Managing the experience of your customers

2 April 2013 - 12:04pm | by B2b International

 

Managing the experience of your customers

Putting the customer at the heart of the business is the central tenet of marketing. In order to do this, a company must ensure that the voice of the customer is integral to the company strategy, and that the customer is considered, not just by customer-facing staff and departments, but at boardroom level. The evidence for this is strong:
• Two-thirds of customers say a positive customer experience caused them to spend more;
• Eight out of ten customers would pay up to 25% more for a superior customer service;
• Three-quarters of those who switch suppliers/brands relate this to a poor customer experience/service;
• More than half of those who recommend a company make this based on the customer experience rather than factors such as price or product;
• Almost all of those who have had a bad customer experience tell others about it.
Differentiation has long been felt to be the key to growth but as products and positions have become more commoditised, companies have struggled to find their point of difference. Now, companies increasingly recognise that Customer Experience Management can help them to achieve differentiation.

What Is Customer Experience Management?
Bernd Schmitt, renowned marketing thinker, defined Customer Experience Management as:
“the process of strategically managing a customer’s entire experience with a product or company.”
He essentially advocates a shift from the traditional marketing concept towards an approach which takes account of the ‘experience’ of being a customer, from cradle to grave.
A typical approach for a Customer Experience Strategy, one which is suitable for B2B customers whose journey – with repeat scheduled purchases, contracts, mutual dependence and complex relationships – is generally less straightforward than that of B2C customers, involves the following stages, starting with the assessment and segmentation of needs:

1: Needs Assessment and Segmentation
The starting point is to understand customer needs, and what drives and challenges them. Coupled with this is the segmentation of customers into groupings, enabling us to serve the customer more specifically. This can be based on ‘firmographics’ (i.e. geography, company size), behaviours (i.e. what or when they buy) or on needs (i.e. what they want, what their drivers are). The latter is the most discriminating and requires a deeper understanding of customers to achieve.

2: Customer Journey Mapping
This involves the construction of a detailed map of the customer journey for each of the individual customer segments. The journey details the customer touchpoints with the supplier from the first awareness through to usage and, if appropriate, termination of usage.

3: Identify the Desired Experience
The journey map is then used to design the ideal customer experience; comparing the actual experience with the internally-perceived experience. It enables the organisation to review its processes and streamline these to make the experience more effective, efficient and enjoyable; one which customers will want to repeat and tell others about.

4: Design the Brand Experience
This stage addresses the feelings we want to evoke in customers in their experiences with the brand. To design the brand experience, it is important to have a clear vision of the brand identity and values. These are often translated into ‘promises’ which will underpin what the customer can expect from the relationship with the brand and are usually generated around positive emotions which draw the customer into a closer relationship with the brand. This stage also looks at the people who deliver the experience, their attitudes, and how much they reflect what the brand represents when working with customers.

5: Structure the Touchpoints
Here the various touchpoints are structured to ensure the processes are in place to deliver the experience for the customer – one which generates the desired emotions associated with the brand to deliver longer-term loyalty. This stage is often quite process driven, looking at ownership across the business for the various touchpoints, and ensuring that the experience is seamless.

6: Measure and Develop
There are several approaches to measuring the customer experience, not least the measurement of the ROI in financial terms. Common customer survey measures utilised are:
• The periodic customer satisfaction survey – the ‘deep dive’ considered overview
• The event-based satisfaction survey – centred around a specific interaction, delivered very shortly after the interaction
• The tracking survey – a regular, random survey of customers, tracking perceptions and performance on key measures

This data is used both strategically and operationally to make improvements.
Customer Experience Management raises the profile of the customer in the long-term security of the business, recognising customers as an asset and thus worthy of boardroom consideration. The approach incorporates and brings together customer research in the form of needs assessment, customer segmentation, customer journey mapping, brand identity and perceptions, and satisfaction and loyalty measurements.


Carol-Ann Morgan
Director
B2B International
 

Being creative

Dear blog readers,

I want to declare that I am practicing creativity since young (age 8). I started with drawing cartoons portraits.  Later on I found that I like to do paper cutting (age 11). I combine my two interest into one. I tried to replicate the pictures on the newspaper cutting. After finish, I kept one of my piece inside a round tin.

Round tin

  

This is because I believed that the spirit is alive from picture I drawn. However, after sometime I grown older and then my asset was forget from my mind. But, I would like to share with everyone how, when and where does our creativity comes alive. 

