Troy Powell

Walker

Troy consults on solutions to derive insights from customer information that optimize business performance. He has primary responsibility for deploying advanced analytics and developing innovative solutions for understanding and driving customer behavior. Troy has fifteen years of research across multiple research disciplines for both academic and corporate organizations. Troy holds a Ph.D. from Duke University.

The right type of action is rare

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Posted on 2012-05-03

Let's see what I can do in 140 words!

You may have read one of these posts mentioning our Hierarchy of Engagement.

I like to think of each level of the pyramid as representing proportions of an employee base. At the lowest level are all...

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Product-focused or customer-centric

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Posted on 2012-04-22

This is a false dichotomy. My previous blogs on service-dominant logic tried to make this point in a broad, theoretical way. This post will try to give a concrete illustration of those arguments.

Let's consider two identical products created by two brand-new companies. One company launches the product with a technical sales staff and a prevasive marketing campaign highlighting the core features and functionality of the product.

The second company hires a sales staff focused on value-based selling and conducts a targeted marketing campaign focused on how the product meets the core needs of target customer.

Which company's product is more likely to have long-term success in the market? The second company.

Why? Because...

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There is such a thing as a bad question

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Posted on 2012-04-05

Another in my 140-word series.

As customer experience professionals, we often conduct customer surveys that primarily ask customers to provide answers from a defined set of response options. While I do believe we need to do more qualitative, ethnographic research, I want to take a different direction with this post.

Instead, my hypothesis is that our focus on closed-end survey questions leads us to ask "bad" questions outside of surveys. This hit me as I read this summary of...

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Soft skills and the service recovery paradox

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Posted on 2012-02-06

Entry # 2 in my macro-microblogging series.

The Service Recovery Paradox says an effective problem resolution can result in a stronger customer relationship than if the problem never happened. A strictly efficient, time-to-resolve mindset will result in few observable instance of this paradox. But combining timely and effective resolution with soft skills aimed at tapping into these 6 psychological phenomena that drive positive customer behavior will greatly increase the chances of experiencing it.

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