Paul Blunden

Welcome to the first edition of your Foviance newsletter for 2011. I hope the year ahead proves to be a prosperous one for yourself and for your business.

In this edition we take stock of the developments the past year has brought us before looking forward to the innovations that lie ahead for our industry.

In my own article I discuss how we might address the challenges of multichannel customer experience, while introducing a number of key new faces arriving at Foviance. John D’Arcy brings us great news about Foviance’s recent accreditation with the Google Analytics Certified Partner programme. Pauline reveals why she was right all along to carry a torch for Amazon’s Kindle. Amanda hopes providers can bring more substance to the cloud. And finally Xavier underlines the importance of driving revenues from mobile cross-channel strategy.

I would be very interested to hear from you directly with any feedback.

Paul Blunden, CEO, Foviance

Sizing up to the multichannel customer experience challenge

We are firmly focussed on multichannel customer experience and developing our capabilities to support customer requirements. In 2010 we broke through the 50 headcount, enabling us to attract some of the industry’s thought leaders into the company and strengthen our ability to offer advice across multiple channels still further.
Read the full multichannel customer experience challenge article

Foviance becomes a Google Analytics Certified Partner

Foviance is delighted to have been recognised as a Google Analytics Certified Partner (GACP), achieving company level accreditation to package, sell and deliver analytics with Google’s trusted badge of certification.
Read the full Google Analytics Certified Partner article

Why the Kindle is burning bright

The Kindle was designed to do one thing and do it very well, and that is precisely what it does. Despite numerous journalists, analysts and industry observers writing it off as a one-trick-pony in a stable of multi-function thoroughbreds, the Amazon Kindle e-reader is now burning brightly as a popular, mature device in its own right.
Read the full Kindle article

Helping users get their heads in the cloud

How much do you really know about ‘cloud computing’? For cloud-based services to be truly successful it is vital that providers take on board industry and community concerns, design the right user experiences, and offer people something that will prove irresistible.
Read the full cloud article

Driving online sales through mobile cross-channel strategy

At Foviance, as with many businesses, the start of a New Year brings with it an opportunity to take a step back and determine our focus over the coming twelve months. This industry offers so many opportunities that I sometimes think the hardest choice is in deciding what not to do. One thing we have learnt though, is that progress comes through focus rather than trying to be all things to all men. For this reason we are firmly focussed on multichannel customer experience and further developing our capabilities to support customer requirements.

We start 2011 with the strongest team Foviance has ever had. We broke through the 50 headcount point last year and this scale has enabled us to attract some of the industry’s thought leaders into the company and further strengthen our ability to offer advice across multiple channels. Richard Sedley joined us in December as commercial director and is already having an impact. Richard set-up the Customer Engagement Unit at cScape and is a well-known speaker and commentator in the area of customer engagement and persuasion. He is also the social media course director for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is already helping to redefine our social media offering. You can follow Richard on Twitter @richardsedley
(more…)

I attended the UPA monthly event last week and enjoyed the presentation by Andrew Harder of Nokia about the gap between agency and client when presenting research findings.

There were various themes which resonated and I liked the idea of providing a deliverable that made “others feel smart” rather than yourself. I particularly liked the analogy with Hemingway’s The old man and the sea which was used to illustrate that clients are not looking for a mass of information they are looking for the relevant information. It is better to bring back a succulent fillet rather than a huge but empty carcass.

Agree? Disagree?

It has just been announced that our friends at user experience (UX) agencies Foolproof and Flow Interactive have decided to form a merger. I have known Tom and Peter at Foolproof since they started the firm and John Thew who was CEO at Flow for less time but have already sent a note of congratulations, offering my best wishes.

There has been precious little consolidation in the UX sector over the past few years with the few examples generally falling into the opportunistic rather than strategic category. I recall the sector being referred to as a cottage industry not that long ago because of the number of lifestyle and small businesses that operate within it. A few years on, it is a sector that has weathered the downturn well and is becoming populated by proper businesses that make money.
(more…)

Welcome to the latest edition of your Foviance newsletter.

This bumper edition looks back to the best of 2010 and makes a few predictions about 2011. In my own roundup I touch on some of the key themes Foviance and its customers have been focusing on recently – multi-channel experience, mobile usability, customer retention, social media, and the drip-effect from paper to digital ink.

Elsewhere in this final issue of the year, Carina looks back on the entertainment and insights we gained from World Usability Day 2010, Jamie looks forward to next year’s ICE gaming event, I talk more about the language of customer-centricity, and Neil points us all towards the latest multi-channel experience research from Foviance and Econsultancy.

If you enjoy this latest newsletter, you might also enjoy reading and commenting on some of our consultants’ thoughts and opinions on our regularly updated blog page.

I would be very interested to hear from you directly with any feedback.

Have a great holiday.

Paul Blunden, CEO, Foviance

In this issue:

Another year over, a new one just begun…

Communication key to World Usability Day fun

Speaking the language of customer centricity

Living and thriving in an experience economy

Gaming sector warms up for ICE 2011

In the last newsletter issue of the year, it has become a tradition to round up the events of the last twelve months as well as making a few predictions for the year ahead. It’s a useful process that provides an opportunity to take a step back from the business and evaluate how we have done and whether we are still on track. It is also an opportunity to test my assumptions about the market and to think about the trends we are seeing in our customers and whether we are ready to support them.

