Posts Tagged ‘forrester research’

17 August 2010

The 30,000 Foot View: How KLM stays “in-touch” with customers

by Jennifer Adams

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All posts by Jennifer Adams

I have always loved flying. Now, I don’t mean just the hurtling through space in a comfortable cabin with movies, wine and dinner at my discretion. I mean everything about it—from the preflight wandering of airport bookstores and people-watching—to the in-flight blissfully out-of-time, disconnected from the world, “me time” with no chiming BlackBerry or demanding email—to my ultimate safe arrival somewhere across the globe that always has me marveling things like: “Seven hours ago I was in London, now I am in New York—that is crazy!”

I have always loved flying. Now, I don’t mean just the hurtling through space in a comfortable cabin with movies, wine and dinner at my discretion. I mean everything about it—from the preflight wandering of airport bookstores and people-watching—to the in-flight blissfully out-of-time, disconnected from the world, “me time” with no chiming BlackBerry or demanding email—to my ultimate safe arrival somewhere across the globe that always has me marveling things like: “Seven hours ago I was in London, now I am in New York—that is crazy!”

How crazy that transportation across space and time is—from a sheer logistics standpoint—I never really thought about it until I began, three years ago, to manage for KLM its In touch Community of Elite flyers from the Netherlands, U.K., Germany, Norway and Sweden. Before then, I never spent much time considering how much thought goes into getting 300+ people to their destinations, on time, in comfort, fed and entertained, without incident. … But now, I arrive at the airport and ask myself, as KLM asks its members every day in the In touch Community: What does efficient boarding mean? What is important in an airport lounge? How is the food? … the seat comfort? … the entertainment? What would make me more loyal to this airline? And how would I bring innovation to the industry? Now, as I board my flight, sip my wine, eat my meal or simply watch the wheels alight on the ground of Schiphol, I can’t help but notice the details.

Charles Hageman, Research Analyst for KLM and the driving force behind the In touch Community, never forgets the details, as he meticulously ensures that Elite flyers’ answers to all those questions get funneled throughout the KLM organization, to over 200 different people across functions and roles. His next magic trick? Opening the community up to the larger Air France-KLM organization, and expanding community membership into France, Spain and Italy. I, for one, cannot wait for even more reasons to interact in the In touch …with Air France and KLM Community with fellow travelers and help guide the innovation of an industry and brand that has transported me—on time and in style—across the world.

Charles recently sat down with Tamara Barber at Forrester Research to discuss the origins and impact of the In touch Community. You can read that case study here and also watch a video below of Charles talking about the community:

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20 July 2010

Reflections on Shopper Insights

by Bill Alberti and Julie Wittes Schlack

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From: Bill Alberti
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 1:59 PM
To: Julie Wittes Schlack
Subject: Reflections on Shopper Insights…

Whadidja think?

From: Bill Alberti
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 1:59 PM
To: Julie Wittes Schlack
Subject: Reflections on Shopper Insights…

Whadidja think?

From: Julie Wittes Schlack
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 2:02 PM
To: Bill Alberti
Subject: RE: Reflections on Shopper Insights…

Well, my conscious and rational mind says that the Shopper Insights conference was all about dichotomies – conscious vs. unconscious, planned vs. unplanned, habit vs. change, what people think vs. what they feel, etc.  But since according to one speaker, 84 percent of what I do is unconscious, what the hell do I know?

From: Bill Alberti
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 3:42 PM
To: Julie Wittes Schlack
Subject: RE: Reflections on Shopper Insights…

What YOU know is just point … what you know, how you act, how you feel … My big takeaway was about treating shoppers as unique from one another and getting intimate with them. From understanding how their brains work, to exploring the richness of the emotional territory of their lives, you quickly realize that data alone just doesn’t cut it anymore. You need to get intimate with customers to earn permission into their lives to see their experiences from their points of view.

From: Julie Wittes Schlack
To: Bill Alberti
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 4:01 PM
Subject: RE: Reflections on Shopper Insights…

Amen, brother! Understandably, a lot of shopper insights work focuses on measurement, because this is one domain in which measurement is not only strategically important, but relatively easy. So there’s reams of data on what SKUs are moving and how quickly, length of time in aisle, where shoppers eyes are roaming – on WHAT people are doing … but not on WHY they’re doing it. The neuroscience work aims to get at the latter in an objective way, and it is fascinating and powerful research.

But what struck me as I listened to several presentations is that while a variety of sensory cues may inform the unconscious and stimulate the desire to touch or acquire, ultimately the act of purchasing is a pretty conscious, intellectually mediated act. That’s why shopping is one behavioral domain where self-reporting and reflection – affording people the time in space in which to wonder aloud, “Hmm … why DID I not only have the impulse, but follow through on it?” – is really important. Reflection is a powerful insight-generation tool.

And so is Dan Arielly. My other big take-away, in fact, was a deeper appreciation for just how daunting, even paralyzing, choice can be. I’m heading out for vacation in an hour, but as I weigh the question of beach vs. pond vs. hammock next week, I’ll reflect a little more on that… :)

From: Bill Alberti
To: Julie Wittes Schlack
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 4:44 PM
Subject: RE: Reflections on Shopper Insights…

And that’s why I asked … always very insightful to hear your perspective.

Enjoy your vacation. When making your decision, you may want to throw in the “decoy” option of beach minus a beach blanket. The asymmetrical dominance might make the decision for beach (my preference) unconsciously easier ;)  See you next week.

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2 November 2009

Why Being a Market Leader is Both Scary and Fun

by Debi Kleiman

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All posts by Debi Kleiman

Wowza, last week was a big week here at Communispace on the awards and recognition front – specifically, Forrester Research published a report naming Communispace a leader in the market research online community space. The report* ranks Communispace tops on all three major dimensions.

Then to top it off, Communispace, together with our wonderful clients, won an unprecedented two Forrester Groundswell Awards – you can read the full nomination stories on our website. Phew, that’s a lot of Forrester Research accolades in one week. And we couldn’t feel more proud, grateful, excited and yes, maybe even a little nervous.

Wowza, last week was a big week here at Communispace on the awards and recognition front – specifically, Forrester Research published a report naming Communispace a leader in the market research online community space. The report* ranks Communispace tops on all three major dimensions.

Then to top it off, Communispace, together with our wonderful clients, won an unprecedented two Forrester Groundswell Awards – you can read the full nomination stories on our website. Phew, that’s a lot of Forrester Research accolades in one week. And we couldn’t feel more proud, grateful, excited and yes, maybe even a little nervous.

Yes, nervous. When you are the market leader, you have competitors who want to knock you down, so you can’t rest on your laurels.  And you also have clients (or customers, or partners) who want to know what’s next and how you are going to be even better than before. And let’s face it, we’re a pretty driven and curious group here at Communispace too, so we’re putting pressure on ourselves and each other to “take it up a notch”. Definitely fun, especially given our love for pushing into new frontiers, but we could also find out some new stuff that maybe doesn’t jive with what we know today.  We’ll have to take a hard look at our resources, people, and capabilities to see what’s going to propel us forward and what’s dragging us down.

We’ve reached an exciting point in our company’s growth, it’s great to see all that we’ve accomplished in this young market space.  And the experience of getting here provides the fuel to turbo charge what’s next – but now we’ve got to crank it up even more than before. How do you keep the innovation fires burning in your organization? I’d love to hear your ideas.

* The Forrester WaveTM: Full-Service Market Research Online Community (MROC) Vendors, Q4 2009.

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