Category: Customer Engagement

Customer Engagement

An Example of True Customer Centricity – When Banking is No Longer Just About Banking

Fifth Third Bank and NextJob came together to address a challenge faced by most retail banks – Mortgage defaults. According to the press release from the company, Steven Alonso, executive vice president and head of Fifth Third Bancorp says – “Up to half of mortgage delinquencies are due to job loss. With NextJob, we immediately recognized an opportunity to go the extra mile to assist our customers. This is specific, one-on-one training that helps people identify their transferable skills and re-gain the financial stability of a new job.” Mortgage defaults can eat up a banks profits very quickly, hence most banks look inwards […]

Customer Engagement

Do Your Customers Feel Being Bullied?

Winning in the marketplace comes with a lot of hard work and sustained effort. It is easy to fall into the habit of winning. Though it is a great feeling, one should be very cautious about a few things. This winning habit could make your sales teams feel unbeatable, which could lead them to slowly become arrogant in their dealings with your customers. This change is so slow and subtle, that it becomes very difficult to notice unless you actively look for it. This could slowly lead to your customers starting to feel that doing business with your team is […]

Customer Engagement

Customer engagement in a digital era

There have been reports that the overall customer engagement at banks for customers using one of the digital channels like Online banking, mobile banking, etc. One of the most important aspect of customer engagement, is in fact engagement. You need to continuously engage with your customers through out their journey with you. This implies that you need to know what a customers journey is with your organisation: – What are the touch points where you come in contact with your customer; – What does the customer want to get done at each of these touch points & why? – What […]

Customer Engagement

Are large Indian retailers battle ready?

In their current state of operations, Indian organized retailers are in no way equipped to compete with the likes of Walmart, Tesco or Target. Let me re-count to you my experience based on which I have come to this conclusion. Last week, I went grocery shopping with my wife to a large format retail store in Bangalore. I was appalled at the thoughtless design of the store and the lack of the willingness to serve the customers in the entire staff. In my opinion, there are 2 key performance areas which are critical for a retailer to succeed in a […]

Customer Engagement

Customer engagement vs customer centricity

As an employee responsible for customer advocacy at a software vendor, I often receive requests from colleagues in the development teams requesting me to help them connect to our customers and seek feedback on our existing products or solutions and validate new product ideas. Having been in this scenario so many times, I realise that there is a big difference between customer engagement and customer centricity. In one, you work with the customer, together to achieve common objectives (which is so rare). This activity can only succeed if both the customer and the supplier have deep skin in the game. […]