Thank you.

How Do You Know When a Stock is a Good Buy?

http://winninginvestor.quickanddirtytips.com/The-Top-5-Chart.aspx

How Do You Know When a Stock is a Good Buy?

Episode 9: March 30, 2011

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by Andrew Horowitz

Last time, we talked about the basics of reading a stock chart from any popular stock chart website. This article, we'll discuss five specific things to look at on a stock chart that might indicate a stock is rising and is therefore a good buy. I’ll tell you what to look for to put the odds in your favor!

How to Know if a Stock is a Good Buy

Let me first say that there are no guarantees. By looking at a chart, we're looking at odds and probabilities instead of certainties. But there are historical patterns that have led to explosive growth in stocks. Before you decide to buy a stock, you’ll want to learn the top 5 things to look for in a rising stock based on its chart.

Tip #1: See if the Stock is in an Uptrend

First, look to see that the stock is in an uptrend. There's nothing better than price to look at the price! In other words, the stock price is telling you something. Make sure that as you look from left to right on the chart, the price is steadily rising-- though not exploding-- higher. Try to find about a 30 degree to 45 degree angle at the most that you can trace over the price of the stock. That is based on a trend analysis. In other words, look for this to be moving up nice and slowly and gently. You probably don't want to buy a stock that is flat or going down, and you also don't want to buy a stock that is exploding higher at a 60 or 70 degree angle or higher: I mean, how much further can it go when it's skyrocketing? Many times a price crash will follow a stratospheric or, as chartists say, a parabolic rise. So, the #1 thing you look for is a comfortable, calm, rising uptrend in price.

Tip #2: Look at Moving Averages

Second, confirm price is in a trend by looking at certain moving averages. A moving average plots the average price of a stock over time. The moving average line is connected and plotted over the price. When looking at a stock chart, we want to see a rising moving average line AND we want to see price above this moving average. Many people like to use the 200 day moving average, or the 50 day moving average. Some investors like to go back further and look at the 50 week moving average on the weekly chart (that plots about a year's worth of prices). Some like to look at the 20 week moving average on a weekly chart (that plots about 4 months worth of data). The quick and dirty tip is that—no matter which timeframe you’re looking at-- you want the moving average to be rising, and the price remaining above this average.

Tip #3: Compare Moving Averages

Third, you can look at how moving averages themselves relate to each other. Remember, that idea we talked about that you want price to be above the moving averages, but you can also look at how moving averages relate to each other: just plot two or three moving averages from different timeframes on the same chart. Let's say we're looking at a daily chart of Google (GOOG). Now, let's select a short term, intermediate term, and long term simple moving average. Let's look at the 20-day for the short term, 50-day for the intermediate term, and 200-day for the long term. That equates to price changes for about one month, two and a half months, and about 10 months (just under a year since there are around 250 trading days in a year). The “picture of price strength” would be that the 20-day moving average is higher (or above) the 50-day moving average, and that the 50-day moving average is higher than (or above) the 200-day moving average. That is exactly what you want to see and what we call the "most bullish orientation possible."

Tip #4: Look at Volume

Fourth, you can look to make sure volume is confirming the uptrend. People who look at charts like to view volume, or how many shares are trading, alongside price movements. Volume reflects the participation or trading/investing activity inside of a certain stock. The ideal picture would be a steadily rising trend to volume as well as a continually rising price. We want to see an increase in volume or trading activity as a stock is rising comfortably and steadily. That reflects the picture of strength, because it shows that more people are getting interested in owning the stock as it increases in value. What we would NOT want to see would be a stock price rising but the trend of volume bars decreasing. That would be a warning sign that maybe we would see a reversal down in price because people are becoming less interested in owning it.

Tip #5: Make Sure there is Stability in Price

Fifth, we want to make sure there is stability in price instead of lots of gaps or spikes. A gap is where price closes at a certain price and then opens up the next morning at a much different price. Sometimes an unexpected earnings announcement can cause a stock to jump much higher or much lower overnight (click here for my episode on which economic announcements affect the amrket). A small, reasonable gap is acceptable, but we'd prefer to buy a stock that doesn't jump all over the place if we can. Also, we want to avoid a stock that is too jumpy-- or a better word would be volatile. Look also at volume to see that there aren't frequent spikes in the volume bars. Volume spikes can be warnings--and though they happen from time to time-- it's best to look at the chart historyof the stock you're thinking of buying to make sure there aren't too many of these spikes. In other words, we want to see stability, not wild volatility.

