Analytics

This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com on 03/01/11 and is republished here with permission.

A year ago I reflected on the end of my first digital decade. I commented on how things had moved on in that time with respect to analytics and how in some areas there was a way still to go. Another year on and we’re still on the journey, so what are some of the things that I would like to see more of or less of in 2011? Read more…

Guy Stephens joins as senior consultant in social customer care, while Richard Sedley becomes commercial director, overseeing expansion of client development

London, UK –15 December, 2010 – Foviance, the UK’s leading customer experience consultancy and usability specialist, has appointed Guy Stephens as senior social customer care consultant, and Richard Sedley as commercial director. Both will be based at Foviance’s London headquarters.

Paul Blunden, CEO of Foviance said: “We’re delighted to have both Guy and Richard on our team here at Foviance. Both appointments are indicative of the company’s growing emphasis on providing more strategic value to all of our clients.”

In his new role as senior social customer care consultant at Foviance, Guy Stephens is already exploring how social media is changing the way companies and customers work and communicate with each other. Fundamental shifts in how customer service is provided over the last two years as a result of social media, are presenting businesses with a new and very different set of challenges. Guy will use his considerable experience and expertise in this field to ensure Foviance is able to help clients undergoing this transformation. Before joining Foviance, Guy was customer knowledge manager for The Carphone Warehouse where he began use of social media within customer service, primarily through Twitter, blogs, YouTube and Facebook.

As Foviance’s new commercial director, Richard Sedley will oversee the expansion of the company’s client development team as well as working to increase the value of the multi-channel services that Foviance already successfully delivers for its clients. Additionally, as course director for social media at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Richard will ensure that Foviance clients are always best placed to take advantage of developments in the social web. Prior to joining Foviance Richard worked at cScape where he launched its Customer Engagement Unit, creating bespoke customer engagement strategies comprising audience research, metrics, analysis and segmentation, multi-channel engagement campaigns and communication optimisation.

Paul Blunden said: “Foviance is recognised as a leader in the field of customer experience consulting. Guy and Richard’s considerable experience of customer engagement and customer service within social media complements and extends our existing analytics, research and user experience skills to offer our clients an unrivalled customer service offering.”

For further information please contact:

Paul Blunden, CEO

Tel: +44 (0)8450 546 500
Fax: +44 (0)8450 546 501

This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com on 07/12/10 and is republished here with permission.

“Insight”. It’s a word that most of us probably use every day. Client companies demand “insight”, agencies and consultancies strive to deliver it. But what is it and how do you know when you’ve got it? Or have created it? Is it one of those words these days that we use glibly like “analytics” when we really mean “reporting” because it sounds better or more sophisticated? Read more…

“Tell me something I don’t know” was once a brief I got from a client. It was also the title of the presentation I gave at the eMetrics Marketing Optimisation Conference  in Washington DC  in early October. The presentation covered an overview of data mining and predictive analytics and included a couple of case studies showing how these techniques can be used in the digital analytics space. Fortunately Daniel Waisberg and his team from Online Behaviour filmed a number of presentations from the conference including mine. The presentation can be viewed in three parts. Read more…

This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com on 23/11/10 and is republished here with permission.

In my last column  I talked about some of the challenges faced by organisations in developing a stronger multi-channel customer experience strategy based on a recent report published by Foviance in association with Econsultancy. I ended the article with the comment that “Data and insight are two of the greatest enablers to developing an improved customer experience. Organisations that invest in managing data across channels will be well-placed for success.” As statements go, this one definitely falls into the “easier said than done” category. There are many challenges in creating an integrated approach to data and insight in organisations that are organisational, cultural, and technical. Read more…

This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com on 11/10/10 and is republished here with permission.

Over here in Europe we’re having one of those periods where the spotlight is falling on issues around privacy and the use of cookies. It’s one of those topics that keeps bubbling under the surface and every now and then erupts. Read more…

By April 2011, the UK will have updated its e-privacy laws to comply with the new European directive, which among other things, concerns the use of cookies and the safeguard of privacy. This will have an operational impact on any company that uses cookies and collects personal data across its digital properties.

Data Privacy has regularly surfaced in the past decade as a consumer issue: with the increased access to technology, the appearance of geolocation tagging and social media sites such as Facebook, Foursquare and so on, the trend has become more noticeable. While many have embraced the advantages, others have raised the spectre of a quite Orwellian Big Brother – except a corporate one, and conspiracy theories regularly flare up. EPIC (a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values) describes cookies as “a mechanism that allows a web site to record your comings and goings, usually without your knowledge or consent.” Not exactly an endorsement of a tool that can, when used appropriately and with proper disclosure, actually improve user experience. Read more…

Last November the European Union approved new legislation amending an existing privacy directive relating to the way websites collect data about visitors. In essence this would prevent sites from using cookies without prior consent from web users. Cookies are small snippets of code that sit on your computer and identify you as a visitor to a particular website. They may be used by a retail site to remember what you have put into your basket or used by an advertising network to understand what ads you have seen online and target you with specific messaging. Read more…