Robert Howard

Robert Howard

ClearBrick LLC
Robert G. Howard, the founder of ClearBrick.com, has more than 20 years of experience solving customer-centric business problems for some of the world's largest and most well-known companies. Mr. Howard is the co-author of the The Customer Experience Fiasco, and 7 Steps to Customer Experience Domination. [Blog: Transforming Experiences]
  • 0 comments 691 reads
    Posted on 2011-11-04

    Since the early days of customer relationship management, companies have been steadfast in their pursuit of realizing consumer intimacy through 1-to-1 marketing, customer segmentation, and individual personalization. Today, with an ever-evolving suite of social & interactive technologies and a consumer base that is increasingly willing to share information, the depth of personalization that can be accomplished can begin to get a bit creepy.

    Personalization started out innocently enough. For decades, database marketers have gathered available socio-economic and demographic information to tighten and tailor their marketing messages to the greatest extent possible. The level of intimacy and personalization, however, was often handicapped by the lack of details regarding individual consumer’s tendencies, behaviors, and preferences. Over time, thanks to a more connected and seemingly transparent society, that drought of detailed consumer information has ended.

    Today,...

  • 1 comments 1,256 reads
    Posted on 2011-10-24

    As companies around the globe enter the brave new world of customer experience management, they are introduced to a dizzying array of new concepts including the term ‘touchpoint’. While there is no shortage to the number of definitions for this term, the practical matter is that the devil’s in the details.

    A touchpoint is commonly defined as any instance where a customer interacts with a brand, product, or service. Using this broad definition, the ecosystem of potential touchpoints that comprises the customer experience can be enormous. For most customer experience programs, it’s common for an audit of customer experience touchpoints to reveal 500 – 1,000 or more touchpoints.

    Cataloging the entire portfolio of touchpoints in an organization can be a daunting endeavor. This challenge can become even greater when companies don’t know what they are looking for or how broad to cast the net. For example, if you were to ask a dozen people to identify the touchpoints in...

  • 0 comments 1,679 reads
    Posted on 2009-07-10

    On June 6, 2009, Sprint proudly launched their latest flagship product the Palm Pre. While numerous reports have lauded the success of the launch and the phone itself, a more important storyline is the strides that Sprint has made in their overall customer experience. Sprint's customer experience problems have been well documented. Their ability to effectively address those problems may be the one thing that will make or break the company. Although Sprint's recent performance with the Palm Pre had its pro's and con's, Sprint appears to have done this one right.

    Sprint obviously has a lot riding on the Palm Pre. Over the past few years, Sprint's customer satisfaction woes have been well documented and new CEO Dan Hesse has made it clear that improving customer satisfaction is priority number one. While Sprint has been making strides on fixing their problems, no one seemed to notice. Sprint needed to grab the stage - even if for just a short period - to demonstrate...

  • 0 comments 3,629 reads
    Posted on 2009-02-03

    Most businesses understand the tremendous value associated with highly loyal customers. That is why businesses of every size and shape have implemented loyalty programs to keep their best customers coming back again and again. Unfortunately, this traditional loyalty model has grown tired and provides little differentiation in the market today. As a result, it’s time to rethink customer loyalty.

    The Loyalty Flood

    Unfortunately for many businesses, any advantage that was originally gained through loyal programs has quickly eroded. While airline, hotel, and car rental agencies were the pioneers of mainstream loyalty programs, other businesses were quick to jump on the loyalty program bandwagon. The result is a business environment where every restaurant, gas station and pet store has some form of loyalty card or program.

    As a result, having a loyalty program is no longer a competitive differentiator. It has become a mainstay of a business environment where...

  • 0 comments 6,533 reads
    Posted on 2009-01-30

    Attempting to measure the customer experience with a single metric such as customer satisfaction or customer advocacy is overly simplistic and risky. Instead, companies should dig deeper and establish a portfolio of measures that can determine how each touch point contributes to the overall experience.

    The Total Customer Experience is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

    The customer experience is a complex process that can consist of multiple touch points; a process that can be broad, long-running, span multiple channels, and can be influenced by any combination of internal and external factors. Effectively measuring the total customer experience requires a more acute understanding of its individual parts.

    The customer experience process does not begin and end at a store, sales representatives, web site or call center. It extends from the moment the customer becomes aware of your company and is comprised of multiple independent interactions, transactions...

  • 1 comments 4,698 reads
    Posted on 2008-12-16

    A critical - and yet often overlooked - component of customer relationship management (CRM) is the cultivation of existing customers. We’ve seen it all too often; companies spend nearly all of their time and scarce resources trying to attract new customers - while existing customers are largely ignored. This practice can be costly in terms of lower profitability and higher customer turnover rates. Companies seeking to improve their CRM practices should look no further than cultivating existing customer relationships.

    The Importance of Cultivation

    All too often, businesses large and small become focused on one simple thing: attracting new customers. While this is an important dynamic for real business growth, it can become toxic if it is overemphasized and becomes the ONLY focal point for the business.

    Customer acquisition is often the most costly and least profitable component of the overall customer experience. Companies throw promotions, price...

  • 0 comments 1,740 reads
    Posted on 2008-11-17

    A business tale of what it takes to turn around troubled projects.

    The year is 2005 and times are good. The business environment is vibrant and the economy is strong. Large businesses are committing large amounts of capital and resources to implement new strategies, establish new capabilities, and open new markets. It was no different at PintCo, where Jack works as a Director of Customer Relationship Management.

    Jack walked into work on Monday morning like any other. He dropped his briefcase in his office, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed down the hall to meet with his boss, Brandon, about one of the company’s troubled projects. Although Jack had substantial experience, he had only recently joined PintCo after being hired away from a chief competitor. He was still learning about some of the nuances of his current employer.

    After the typical morning banter, Brandon and Jack got to the topic at hand. “Jack, I’ll get straight to the point. I need to you...

  • 0 comments 3,439 reads
    Posted on 2008-11-04

    Companies seeking to become more customer-centric should define the customer experience as a formal end-to-end process in their organization.

    Business leaders that subscribe to the process-centric approach to business improvement understand the importance of having well-defined end-to-end processes. Typical end-to-end processes that are well-defined and optimized in businesses today include:

    • Plan to Profits (Budgeting & Finance)
    • Order to Cash (Operations/Order Fulfillment)
    • Procure to Pay (Procurement)
    • Recruit to Retain (Human Resources)
    • Idea to Market (New Product Innovation)
    • Forecast to Delivery (Manufacturing & Distribution)
    • Market to Sale (Sales & Marketing)

    For those organizations that have formally adopted a process-centric approach to business, the process is often formally defined, measured, monitored, and continually optimized. This level of discipline is critical to...

  • 0 comments 1,872 reads
    Posted on 2008-10-31

    Inside Jobs: Scary Political SeasonInside Jobs: Scary Political Season

    Find more Inside Jobs at The Clear Brick blog.

  • 1 comments 3,132 reads
    Posted on 2008-10-31

    When projects need a strong dose of strategy & direction, leaning solely on requirements just won’t cut it anymore.

    If you’ve been a part of any business project during your professional career, you’ve seen the basic formula before: Project teams analyze the current state, identify requirements, and then implement a solution that best meets the requirements. Once the solution is implemented, management turns its attention elsewhere – never to think about that specific area of the business again. This ‘check the box’ thinking can be risky business in an environment where new competitive threats can appear anywhere and anytime.

    In today’s fast-paced business environment, businesses need a performance framework that can grow over time, be benchmarked against the competition, and stretch the imagination of employees and stakeholders. Although requirements development will always be a mainstay for any project management discipline, the incorporation of capabilities and...