OCTAGONSQUARE
Insights
CLIENTELING 3.0 - WHO KNEW?16-APR-2025I came across this concept today. Clienteling 3.0, and maybe I’m late to the party, but it just makes sense to me. It was in a post from Katie Street interviewing Giles SmithI had to go away and research, but, It’s essentially a modern way of thinking about how we build and maintain customer relationships. Less guesswork, more thoughtful personalisation. Less siloed systems, more joined-up experiences.It takes what people have always valued: genuine, personal service, and supercharges it with technology: AI, data, digital platforms... all working quietly in the background to help you understand your customer better and meet them where they are.And honestly, in a world where customer expectations keep rising, this kind of joined-up, insight-powered service feels like the direction we have to go in.I’m curious, have you come across Clienteling 3.0 before?Is it something your team’s already experimenting with?Read our full research paper for free
WHO REALLY OWNS YOUR CUSTOMER?27-MAR-2025Who really owns your customer?I absolutely love ChatGPT and the emergence of powerful AI chatbots. They're undeniably transforming how we search, interact, and find answers online. Businesses everywhere are rightly embracing this technology, aiming to simplify experiences and provide customers with quicker, clearer pathways to purchase.But here's something that keeps going around my mind: if the chatbot handles all the heavy lifting, truly understanding the customer, their personality, their desires, passions, and preferences... Who ends up owning that customer relationship?In reality, the chatbot becomes the trusted advisor who deeply understands the individual. Retailers, travel companies, hospitality businesses, and service providers might find themselves reduced to mere transaction points. Sure, you might secure the sale, but do you genuinely know your customer?All those rich insights: what excites someone, what entertainment they love, their hobbies, their aspirations will sit within the AI chatbot ecosystem. This raises an essential question: If customer intelligence resides with platforms like ChatGPT, how can businesses build meaningful, lasting relationships?Could we be heading towards a future where trust shifts entirely from brands to AI-powered assistants, effectively turning businesses into passive fulfilment centres?While there's immense value in leveraging chatbot technology for personalisation and customer insight, I worry about losing the innovative spark and deep connection retailers traditionally nurture. And instead of spending fortunes on Meta & Google Ads, will businesses soon find themselves bidding for visibility on AI chatbot recommendations?What's your view on this shift?
Photo by Armin Lotfi on Unsplash ARE YOUR KPIs KILLING CUSTOMER VALUE?17-MAR-2025It's not enough to acquire customers; you need to keep them, and ideally, turn them into advocates. The key? Delivering exceptional customer value. But how do you define, measure, and improve it? This isn't just about tweaking marketing metrics; it's about a fundamental shift in ownership and a deeper understanding of your customer. It's aligning your success with what truly matters to them.Traditionally, CMOs focus on metrics like Marketing ROI, acquisition costs, and brand awareness. These are important, but they're internally focused. Who is truly responsible for understanding the complete customer journey and their individual needs? Complete customer data shouldn't be a data quality exercise; it should be a core marketing KPI, driving strategic decisions.Effective marketing is about telling the right story, to the right person, at the right time. But how do you know what resonates? Don't rely solely on channel optimisation and diminishing returns models. Instead, capture and leverage your customer data to understand their:
- Interests / habits: What topics genuinely engage them?
- Motivations / goals: What drives their decisions?
- Preferences: Which stories (content, offers) do they actually want to see?
- Speed of response: How quickly do you customers respond to new marketing campaigns? And how often to they return?
- Usage: How much of your products and services are they using?
- Advocacy: Are they sharing their positive experiences and becoming brand ambassadors?
- Establish Clear Ownership: Make marketing accountable for the complete customer view and related KPIs.
- Enrich Customer Understanding: Capture and leverage data and use AI to predict individual needs and preferences.
- Measure Customer ROI: Track the impact of your efforts on the customer experience at every touchpoint.
Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash WARNING: THIS IS HOW YOU END UP BUILDING USELESS STUFF03-MAR-2025We didn’t just miss the target… we launched ourselves into an entirely different dimension where logic ceased to exist.Have you ever been in a situation where the goal was crystal clear? Only to watch everything spiral into a black hole of nonsense?We started with a simple, noble mission: help customers grow, deliver real insights, and create value that fuels both their success and ours.And then… someone has a thought 💭"Hey, instead of driving action with insights, what if we spent months building an AI-driven, predictive analytics framework that no one asked for but sounds impressive in leadership meetings? Maybe even an enterprise-grade platform so complex that nobody actually understands it? Imagine how cool it’ll be… in the future… maybe… possibly…?"So instead of solving problems today, we had to start manifesting value that might exist in an alternate reality.🚀 Instead of delivering impact, we chased the mirage of future monetisation
🤖 Instead of helping customers, we built tech for tech’s sake
💸 Instead of making money, we… well, we definitely spent someIt was like being on a treadmill that was on fire, and someone had cut the power cord.If I could travel back in time (preferably via dramatic time machine entrance), I’d do exactly three things:⚡ Work with a handful of key customers and prove ROI fast
🎯 Focus on consultative insights, not just shiny data products no one asked for
🔗 Force an unbreakable alignment between what we build and what customers actually needBecause when you’re not aligned, you don’t just waste time, you build things that exist solely to haunt your roadmap for eternity.What’s the worst case of “shiny object syndrome” you’ve seen in business? Let’s hear it. 👇
🤖 Instead of helping customers, we built tech for tech’s sake
💸 Instead of making money, we… well, we definitely spent someIt was like being on a treadmill that was on fire, and someone had cut the power cord.If I could travel back in time (preferably via dramatic time machine entrance), I’d do exactly three things:⚡ Work with a handful of key customers and prove ROI fast
🎯 Focus on consultative insights, not just shiny data products no one asked for
🔗 Force an unbreakable alignment between what we build and what customers actually needBecause when you’re not aligned, you don’t just waste time, you build things that exist solely to haunt your roadmap for eternity.What’s the worst case of “shiny object syndrome” you’ve seen in business? Let’s hear it. 👇
Photo by Hobi industri on Unsplash WELCOME TO THE EMOTIONAL WHIPLASH OF STARTING A BUSINESS. 26-FEB-2025Nobody warns you about the weirdest parts of starting a business.Like… insurance. Who knew you needed insurance?! Not me. But apparently, you do! Hopefully, another insurance I will never have to use...
