A continuation of our post from last week, as a result of some recently published work on Top Trends Impacting Business (both large and small) In 2013,  I wanted to share with you several of my views on top trends over the coming days.

Enjoy!

1.    Sequential segmentation.

Understanding customer behavior has long been the foundation of marketing and sales, but segmentation has typically fallen by the way side as something only completed when a new market is entered. The problem however is that customer behaviors today are changing rapidly, and not understanding these behaviors can lead to diminishing sales. Who is buying? What are they buying? How frequently are they buying it? Segmenting and understanding customer buying behaviors is something that should be done quarterly if you are to invest wisely in a marketing campaign. If you haven’t reviewed customer spend data in a while, now would be the time.

2.    Eleven times lost.

The number of times the average person changes jobs during their career has been estimated at 11 by the U.S. labor statistics bureau. A number that is trending upwards. Finding a method to retain expertise within an business is critical to ensuring investment in training and education of staff is not lost. Solutions vary from the simple, such as written documentation; to the more complex and costly solutions such as knowledge management software. Either way capturing staff knowledge is key to ensuring the revolving staff door does not impact the level and quality of customer service.

© Shawn Casemore 2012. All rights reserved.