As new and emerging channels compete with traditional channels in today’s marketplace, channel incentives will be one of the most important tools that companies can use to direct the efforts of their various sales channels and to ensure that product gets into the hands of end-users. But channel, or dealer incentive programs differ from other types of incentive programs in one important respect: The participants are not employed by your company. Read more.

You May Think You Provide Superior Customer Service…

A recent Bain & Company survey of 362 companies found 80 percent believed they deliver a superior customer experience. They would be shocked to learn that customers rated only eight percent of companies as truly delivering a superior experience.

In an issue of Harvard Management Update, three Bain & Company executives, James Allen, Frederick F. Reichheld and Barney Hamilton, share insight on what the elite eight percent are doing correctly.  They write that these customer-centric companies take a “distinctively broad view of the customer experience.” They don’t, like most companies, automatically turn to product or service design to improve customer satisfaction. Instead they: 1) “design the right offers and experiences for the right customers; 2) deliver these propositions by focusing the entire company on them, with an emphasis on cross-functional collaboration; and 3) develop their capabilities to please customers again and again.”  The writers conclude that companies that succeed in the customer service arena are those that are continually led and informed by their customers’ voices.