And then there’s the messaging. I have rewritten my website at least five times. Tweaked the logo. Changed the tagline. Fine tuned my positioning more times than I can count. Why? Because when it’s your own business, it feels deeply personal. You want it to be perfect. Spoiler: It never will be. And I'm already planning the next change, because what I have isn't quite right...
But the biggest shock? The emotional rollercoaster. 🚀
One minute, you’re on top of the world, riding the high of a great conversation. The next, you’re staring at your inbox, convinced the sky is falling. No one told me that starting a business means feeling both unstoppable and completely out of your depth, sometimes in the same minute.
So, if you’re thinking of starting your own thing, here’s my advice:✅ The first few weeks are the hardest. The highs are unreal, but so are the lows. Expect it. Ride it out.✅ Things won’t be perfect. Launch anyway. Then tweak (and tweak and tweak and tweak), adjust, and refine as you go.✅ You’ll have to deal with things you never expected. Like accountants, insurance, and the joy of taxes.I’m writing this having now started my first project, and I can already tell... this journey is going to be nothing like I expected.To those who’ve built something from scratch, I applaud you!
What’s your most ridiculous ‘I did not sign up for this’ moment in business?
And then there’s the messaging. I have rewritten my website at least five times. Tweaked the logo. Changed the tagline. Fine tuned my positioning more times than I can count. Why? Because when it’s your own business, it feels deeply personal. You want it to be perfect. Spoiler: It never will be. And I'm already planning the next change, because what I have isn't quite right...
But the biggest shock? The emotional rollercoaster. 🚀
One minute, you’re on top of the world, riding the high of a great conversation. The next, you’re staring at your inbox, convinced the sky is falling. No one told me that starting a business means feeling both unstoppable and completely out of your depth, sometimes in the same minute.
So, if you’re thinking of starting your own thing, here’s my advice:✅ The first few weeks are the hardest. The highs are unreal, but so are the lows. Expect it. Ride it out.✅ Things won’t be perfect. Launch anyway. Then tweak (and tweak and tweak and tweak), adjust, and refine as you go.✅ You’ll have to deal with things you never expected. Like accountants, insurance, and the joy of taxes.I’m writing this having now started my first project, and I can already tell... this journey is going to be nothing like I expected.To those who’ve built something from scratch, I applaud you!
What’s your most ridiculous ‘I did not sign up for this’ moment in business?
Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash INSIGHT DOESN'T CHANGE BUSINESSES. ACTION DOES. 22-FEB-2025Insight can spark innovation.
It can guide strategy.
It can recommend where the opportunities are. But on its own? It just sits there.
• Reports don’t create change—people do.
• Insights don’t drive growth—decisions do.
• If no one acts on the insight, it’s just a really expensive report. The best businesses don’t just collect insights. They create a culture where clear action follows insight—every time. Because real impact comes from those who take what they’ve learned and do something with it. So, what’s stopping great insights from turning into real action? Let’s talk.
It can guide strategy.
It can recommend where the opportunities are. But on its own? It just sits there.
• Reports don’t create change—people do.
• Insights don’t drive growth—decisions do.
• If no one acts on the insight, it’s just a really expensive report. The best businesses don’t just collect insights. They create a culture where clear action follows insight—every time. Because real impact comes from those who take what they’ve learned and do something with it. So, what’s stopping great insights from turning into real action? Let’s talk.
Photo by Bradley Pisney on Unsplash
USING CHATGPT / DEEPSEEK DOESN'T MAKE YOU AN AI-DRIVEN ORGANISATION
30-JAN-2025OpenAI and Liang Wenfeng didn’t build these tools by just sitting on a pile of data. They brought everything together, made sense of it, and turned it into something that felt like magic.
Meanwhile, most businesses claim their data is ‘available’—but let’s be real:
❌ If you’re still waiting weeks for a report, it’s not available.
❌ If your teams still rely on gut instinct, it’s not available.
❌ If your data is scattered across systems and spreadsheets, it’s not available.
HAVING DATA ISN'T THE SAME AS UNDERSTANDING IT!
So, be honest: Is your data available like ChatGPT? Or is it just sitting there, waiting to be turned into something amazing that can help you create a better customer experience?
👇 Let’s talk
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Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
ARE YOU LISTENING, OR JUST HEARING NOISE?
28-JAN-2025Your data isn’t just numbers. It’s your guests whispering:
🛏️ “Here’s what makes me book.”
🍽️ “This is why I’ll rave about your restaurant.”
🎯 “This is why I might not come back.”
But here’s the truth: It won’t shout to get your attention.
So, ask yourself:
1️⃣ Are your teams tuned in to what the data is saying?
2️⃣ What are you doing with the patterns and clues it’s leaving behind?
3️⃣ How are you turning whispers into actions?