might not be surprised that talking
influences others. Especially when the
conversations are searchable and
retweetable.
Consumers talk better, more and more
genuine than brands.
So you better be ready.

8. Kindness, happiness and cool things are talkable.
KLM surprised random passengers in their effort to discover how happiness
spreads. Advertising campaigns make great conversation starters.

9. “
Consumers out-conversate brands.
“
Create stuff worth sharing.
Tom de Bruyne (Boondoggle)

10. It isn’t about remarkable talks, it is about acts.
Put your money where your mouth is.
Start doing things that proof your commitment to help consumers.

11. “
Focus on what really matters: making users
happy with your product as quickly as you
can, and helping them as much as you can
after that. If you do those better than anyone
“
else out there you’ll win.
Marc Hedlund (Wesabe)

12. A remarkable company culture works.
Every company has it’s stories and ambassadors, like Nike’s Ekins. Capitalize on
these stories and turn your employees in an army of ambassadors.

13. Your product might have fans who’d love to help.
Facilitate them in sharing.
Oh, by the way: the guy on the left is Joost de Leij. He is pretty awesome.

14. Buying new consumers is expensive.
Keeping your customers is less expensive than acquiring new ones.
And happy customers spread the words. Customers who are fed up … well … not.

15. Helping people helps.
Exceeding customer expectations builds loyalty (81% repeats, 63% recommends)
and falling below customer expectations erodes loyalty (5%/71%).
* Forrester, Build Loyalty By Exceeding Expectations When Resolving Customer Problems, 2010

16. When you understand your customers, you’ll do better.
66% of marketers is disconnected from their target audience. Ouch.
* InSites Consulting, Meet The Joneses Research, 2010

17. If someone asks you a question, answer politely.
Zappos invites every employee to WOW their customers. By the way: 11% of
organizations doesn’t reply to customer emails.
* InSites Consulting, Meet The Joneses Research, 2010

18. Recap.
People talk. A lot. And offline too.
Kindness, happiness and cool things are
talkable.
It isn’t about remarkable talks, it is about acts.
A remarkable company culture works.
Buying new consumers is expensive.
Helping people helps.
When you understand your customers, you’ll
do better.
If someone asks you a question, answer
politely.

19. It’s really about being human.
It is about asking yourself ‘What should
consumers be saying to each other after
they’ve seen my ad or contacted me and
my brand?’
It is about integrating conversations in
all thinking and acting.

20. Not convinced yet?
We asked 500 European marketers what they do with
word-of-mouth.
And we asked them about how they compared to their
competitors in terms of return on investment,
turnover growth, profitability, market share and
customer satisfaction.
Guess what.

21. Product
improvement
Offline WoM Road map
WoM
The best performing marketers do three things
that make them stand out.
* Conversation Readiness research amongst 500 European marketers

22. Product
improvement
Offline WoM Road map
WoM
1) They start to implement Word-of-Mouth right
away, applying it to their current products.
* Conversation Readiness research amongst 500 European marketers

23. Product
improvement
Offline WoM Road map
WoM
2) They realize Word-of-Mouth isn’t only online.
* Conversation Readiness research amongst 500 European marketers

24. Product
improvement
Offline WoM Road map
WoM
3) They approach Word-of-Mouth strategically.
* ConversationReadinessresearchamongst500Europeanmarketers

25. You can forget most of the silly things I said. But, please:
Remember these five
things.

26. 1) The world is a conversation
network and customers out-
conversate brands.
It is about integrating conversations in
all thinking and acting.
It is about managing the conversation.

27. 2) It is about changing the way you
treat your consumers. About
acting human. About being
talkable.
It is about doing what you say you do, it
is about listening and acting.
About observing, facilitating and joining
the conversation.

28. 3) It isn’t rocket science.
Kindness, happiness and cool things are
talkable.
Great products create happy customers.
Helping people helps.
When you understand your customers, you’ll
do better.
If someone asks you a question, answer
politely.

29. Product
improvement
Offline WoM Road map
WoM
The best performing marketers do three things
that make them stand out.
* ConversationReadinessresearchamongst500Europeanmarketers

30. Read the manual.
Seriously.
Read it.

31. 48

32. I hope I was worth sharing.
Send me an email at
polle@insites.eu so I can help you
remind of the 48 hours.
Find the presentation at
http://polle.me/sintlucas10