Scientific Customer Gardening

According to a study by Accenture, customer loyalty has fallen by 29% since 2010. What does that mean? Should we worry? Loyalty is a glue which holds society and the economy together. But are we seeing a disintegration of these core values? For me, loyalty is partly about identification and routine, but curiosity also plays … Continue reading Loyalty in a time of curiosity →

In customer gardening, customer communication is a central ‘nutrient’ of ‘interaction quality’. But this is difficult if the supplier speaks in different ways - if marketing for example speaks a different ‘language’ than service? The situation gets even more complicated when take into account the fact that listening is also a key part of communication. … Continue reading The management of cacophony →

The biggest problem for all large companies is their own gravity. If a business has a high gravity score, it means that the business looks too inwardly, with little focus on the outside. This is the daily reality for most employees. The topic of conversation among work colleagues is often about the colleagues themselves, the … Continue reading What is your Gravity Score? →

And not 3 or 13. Albert Einstein was known for distinguishing 5 different things with one view (whereas most of us dabble around 3). Yet the most successful number for distinguishing differences is 7. Take music, for example, the most widespread “language” across the world. Some 80% of all music is based on a 7-tone … Continue reading Take 7 against the non-walking, undead! →

Looking back on the last decade, what are the factors that have shaped it? My immediate first reaction is to think about the growing services that keep you connected and empowered. That relates to high level technology, but when it comes to customer communication, most of my service suppliers appear to be slightly schizophrenic. Communication … Continue reading What has shaped the face of the last decade? →

Posted on 16/01/2020 by Hans J. Schmolke There are more and more people who say, in ten years’ time, we will live in a blockchain world, in smart cities, where everything is in your hands, but recorded, immutable and transparent to everyone. However, all data will be anonymous. For governments, it probably will to be … Continue reading Looking back from a blockchain future →

Probably the most important book of our times was written 50 years ago: Exit, Voice and Loyalty, by Albert Otto Hirschman*, an economist with wide experience as a planner and someone who deals with reality in a practical way. Hirschman’s main observation – other than in economic theory – is that there is often no … Continue reading Why nagging drives growth →

X-mas preparations in our customer gardening lab Gardening Assistant: “Why all these stupid baubles, candles, tinsels that I have to hang on the firs? If those stand for all the value, why not grow the trees completely decorated? I bet, you, the big gardening scientists, you just can't do it.” Data Scientist 1: “You will not believe it, but … Continue reading Waiting list for the year 33,730 →

If a customer index would serve as a navigation system (can it be anything else?) then NPS leads us to the smileys. What we want are promoters (customers who like us), what we rather not want to have are critics. These we call 'detractors',  because they get us down. Just to be sure: we still talk … Continue reading Lead me to the land where everybody smiles! →

A trick will only work for a while, until everyone else is doing it. To advance from the ordinary requires a new game, or a new territory. But the process of going outside the conventional method, game, or territory, is indistinguishable from error. Even the most brilliant act of genius, in the final analysis is … Continue reading Honor your errors →