Greg and Stephen discuss the challenges of using customer journey mapping in business to business markets, based on Stephen’s recent webinar.

Are B2B relationships different, and if they are what does that mean for the journeys we map, and the tools we use to do it?

In the second of our episodes featuring Chris Barnham, Stephen and Chris discuss in more detail how to use “qualitative semiotics” to explore how customers understand brand meaning. They talk about the importance of identity and qualification, and how to use a propositional hierarchy to think about the way your brand is perceived.

Stephen and Greg pick up the discussion to consider the ways in which this theory, and this approach to qualitative research, could be used in customer experience research.

It’s another interview episode, the first of a two-parter with qualitative researcher and semiotician Chris Barnham.

In part 1 Chris gives an in-depth overview of the field, and explains his view that the theory of semiotics advanced by Charles Peirce can be be more helpful than Saussurian semiotics when it comes to understanding how consumers create brand meaning.

Focusing on individual customers, rather than cultural codes, means that semiotics combined with qualitative research can be used to understand how brand meanings are created, and how they change and evolve over time.

Next time we’ll discuss the applications of semiotics to customer experience.

Stephen and Greg chat about benchmarking customer survey scores, picking up on some of the points in Greg’s webinar on the subject.

What is benchmarking good for? Is it a distraction, a vanity exercise, or can it be used as a source of improvement?

Greg and Stephen catch up with TLF Research Client Manager Vicki Harris to talk about the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on customer experience and ways of working, with a particular eye on the social housing sector in the UK.

Along the way we talk about the power of “moments of kindness” in a crisis, wonder about how to make sure we remember to look for those moments when things return to a “new normal”, and discuss what the future may look like as ways of working change and customer priorities shift.

We got there! Thanks to anyone who’s been with us all the way from Chapter 1 (and if you haven’t, feel free to back and start at the beginning!)

In the final chapter we discuss how getting your research design right makes your analysis and outcomes easier, why you still need to work hard to build bridges between insight and action, and how it changes as you rise up the league table. We wonder if it’s harder for public companies to take a long term view of the customer and, if so, what we might be able to do about that.

https://tlf-public-assets.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/podcasts/Ep35+-+Conclusion.mp3

It’s surprisingly common for organisations to gather information from customers through research, but never “close the loop” by communicating the results or actions being taken back to customers. It’s an essential part of the process, helping manage perceptions and making sure customers notice the changes you’re making.

As Greg and Stephen comment, there’s no such thing as “survey fatigue”, only lack of action and communication fatigue.

https://tlf-public-assets.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/podcasts/Ep34+-+InvolvingCustomers.mp3

You can’t improve the customer experience without getting people throughout the organisation to sign up to the changes that need to be made. They need the right information, the opportunity to contribute, and communications that will help drive it through.

Stephen and Greg talk about how things have moved on since the book was written, and discuss some favourite tools for involving people.

https://tlf-public-assets.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/podcasts/Ep33+-+InvolvingEmployees.mp3

A lot of organisations devote cost, time, and effort to measuring customer satisfaction, but many find it difficult to transform what they learn into decisive change for customers. Customer perceptions are slow to change, and organisational inertia can make it difficult for planned improvements to stick. How can your research help?

Greg and Stephen chat about using surveys to improve the customer experience, why some things take time, and why it’s worth it.

https://tlf-public-assets.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/podcasts/Ep32+-+UsingSurveysToDriveImprovement.mp3

To use satisfaction data strategically, you need to understand how to link it to internal performance and customer behaviour. Those links often turn out to be non-linear, and understanding that can be crucial to seeing the value of investing in the customer experience.

Greg and Stephen discuss how to think strategically about customer satisfaction, the value of delight, and whether detractors may be easier to turn into promoters than passives are.

https://tlf-public-assets.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/podcasts/Ep31+-+AdvancedAnalysis.mp3