The Ideal Picture on a Stock Chart

So what would be the ideal picture of a stock we would want to buy based on the chart?

We want to see a stock that has been rising steadily-- though not too quickly-- where the price is above the 50 week moving average; and if we look at the daily chart, we want to see price above the 20-, 50-, and 200-day moving averages. 

We also want to see that the 20-day average is above the 50-dayaverage which is itself above the 200-day moving average. 

The best time to buy the stock would be when price pulls back or retraces to the 20-or 50-day moving average. Following that guideline is a low-risk buy point. Look back at how many times price has pulled back and bounced off one of these averages. Finally, we also would want to see a steady rise in both price and volume, which reflects active attention and participation in a stock. We don't want to see lots of random gaps or price or volume spikes all over the chart: we would prefer as much stability as possible when selecting a stock to buy.

Of course as we’ve always mentioned, these tips won't guarantee success; but they will help give you a sense of which stocks you shouldn’t buy (in most instances don't buy stocks in a downtrend, beneath the 200 day moving average). So we’re going to talk more about these things in fundamental analysis as we stay tuned and discuss more ways to help you become a winning investor!

This is Andrew Horowitz with The Winning Investor’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Beating the Market. Talk to you soon.

What's a P/E Ratio and Why is it So Special?

 http://winninginvestor.quickanddirtytips.com/p-e-ratio.aspx

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I'm here to finally tell what in the world a P/E Ratio is and why it matters to you. No, a P/E ratio has nothing to do with high school physical education or how many pull-ups you can do but it can help tell you when you might be overpaying for a stock.

What Is a P/E Ratio?

Last time, we talked about ratios and how they can help you compare companies and select the best stock out of a bunch.  The P/E Ratio is just one of the more important ratios that can tell you a lot about a company's earnings and value. The "P" in the P/E stands for "Price" and the "E" stands for Earnings. The "P" is the easiest to find - pull up a quote from any vendor and you'll know exactly what the price of the company's stock is trading at right now.

You'll often hear the term "P/E Ratio" thrown about on TV when different talking heads are chatting about their favorite stocks. In fact, it can be an clever insult to tell an analyst that you think his favorite stock's P/E Ratio is too high! You may also hear it by its other name "Price Multiple" or even "Earnings Multiple." Any of those names fit, but they all mean the same thing.

Calculating P/E Ratios

So how do you get this all-important number? The P/E Ratio often listed right on the main page of any stock you pull-up from your favorite stock website like Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, or MSN Money. You can find it where it says "P forward slash E" and it's usually a relatively low number. For example, right now, Microsoft (MSFT) has a P/E Ratio of 12.30, with it's stock trading right now at $21.50 per share and an Earnings per Share value of $1.75. In comparison, Apple (AAPL) has a current P/E ratio of 25.0, as its stock is trading right now just above $140 with Earnings Per Share at $5.568. It's not enough to look at the current price of a stock and determine how expensive it really is.

To calculate P/E yourself, just take the current stock price and divide that by the earnings per share, or value after "EPS." Sometimes you'll see "F P/E" which stands for Forward Price to Earnings Ratio, which is just a best-guess of what the company's earnings per share will be into the future. To calculate P/E yourself, just take the current stock price and divide that by the earnings per share, or value after "EPS."

Why Should You Care About the P/E Ratio?

Why should you care about how high or low a company's P/E Ratio is? You can use the P/E Ratio to judge whether a stock might be cheap or expensive. But be careful - a low P/E does not necessarily mean a stock is cheap just like a high P/E doesn't mean a stock is expensive! Don't fall into this trap! You have to compare apples to apples! You have to put a stock's P/E ratio into the proper context. For example, many 'high-flying' technology stocks such as Google (GOOG) - which has a current P/E Ratio of 31 - will almost always have higher P/E ratios than stocks in other industries, like the auto industry or or retail industry. At the same time Google's P/E Ratio is almost 30, Wal-mart (WMT)'s ratio is only 14.95 - almost 15. In comparison to Wal-Mart, Target stores (TGT) has a P/E Ratio of 14.83 - very close to Wal-Mart which is what we would expect.

Now you can start putting stocks into context and comparing them at a deeper level than just their price alone. Stay tuned for the next time we start explainingmore about PE Ratios and how you can scan to find and compare PE Ratios and so much faster!

