First keynote conversation, was with Richard Edelman. No surprise, but he is very quotable, and he also struck me as quite pragmatic in his views. His biggest hate is for spin. He talked a lot about the importance of transparency. he spoke frankly about the Walmart fiasco, when, if i remember right, Edelman staff were found to be ghost blogging supposed Walmart customers. He sees the HQ role as one of standards and training, and encourages all 2,500 staff to be engaged in social media. One of his main points, was to encourage companies not to leave the social media … Continue reading MESH07 | Richard Edelman

After the first day, as usual I am watching to see trends, especially those that are relevant to Banks. In reading this, its worthwhile reflecting this group are the super early adopters, startups, Web 2.0 companies, but there was a group here this year that did not show up last year. These were enterprise types, technology groups, enterprise knowledge management people. I saw one chap from the Royal Bank of Canada group, asking how he could use wiki’s for sharing knowledge within the Bank. Some notes: – the first thing that struck me is the evolution since last year – … Continue reading MESH07 | thoughts from day 1

I am attending MESH07 conference in Toronto. Today is Media and Social day, so less business focus, which comes tomorrow. Highlight this morning was Michael Arrington from Techcrunch. He was quite entertaining, and quite clear in his views about old media and new media. His speciality is startups, and the main take away for success and differentiation that he looks for are twofold: – Technology innnovation – network effect – ability to attract large numbers of users, interested in partipating The other keynote included Tom Williams from givemeaning.org. When asked a similar question about drivers of success, his answer is … Continue reading MESH07 | Michael Arrington

There are times when I think Banks act with incredible stupidity, then somehow one manages to leap out of the pack and really display a fundamental lack of any grasp of how consumers think. Hat tip Javelin. Barclaycard customers could soon be hit with an annual fee of up to £20 if they fail to use their cards “enough”. The UK’s largest credit card provider says it is considering an annual charge for its one million customers who rarely or never use their credit cards. Source: The Guardian I can just picture the salivation in the conference room, as the … Continue reading Barclaycard

Japan is a highly consumer oriented society, with advertising everywhere. There is also a very high expectation for corporate loyalty, and service to customers. No surpirse about these figures that indicate 40% of lack is in time and energy ( 2 – 4). While I have written before about the exceptional service customers get in Japan, this suggests the pressures this creates are not sustainable. Its not humanly possible to sustain this level of service. A new model is required. “What do you lack [most] now?” 1 Money 30% 2 Sense of drive, desire to act 15% 3 Time 13% … Continue reading Japan as an early warning signal for customer service

This has been bothering me for a while. I think it took me getting out of a large organisation, to begin to see the futility in the customer centric, 360 degree view, mentality. Everything about 360 degree view, as defined, is company centric. For the uninitiated, “360 degree view of the customer” is about creating and providing access to a comprehensive collection of information about individual customers. It’s the corporate memory for customer interactions. The Marketing Consortium: I say futility, because while it sounds like the right approach, its impossible to be customer centric from the viewpoint of any one … Continue reading Some thoughts on customer centric, 360 degree view, and Social Networks.

Paul at Finextra notes the updated Wells Fargo web site, which takes a highly customer focused approach to ease access to most wanted features. The results have been spectacular with a 50% increase in online applications. The team collated the 100 most-popular search terms to determine what customers most wanted to find and couldn’t. Topping the list were mortgage rates, security information, and ATM/branch locations – which subsequently were handed premium positions on the new home page. Finextra: A new report from Forrester is cited the efforts, after Brad Strothkamp sat down with Stephanie Smith, Senior Vice President and Head … Continue reading Successful Wells Fargo site redesign levers analytics, not opinions