Week+3

__//**Week 3**//__
Homophily: tendency of people to associate with others like themselves; Facebook, Amazon and Netflix try this concept when marketing--basicly trying to get you AND your friends into their business CLV Brita Case Customer Satisfaction - "is a valuable performance metric because it is a forward-looking indicator of business success that measures how well customers will respond to the company in the future." BEST
 * Concepts:**
 * Loyalist
 * Mercenary
 * Defector/Terrorist

I was looking at this post and thinking about our discussion last night. Could customer satisfaction be linked to the federal government? Are citizens who are against government actions described as defectors/terrorists/un-patriotic? Looking at the broken guitar case, I think it is easy to assume there must be at least one other scenario that matches this. The only difference is his ability to gather attention through his media production. He may be upset with United, but it didn't have a perceived adverse effect until it reached mass media. Really, mass media has a primary role influencing customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a product/company/entity. Look again at the current health care debate. What would you know about the bill if there was no mass media? If my assumption is correct that we would know virtually nothing without the media, who shaped our opinion of the health care debate? I would like to offer that the assumptions and biases of mass media influence our opinion/”customer satisfaction” more than we realize.

A lot of segmentation is done by artificial intelligence. For example, Acxiom has everyone’s credit card information. You can pay for this information. Also, Experian (Hitwise) knows your browsing history. To capture the market, it is important that people have more than one transaction with your business. (Once people bought Brita’s, they were required to buy filters every so many months, which generated a consistent income stream.) It is extremely expensive to keep replacing old customers with new customers. Apple offers their I-tunes program to people for free; however, people will than pay money to download songs.) Brita: The Brita case was an introduction to customer lifetime value and net profit value. Oddly enough, we threw out our quantitative analysis when Pur strategically introduced their unique selling proposition at the point of sale. What is a Free Customer Worth? This article explored the relationship of non-paying customers and paying customers (think eBay and employment services). In this unique relationship, a segment’s market growth potential depends on the market growth of the other segment; vice versa. Customer Profitability and Lifetime Value (CLV Tool) Customers' Revenge One thought that I had after our discussion about how to handle complaining or unhappy customers...CS and communicating with customers doesn't have to be a one-way flow of negative information. Companies should respond to complaints and handle quality issues in ways that satisfy customers, of course, but it is also important for companies to communicate their value to customers. In response to the discussion that we had last week I could not help but think of the customer service that consumers receive on a daily basis. "This call may be recorded for quality training purposes..." It seems that customer service specialist today are very concerned with making sure all of our questions have been answered. Even though it is rather impersonal, the conversation may be recorded, so if they value their jobs they better handle the situation. I think this is an effective tool and should be utilized by all companies.
 * Articles:**

In reference to the article last week, I firmly believe things tend to be case-specific, and may warrant such actions (e.g. that of the lady deemed "crazy" for complaining so much) taken by consumers. To generalize and aggregate all complaints in the same manner may render dire outcomes. In essence, to structure and implement solid customer service programs, coupled with set course of actions, would likely bring about desirable outcomes. Granted, there may be a point to know when to cut ties with specific consumers, yet undermining the legitimacy of valid claims should not be acceptable.

Remind your customers what you do well, what value you provide, why you are good at what you do (in the proper way, of course). Sometimes people need to be reminded of the benefit and value they receive. Damage control is necessary sometimes, but blow your own horn, too, when it's warranted. Jeff J. "Firing Customers" - change the incentives so good customers come and stay, while bad customers self select out. Here is an example of a customer's revenge, in the form of music... United Airlines broke Dave Carrol's $3,500 guitar, which made him very unhappy. Being a professional musician, he decided he would express his fury in a song - check it out: []. This video went viral, and in the end, Dave got a settlement from United. See follow-up article: [].