This is Andrew Horowitz and thanks for joining me today. Remember, if you really want to make more money and stop from losing on bad bets, stick around as we discuss tips and tricks to help make you a winning investor.

What are Futures Contracts?

http://winninginvestor.quickanddirtytips.com/futures-contracts.aspx

http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/a/3/7/a37f6d460d97908d/twi_119.mp3?c_id=4329198&expiration=1350983581&hwt=2213688b4f30c4a644ceb351a7614937

Have you ever heard the business TV reporters say that "The futures are up this morning" and wondered what they meant?  I'll answer that soon and describe what the futures market is and how traders and even some investors use futures contracts.

Start hosting your own face-to-face online meetings today with GoToMeeting! My listeners can try it FREE for 30 Days! Visit GoToMeeting.com, click on the TRY IT FREE button and use the promo code “podcast".

You're aware of the Stock Market and the Bond Market, but did you also know there's a Futures Market too?  Or more precisely, there are futures contracts that trade for many different contracts, including stock market index futures, bond market futures, currency futures, and even individual stock futures!  If you're familiar with how options work, then it's easy to understand what futures contracts are and how traders use them.

Let's first go back in time to why the futures market was created.  Originally, futures contracts referred to positions taken to lock in prices for farmers and producers using mostly agricultural products.

Let's pretend we're a farmer and we grow corn for a living.  We have to buy corn seeds, plant them, grow them, eventually harvest them, and finally sell the ears of corn at the market.  As farmers, we naturally want to buy the corn seed as cheaply as possible and then sell the harvested corn at the highest price possible.

The problem is that every corn farmer wants to do the same thing at the same time, which means that all farmers bought their corn seeds at the same time and then they all tried to sell their harvested corn at market at the same time.

Therein lies a problem - according to supply and demand, the corn seed price would rise when all the farmers tried to buy it and then when all the farmers tried to sell the corn at the same time, the price would decline due to the high supply of corn.

What if there was a way to normalize corn prices and remove these seasonal tendencies?  That's where the futures market comes in.  Farmers and companies who buy corn can turn to the futures market either to lock-in a future buy order at a low current price, or else lock-in a future sell order at a current high price for their crop.

Originally, futures contracts were intended for producers and consumers of agricultural products, but over the years, the futures market has expanded to include both active intraday traders and even longer-term investors.

Also, futures contracts go well beyond agricultural products, and you can buy or sell futures contracts for gold, crude oil, natural gas, the US Dollar Index, the S&P 500, the Euro, and even cattle!

Today, if you want to trade a futures contract, it's done the same way you would buy or sell an options contract.  If you believe the price of the underlying - which is a term we use for the market such as corn, oil, or even the S&P 500 - will be higher in the future, then you would buy a futures contract.  If you believe let's say the S&P 500 will be lower in the future than it is right now, then you would sell a futures contract similarly to how you would sell an option or sell-short a stock.

In a way, buying a futures contract is like making a bet that the price will rise in the future, and if it does, then you'll make money.  Thus, selling a futures contract - like selling short a stock - is like making a bet that the price will decline in the future.  If so, you'll make money.  However, if you buy a futures contract and the underlying market declines in price, you'll lose money.  Futures contracts, like options, are derivatives of their underlying market, such as corn, wheat, gold, or silver.

Like options, futures contracts all have an expiration date so you'll need to know when a contract you trade will expire.  Like options, you can buy a short-term contract or a longer term contract.

In reality, a futures contract is an agreement to purchase or sell a certain amount of an underlying product at a certain date in the future.

The biggest fear that comes up when a new trader starts dabbling in the futures market is worrying that one day, hundreds of barrels of crude oil will magically appear at their front door!

The truth is that most traders never take possession because they don't hold a futures contract all the way to expiration.  Traders use them purely for price speculation for profit, usually trading based off technical analysis or very short-term fundamental analysis or even news-related events.

For most traders, futures contracts are a simple way to use leverage for pure speculation.  You can think of futures contracts today as you would an Exchange Traded Fund, or ETF.

Just as there are specific ETFs for all markets such as GLD for Gold, SLV for silver, UUP for the US Dollar Index, and SPY for the S&P 500, each market would have a corresponding futures contract.  For example, the symbol for gold futures is GC.  The symbol for silver is SI.

For all practical purposes, think of futures contracts as you would ETFs.  Futures are sort of like a combination between an ETF and an options contract.  While an ETF does not expire, both futures contracts and options do expire at a set date.

