The top 3 reasons why customer satisfaction surveys fail
In this post I’d like to remember the main reasons what your results to customer satisfaction surveys will not be representative. Eventually I’ll complete this post with another one: a reflection about Belfius’ advertised 95% customer satisfaction rate. 3 top reasons why customer satisfaction surveys fail One thing you should keep in mind of customer satisfaction survey is that the design of your questionnaire will very much influence the answers you’ll get. Among the many different...
Audi City : an incredible interactive customer experience
Chances are high that you never visited an Audi City store. There are only three of them : in Beijing, London and Berlin. The one in Berlin opened in February and I was fortunate enough to get a thorough tour of it during my stay in Berlin in April. The principle is very easy. The space available for classical car dealership is more and more limited. There are actually very few opportunities in the heart of...
O2 and Deutsche Telekom create an innovative customer experience
Choosing a new smartphone, tablet or accessories can really be difficult for most customers. Not only does technology constantly evolve, but you won’t be allowed to actually touch, feel and try real devices in cell phone stores. The risk to get unsatisfied customers is high. Very high. This situation is just unbelievable. Customers about to buy a 500€ device must rely on not trustworthy sales guys and will discover when they are home whether what they...
A map of the best and most innovative retail concepts in the world
How do you get inspiration for creating a unique customer experience in your store ? By visiting other stores and understanding emerging consumers’ behaviors. This is what we do by visiting once a month a new European city, spotting and reporting the most innovative retail concepts and talking with their owners. This time we are just returning from a retail tour in Berlin and we came back amazed by the vitality of the retailing scene. We...
Uber banned: Brussels taxis remain up to 122% more expensive.
On the website of the European Commission Neelie Kroes attacked publicly minister Brigitte Grouwels for the “crazy court decision to ban Uber in Brussels” (read more about Djump and UberPop business models in our article published a few days ago) Consumers will keep paying high fares. But are prices of Brussels taxis really outrageously expensive ? The answer is in the article. Let’s start with Kroes’ words on her website: I am outraged at the decision...
Franchise Expo Paris : what’s new and what we liked
The professional fair “Franchise Expo” has been organized for 30 years in Paris. The 2014 edition took place from March 23rd until March 26th and more than 500 companies were presenting their franchising concept. Several sectors were represented : services, hotels and restaurants, minimarkets and supermarkets, specialist outlets, fashion, real estate, …. As you can see the list is very long but some categories or sectors were overrepresented : restaurants and food shops accounted for 1/3...
Innovation in the postal sector. Episode 5 : automatic lockers
Here’s already the fifth episode of our series (read here episodes 1, 2, 3, and 4) on innovation in the postal sector. The postal sector is one of the most innovative and adapts constantly to new or emerging consumers behaviors. Automatic lockers is one very successful example. Episode 5: automatic lockers to better match customers’ needs and behaviors Contact us for our B2B studies A widespread solution in Europe As you will read from the section...
A call for a revolution in customers – firms relationships
You may remember the post published two ago about managing expectations to increase customer satisfaction. In that post I also mentioned a recent negative experience with Coolblue. The guys at Coolblue proved once again their professionalism by handling the complaint perfectly and actually increasing my loyalty even more. Here is how. The complaint handling paradox It’s probably been mentioned already here but I can’t repeat it enough. Handling complaints well will lead to even higher satisfaction...
Innovations in the postal sector. Episode 3: new delivery options
Here is episode 3 already of our series on innovations launched by postal operators. You can access the first episodes of the series here (episode 1) The innovation we’ll be dealing with today is driven by societal and behavioral changes. E-commerce rise can’t be stopped anymore. We are about to witness some dramatic changes industry-wide and the supply-chain providers will be put under pressure for the next decade to come. Episode 3: in search of new...
Luxury: shocking bad service and low customer satisfaction
Service quality is essential to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Personal encounters are crucial to increase the level of service; yet some brands in the luxury sector recruit employees that don’t master the codes of the sector which leads to a complete discrepancy and to dissatisfaction. Here is a true story that just happened to me and that involves Berluti, a brand of the LVMH group, and two other less known brands : Altan and Corthay....
Innovations in the postal sector. Episode 1: 3D printing
As announced in our post last week, time has come to give you a comprehensive view of innovations in the postal sector. Some innovative services may be known to you already (depeneding on where you live and how innovative your postal operator is). Most of them will however surprise you (at least we hope so) and will show you the undergoing revolution in terms of business models and revenue creation. As we explained in our previous...
Increasing customer satisfaction through expectations management
Managing expectations is key to increase (or just ensure) customer satisfaction. In this article we explore bit the mechanism of expectation creation based on one actual example : Coolblue How do expectations influence customer satisfaction You’ve experienced already it : you purchased something on the internet. You’ve been waiting several days on the delivery and when it arrives, you unwrap the parcel and you’re disappointed by what you just saw. This mechanism is called “expectation disconfirmation”...
