thefunnel

I was asked why I decided to call this blog “thefunnel”?  Briefly. I think the traditional linear marketing funnel (awareness through loyalty) is a good metaphor for us in marketing to remember that customers can be in any place in the funnel, which will have an impact on all elements of communication. It is also a reminder that there’s always the next step in the funnel and an ultimate objective to achieve an outcome such as sales and loyalty. In addition it’s a reminder that the traditional linear funnel is obsolete, and that understanding the customers decsion process is much more challenging today than it used to be, due the web, social media, choice, interaction between on-line and off-line experiences, fragmentation of media and pull marketing in general.

A while ago I finalized a major customer satisfaction research project for a company.

The objective of the research was to identify customer needs and to determine the company’s level of service performance. The main survey was conducted by telephone.

The respondents were asked various questions in the areas of partnership and supplier expectations.

One of the areas explored was to understand the difference between basic and crucial service factors, basic being factors that any supplier would have to offer to be considered, and crucial the ones that will be critical when customers choose their suppliers.

For many respondents, price was a key factor – it is cited as both a basic and a crucial issue – ease of working with a supplier, partnership and honesty were often mentioned as crucial factors.

In summary, one can say that the key basic requirements related to technical expertise and financial stability, whereas the crucial ‘loyalty’ factors relate to the ongoing relationship – honesty, openness, making realistic promises and keeping them, easy of doing business and other aspects of service. In addition both the basic and crucial factors were ranked for overall importance. This combined created an interesting view of customer satisfaction attributes where all the factors were on two different scales. Summary report will be published soon. Stay tuned.

Why do companies chase away customers and then complain about having to find new business? Doesn’t the concept of “Lifetime Value” work for them?

Shortsightness, lack of a customer focused strategy, difficulties in measuring LTV and no assurance that the customers will remain loyal.

It’s unfortunate but in many companies marketing doesn’t have a seat at the big table and therefore decisions are made purely on short term financial basis. There’s lots of talk about customers, brand and loyalty, but not necessarily deep understanding. Companies need passionate marketeers high enough on the ladder. Lack of metrics is another factor. Particularly true for non e-commerce, complex and long sales cylce B-2-B, where the debate about direct marketing contribution and influenced marketing contribution is still in its early phase. Thirdly, I believe many companies under invest in technologies and infrastructure that would enable better customer management and better marketing, and even if they do a reasonably good job, the data is often in silos