Last week, I traveled to Chicago for the Forrester Consumer Forum. While the content is always interesting and engaging, I felt like something was missing.

Then I realized what it was: metrics.

As a researcher, I thrive on numbers and metrics. Yes, it’s valuable for me to hear how Pizza Hut is evolving its brand, how Best Buy is better serving its customers, and how Hilton is providing a consistent experience across its brands. But it’s more valuable for me to know that through its OnQ project, Hilton was able to garner a 360 degree view of its customers, which in turn increased its cross-sell revenue 50% from 2006 to 2007.

I am not alone in my love of metrics. What marketers want now more than ever is proof that their invested dollars are achieving business goals. They need proof that social-networking efforts are not just creating thousands of fans on Facebook, but that these fans are actually advocating the brand or purchasing product.

Analytics are essential in the planning and development of all marketing initiatives, but marketers must think through how these metrics apply to the overarching business objectives. According to one Forrester analyst, companies too often measure the success of an initiative only within the platform selected for the initiative. For example, if the company runs a campaign driving people to become Facebook fans, success is measured by the number of fans instead of a positive lift in brand awareness or an increase in sales. Marketers continue to evaluate emerging media. They should always attempt to map these programs back to tangible and measureable business goals. The ultimate goal is a holistic metric that reflects the intricacies of today’s digital world.

How is your organization measuring the success of your marketing initiatives?

Although the Manhattan weather was grey and drizzly, bright discussion abounded late last month inside the Hyatt Grand Hotel, where I got the chance to attend the 2009 Forrester Customer Experience Forum.

I’ve whittled a week of great insights down to a few top takeaways about the state of customer experience today.

• The pendulum is swinging. The correlation between customer satisfaction and loyalty has always been high, but has increased in recent months. Studies show that consumers crave human connection now more than ever. Companies who treat their customers like just a number may not realize that it is reflected, somewhat ironically, in their numbers. Bruce Tempkin, Vice President at Forrester, shared this slide, which shows the jaw-dropping revenue potential that modest customer experience improvements could bring to a $10 billion company.*

• You do know who I am, right? Smart companies realize that consolidated customer interaction data across all touch-points (phone number, e-mail address, physical address) is necessary to provide convenience and personalization that tomorrow’s customers will expect.
• Heed the voice of the consumer. Companies who think they already know what their customers need are often sorely mistaken. And there is a growing variety of ways to uncover your customer’s unmet needs. Popular “listening posts” include call center data, sales reps, user surveys, usability tests, and error reports, but monitoring the social web introduces new listening opportunities. David Cush, CEO of Virgin America reported that customers who tweet from the air about bad experiences are often met at the gate by representatives empowered to resolve the situation. Follow @VirginAmerica to see Virgin’s Twitter account in action.
• Authenticity precedes love. Just like in the dating world, pretending to be who you think your prospect wants you to be is a big, fat turnoff. Only through identifying exactly who your organization actually is and being true to that identity can your company create authentic connections, which are rare and highly desired by the consumer.
• What’s rewarded is accomplished. Achieving a better customer experience requires a clear shared vision and accountability throughout the organization. Hiring mechanisms that help the company identify the most passionate, engaged employees is one part of achieving this. Setting project metrics and employee goals around customer experience are also great ways to cultivate internal ownership. T. Michael Roberts successfully lobbied to get new deliverables into required project documentation at JP Morgan so that the customer experience is better protected as new initiatives roll out. He also requires his employees to put in time monthly to listen to customer service calls. After all, he says, every service call reflects an unmet customer need.

A big thanks Forrester for an insightful week in NY.

See pictures from the event on Flickr.

*Prediction based on data from the North American Technographics® Customer Experience Online Survey conducted in Q4 2008.

Bad news generally trumps good news, right? Not so fast, says a recent Forrester Research report, “How customer experience drives word of mouth.”

According to the report, which surveyed 4,500 customers online across 12 industries, more people talk about good experiences than bad ones. Surprise, surprise.

Not so surprising: bad news is discussed more frequently than the good stuff.

The prevalence for good news isn’t across the board. In four of the 12 industries—credit card providers, health insurance plans, and TV and Internet service providers — bad news ruled. The most positive customers were from retail, banks and hotels.

Who’s talking? Gen Yers have the most good things to say — and the most bad — according to the report. Younger boomers are the least likely to say good things, while seniors aren’t likely to talk about bad experiences, except with regard to health plans.

So the good news is that people are talking about good news. The bad news is that people tell more people about bad experiences.

What’s it mean? To marketers, clear generational differences in the bent and frequency of messaging — who says what about what — should be top of mind moving forward.

If you’re in an industry that tends to generate passionate feedback from an age group that doesn’t mind spreading that news — let’s say Gen Yers and retail — you need to be paying attention and planning how to react to the commentary. A teen Facebook page that we developed for a major retail client takes a proactive approach that’s been quite successful. The client monitors commentary from its nearly 8,000 fans and jumps in to clarify discussions, reinforce trends and announce special offers.

Likewise, if you’re operating in an industry that typically generates positive feedback from Gen X and Gen Y types, using social media to amplify those voices can pay huge dividends.

What’s important to understand is that word-of-mouth feedback can’t be stopped. Furthermore, you’d be foolish to try stopping it. However, you can and should set your sights on monitoring it, understanding it and steering it with an ever-so-subtle hand. Your brand will love you for the effort.