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<title>Loyalty Lab: Focus on Customer Insight</title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/</link>
<description>Articles and insights on best practices for getting to know the customer and maximizing the knowledge.</description>
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<title><![CDATA[8 Megatrends in Customer Experience]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2388</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2388</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Good ways to interact with your customers.] Koa Beck - Destination CRM - 8/31/10 Longtime industry analyst Bruce Temkin recently released the first report under his own shingle. The report identifies eight customer experience megatrends, predicting how companies should interact with their customers in the next three to five years, on his blog, "Customer Experience Matters."

The megatrends are as follows: <a href="http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/8-Megatrends-in-Customer-Experience-67510.aspx" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:44:39 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[5 Essential Steps to Mastering Customer Intelligence]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2376</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2376</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: How do you gain customer insight?] Justin Schuster - Destination CRM - 8/19/10 You've heard the mantra from customer service advocates: "Listen to your customers. Hear what they say." But do you do it?

You may already conduct customer surveys to get direct feedback. But most companies capture feedback at infrequent intervals, or through one-off surveys. Few of those businesses follow through and take action on customer complaints. Fewer still use customer data to make better-informed decisions and improve business processes.

It takes more than collecting and analyzing survey data to cultivate satisfied customers — it takes an ongoing commitment to relationship-building. But the following five essential steps will help you gather and use customer intelligence to build loyalty, gain a competitive edge, and ultimately improve your bottom line. <a href="http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/5-Essential-Steps-to-Mastering-Customer-Intelligence-69359.aspx" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:53:32 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Study Says More Parents Embracing Mobile Coupons]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2370</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2370</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Adults with kids discovering mobile coupons.] Kunur Patel - Advertising Age - 8/12/10 Once, coupons and offers delivered to mobile phones were used mostly by early-adopters of smartphones, predominantly young males.

No longer. Today, the demographic embracing mobile coupons is the same one most likely to be clipping them offline: parents with young children. <a href="http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=145355" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:43:27 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Hot or Not: E-mail Marketing vs. Social-Media Marketing]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2369</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2369</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: E-mail hangs on.] Steve Rubel - Advertising Age - 8/9/10 Contrary to popular belief, video didn't kill the radio star, YouTube didn't knock off TV and Twitter didn't shut down blogging. However, in each case the steady advance of new technology definitely forced the incumbents to evolve. One can argue, for example, that some of the more established blogs on the web benefited greatly from building content strategies that engender massive link sharing on Twitter. Much the same, TV ad creative has changed to facilitate additional exposure on YouTube. <a href="http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=145285" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:33:29 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[The Best and Worst Campaign Deals on Foursquare's Turf]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2367</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2367</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: A look at special offers on location-based services.] Christopher Heine - ClickZ - 8/13/10 For the last several months, big brands have been consistently unveiling special offers on location-based services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Booyah, and others. We’ve seen percentage-based discounts on purchases, dollars off, restaurant loss-leaders like appetizers and drinks, and sometimes even free meals.

After poring over as many offers as we could find, ClickZ News has determined that some brands are clearly sticking their necks out farther than others in the still emerging geo-social marketing arena. Below are the five best and five worst campaign deals we discovered in an admittedly unscientific research project. Our lists were judged based on a simple standard: estimated monetary value of the offers, and how few check-ins they require. <a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1727824/the-best-worst-campaign-deals-foursquares-turf" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:15:46 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[22% of Online Time Spent With Social Media]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2356</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2356</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Statistics show Social media is only getting bigger.] Amy Porterfield - Social Media Examiner - 7/16/10 Is social media taking over the web?

Just in the last year, the number of social media users has continued to climb at record speed and the audience demographics have widened. And marketers have noticed the trend.

