While U.S. exporters are finding rapidly-growing customer bases in developing economies, Tepper sees plenty of opportunity within those markets themselves.
Last week we talked about focusing on developing customer communities as a way to find relevance through your online strategy, including website and social media.
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Customer service is about developing products and marketing what customers want and need.
Answering these questions, and understanding how your customers experience your brand and interact with your company in the digital era, is certainly critical to developing an effective customer relationship strategy.
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The differences between a company like Amazon and a small specialty player illustrate the disparities between a market-share model, designed to serve as many products to as many people as possible, and a customer-focused approach aimed at developing deep loyalty from shoppers, according to Kahn.
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He has discovered the joys of developing a product by getting customer feedback on prototypes.
After developing a hypothesis on which customer segment a product is focused on, a team can use a technique like contextual design to look at behavior patterns and latent needs.
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These companies, and many like them, have made a habit (even a company policy) of making sure that every single customer receives outstanding service, and of developing lasting relationships at every turn.
As a member of MCX (Merchant Customer Exchange), Target is involved in developing better mobile payment solutions, which should help its mobile channel.
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Zagat.com and other companies flying under the radar are developing interfaces that look seamless to the customer but would actually act as clearinghouses for multiple reservations sites.
After developing an easy-to-use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) App that links to Google (GOOG) Mail, his Insightly is one of the most popular ones on the planet.
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Several retailers including Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy recently came together to form Merchant Customer Exchange, a company that is focused on developing a mobile commerce application which will help users pay for goods at the retailers with their smartphones.
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The vendor may also have people in different roles involved, each developing their own perspective and knowledge about the customer.
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During her time in marketing, she collaborated with IT departments in developing data-driven marketing strategies, and implementing sophisticated customer relationship marketing (CRM) and business intelligence systems.
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But what is the role for communications players in developing digital services to ride across that infrastructure and leverage their customer bases and brands?
Sony spent tens of millions developing digital gear only after Lucas made it clear he would be a customer.
So we started developing products a number of years ago that are much simpler for a customer to use, where if they have a complex analog problem they need solved, we can provide them the solution already pre-done for them.
California's XCOR Aerospace also is developing a reusable vehicle that will take a pilot and a front-seat customer to the edge of space -- for pleasure or to transport scientific payloads that would benefit from microgravity.
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As the sole customer for the two engines, the government must cover all the costs of designing a second engine, developing and testing it, equipping and manning a second production line, funding a second supplier network, and sustaining a parallel maintenance and support infrastructure across the lifetime of the program.
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