Lisa Nakano

VP, Principal Analyst

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Blog

The B2B Chief Customer Officer: Unicorn Or Camel?

Lisa Nakano July 25, 2023
In Silicon Valley startup parlance, there are two types of ventures: unicorns and camels. Unicorns are the bright, shiny, money-burning, rapid-growth startups. Camels are built on a more solid financial philosophy, meant to make the money last, using venture capital as more of a bridge than a survival tactic. In times of crisis, it’s probably […]
Blog

Welcome To The Year Of The Customer Marketer

Lisa Nakano September 23, 2020
One major trend we see is an amped-up focus on retention — keeping customers and ensuring they achieve value.
Blog

Customer Success IS a Crisis Mitigation Strategy

Lisa Nakano March 19, 2020
  • Customer success teams provide continuity for your customers during times of crisis
  • Organizations that leverage their customer success teams will weather the storm better
  • Enabling your customer success teams to be effective now will pay off in better customer AND employee engagement
Blog

Customer Success at Scale — Yes, It Can Be Done!

Lisa Nakano November 26, 2019
  • Customer success organizations are doing a good job of managing a high-touch approach to the largest accounts — but what about smaller accounts that don’t justify having their own customer success manager?
  • Using a resource-efficient digital approach to address the “long tail” of customers creates a post-sale experience that makes customers feel valued
  • If organizations don’t consider a continuum of capabilities and default to a one-size-fits-all approach, they may provide a subpar customer experience and sacrifice retention and growth
Blog

Are You Rolling a Boulder Uphill? Make Sure Ops Supports Engagement

Lisa Nakano November 22, 2019
  • Many organizations have an incomplete picture of their customer journey due to a disconnect between operational functions and customer-facing organizations
  • Antiquated operational systems fail to support modern needs for customer-centricity and data-informed customer actions
  • Organizations must develop a closed-loop system to connect operational functions and customer engagement, despite the related challenges
Blog

Drinking Our Own Champagne: Implementing Engagement and Customer Health at SiriusDecisions

Lisa Nakano July 15, 2019
  • Every organization deals with retention, and at SiriusDecisions we used our own best practice advice and research to better understand our own business
  • Even smaller companies can wrangle their own data to understand customer engagement and retention triggers
  • After gathering insights, cross-functional alignment is critical for organizations to take the next steps toward improvement
Blog

Don’t Wipe Your Slate Clean: A New Model for Customer Retention

Lisa Nakano April 1, 2019
  • Every organization deals with retention, but not all apply the same rigor to retaining customers as they do to signing them
  • Retention goes awry when there is no strategy, little awareness of the customer lifecycle and previous interactions, and unclear ownership of retention efforts
  • A new model for meaningful retention measurement and management aligns and organizes efforts to retain customers
Blog

Customer Lifecycle Management – Even the Uber Driver Gets It

Lisa Nakano December 12, 2018
  • B2B organizations are starting to balance customer acquisition initiatives with post-sale customer engagement efforts
  • Customer experience is THE key driver for buying decisions, which should make investment in the post-sale lifecycle a no-brainer
  • There are three distinct steps B2B customer engagement leaders can take to get started on a strategy for solid post-sale customer engagement, loyalty and growth
Blog

If You Give a Customer a Cookie

Lisa Nakano September 10, 2018
  • SiriusDecisions has identified five actionable planning assumptions that will drive the agendas of customer engagement leaders in 2019
  • Customer success, customer marketing and customer experience leaders are making significant progress toward adequate visibility and investment in existing customers
  • Customer engagement practitioners must continue to improve the customer experience to support retention, loyalty, growth and advocacy
Blog

Customer Experience Governance – Three Models

Lisa Nakano October 24, 2017
  • There are three models that B2B organizations can adopt to maximize the reach and accountability of customer experience efforts
  • Each governance model has unique pros and cons you should take into account when choosing the right approach
  • All three models have a common set of imperatives to understand when adopting a governance approach
Blog

Customer Engagement: The Range of Responsibilities Defined

Lisa Nakano June 20, 2017
  • Customer engagement is a new function in most organizations, so executives are trying to determine which elements to include
  • Customer experience, customer marketing and customer success should have distinct responsibilities – but these often become muddled
  • It’s important to understand common missteps when implementing customer engagement to be able to avoid them
Blog

Customer Journey Mapping Technologies

Lisa Nakano November 22, 2016
  • Mapping the customer journey is a foundational capability to improving customer experience
  • New tools and technologies are available to help customer engagement practitioners map the customer journey for better organizational alignment
  • Consideration of customer roles continues to be key in the retain/actualize stage
Blog

Customer Engagement Definitions: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Lisa Nakano November 18, 2016
  • The terms “customer engagement,” “customer experience,” “customer success” and “customer marketing” are often used interchangeably
  • Customer engagement is a holistic approach that drives organizations to fulfill the brand promise through thoughtful strategy
  • Customer marketing team focuses on nurturing and growing customer engagement, loyalty and growth
Blog

Danger! Customer Retention Curves Ahead

Lisa Nakano November 4, 2016
  • The SiriusDecisions 2016 Customer Experience Study shows how customers feel about how B2B organizations are delivering customer experience right now
  • In the retain/actualize phase of the customer lifecycle, specific focus is required to ensure that customers continue along the path to advocacy
  • Consideration of customer roles continues to be key in the retain/actualize phase
Blog

So, the Customer Is Onboarded – I’m Done, Right?

Lisa Nakano October 6, 2016
  • A recent SiriusDecisions customer experience study shows how customers feel about how B2B organizations are delivering customer experience right now
  • For the develop/participate phase of the customer lifecycle, it’s important to understand how the roles of executives and users evolve once the newness of the offering wears off
  • Consideration of customer roles continues to be important post-onboarding and into the develop/participate lifecycle stage
Blog

Are Your Customers Getting the Support They Need in the First Phase of the Customer Lifecycle?

Lisa Nakano August 16, 2016
  • The SiriusDecisions customer experience study shows where B2B organizations are missing the mark for executives and users
  • For the first phase of the customer lifecycle it’s important to understand how the roles of executives and users change as prospects become customers
  • Documenting and validating customer roles is key to bridging the gap in post-sale customer experience
Blog

From Satisfied to Advocate: Enabling the Customer Journey

Lisa Nakano June 7, 2016
  • Using a customer- centric approach enables organizations to grow and retain customers
  • Build trust with your customers and reward them for their continued engagement
  • Marketing content and interactions should be designed to move customers from satisfied to loyal to advocacy
Blog

Was Better Alignment Your Customer Experience Resolution?

Lisa Nakano April 21, 2016
  • The customer marketing team is responsible for customer relationship nurture, messaging and enablement
  • The customer success team executes strategies for increasing the value customers receive from products and services
  • When these two functions work together to maximize customer engagement, great things happen
Blog

Customer Experience vs. Customer Marketing – Wait, Aren’t They the Same Thing?

Lisa Nakano October 21, 2015
  • We often see the terms “customer marketing” and “customer experience” used interchangeably
  • This post clarifies the two terms and draws a line in the sand about their usage
  • Customer experience is about strategy, while customer marketing is about using the toolkit of marketing to support goals
Blog

Which Customer Success Management Platform Is Right for You?

Lisa Nakano October 6, 2015
  • Customer success management improves loyalty, retention and growth by helping customers derive maximum value from offerings
  • Customer success management technology leverages automation and analytics to help accomplish these goals
  • This technology market has accelerated due to the trend toward recurring revenue models and the emergence of SaaS solutions
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