Cross-channel

I was recently in an electronics store buying a remote controlled car. At the cash desk the sales assistant informed me that my product did not contain any batteries She also knew which ones I needed from the store, which thankfully also happened to be on sale! This type of input and customer service is not only helpful but also unobtrusive. Although this is a good marketing strategy, I appreciated her assistance and found it to be a good customer experience. Read more…

Recently there’s been a lot of talk of customer satisfaction and retention, a feeling that some businesses may not care if you use them more than once or not, but all the marketing material that comes through my door says otherwise.

For example, my former optician has written to me three times this year offering various discounts practically begging I return to them. Now the time has come that I need these services again so it made sense to return to them; it turns out it’s not that simple. Read more…

Can a bad customer experience with one brand affect another brand?

Holiday season; I excitedly went online to Expedia, found decent fares for my flight to Thailand and proceeded to the booking page. Everything went smoothly until I reached the confirmation page: instead of getting the much anticipated confirmation number, I received a sad “Sorry, we were unable to make your reservation” message. Ok, fair enough; I told myself that I must have had mistyped my bank details and decided to try again. Read more…

With a few exceptions, call centres are pretty awful. One reason is that customers aren’t pushing hard enough for improvement. They might complain bitterly about the lousy wait times, but they will consider that against a background of all the other poor call centre experiences and partition it off. If the value of a brand is truly a measure of ‘everything’ including all customer touch points then it seems there is an opportunity being missed.Ethnographic research has shown that customers compare online experiences between different brands, and even different sectors so they expect the same service from a white goods supplier as they do from one that provides consumables. So why haven’t customers started to compare experiences between different channels and demanded an improvement in the call centre? Read more…

I attended the eConsultancy user and customer experience roundtable last week, where I was able share knowledge and experience about the current state of play online, and listen to stories from others working in the field.

I was heartened to hear from the majority of those attendees working in house, their plans for 2009 are largely intact, as budgets concerning customer experience are still available – this is in line with a recent US based article I read from Forrester. And it is not surprising in the current climate, that for some, measurements are moving more to customer engagement, rather than simply conversion.

Multi-variant testing was discussed, as some attendees currently use the technology; while others appeared sceptical of investment (financial outlay, design, technical) – they are more interested in placing their efforts into refining concepts and copy as a part of an iterative design process, engaging with customers along the way.

Lastly,  the discussion I valued the most was on measuring customer experience using more than just the online channel. For example, looking at channel management from call centre to web, click to call functions, and the total cost of a sale. Here I got the feeling that the industry is moving in the right direction, but there are few organisations out there who have really taken the time to define comprehensive channel management programs. At the moment the majority of approaches are of a more tactical nature, focusing on particular products. Let’s hope that with maturity, will come broader approaches.

Senior business consultant, Arthur Moan is presenting a case study with Shop Direct Group, on their flagship brand Littlewoods.com at The eCommerce EXPO in Manchester in June.

Digital marketing and e-commerce is growing strongly despite the recession. Being part of the digital revolution is key to succeeding. The exhibition is for cross-channel retailers, Pure Play online businesses or even just for learning about e-commerce.

Like everyone, I am looking to make any savings I can in these times of the credit crunch. Judging by the number of emails, direct mail and cold telephone calls I have received in the last three months, it is obvious that companies are looking to take full advantage of this consumer mindset. I am constantly bombarded with offers, discounts and complicated saver deals on a daily basis via email, telephone and direct mail; ‘register online and save £20 a year’, ‘order now and get a £10 shopping voucher.’

Despite these temptations, I immediately delete ‘save now’ emails, recycle direct mail without reading it and hang up when cold called. I acknowledge that the grass is probably greener on the other side and that savings could be made by filling out a form online or speaking to customer service after listening to ‘Greensleeves’ for 20 minutes using a 0845 number. But there are two reasons I don’t do this. Firstly, I don’t have the time to compare all these offers and secondly, I am a ‘lazy’ customer.

I have been with the same utility company for 7 years and bank for over 20 years. There is rationale for this long term loyalty; these companies are known quantities. They provide a good product or service cross- channel and they treat me like a valued customer. If I have a problem, they fix it.