For proof of social media’s steep rise, take a look at the number of statistics that surfaced in the last month.  These findings further support what most of us already believe:  Social media is only getting bigger. <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/22-of-online-time-spent-with-social-media/" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 17 Jul 2010 12:21:46 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Android Gains Market Share On All Other Smartphone Platforms [REPORT]]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2353</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2353</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: People seem to like the Droid.] Stan Schroeder - Mashable - 7/9/10 According to comScore’s latest analysis of the U.S. mobile market, Android has grown significantly in the period from February to May 2010, while all other major operating systems experienced a drop in their market share.

In this period, RIM was still the leading mobile smartphone platform, dropping from 42.1% to 41.7% market share. It was followed by Apple which somewhat surprisingly dropped from 25.4% to 24.4% and Microsoft which dropped from 15.1% to 13.2%. Android was fourth on the list, but it rose from 9% to 13% market share in this same period. It was followed by Palm which dropped from 5.4% to 4.8% market share. <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/07/09/android-comscore-2010/" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:40:51 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Has Your Advertising Become a Vuvuzela Blowing in the Night?]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2350</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2350</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Something new isn't always news.] Tom Denari - Advertising Age - 7/7/10 Let's face it. We've become addicted to making news.

It's not all that surprising. The digital age has created a hyper-awareness of anything new. We no longer have to wait for the morning newspaper to see what happened the night before. We don't have to wait for the six o'clock news to see what happened earlier that day. We don't even have to wait for the 24-hour news networks to arrive on a scene to see what happened 30 minutes ago. Mobile technology allows all of us to record and receive news instantly. Why does anyone need 24-hour news, evening news or even newspapers, when all of us are constantly making and receiving news all day long?

But are we?

Or are we just living our lives? Are the celebrities just living their lives? Are the professional athletes just living their lives? Do their tweets or our blog posts rise to the level of "news," something that's notable and important for the general public to know? Of course not. At least not much of it, anyway. <a href="http://adage.com/smallagency/post?article_id=144814" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:15:35 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[4 Ways to Measure Social Media and Its Impact on Your Brand]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2336</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2336</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: How is social media working for your business?] Nichole Kelly - Social Media Examiner - 6/15/10 Do you know how social media is helping your business? Want to find out how Twitter, Facebook and other sites are impacting your brand awareness?

The good news is social media has finally made it to the grand stage of “accountability.” A place where there are lots of people who want to measure it. The bad news is there isn’t a single clear-cut answer.

However, with a few simple steps, you can build a measurement strategy that accomplishes your goals. <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-ways-measure-social-media-and-its-impact-on-your-brand/" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:55:18 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Think Technology Will Bring You Closer to the Consumer? Think Again]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2334</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2334</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Marketers aren't keeping pace with consumers and technology.] Oren Frank - Advertising Age - 6/17/10 Intuitively, it makes sense to believe that we all live in a post-digital age, and that we're all fully matured, "digital" consumers. We now assume that technology is an abundance instead of a scarcity, and that the computing grid will be there for us wherever and whenever we want it -- just as we expect the light to turn on when we flip the switch. Although, as consumers, most of us live in 2010, when we look at ourselves as marketers and agencies, many still inhabit a parallel and irrelevant universe. Although common sense would suggest that the gap between marketers and consumers is shrinking, I believe that it is actually growing wider. <a href="http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=144463" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:31:01 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Study Shows Time Pays With Social Media Marketing]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2318</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2318</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Time spent on social media marketing pays off.] Amy Porterfield - Social Media Examiner - 5/21/10 Have you asked this question: Is the time I invest with social media really worth it?  Whether you’re new or an old hat with social media, chances are you’ve wondered if the time commitment is really worth the return on investment (ROI).

Make no mistake about it:  a true investment of time and resources is necessary to see significant social media marketing success.

But the real question is, “Just HOW MUCH time is needed to see solid success?”