Innovations in the postal sector: business models revamped
The postal industry is unique. Its original business model is threatened and the industry is forced to reinvent itself. What can be observed there in terms of innovation is just unique. I met with Delphine Desgurse in Venice in late January where we use to attend the same marketing conference. Delphine is the vice-president of La Poste, in charge of innovation. Like two years ago she headed a very interesting and inspiring presentation on innovation, with...
Western Union blue ocean strategy to increase loyalty
At the International Marketing Trends conference in Venice, Maureen Sigliano presented Western Union’s global loyalty strategy. Maureen is Vice President Global Loyalty Development & Customer Experience at Western Union and her speech, besides being highly inspiring, also shook up some established rules about customer satisfaction and loyalty. A Blue Ocean of untapped opportunities Maureen’s speech was preceded by a presentation by Michael Hänhlein on current state of customer relationship management (CRM). Michael insisted that firms’ efforts...
The innovation strategy of Edenred to conquer new markets
At the International Marketing Trends Conference in Venice, Damien Joannes of Edenred explained the strategy of his group to diversify its activities and conquer market shares. The key seemed to be in proposing services tailored to evolving needs of businesses. The story starts with the Ticket Restaurant The story started in 1962 with the invention of the ticket restaurant in France. From 1976 until a period of geographical expansion followed and from 2000 until 2010 the...
Do we do theoretical marketing?
I was asking the other day a client’s employee what he thought of the intermediary presentation we gave a few days before . He said he liked it very much because it had brought a fresh new perspective on how the business was understood. He added that a theoretical and scientific viewpoint was very useful. I must admit I was surprised and a little bit disappointed to hear that IntoTheMinds’ contribution was seen as “scientific”. Although...
The right marketing strategy to sell products with a premium
While on business trip in Venice I stumbled upon wonderful postcards of Venetian monuments. I couldn’t resist the temptation and despite the price bought some to send to clients. Don’t shoot me dead … apparently such 3D pop-up cards have been on the market for a while, but this was the first time for. You can’t know about everything, right? To make a long story short these cards were so amazing : complex, surprising, yet with...
What is the value of a “Like” for your business strategy?
An article on the excellent consonaute blog recently made me (re)think about the role of social media in B2C and B2B businesses. In this post Bruno Fridlansky reflects about the value of a “like” on Facebook and of “favorite” on Twitter. He concludes that “Likes” and “favorites” are overused and that their actual value has been tarnished. Do they still mean something for the user who “likes” or “favorites”? If it still does Bruno concludes, it’s...
Stop asking a NDA when asking an offer for a market research
We have recently a series of inquiries for market research assignments in Belgium where prospects asked for DNA to be signed before the first meeting. Here is why it makes no sense and why we’ll always refuse to do it. Not sure the info you’re about to reveal is worth an NDA The most common situation is that of would-be entrepreneurs who are sure they have found a 1-billion $ gap in the market. They are...
You’ll never guess which material Mondavi used to create sunglasses
Extending your product range into different product categories is certainly a growth and profits strategy. Yet it must also be a good long-term strategy and with that in mind brand extension should remain meaningful. We examine today the extension of the Mondavi Winery brand into eyewear. Eyewear made from the barrels’ wood The idea was brought to me by the excellent Creapills website. Mondavi is reknown for its excellent wines, the reputation of which stretches far...
Market research : organic food « baskets »
In 2009 we analyzed the market (link in French) of organic fruits and vegetables baskets in Belgium . We anticipated that some of the players on the market would soon die. What did actually happen ? Consolidation happened In 2009 the market was emerging and we took 3 players in our analysis : BioGusto, Cookitude, Reason2Be. We detected some serious problems in terms of online customer experience and online payment process and announced that we could hardly...
Interview of Kenny Martineau, the million-viewer unsatisfied customer
If you don’t know who Kenny Martineau is, may we kindly suggest you read this article first. IntoTheMinds: Kenny, what does “customer satisfaction” mean to you? Kenny Martineau: As far as the Crédit Mutuel is concerned I can’t really understand what it means to them. A bank is supposed to assist customers in their projects and help you overcome difficult times. Quite the opposite happened with my bank. ITM: As a consumer, what do you feel...
Videos are excellent (and effective ways) to complain
In an earlier post we talked about David Carroll, a musician whose guitar was broken by United Airlines. The company proved very bad at managing his complaint and he found no other way than to compose a song (eventually seen by millions of people) to get his complaint addressed. It was shown to be effective (United Airlines compensated him) and seems to have inspired another complainant in France. If you want to learn more on effective...
Which perspectives for firms’ bankruptcies in 2014
More than 11000 firms went bankrupt in Belgium in 2013. Will 2014 be as bad as 2013 ? Bankruptcies all-time high in Belgium 11052 bankruptcies and 27912 jobs lost: those are the sad figures of bankruptcies in Belgium for the year 2013. It’s unfortunately an all-time record. Whereas startups still get affected by bankruptcy in their first years (read our post on the truth about startup failures), the Brussels Chamber of Commerce (BECI) also sees...
