Who is Bruce?
Email: btemkin@forrester.com
I’m a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research focusing on customer experience. My work consists of two parts: 1) researching leading-edge approaches to customer experience (here is my 2008 research agenda); and 2) helping large organizations improve their customer experiences. I also end up speaking to a variety of audiences (from keynote speeches at large events to workshops with executive teams).
The following posts summarize my perspective on customer experience:
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My Manifesto: Great Customer Experience Is Free (provides a sense of my philosophical view of customer experience).
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Experience-Based Differentiation (defines the core concept that underlies much of my research).
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The Best Of Customer Experience Matters, Volume #1 (highlights of my first 50 posts).
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The Best Of Customer Experience Matters, Volume #2 (highlights of my second 50 posts).
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The Best Of Customer Experience Matters, Volume #3 (highlights of my third 50 posts).
This is just the current step on what has been a long-term journey helping companies improve how they deal with customers. I’ve been at Forrester since 1998, during which time I’ve run the firm’s B2B research (in the early days when B2B was hot) and the Customer Experience and Financial Services practice areas. I made the move back into the realm of an individual analyst in late 2006 because I wanted to focus my research and advisory efforts on enterprisewide approaches to customer experience. It’s amazing how little discipline companies have in their approach to customer experience — something that they acknowledge as being both critical and broken.
My customer experience days started in earnest after I received my MBA from MIT Sloan School — when I went to work as an internal consultant at GE focused on marketing and customer service programs. My projects included reengineering the customer-facing processes at GE Power Generation and redefining a go-to-market strategy for a line of electrical gear. Those efforts highlighted to me a couple of things: 1) there’s huge opportunities to rethink how we deal with customers; and 2) success requires challenging the status-quo within firms. Those insights have guided me throughout my career.
I did a few things between GE and Forrester — including product management with Stratus Computers, building electronic channels for Fidelity Investments, and running a couple of start-ups.
Hopefully my thoughts in this blog will spur a dialogue that will help companies improve their approach to customer experience. The good news: There’s a lot of opportunity to improve!
Here’s a link to my full bio.
Here’s a link to my 2008 research agenda.
Here’s a link to a listing of my published research. But you will only be able to read the full research reports if you are a registered client of Forrester Research.