This question was recently answered in the new study, 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, authored by Michael Stelzner.  Based on the report findings, ROI is top of mind for most marketers using social media. <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/study-shows-time-pays-with-social-media-marketing/" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 24 May 2010 21:39:59 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Accenture: High-Tech Firms Need Social CRM Tools]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2315</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2315</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Service delivery directly related to loyalty.] - CRM Daily - 5/18/10 New Accenture research has found that communications  Relevant Products/Services and high-tech companies -- many of which are falling short in their customer  Relevant Products/Services service delivery -- need to direct their investments at new levers that enhance the customer experience. These levers include social customer relationship management tools. <a href="http://www.crm-daily.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73401&full_skip=1" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 19 May 2010 11:50:13 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Four Ways to Find Out if Your Customers Are Active With Social Media]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2310</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2310</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Follow your customers to the web, don't lead them.] Jay Baer - Social Media Examiner - 5/14/10 For many companies, the conversation has shifted from “why” or “should” we do social media, to “where” and “how” social media should be done.

A major component of answering those questions effectively is understanding in which social outposts your customers are concentrated, because there really is no benefit in beating your customers to the punch. Companies should follow, not lead, their customers across the social web.

At conferences, I’m often asked something along these lines: “My boss thinks none of our customers are on Facebook, but I think they are. What do I do?”

Here are 4 ways to find out where your customers are in social media: <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/four-ways-to-find-out-if-your-customers-are-active-with-social-media/" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 17 May 2010 17:39:02 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Inbox Insider: Virgin America Ahead of Other Travel Marketers on Targeted E-mails]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2304</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2304</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Trageted e-mails done right.] Dianna Dilworth - DM News - 5/11/10 I love to travel, and it feels like half of the e-mails I get are from travel companies, whether online travel agencies, airlines, hotels or online travel magazines. Some e-mails are great, but some aren't, and targeting has a lot to do with that. <a href="http://www.dmnews.com/inbox-insider-virgin-america-ahead-of-other-travel-marketers-on-targeted-e-mails/article/169921/" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 May 2010 16:45:39 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Want to Guarantee a Return on Investment With CRM Software? (Start With the Basics)]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2303</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2303</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: A look at three challenges of customer management.] Larry Caretsky - Commence - 5/5/10 As the CEO of a technology company that provides Customer Management software to small and mid-size companies, I spend a good part of my day talking with other executives about the challenges they face in their business.  What’s interesting is that for the most part, these challenges fall into three categories. The most common one is data consolidation. At each of these companies information is streaming into their business every day via the telephone, fax e-mail and the web.  What happens to this information is the problem. More often then not vital customer information simply falls through the cracks causing inefficiencies within their organization and keeping them from improving how they sell and provide service to their customers. This is the first challenge. <a href="http://www.commence.com/blog/index.php/2010/05/05/want-to-guarantee-a-return-on-investment-with-crm-software-start-with-the-basics/" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 10 May 2010 12:36:56 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Stimulate Loyalty – Power of networks, data and convergence]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2300</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2300</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Don't let your customers get bored with your loyalty program.] Chintan Bharwada - Loyalty and Customers - 4/28/10 Loyalty schemes are an established feature of the retail and services landscape. They have become widespread and arguably ubiquitous. There are a number of major groups of loyalty schemes, including: retailer loyalty schemes, financial service loyalty schemes, online reward schemes, frequent flyer and other travel reward programmes, geographically based loyalty schemes, and coalition loyalty schemes. Businesses have been keen to enhance customer retention, to find approaches to increasing customer spend and encourage customers to act as advocates.

When the first loyalty programs hit the market uptake was huge and rewards for marketers were high. Some years on, however, the market is overrun with these schemes, each with little point of difference from the next. <a href="http://loyaltyandcustomers.com/2010/04/stimulate-loyalty-networks-data-and-convergence/" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:22:08 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Where to Get Competitive Benchmarking Data]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2293</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2293</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Do you know what your competitors are doing?] Neil Mason - ClickZ - 4/26/10 Life feels fine when there's positive growth in the right kind of metrics. Despite tough economic trading conditions over the past 18 months, the digital economy has generally been doing OK. Here in the U.K., spending on online advertising grew by just under 5 percent in 2009 compared to 2008, with spend on search up by just under 10 percent. While that isn't the kind of stellar growth seen in previous years, the indicators are positive. Business confidence among advertisers is higher than it's been previously, and we're continuing to see growth in the active online audience (up 10 percent vs. a year ago), some of that being driven by the growth in population of social networking sites such as Facebook.

