What’s the most common way to gain customer feedback? 

The survey.

But most surveys are impersonal and uninteresting, and it’s tough to entice customers to respond. Worse yet, few consultants and companies conducting surveys deliver real-time feedback so participants know that their voice was heard. 

IBM handles things differently. Dave Rodgerson, the Marketing Manager for IBM Canada, emailed me today explaining his very creative approach to gain high-quality customer feedback and deliver a truly memorable customer experience. 

Instead of using a bland survey and traditional marketing materials to gain customer insights and convey new messages, Dave and the IBM Canada Retail team created a “Retail as Theatre” event recently at the Second City theatre in Toronto. The “breakfast theatre” event blended stage performance, humor, food and live audience interaction delivered through IBM technology. What an interesting way to learn, share and showcase IBM technology and services! 

Check out the event summary and if you’re in retail, their array of studies for: 

• General merchandise retailers
• Apparel retailers
• Grocery online merchants
• Drug stores
• Pharmacies 

Tying the customer experience event to social media 

As if the event wasn’t creative enough, IBM introduced a fictional character at the event, Dash Walmsly, who they’re now leveraging through social media. Some people find him funny, others … well, let’s not go there. Whatever your feeling about Dash, he’s a great example of how to creatively convey a challenging message through both traditional media and new media channels.

Experience Dash yourself: 

IBM isn’t the first to use a goofy fictional character for B2B marketing. Check out Biff Manly and one of his videos that the GrowthANSWERS consultants used to promote one of their events last year.

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How many CMOs at big companies don’t know their customer retention rate, customer profitability and customer lifetime value? 

According to the CMO Council, almost 50%. 

Andy Beal over at Marketing Pilgrim provides a nice summary of the CMO Council’s findings, along with some great commentary (I chuckled at his incompetence references). 

Is it a surprise that most Chief Marketing Officers stay on the job for less than two years? It’s obvious that CMOs aren’t on equal footing in the Fortune 500 executive suite. Maybe a contributing factor is a lack of business and financial skill? 

I don’t mean to pick on CMOs. Clearly these metrics are more challenging to determine at a global consumer product company than at a $15,000,000 lumber distribution company. But then again, most CMOs are paid big bucks, have big budgets and access to an army of MBAs. What’s the problem? 

The takeaway for consultants serving midsize to small businesses is this: if almost half of Fortune 500 marketing leaders don’t know important metrics like customer lifetime value, customer retention and profitability, it’s a good bet that most of your clients don’t know them either.

You don’t have to be a math whiz to determine most of these figures. Even a ballpark figure is better than making decisions blind. If you understand these metrics when you’re planning marketing campaigns, you can:

• Better determine which customer segments to pursue;
• Determine your maximum acquisition cost to profitably acquire customers; and
• Intelligently determine how to allocate the marketing budget between new customer acquisition and customer retention programs. 

Ask your clients if they have these metrics. If not, show them why they’re important and how to calculate them. Use them for guidance during your next planning session. Don’t settle for the low bar your big company CMO colleagues have set. 

Your clients will thank you for it.  

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