For Customer Experience Professionals

Auto Insurers' Cross-Channel Experience, 2009

An Industry Look At This Year's Best And Worst Of Cross-Channel Design

by Bruce D. Temkin, July 10, 2009

As part of a larger analysis of 16 firms, Forrester evaluated the cross-channel experiences of four large auto insurers — 21st Century Insurance, Allstate Insurance, Geico, and State Farm. Overall, the auto insurers performed fairly well relative to the . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Voice Of The Customer: The Next Generation

Six Trends Will Change How Organizations Use Customer Feedback

by Bruce D. Temkin, February 26, 2009

Voice of the customer (VoC) programs are a critical component to improving customer experience. But today's efforts are broken in many ways. They lack action, get caught in silos, and aren't cost- or time-effective. But a number of trends are changing . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Obstacles To Customer Experience Success, 2009

Customer Experience Continues Ahead Despite The Recession

by Bruce D. Temkin, February 20, 2009

In a survey of 90 customer experience decision-makers from large North American firms, 89% said that customer experience would be either very important or critical to their 2009 efforts. The two major obstacles identified by these firms are the lack of . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

The State Of Customer Experience, 2009

Customer Experience Management Enters Into Adolescence

by Bruce D. Temkin, April 24, 2009

Executives have been saying for awhile that customer experience is important. Only recently, however, have many of them begun to understand its direct link with loyalty. As a result, companies are starting to develop more disciplined approaches to customer . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Engage Gen Y Online With Social Interactivity

by Bruce D. Temkin, June 2, 2009

Gen Y is a unique breed. Firms can't interact with these young consumers in the same way they do with older consumers. That's why Forrester identified four design approaches for reaching Gen Y online: immediacy, Gen Y literacy, individualism, and social . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Executive Q&A: Net Promoter Score

by Bruce D. Temkin, May 19, 2009

Net Promoter has become a popular term. But many firms don't understand exactly what it is and how to use it most effectively. This Q&A document examines some frequently asked questions and should help companies that are wondering how and when to . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Discount Retailers' Cross-Channel Experience, 2009

An Industry Look At This Year's Best And Worst Of Cross-Channel Design

by Bruce D. Temkin, September 3, 2009

As part of a larger analysis of 16 firms, Forrester evaluated the cross-channel experiences of four large discount retailers — Kmart, Sears, Target, and Wal-Mart. Overall, the discount retailers performed poorly compared to the other industries we evaluated. . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Sixteen Voice Of The Customer Recommendations

Insights From 40 Companies With Voice Of The Customer Programs

by Bruce D. Temkin, November 11, 2009

To understand the best practices in voice of the customer (VoC) programs, Forrester analyzed the 40 applications it received for its Voice Of The Customer award. When we examined the advice that applicants listed for other companies, we found 16 recommendations . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Presidential Candidate Sites Fail Usability

Forrester Applied Its Web Site Review To Obama And McCain Sites

by Bruce D. Temkin, August 28, 2008

Forrester evaluated the usability of the Obama and McCain presidential campaign sites using an abridged version of its Web Site Review methodology. The results were not great: Both sites failed a majority of the criteria we evaluated. Interestingly, both . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Wells Fargo Uses Ethnography To Improve Customer Communications

by Bruce D. Temkin, October 30, 2008

Wells Fargo sends a wide variety of communications, both online and offline, to its customers. To make sure that these communications are "customer friendly," the bank undertook a customer research study using ethnographic techniques. Customers who represented . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

RockYou Showcases Gen Y Design Practices

by Bruce D. Temkin, Ross Popoff-Walker, April 17, 2008

With around 2 million daily active users, RockYou's Super Wall is one of the most popular applications on Facebook. And RockYou.com, which provides slideshow creation tools to young consumers, attracts 20 million unique visitors per month. To better understand . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

The State Of Experience-Based Differentiation

Self-Assessments Show US Firms Are At The Beginning Of The Journey

by Bruce D. Temkin, February 19, 2008

Forrester introduced Experience-Based Differentiation (EBD) as the model for customer experience excellence. To find out how far firms are along the path to EBD, we asked 287 customer experience decision-makers about their firms' capabilities in the three . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Obstacles To Customer Experience Success, 2008

