Content about Customer experience

The torrent of customer feedback unleashed by e-commerce and social media is a good thing, as long as companies are able to mine the data to identify problems and improve operations.

To help retailers and consumer packaged goods companies address that challenge Empathica, a customer experience management solutions provider, and Semantria, a provider of multi-lingual text analytics, have joined forces to offer new natural language processing capabilities.

Fouth quarter same store sales fell by a jaw-dropping 31.7% at J.C. Penney, but CEO Ron Johnson insisted the company continues to make great strides with its one year old transformation strategy.

The company report an adjusted net loss for the quarter of $427 million, or $1.95 a share and a full year adjusted net loss of $766 million or $3.49 a share.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Lowe’s announced that Lara Lee will join the company as SVP customer experience design, effective Feb 25. Lee will report to Robert J. (Bob) Gfeller, customer experience design executive.

Lee will be responsible for translating business strategies into integrated, multi-channel experiences that deliver value to home improvement consumers. Named a “Master of Innovation” by BusinessWeek in 2006, Lee has driven customer-centric business transformation for more than 20 years.

ARMONK, N.Y. and AKRON — Signet Jewelers teamed up with IBM to give its national U.S. store chains, Kay Jewelers and Jared the Galleria of Jewelry, a digital makeover.

The digital marketing redesign has transformed the multichannel experience for Kay and Jared customers, according to Signet, and resulted in consistent sales growth, including a year-over-year increase of 49% in online sales, as reported in the company's recently announced holiday sales for fiscal 2013.

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. — As part of a larger initiative to upgrade the customer experience and localize offerings in its 640 stores nationwide. The Finish Line will roll out new Oracle Retail merchandising, planning, stores and CRM solutions. The athletic-goods retailer is leveraging Oracle’s cloud computing services in the process.

The Finish Line will use the integrated retail systems to tailor offerings to customer and regional preferences.  

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Staples plans to improve customer experience, accelerate growth and deliver value to shareholders through a new strategic plan. Under the plan, Staples will integrate its retail and online offering, increase investment in its online businesses, reorganize its operations, implement leadership changes, initiate a multi-year cost savings plan, and restructure its international operations.

Sam's Club was among the highest-rated companies for customer service, according to new research from the Temkin Group. Other retailers included Publix, Hy-Vee, H.E.B., ShopRite, Aldi, Giant Eagle and JCPenney.

Other companies earning top marks included Chick-fil-A, credit unions and Starbucks. Meanwhile, companies with the lowest ratings included Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Citibank, Qwest, Cigna, and Bank of America.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Lowe's continues to implement its customer-focused strategy with the creation of new executive roles. The company has created a customer experience division that will be led by Gregory Bridgeford, chief customer officer, who is responsible for creating customer experiences that will best serve customers and differentiate Lowe’s from its competitors.

Reporting to Bridgeford are:

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Lowe's rebranding efforts and focus on delivering a better customer experience seem to be paying off as the company ended the year with strong fourth-quarter sales and earnings.

The company reported net earnings of $322 million for the fourth quarter, a 13% increase over the same period a year ago. Diluted earnings per share increased 23.8% to 26 cents from 21 cents in the fourth quarter of 2010. 

WABAN, MASS. -- Research results released Tuesday by Temkin Group, which rates the customer experience of 206 large companies across 18 industries, showed that only eight companies deliver excellent customer experience: Sam's Club and Publix led the pack, followed by Starbucks, Subway, Chick-fil-A, Aldi, Winn-Dixie, H.E.B., and credit unions.

According to the 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings, in its second year, 76 companies (37% of the total) earned "poor" or "very poor" ratings.

CHICAGO — Galleria Retail Technology Solutions, a provider of retail and category optimization solutions, has announced that grocer A&P has chosen Galleria to help optimize its merchandising strategy and improve the customer experience within its more than 300 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic stores.

A&P will roll out several of Galleria’s solutions throughout its family of supermarkets.

Customer experience analytics firm ForeSee today released the results of their seventh annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index, and Target was ranked 29.