My Customer – Customer experience management: The trends that defined 2014

Customer experience excellence is a moving target, with what constitutes an ‘excellent’ experience becoming a higher standard every year. This trend was to continue in 2014, with the CX Index by Forrester revealing that the number of poor experiences had hit an all-time low, while the gap between the best and worst companies was narrower than ever.

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Money – Two Dozen Retailers Won’t Open on Thanksgiving–And They’re Shaming the Ones That Will

A slew of national retailers are making a point of the fact that they aren’t going along with the trend to open—and open earlier and earlier—on Thanksgiving Day.

In one of the most noticeable trends thus far in the holiday shopping season, several mall mainstays are engaged in an aggressive game of Thanksgiving store hour one-upmanship.

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Chicago Tribune – Christmas creep a trick or treat trick to boost Santa sales

Chicago temperatures in the 70s this week be damned, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Well, maybe not a lot, but enough. Holiday items are popping up in stores. Catalogs are showing up in the mail. The price cuts already have begun, and wise men eyeing year-end travel have looked to the skies and received signs their trips should already be booked.
Driving this Christmas creep are businesses dreaming of a bright Christmas, just like the ones they used to know. Market research shows a vast majority of us profess that it’s ho-ho-horrible to edge into Jack Frost territory before the jack-o’-lanterns have ceded the stage. Tough tinsel.

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UPI – Humbug: 'Christmas creep' annoys shoppers

A survey of U.S. shoppers suggests 71 percent are irked when they see Christmas items for sale before Halloween.
RichRelevance, a data personalization firm, said its survey of 1,000 shoppers this month found 71 percent of those polled reported feeling “annoyed” or “very annoyed” when they see Christmas items in stores prior to Halloween.

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CNBC – Guess who doesn't really mind the Christmas creep

Sick of retailers telling you to deck the halls before you go trick or treating?
You’re not alone.
According to a new study by big data personalization firm RichRelevance, 71 percent of Americans said they’re either “annoyed” or “very annoyed” when they see holiday items in stores before Halloween. But there’s one group that’s more accepting of the forward shift: millennials.

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The Economist: David Selinger on Startups Big and Small

A former Amazon manager and the boss of RichRelevance, David Selinger, explains the retail giant’s success and what start-ups can teach traditional firms.

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Latest Infographic: Back To School 2014

Our retail publishers see their highest volume of summer shopping on July 11 and 12. In fact, our retailer trends have shown up to a 22% increase in revenue throughout the month.

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Mashable – How Marketing and PR Should Work Together to Reach Customers

In today’s frenzied, hyper-connected environment, a disconnect between science (think data) and art (think communication) can diminish even the most well-intentioned marketing and PR efforts.

By thinking about these things in tandem, and by looking at the intersection between them, we can unlock a treasure trove of useful insights into how we should “manage” customers today.

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