Right on the heels of attending the AMA workshop on Marketing Dashboards, I got another dose of excellent ideas from my guest today -- Randy Brandt of Maritz Research. We spent time talking about developing a core customer metric.

Dont' get this wrong -- we're not talking about a new metric, a new silver bullet, or a new blue pill to swallow. This is about creating an optic into your customers' experience satisfaction and loyalty scores which are driven by multiple metrics and data points (or on the rare ocassion, just one). In the program, Randy explained how to develop a definition of what your core customer metric could/should be.

Your first steps...well, that is the simplest question to ask, the easiet to answer, and the hardest to do (in my opinion). You've got to start with something Randy calls "business blueprinting." Though he didn't coin the term, Randy describes it as starting with the business outcomes you're trying to manage and working back from there. He strongly encouraged everyone NOT to take a "one size fits all" approach. Your core customer metric is not going to be anyone elses.

Maritz Research has also started a new online forum for those interested in talking and learning in a community around the topic of core customer metrics. You can go to corecustomermetric.com and join in the "fresh discussion" on what is best to measure, and how to do it.

-- David Kinard