CRM Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Archer Targeted Communication

Getting It Wrong

In 2008, entrepreneurs Chris DiMambro and Keith Dupuis sought to upscale their Main Street Grill, a sports bar and family style restaurant in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Their $48,000 risk–in seemingly positive changes that included an expanded menu, flowers on the table, linen napkins, and even new salt and pepper shakers–so angered their regular customers that, after 9 months, the pair had to acknowlege a flop. Disheartened by the empty seats, angry customer letters, and a 15 percent drop in revenue, the two look back in this MSNBC video to what went wrong and the lessons learned. Says MSNBC in summary, “to keep the customers you have, you need to be in touch with what they’re looking for.”

See the video below and a related, more positive piece from the Boston Business Journal, 3 February 2009.

Flickr photo credit: gregs stuff

By ArcherTC|2012-01-05T06:58:54+01:00March 26, 2009|Blog, Marketing|0 Comments

10 Types of Bad Clients and How To Avoid Them

Last week we ran an article about the various characteristics of a good client. This week, we’re going to look at the other end of that: ten different types of bad clients, and what you can do to avoid them.

If you’ve been freelancing for long, then there’s no doubt you’ve read some of the horror stories about bad clients. You may have even run into a few bad clients in your own business.

Over the years, I have noticed that most bad clients seem to fall into certain common patterns. In this post, I share those patterns with you. Keep in mind that none of these bad client types are specific to any one client that I’ve ever worked with. Rather, these examples are a generalization of the many different characteristics a bad client can take. Personally, I rarely ever have to deal with a bad client in my business, and I’ll explain how you too can avoid them later on in the article. …more at 10 Types of Bad Clients and How To Avoid Them – FreelanceFolder, published 17 March 2009.

Flickr photo credit: marblegravy

By ArcherTC|2012-01-05T06:47:35+01:00March 26, 2009|Blog, Small Business|0 Comments

It’s not who your customers are, it’s how they behave

Wow. I’m humbled by the commentary from my first post. I hope I can maintain such passionate interest!

Businesses cannot exist without customers, so it’s sadly ironic that many, if not most, businesses, actually understand so little about them. As a company grows, a smaller and smaller percentage of the staff interacts with the customers. In fact, those folks on the “front line” (think call centers, service counters, retail stores) are typically among the lowest-paid and have the least authority.

Meanwhile, back at headquarters fundamental decisions are made with extremely limited information about customers. There, understanding the customer is often considered someone else’s responsibility, because, “we have a department for that.” No department has a complete view of the customer, however, and so in place of true understanding are models and frameworks that attempt to describe the customer. Many companies don’t go beyond demographics and market segmentation. While it’s helpful to know how they break down by age, sex, income, region, and other easily measurable characteristics, there’s actually very little you can actually do with that information. In order to become customer experience-driven, you need to go beyond who your customers are, and understand what they do. …more at It’s Not Who Your Customers Are, It’s How They Behave – Peter Merholz – HarvardBusiness.org, published on 11 February 2009

Flickr photo credit: Roger B.

By ArcherTC|2012-01-05T06:47:36+01:00February 23, 2009|Blog, Small Business|0 Comments