The Challenge: Do you have a strategy for encouraging reviews? Do you monitor reviews? Are you responding to reviews and taking action based on this powerful voice of customer guidance?

Today's educated and digitally savvy consumers search out online reviews, even from people they do not know; 69...

The Challenge: Few companies know as much as they should about their customers and their expectations for meaningful engagement.

Being arrogant in disregarding customer expectations is dangerous. This is a lesson JC Penney found out the hard way when sales dropped 25 percent in 2012.

This is reinforced...

The Challenge: Businesses that rely heavily on customer satisfaction surveys as a gauge of overall customer happiness, without an evaluation of total customer engagement, run the risk of losing valuable sales opportunities.

The banking industry has a lot to teach us about how not to get stuck in a rut...

The Challenge: Businesses know mobile apps offer tremendous customer engagement opportunities -- if done correctly. Unfortunately, businesses can also eat up marketing budgets -- without the customer engagement payoff -- if mobile apps are not planned out with customer needs in mind.

According to Forbes, the world has...

The Challenge: Per recent guidelines, you will be penalized if your emails do not have adequate levels of deliverability and "engagement". Consider the following options to optimize your lists to increase open rates and engagement.

New rules regarding deliverability and engagement

Per our previous blog, recently most email...

The Challenge: In a study by the Business Marketing Association, most BtoB marketers say customer engagement is a high priority within their marketing organization (72 percent), but 43 percent grade their company's level of customer engagement, a C, with even more giving their companies a D or an...

The Challenge: Research from Forrester has found that 90% of consumers distrust brand messaging, including social media. However 70% of consumers believe in recommendations from friends or family. The opportunity for brands: build loyal social communities willing to share useful information with friends.

This trend of mistrust...

The Challenge: Companies can deepen their engagement with customers by championing powerful causes. However, in order for these efforts to be effective, customers must feel that your efforts are authentic and truly helping the charity.

When brands are effective with cause marketing, it can also be a win for the...

The Challenge: If you are not creating a personalized preference-driven experience for your customers, they'll go looking for that type of experience -- with your competitors.

According to a study by MyBuys, an e-tailing group, 40 percent of respondents stated that they buy more from retailers that personalize...

The Challenge: Traditional marketing has often focused on getting the sale. Instead, marketers should focus on retention and how to keep more customers for longer periods. Customer Lifetime Value, (CLTV), is a simple equation for helping you calculate the value of increased retention.

By understanding the lifetime value of a...

The Challenge: News and events provide powerful opportunities to connect with your audience. Twitter makes this easy.

While not all companies can have a social media "touchdown" like Oreo's now famous Superbowl blackout tweet, real-time marketing is accessible to any size company. It only took three minutes...

The Challenge: Major email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL have implemented new algorithms for email deliverability based on "engagement." If your emails are not triggering sufficient interaction, they are likely not to be delivered.

Recently, most email service providers have converted to a new customized algorithm that...

The Challenge: What can we learn from a 157-year-old fashion company that's being called "the world's most digitally competent luxury brand"? That a multichannel and personalized customer experience is becoming the expected standard among consumers.

Just as high fashion brands have been trendsetters in clothing, they are now...

The Challenge: Brands are struggling to stay relevant online. Per a study by Forrester, only 3 percent of websites earn a passing score in terms of user experience.

Consumers cited 3 reasons why websites are generally failing to live up to customer expectations:

1. Content and website functionality...

The Challenge: Marketers everywhere are fighting an uphill battle: trying to deliver more personalized communications but lacking the accurate data to do so. Without that information marketers are still stuck sending 'Spray and Pray' blasts of email.

According to Toronto-based anti-spam filtering and web security services provider, Perimetic,...

The Challenge: In the past, brands addressed customer service issues by way of a primary channel -- the 'call center.' But now, companies must also monitor, respond, and engage in a variety of social channels.

If a brand is unskilled in social media customer engagement, adapting customer service programs to...

The Challenge: No company is immune to the possibility of damaging comments, posts and tweets. So how do businesses prepare for unwanted attention on far-reaching social channels? Here, we look at a few companies that have weathered the storm and provided some valuable lessons.

Step 1: Create a social media...

The Challenge: Creating content that is conducive to social sharing can be tricky. Here's how Disney used smart and creative magic to crack the code.

Disney is using a mock university website and a promotional video spoof to promote the new Pixar movie Monsters University. At...

The Challenge: How has Coke thrived in a social media world, ranking as the world's most valuable brand and attracting the biggest Facebook fan base? Learn from their 7 Social Media Rules for Success.

Across all the Voice of Customer research conducted in 2012 by our firm, Ernan...

The Challenge: How can brands turn their social media fans into revenue? For Starbucks, success through social media begins with a commitment to relationship-building, not sales.

Many companies concentrate social media efforts on getting as many fans as possible, but focusing just on the number of fans misses their...