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Posts from ‘October, 2014’

Market Research: Start with the Basics

– By Carter McNamara It is extremely difficult to develop and provide a high-quality product or service without conducting at least some basic market research. Some people have a strong aversion to the word “research” because they believe that the word implies a highly sophisticated set of techniques that only highly trained people can use. […]

Customers or Competence?

– By Paul Sloane It’s a question that goes to the heart of your strategy. Should you base your new product or service development on your technical expertise, the things that your business is good at, or on the needs of your customers, even if those needs are in areas where you have little or […]

Get your R’s in Gear to Improve your Customer Service

– By Gerry Brown Today’s customers are impatient, fickle and increasingly vocal about being forgotten in long phone queues, let down by poor web sites and misunderstood by disinterested or powerless customer service agents. And there’s nothing like a powerful personal experience to remind us just what good customer service entails – and just how […]

Case Study: The Power of Listening

Bonmarché, one of the UK’s largest womenswear value retailers, catering for women over 50, won the IPO of the Year Award at the 2014 Annual Small Cap Awards after is floatation on AIM in November 2013, having raised some £40m. What makes this so remarkable is that less than two years previously, the Wakefield-based company […]

Remember, the customer is always right . . .