BMAI is committed to helping organizations grow by encouraging a different perspective, one that is focused on developing and nurturing genuine relationships with key stakeholders, whether they are customers, members or clients. We are customer strategists, assisting organizations in changing the way they see the people they serve and working with our clients to develop strategies that lead to enhanced value, enduring genuine relationships, and long-term growth.

Since our establishment, we have viewed key concepts like service, quality, value, experience, and relationships from the perspective of the customer. It is the customer who really decides what is good service, what is involved in a meaningful experience, and what constitutes a relationship with a brand or organization. Without this perspective, a company cannot be considered truly customer-centric.

For more than 30 years, we have talked with and, more importantly, listened to thousands of customers on both sides of the Atlantic. We see the world through the eyes of your customers. We understand what they like and dislike. We understand what contributes to customer engagement and loyalty. Our approach to the building of genuine relationships is rooted in the belief that truly loyal customers demonstrate more than behavioral loyalty to a brand. For customers or members to be truly engaged, there must be an emotional connection.

We regularly demonstrate that what contributes to that strong connection often has little to do with great products at attractive prices. What leads to solid, long-lasting relationships is more likely to be driven by how customers are treated, how they are dealt with, and ultimately how they are made to feel — the “soft side” of the value proposition.

BMAI has a particular expertise in the measurement of complex concepts, including customer relationships and engagement. Our proprietary measurement tools quantify the strength of relationships, providing our clients with Customer Engagement Scores (CEs) and Member Engagement Scores (MEs). We have enabled major national and international clients to track and benchmark their performance in engaging customers since 1995.

BMAI’s founder and Chief Customer Strategist is Dr. Jim Barnes. Jim is a recognized thought leader on customer strategy. His unique perspective focuses on customer engagement from the customer's perspective. He understands how customers build connections with brands and organizations, and knows how to create customer-led growth. He has developed unique techniques to reveal customer insight and proprietary measurement tools to quantify the strength of an organization’s connection to its customers, then linking that score to KPIs, thereby proving the financial payback from cultivating genuine relationships.

Jim Barnes Bio

Jim Barnes is an internationally-recognized researcher, author, speaker, and consultant on subjects relating to marketing, branding and customer engagement strategy. He was a university professor for more than 40 years, co-founder of a major Canadian marketing services company, author or co-author of eight books, consultant to many national and international companies, and lecturer at universities around the world. He is a thought leader on customer strategy, the creation of genuine customer relationships, and the delivery of meaningful customer experiences.

Driven by a passionate curiosity about what drives customer behavior, Jim has conducted hundreds of projects on behalf of clients on both sides of the Atlantic. He takes an unconventional approach to understanding complex concepts such as value, loyalty, relationships and customer experience, insisting that organizations see these from the perspective of the customer. He brings deep customer insight to his speaking engagements and consulting assignments.

Jim Barnes has developed a reputation for measuring the unmeasurable. In the early 1990s, intrigued with the emerging field of relationship marketing and concerned that many companies continued to rely on conventional measures of customer satisfaction, he developed a methodology to quantify the strength of a company’s relationship with customers. BMAI has measured Customer Engagement Score for companies in North America and Europe and now offers its Member Engagement Score service to member-based organizations including credit unions, trade and professional associations.

Through BMAI, Jim advises clients in North America and Europe on building customer strategy. He helps organizations create more profitable relationships with customers, members and other stakeholders. He regularly delivers keynote talks and workshops to sales and management groups around the world.

Dr Jim Barnes has published and presented more than 100 papers in international journals and at conferences around the world. He has written eight books, including Build Your Customer Strategy: a guide to creating profitable customer relationships (John Wiley & Sons) and Secrets of Customer Relationship Management: it’s all about how you make them feel (McGraw-Hill). In 1997, Jim received the inaugural Leaders in Management Education Award from the Financial Post, and in 1999 he was named a Fellow of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association of Canada. In 2011, he was inducted into the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and a PhD from the University of Toronto.