 |  |
 |  |  |
The customer experience as a differentiation driver Design the organization to offer a distinctive experience to customers |
Is "customer
experience” just a new marketing buzzword for a passing fad? Must
all companies turn themselves into theme parks to delight their customers?
The publications we have analyzed take a more pragmatic stance. The authors
remind us that the customer interaction with a brand represents an experience
that goes beyond the mere use or consumption of a product. Yet, companies
often neglect many aspects of this experience. By focusing on these aspects,
particularly in mature markets, companies can use the customer
experience as a differentiation driver.
|
|
Clued
In, |
|
 |
Selling Solutions |
Faced
with the growing difficulty of differentiating their offerings, many companies
have turned to so-called “service strategies.” Rather than
just sell products, they have decided to develop customized packages and
start selling solutions to their customers.
However, they often encounter problems implementing this strategy. In
particular, a radically different conception of business development is
needed. From our selected publications, we have drawn many practical recommendations
on ways to change sales force behavior to give this strategy every chance
of succeeding.
|
|
Andris
A. Zoltners, Prabhakant Sinha, Sally E. Lorimer, Palgrave Macmillan,
2004
La Vente complexe [The Complex Sale], Laurent Dugas, Bruno Jourdan, Dunod, 2003 Rethinking the Sales Force, Neil Rackham, John De Vincentis |
|
|
|
The Experience Economy |
In
the course of the twentieth century, services have progressively taken
precedence over products as a source of wealth creation. This book announces
the emergence of a new generation fated to supplant services--the experience-based
offering. The authors feel that companies faced with the progressive commoditization
of services will be obliged to differentiate themselves by offering customers
opportunities to live real, unique and memorable experiences. They then
go on to explain why and how to do this.
|
|
B.
Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore,
Harvard Business School Press, 1999. |
|
|
|
The Service Profit Chain |
This
book is devoted to service strategy implementation, and reviews the two
pillars of customer satisfaction, i.e., service performance and customer
interaction quality. The principal drivers of profitable service strategy
are then described.
|
|
James
L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser and Leonard A. Schlesinger,
The Free Press, 1997. |
|
|
|
Customer Intimacy |
This
book, written by the authors of «L'exigence du choix, » (The
Choice Imperative) develops upon one of the three options proposed in
the previous book, namely, proximity to the customer. Using numerous supporting
examples, the author decribes various means to implement this strategy.
|
|
Fred
Wiersema,
Knowledge Exchange, 1996. |
|
|
|
|
 |  |  |