By emphasizing what helps people solve their problems, marketers not only capture their attention, they're in a better position to change their behavior -- which people and companies don't do easily or often. Further, by highlighting a product's unique advantages and features, differentiating how and why the product is superior to competitors', marketers build a case for making a decision using parameters other than price.

Explore seven pitfalls to avoid, along with tips and best practices that can help ensure customer feedback survey success.

We need to focus our attention on metrics that bring the long-term health of an organization into view. CLV is one of those metrics, where you track the future profits generated, properly discounted to reflect the time value of money. I believe we're currently witnessing movement where metrics such as CLV, client retention rate, and long-term contract value are considered assets that should be reported on financial statements.

The buying process is an emotional process for every individual, so knowing what matters to your audiences and how to best engage them in an interactive experience is the key to winning the business.

Today's forward-thinking organizations are putting measures in place to listen to customers more proactively, analyze data for early warning signs, and trigger alerts that will ultimately identify or prevent the next customer "tsunami."

Instead of the product at the center, the customer should be there. What's needed are managers who engage individual customers in a dialogue, creating two-way communication that helps develop future product offerings, create engagement, and build lasting relationships.

Find ways to accurately measure pre-purchase customer behavior in a multi-channel environment, and then apply a process to transform the data into actions that enhance the customer experience and improve your bottom line.

Many organizations tend to deflect customers to other channels with the intent to reduce costs, and this is where they may go wrong. For some interactions they should actually implement a strategy that increases live agent experiences, creating an opportunity to build customer relationships and loyalty.

Analytics give us so much data that we can get tunnel vision and forget the importance of building and protecting our brands. It's more important than ever to stay top-of-mind with customers, and traditional methods alone don't cut it. Only by thinking outside the box will you find the relationship-building techniques that will set you apart from the competition.

The challenge focuses on getting customers to love your company, which requires businesses to place more effort on the "R" in CRM while worrying much less about the "M." How to get started? Here are some suggestions.