It is a simple equation, look after me and I am literally willing to pay a premium for this. For me, there is a risk involved in time, money and possible inconvenience, in becoming someone’s new customer for the sake of few pounds. In other words, I am less likely to switch service providers even if there are savings to be made elsewhere. These factors have a direct impact on my behaviour as a consumer.

For example, I recently switched mobile phone provider, the main reason for this was the awful customer experience I had with them for ten months. The entire time I had to deal with an unhelpful customer service department when there were technical problems connecting to their mobile phone service. The only solution offered was a request to pay more money to upgrade my phone. When the contract came to an end, the company still had the nerve to ask me to renew my contract. Not only was it confusing how they could believe I may wish to renew, but there were no offers of compensation and not even an apology. My experience lead me to discuss it with friends, two of them have now been influenced not to sign up with this particular mobile phone provider. See previous blog on the importance of cross-channel focus on customers.

However, the story could have been different if I had received prompt customer service and a quick resolution of the problem. The package was not the cheapest, but it was relatively comparable to other similar mobile phone packages on the market. Consequently, as a ‘lazy’ customer, I probably would have signed another 18 month contract without much thought.

I would like to use my bank as an exapmle of good cross-channel customer experience. They have always been helpful and last year, my current account fell victim to online fraud. My bank’s response was swift. They spoke to the police on my behalf, and vouched for my character, and within three days my funds were replaced. There are some better savings rates and current accounts out there, but I am unlikely to switch because of their impeccable customer service. Why take a risk and change?

I still find it difficult to understand why goods and service providers are paying no heed to the importance of the overall customer experience for their long-term customers. Companies should remember that ‘lazy’ customers like me make up a large bulk of their customer base. Existing customers can only add to a company’s profit. It is easier to sell to existing customers than generate new ones and finding new customers is time consuming and costly.

Of course if there is a fantastic deal out there I will pay attention, but it has to be worth my while to invest the time. Generally, I am happy in my customer laziness until prompted to take action. A strong prompt can include receiving poor customer service. Companies should remember that in these competitive times,  ’lazy’ customers can easily be turned into angry ones and angry customers, even lazy ones like me, do not tend to stay customers for long!

In order to gain a true picture of the customer experience of modern, cross-channel businesses, it is essential to trust consultants who understand the importance of striking the right balance between quantitative and qualitative research.Currently, the new media research industry as a whole is getting it wrong too often.

These two research methodologies are quite distinct approaches that are used to understand customer behaviour through very different practices.

Quantitative research largely revolves around the precise analysis of numerical data: numbers of visitors to a particular website, clicks on banners, time spent reading pages, frequency of referrals – that sort of thing. Quantitative data can be ripped directly from weblogs, but it can also be gained through the structured, objective questioning of a large sample of users of a given service or product. Such surveys produce statistics, calculations, formulae, margins: ‘facts’.

Qualitative research attempts to explore and understand conceptions, attitudes, behaviours, interactions and of course experiences, of individuals and smaller focus groups. Data collected is largely non-numerical, more in-depth, more subjective, and more tailored to circumstance. It must be analysed and interpreted through observation and judgement, with results dependent to a great extent upon the skill and experience of the consultants.

Broadly speaking, quantitative research attempts to objectively nail down universal, repeatable rules for perceived trends, whereas qualitative research tries to subjectively develop a rich understanding of behaviour.

The market research community has been conducting both quantitative and qualitative research since the First World War, when Cadburys won the government contract to provide chocolate to the troops by researching the needs of this new market. Now, in 2009, the global market research industry is set to spend $40 billion, according to Research magazine.

The fledgling experience industry that we operate in certainly has its issues. It is young, fragmented, undisciplined, varied in methodologies, ungoverned by a single guiding body and threatened by a perceived lack of credibility. I believe this has to change, and fast, if our industry is to be taken seriously by the marketing directors accustomed to seeing only the enormous sample sizes typically generated by purely quantitative market research.

At Foviance, our strength is our experience, our ability to specialise, and our judgement about when and how to engage our clients in surveys, panels or web analytics work. I believe that more than any other organisation in our industry, we have the varied skill set and broad abilities to combine both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in innovative, synergetic media research practices. And with 43 of the Top 100 FTSE already on board as clients, I’d say the industry’s top marketing directors agree.