Stay tuned for our next episode were we dig a little deeper into how traders today use futures contracts, and what it means when you hear on TV that "the futures market is up today."

And of course consider picking up a copy of my latest book The Winning Investor's Guide to Making Money in Any Market is available at Amazon and other fine booksellers and in print and digital versions too!

Want to become a Winning Investor? Then be sure to get your copy today - The Winning Investor's Guide to Making Money in Any Market.

Why I must have CV?

this site tells you why you need a CV.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/creatingmaintaining-your-cv/26887

Milestones
	1987 First credit card company to be awarded the license to issue MasterCard brand credit cards by MasterCard International Inc. 1991 MBF Cards is the largest MasterCard issuer in Malaysia and South East Asia with a large merchant base. 1993 First in Asia to participate in the MasterCard International Incs. Maestro International Debit Card Program. 1994 Won the MasterCard Affinity/Co-branding Program in Asia Pacific. 1995 First card issuer to be awarded the ISO 9002 Certification in Malaysia. Awarded the MasterCard MasterMember Award. 1997 Winner of the Best CardMember Reward Programme in Asia Pacific. Certified by the Malaysia Book of Records as having the largest MasterCard CardMember base in Malaysia and cash savings card issuer in Malaysia, and the largest acquirer of MasterCard in Malaysia. 1998 Launched the first multi-party loyalty program - BonusLink - with three other industry market leaders namely Shell, Parkson & Maxis/Astro in Malaysia. 1999 Launched the most comprehensive bill payment convenience via CALL'n PAY™. Won three (one award for first place and two awards for second place) marketing  awards at  MasterCard International's South East Asia Convention, exactly one half of all awards won by Malaysian issuers. Launched the MBF Lady MasterCard card, the first credit card exclusively for ladies. 2001 Granted a direct license by Visa International Service Association to acquire and issue Visa brand credit cards. Recipient of the 1st Finalist Award in the Best eCommerce Initiative category in the MasterCard International 2001 Asia Pacific Awards. 2002 Successfully upgraded to ISO 9001:2000 version. 2004 Selected by Visa International to launch the world's first 'contactless' Visa Wave Card. 2005 Awarded 2 Gold Awards in the MasterCard Asia/Pacific Marketing Awards 2005 for Best Overall Marketing Programme and Best LadyCard Programme. 2006 Awarded a Bronze Award in the 2006 D'ucoty Awards for MBF MasterCard® 2006  FIFA World Cup T OneSmart T PayPass Card. Launched the MBF Cards Visa Platinum Credit Card. Commenced its own credit card lending after being granted approval by Bank Negara Malaysia to issue its own Line of Credit. 2007 MBF Cards signed an agreement with JCB International Co Ltd (JCB), one of the major payment brands and the largest card issuer and acquirer in Japan. This strategic relationship aims to increase card acceptance for both companies. Launched a first-of-its-kind CardMembership Programme ‘MBF XtremeDeals' that offers cool gadgets at  never-before-seen prices exclusively to its CardMembers. MBF Cards commenced e-Debit transaction via a business tie-up with Malaysian  Electronic Payment   System (MEPS). 2008 On 1st May 2008, MBF Cards' headquarters in Kuala Lumpur moved to its brand new home at Menara MBf (previously known as Menara SPK) along Jalan Sultan Ismail. Comprising 18 floors, Menara MBf houses the MBF Cards headquarters, main Card Center, as well as the offices of MBf Holdings Berhad which is the parent company. First in Malaysia to introduce the ‘CALL'n PAY™' credit card payment service which allows CardMembers to settle their MBF Cards credit card bills through their bank accounts via direct debit with just a phone call. Launched the MBF Cards Lady Platinum MasterCard, an exclusive card for the affluent female population in Malaysia. One of the first issuers of the new World MasterCard in Malaysia, a premium card for esteemed high net worth individuals. The MBF Cards World MasterCard offers an elite world of extraordinary privileges and benefits in shopping, travelling and other luxury indulgences to this group of high end CardMembers. This exclusive card is issued via invitation only. 2009 MBF Cards "Saturday Got 5 Fever Promotion” won in the “The Best Cardholder Promotion" category in the MasterCard Hall of Fame Award held on 1st December 2009 in Singapore. A total of 200 submissions were received from 15 countries throughout South Asia and South Asia, there were only 10 awards given out. 2010 MBF Cards Quality Management System was successfully upgraded to ISO 9001:2008 version. Commenced China Union Pay merchant signing and card acceptance.