2010 seems to have been the year that mobile finally came of age, although I think a new term is needed – one that properly encapsulates what is really going on. Perhaps ‘new technology’ is a more inclusive way to think about it, as our work has shown that ‘mobile’ is too limited and remains lumbered with hand-held connotations. Now would be a good time to mention the iPad, and we certainly had fun with our iPad back in May, but I’m also thinking of the work we’ve done with utility companies around the use of smart-meters, and in the financial services sector with chip and pin.

2009 had witnessed a slowdown in the evolution of multi-channel customer experience due to the pressures of the recession and I had wondered whether it would receive greater attention in 2010. The good news for customers is that this certainly was the case, with plenty of research and events focussing heavily on multi-channel, and customers increasingly asking us about it. It is possible that a focus on customer retention spurred by the recession underlies this increased attention, but I also see a wider interest in customer centricity prevailing. The rise of social media has certainly had an influence here, and a professionalism of the discipline is starting to emerge.

Foviance’s own social media capability has greatly increased in 2010 with the arrival to the team of Guy Stephens and Richard Sedley.  Guy is expert at helping organisations leverage social media in their customer services departments and speaks and lectures widely on the subject. Richard is also extremely well known and even lectures for the Chartered Institute of Marketing, delivering its social media course. I fully expect that the Foviance social media proposition will evolve considerably next year, while in addition to customer service and social media strategy services we will also incorporate solid research and measurement.

So finally to 2011 and some predictions. Will it be the year the book and magazine dies? I wouldn’t go that far, but I think 2011, with the launch of various iPad lookalikes, will be the year when we start to work a little more paperless and make a mental leap from paper to digital ‘ink’. At least two of the magazines I carry in my bag each day are now available in iPad editions (although the subscription is for the printed version and the digital one comes free – when will they learn!). The ability to explore beyond the page is also exciting – I can certainly see myself commuting to work next December and not being surprised by all the people on the train and tube reading from handheld, digital devices.

Of course I will still be surprised if we arrive on time – some things technology seems unable to improve…

This article was written as part of the Foviance December 2010 newsletter

November has been a busy month for Foviance. We released our multi-channel customer experience research report in the first week of the month with a launch event at the Hospital Club in Covent Garden and were surprised to find we were sandwiched on the 3rd floor between Kim Cattrall on the 2nd and Stella McCartney on the 4th. Illustrious company indeed for what proved to be a very successful launch.

What should not have been a surprise, given the findings of the report, was how well attended the event was. Everyone I spoke to talked about the organisation they worked for struggling to get to grips with what they considered to be, a very complex problem. People attended from a range of organisations across the charity, telecoms, media, retail, travel and financial services sectors and all had or were starting to get to grips with how to deal with customers seamlessly across multiple channels. They spoke of challenges and barriers which were mirrored in our research and also supported the areas we have focussed on in the Foviance customer experience maturity model.

Our maturity model looks at the progress organisations are making across five important dimensions of customer experience. These are: leadership and culture; brand; customer insight; customer touch points; and systems and processes. Our work shows that if an organisation can capture these five areas in their roadmap, then they are likely to gain the business performance improvements they are searching for through the implementation of a multi-channel customer experience strategy.

In our research report, we also provided a definition of what the term ‘multi-channel customer experience’ means, as follows: ‘Multi-channel customer experience: the aggregated experience a customer has of a brand gained from all interactions across managed and unmanaged touch-points for the duration of that relationship.’

It is useful to work with a definition as it sets the boundaries for the subject area. Where multi-channel customer experience is concerned most people I speak to feel it is so big that it is hard even to find a start point. This is why for many people we suggest a simple touch-point audit to get started and to give them something tangible to work with, so that they might then consider their priorities and next steps.

The most encouraging outcome from the multi-channel research launch was that organisations on the whole are starting to focus on their customers and to talk the language of customer centricity. The term is still misunderstood but the motives are correct and that can only be a good thing. Clearly there is a long way to go, but with evidence becoming available that supports the business case, I see happy times ahead for all sorts of customer.

This article was written as part of the Foviance December 2010 newsletter

Welcome to the Foviance newsletter.

We have some exciting opportunities to share with you in this month’s issue, which revolves around the increasing importance placed upon customer-centric usability and customer experience strategy by today’s forward-thinking businesses.

Catherine has been communicating with the Great British public to capture their views for the forthcoming World Usability Day 2010. Pauline examines how to bring together user profiles developed by marketing and digital channels into cohesive customer personas – download and read the whitepaper. And I discuss Foviance’s new multi-channel customer experience research conducted in partnership with Econsultancy.

If you enjoy this latest newsletter, you might also enjoy reading and commenting on some of our consultants’ thoughts and opinions on our regularly updated blog page.

I would also be very interested to hear from you directly with any feedback. 

Paul Blunden, CEO, Foviance

P.S. How will the new EU ePrivacy Directive affect your business? Here’s a quick look at the Foviance “cookie recipe” to help you prepare for the new rules coming in 2011.

In this issue:

World Usability Day 2010: Communication

Uniting split personalities

Whitepaper: Segmented Personas

Customer Experience Maturity