Johnny Thijs: Belgium looses all-time most successful CEO in postal world
Political debates about the salary of bpost CEO will deprive Belgium of one its all-time most successful manager. As our article reveals, Johnny Thijs has outperformed all main postal operators CEO in Europe. Johnny Thijs salary: a political debate On Dec 23rd 2013 Johnny Thijs, the CEO of the Belgian postal operator bpost, announced he would not be candidate for a third mandate as CEO. This announcement followed a period of contradictory discussions at political level...
How and why data analysis can help increase your profitability and fuel your growth
We are currently doing several big data-based assignments for very various clients and we’d like to share with you common mistakes that are often made by companies when considering analyzing their data. Mistake #1: where is my data? First of all what we see is that most companies have a HUGE problem finding their data. Either they don’t have collected data at all (which often is the case in retail environments and we know brands with...
Here’s why Aigle’s new marketing strategy works amazingly well
One of the advantages of having a strong brand is that meaningful diversification can enable you to unlock growth. Here’s the example of Aigle, an historic brand of rubber boots which has diversified into side products. Aigle has manufactured its famous rubber boots since 1967 in Châtellerault (France) and launched its outdoor strategy in 1989. The group went through difficult times however and was taken over in 2004. The revamping of the logo and the “rebirth”...
How to: define your pricing
A question that comes always back from our clients is how to set up the prices of their products (this is less relevant for services). What I’m really astonished about is how some entrepreneurs go candidly about defining their sales price. Two opposed ways but only one valid Take the example of this would-be entrepreneur that want to open a store (it’s a true story). He needs money from the bank and I was challenging him...
No market research for Subway stores
Unbelievable but true. Subway offers no help to its franchisees and in particular give them no hint as to where to set up their store. Subway even declares they have no idea as far as the best locations for a store are concerned. This was one of the findings of an investigation by the French economic magazine “Capital”. 35% of subway stores in France loose money Once the 12,5% franchise fee is paid to Subway,...
Marketing strategy: use humor to create differentiation
Life is not easy every day and a way to differentiate yourself from the crowd is to use humor. Read below the example of the Comfort Hotel group which uses humor at all levels as a marketing strategy for differentiation. Creating a customer experience around humor requires however to be very well organized and to be skilled in terms of marketing. The experience has to be compelling and it would be a big mistake to think...
Lessons learned on starting up a new store
On Nov 4th 2013 we attended the Grand Opening of Ethnik, a client’s project which became reality after 13 weeks of intensive work. In lower-ranked locations, leverage customer loyalty Ethnik will enjoy an AAA location that we found near the European Commission in Brussels and which was quickly secured to avoid the competition from coming in. Such locations are extremely rare and most of the time a newcomer will not be lucky enough to find one....
Moving a shop to another location also requires market research
When you set up a shop or small store, its profitability may be at stake when your immediate environment changes. Moving your store to another location may be the safest move to make but it requires that market research techniques be applied. Yet, such a move is not risk-free. Besides the selection of several potential locations for your business, you need metrics and figures to make your decisions. Those figures are usually provided by market research...
Trendspotting: What is nomadism?
Market research is partly based on the investigation of past, current and future consumption trends that may support business activity. Trends research can be seen as a component of the PESTEL analysis which aims at studying all aspects of a market that are not under your control : Political, Economic, Sociologic, Technological, Ecological and Legal constraints. Look at the first letter of each of the words and you’ll understand where the name PESTEL is coming from....
Will Ryanair really improve service quality to satisfy its customers?
Michael O’Leary, the arrogant yet charismatic CEO of Ryanair, announced last week that the company would strive to improve customer service. “We should try to eliminate things that unnecessarily piss people off” and “A lot of those customer services elements don’t cost a lot of money … It’s something we are committed to addressing over the coming year,” O’Leary said on Sept 20th 2013. Market conditions have changed Why Ryanair is now finally addressing customer complaints...
Emerging trend on the food market : raw chocolate
Among the 200+ exhibitors of the Gourmet Food&Wine fair in Paris on Sept 23rd and 24th 2013, our attention was caught by Rrraw, startup launched by Frédéric Marr to exploit the raw chocolate market trend. After having sold his previous company in 2005 Frédéric founded Nutrivitalité.fr and got interested the nutritional properties of chocolate. His idea was to work on the process-side to keep “all the good things” chocolate has to propose with a maximum of...
How demographics maps can help your market research
If you think about maps you’ll most probably have in your mind the image of a geographic map, depicting the borders of a country or of a group of countries. There are however numerous other types of maps that are much more interesting and that can be of great help in your market research and your business plan. Geographer Jacques Levy recently published a book where he uses 30 astonishing socio-economic maps created by Luc Guillemot,...
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