Stories by Brad Howarth

Janine Allis never set out to become one of the most recognised faces in Australian business. It was more just a matter of necessity.

When seen on a map, Anthony Dunsford’s responsibilities appear as a few hundred hectares of open space. But in 2017, that open space attracted over 40 million visits.

It’s not hard to find social media influencers to talk about holidays, restaurants and televisions. But what about a gel designed to alleviate vaginal dryness?

With so many organisations now focused on improving the experience they provide to customers, it’s not surprising to see multiple methods have emerged for measuring the quality of that experience.

While many contact centres encourage agents to resolve calls quickly, that’s not really appropriate when your service exists in part to prevent people taking their own lives.

CX professionals may not like to admit it, but one of the benefits of a low customer satisfaction score is plenty of room for improvement and potential easy wins. But what do you do if your customer satisfaction is already high?

​Much has been written about consumers’ desires for better experiences from the brands they interact with. But what do you do when being a product company is hardwired into your corporate DNA?

​For many Australian organisations, 22 February marks the day when they lose much of their ability to hide shortcomings in how they safeguard the personal data of clients and employees.

​With the dominance of digital in today’s marketing conversations, it is easy to forget that for many mid-tier Australian organisations, their digital journey is still in its infancy. But if you can take advantage of two decades of learning to achieve spectacular results, it’s not always a bad thing.

When Norman Peledeau first began developing text analytics software 20 years ago, he could barely get a meeting with potential commercial clients. Now he finds himself at the helm of a company developing one of the essential tools of the social media age.

For Shelley McDowell, director of customer experience at CBRE, some days the customer is the building owner or landlord. On others it is the building’s tenant organisation. Then there are the people who actually work in buildings.

Data sharing is becoming increasingly common as organisations strive to better know their audiences.

3D printing has delivered the capability to create solid objects from thin air, but it still requires significant input on behalf of the designer to create an original design.

Cotton On might be a well-known brand in Australia, but that is not the case in each of the seven regions where it sells online. So when it comes to reaching new customers in markets such as the United States, the company has turned to affiliate marketing specialist, Rakuten, to reach its desired audience.

There is well-worn Venn diagram that describes three overlapping circles of ‘good’, ‘fast’ and ‘cheap’. The central point is usually labelled ‘impossible’. But that hasn’t stopped many brands trying to claim at least two of those attributes, if not occasionally all three – and failing badly.