Since the 1970s, the authors have conducted six customer satisfaction surveys patterned after a baseline survey by the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs. Their latest survey found that: •The explosion of online social networking and other communication tools has raised the stakes in the area of customer satisfaction. •The intensity of negative reactions seems to be increasing. •In addressing complaints, companies are failing in their efforts to create one-stop services with technology and people dedicated to resolving customer problems. So, what can companies do to improve the level of customer satisfaction? The authors identify five areas of focus. 1. Encourage unhappy customers to complain, but be prepared to resolve the complaints. Today'unhappy customers expect businesses to handle customer service flawlessly (even if it is outsourced to a third party). 2. Understand what results your investments in customer service will produce. Since the 1970s, companies have invested billions of dollars in upgraded corporate complaint-handling practices. Only 20% of recent complainants were "completely satisfied"with the results of their complaint (compared to 23% in 1976). 3. Recognize that technology has limits -and that some customers want to interact directly with a person. Only 6% of today's complainants consider the Internet their primary channel for complaining. The authors say that online communication channels might be utilized more effectively to steer customers to live complaint handlers rather than pursuing totally automated solutions. 4. Be aware that customers may be even more influenced by positive online word of mouth than by negative word of mouth. By a margin of 46% to 19%, prospective buyers cited positive posts more often than negative comments as being most influential on their future purchases.

Historically, product design has most often been considered a process for creating functional differentiation through added features, superior performance, and so forth. However, with the advent of more design-oriented companies, such as Apple, Dyson, and others, design is increasingly being seen as an important strategic tool in creating preference and deeper emotional value for the consumer. In this research, we show how different design elements may be used strategically to create two very different outcome chains from a consumer's perspective. This work shows that certain design elements are more likely to create functional product differentiation and transactional consumer outcomes, while other design strategies tap a more emotional form of value creation. As we show, an emotional focus in value creation is more likely to create desired and powerful outcomes such as loyalty, joy of use, and even passion. Given current business trends towards relationship-based customer management, this emphasis on emotional value creation through product design is particularly relevant. In order to make these ideas actionable, we offer specific product design strategies that managers can use to enhance the transactional and relational value of their customer relationships.

Too often, promising strategic plans never come to fruition. A common cause of such failures is a breakdown in implementation--the internal processes and events needed to bring a strategy to life. Results from a large-scale research project, surveying 500 middle managers in five large firms in different industries, led to a framework for strategy implementation. The framework analyzes the pitfalls and requisite managerial responses in four chronological stages of implementation: Pre-Implementation, Organizing the Implementation Effort, Managing the Implementation Process, and Maximizing Cross-functional Performance. Managerial levers for coping with the requirements of these different phases include goal-setting and modifications of structure, leadership, communications, and incentive systems. A thread that runs through the entire sequence is the need not to overlook middle managers when the focus is on customers, competitors, and senior management decision making.