Survey Of 287 Large US Companies Highlights Key Obstacles

by Bruce D. Temkin, February 7, 2008

In a survey of 287 customer experience decision-makers from large US firms, 91% said that customer experience would be either very important or critical to their 2008 efforts — a significant jump over results in a similar survey last year. We also found . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Banks' Cross-Channel Experience, 2008

An Industry Look At This Year's Best And Worst Of Cross-Channel Design

by Bruce D. Temkin, July 18, 2008

As part of a larger analysis of 16 firms, Forrester evaluated the cross-channel experiences of four large US banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo. As an industry, the banks scored slightly above average compared with other . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Social Networking Sites Need A Usability Boost

Forrester Evaluated MySpace, Facebook, hi5, Tagged, and Friendster

by Bruce D. Temkin, August 8, 2007

Forrester applied an abridged version of its Web Site Review methodology to the site experiences at five major social networking sites: MySpace, Facebook, Tagged, Friendster, and hi5. Our evaluation looked at how well each site supports young adults trying . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Three Different Gaming Approaches That Can Enhance Online Experiences

by Bruce D. Temkin, Ross Popoff-Walker, April 30, 2008

We examined three types of online gaming experiences: a branded microsite called Get the Glass, the online gaming community Club Penguin, and a social network with gaming elements called I'm in like with you. Customer experience professionals looking . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

The Chief Customer/Experience Officer Playbook

Lessons Learned From Senior Customer Experience Executives

by Bruce D. Temkin, October 3, 2007

As many firms take on corporatewide efforts to improve customer experience, more of them are establishing positions like chief customer officer or SVP of customer experience — that we collectively call the chief customer/experience officer (CC/EO). To . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Lessons Learned From 1,001 Web Site Reviews

Eight Key Insights From Forrester's Web Site Evaluations

by Bruce D. Temkin, May 11, 2007

Since 1999, Forrester has evaluated the experience of more than 1,000 Web sites. During that period, only 3% of the sites received passing scores on our Web Site Review methodology. But things have definitely changed during the past eight years. Scores . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Customer Experience Thrives With Executive Leadership

by Bruce D. Temkin, April 24, 2008

In our Q4 2007 Customer Experience Peer Research Panel survey, we found that 45% of the firms had a senior executive in charge of improving customer experience across products and channels. To find out what type of an effect these execs had on their companies' . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Uploading To Video Portals Isn't Easy

Forrester Evaluated YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Metacafe, Dailymotion, And Veoh

by Bruce D. Temkin, September 7, 2007

Forrester applied an abridged version of its Web Site Review methodology to the site experiences at five major video portal sites: YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Metacafe, Dailymotion, and Veoh. Our evaluation looked at how well each site supports young adults . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

The Experience-Based Differentiation Self-Test

by Bruce D. Temkin, February 7, 2007

Forrester introduced the concept of Experience-Based Differentiation (EBD), which builds on three principles: obsess about customer needs, not product features; reinforce brands with every interaction, not just communications; and treat customer experience . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Customer Experience Innovation In Three Steps

by Bruce D. Temkin, February 14, 2008

Companies looking to differentiate themselves through customer experience can discover innovative breakthroughs by following three steps: 1) uncover the needs; 2) design a disruptive strategy; and 3) evaluate the opportunity based on the R-W-W (real-win-worth . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Engage Gen Y Online With Immediacy

by Bruce D. Temkin, November 13, 2008

Gen Y is a unique breed. Firms can't interact with these young consumers in the same way they do with older consumers. That's why Forrester identified four design approaches for reaching Gen Y online: immediacy, Gen Y literacy, individualism, and social . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Eight Steps For Keeping Customer Experience Momentum During An Economic Downturn

by Bruce D. Temkin, April 25, 2008

Forrester asked its Customer Experience Peer Research Panel about the state of the economy. While most of the companies have lowered their financial outlooks, only a few felt that customer experience would become less important. However, if they do need . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Web-Store Experiences: Electronics Retailers

Forrester Evaluated Channel Transitions Of Four Electronics Retailers

by Bruce D. Temkin, Adele Sage, February 4, 2008

Forrester applied its Cross-Channel Review methodology to the experiences at four electronics retailers — Best Buy, Circuit City, RadioShack, and Wal-Mart. While Best Buy received the top overall score, none of the four companies received an overall passing . . .