It’s not just ‘back to school’ for kids; businesses all over the world are spending their time looking for more ways to grow customer loyalty. ‘Longevity’ is no longer synonymous with ‘guaranteed business’. What worked fifty, twenty, or even just a year ago are, well, “so last year.” Here, BARE International shares an article by Zeynep Ilgaz for Entrepreneur on how Old-School Industries Require New-School Customer Experience.

‘Millennials are slowly but surely becoming the coveted buyers of not only B2C, but also B2B products and services. According to Accenture, millennials spend roughly $600 billion per year, and Pew Research Center tells us that this age group now makes up the bulk of the U.S. workforce. With this in mind, be advised that it would be a big mistake for your or any other brand to not adapt to millennials’ behaviors and preferred experiences.

Read more

Experience is quickly becoming king in differentiating between like-minded businesses and industries. Competition is everywhere, and everyone is striving to provide the ‘best’ experience for their customers. So how do you set yourself apart? Here, BARE International shares an article by Dan Gingiss for Forbes on Why Your Competition For Customer Experience Is Amazon And Everyone Else.

‘Do you know who your competition really is?

In the old days, your customers used to compare you to the local competition – the grocery store down the street or the “other” plumber in town. Then over time, they started to compare you to online companies. Today, your customers compare you to every customer experience they have with every other brand. The competition isn’t just your direct competitors, although they’re still there of course. It’s grown to include all of the customer experiences your customer has every day.

Read more

Real-Time Analytics: The Key To Unlocking Customer Insights & Driving The Customer Experience finds that customer analytics are essential for improving customer experiences across all marketing, selling and service channels an enterprise relies on.’ Here, BARE International shares an article by Louis Columbus for Forbes on How to Improve Customer Experiences with Real-Time Analytics.

‘Fascinating insights are from a new study conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services in conjunction with SASIntel and Accenture Applied Intelligence. The study is a quick, insightful read of 16 pages that combines survey findings and enterprises’ marketing results. The methodology is based on interviews with more than 560 business leaders drawn from the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council and the Harvard Business Review audience of readers in February and March 2018.

“The expectation of consumers today is that everything exists in the world of the now and that their interactions will be personalized,” says Jeff Jacobs

The study finds that banking, retail, and telecommunications have the greatest upside growth potential from adopting customer analytics. The following are the ways enterprises are using real-time customer analytics to improve revenue:

Read more

‘Business coach and consultant Dan S. Kennedy and customer retention expert Shaun Buck present a systematic approach to help you keep, cultivate, and multiply customers so you replace income uncertainty with reliable income through retention and referrals.’ Here, BARE International shares an excerpt by Dan S. Kennedy for Entrepreneur on 5 Ways to Grow the Value of Each of Your Customers.

‘Businesses that fail to fully monetizing their customers often fail outright, and many more will in the challenging years ahead. This is so because nothing is more difficult or costly than new customer acquisition.

There are five specific ways to create the maximum possible customer value:

Read more

‘Traditional retailers are feeling the heat. Even as competition intensifies, shoppers’ visits to retail stores are declining every year, leading one industry veteran to ominously ask his peers, “Is anyone not seeing large traffic declines?”’ Here, BARE International shares a study by Emma Sopadjieva, Utpal M. Dholakia, Beth Benjamin for Harvard Business Review on 46,000 Shoppers Shows That Omnichannel Retailing Works.

Online retail, on the other hand, is thriving. Retail sales through digital channels (including mobile sales) increased by a massive 23% in 2015. Much of these gains have gone to online retailers. Amazon is the biggest beneficiary, now accounting for 26% of all online retail sales. What is more, as it continues to expand aggressively into new categories like grocery and fashion, Amazon’s existential threat to traditional retailers is greater than ever.

Just ask Alexa. Read more