But is "good" good enough? Trends looked at in isolation are useful (after all, "a trend is a friend"), but they're much more useful when you have context. Most of us operate in a competitive environment, so it's helpful to know how we compare against our competitors. While we generally have relatively easy access to our own data, getting data on competitors can be a bit tougher. <a href="http://www.clickz.com/3640160" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:02:40 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Getting A Whole New Marketing Experience From Chris Brogan & Friends]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2288</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2288</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Pay attention to wht your customers are saying and doing.] Kenneth Yeung - Network Solutions - 4/19/10 One of the premiere conferences focused on inbound marketing was held in San Francisco on April 13 – the New Marketing Experience. Formerly known as the Inbound Marketing Summit, the event was organized by Chris Brogan and his New Marketing Labs troupe. I wrote about the event that took place last year and it was two days of non-stop presenters giving presentations or panel talks about issues affecting inbound marketing. This year, it was consolidated into one day and seemed to focus on a set of core issues that plagued marketers in getting people to do business with them. Amazingly there were a lot more people who represented companies that did business to business in the room than there appeared to be those that focused on business to consumer transactions. Nevertheless, the topics presented were relevant for any business. <a href="http://blog.networksolutions.com/2010/getting-a-whole-new-marketing-experience-from-chris-brogan-friends/" target="-blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:03:21 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Loyalty Programs: What Works, What Doesn't]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2279</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2279</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Research shows customers don't feel their loyalty is rewarded.] Jarrett Paschel, Ph.D. - Retail Customer Experience - 4/7/10 It really is quite enlightening to head to Wikipedia and look up the various definitions of loyalty.

The first entry under loyalty reads: Loyalty, also called allegiance or truth, is faithfulness or a devotion to a person or cause.

In the second definition, before discussing weighty topics such as Loyalty and ethics and Loyalty in the Bible, we find Loyalty and Marketing, which is defined as follows:

    The practice of providing discounts, prizes, or other incentives to encourage continued patronage of a business. Generally, loyalty programs are considered less expensive to maintain than allowing customer defection or “churn.”

Sandwiched somewhere between allegiance or truth and the philosophical foundation to ethics we find the marketer’s version of loyalty: “Hey Tommy boy, toss a couple of coupons her way so next time she might think about, uhh, you know, coming back!”
 <a href="http://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/article/21584/Loyalty-programs-what-works-what-doesn-t" target="_blank">Read the full story.]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:17:32 EST</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Contactual's Contact Center Software: Turning Cost Centers into Profit Centers]]></title>
<link>http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2265</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loyaltylibrary.com/article.aspx?articleID=2265</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: Contact centers can have a big part in increasing customer retention and profit.] David Sims - TMCnet - 3/31/10  A recent article in the Harvard Business Review, cited by officials of Contactual (News  - Alert), found that “increasing customer retention rates by 5 percent could increase profits from 25 to 95 percent.”

What’s the clear take-home here? That’s right – as Contactual officials say, “the role of the contact center is not only a critical aspect of the customer service function, but it can be responsible for driving company revenues -– a dramatic departure from its reputation as a cost center.”

According to a recent white paper from Contactual, as the role of the contact center evolves, “the transactions performed in such an environment can expand to include responding to marketing campaign promotions and increased interactions with customers. “

Forget the stereotypes of the contact center as a money pit to be skimped on whenever possible. The Contactual white paper found that the contact center is “a major component of the customer lifecycle, ranging from opportunity identification to solutions and ongoing management through acquisitions and divestiture.”  <a href="http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/contact-center-software/articles/80385-contactuals-contact-center-software-turning-cost-centers-into.htm" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:28:47 EST</pubDate>
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