Looking back on 2009 and forward to 2010
If there is one word that sums up the year we have just been through it would be ‘unpredictable’. I have heard it said again and again in every area of our customers’ and our own business.
A year ago, when I put together my round up of the year for the 2008 year end newsletter, the recession was really gaining momentum on the back of the credit crunch and we already faced a very difficult outlook. In 2009 with the recession in full-swing, business was in constant flux – one day there would be no projects underway the next there would be a half a dozen urgent propositions. Like every agency and consultancy in our industry, we had to become masters at expecting the unexpected and delivering great experiences for our clients. Read more…
The need for customer experience strategy
By Marty Carroll
Customer experience is not a fad. Yes the terminology is bandied about much more than before but before customer experience we had customer satisfaction and customer engagement. Using the words ‘customer experience’ implies that an organisation is looking at how consumers experience the brand in a more strategic way. Indeed we’ve been gratified to see a large number of organisations really grasp the concept and value of customer experience. Some initiatives have delivered excellent returns on investment and have proven very effective, but we now believe such initiatives are no longer enough in themselves, and here’s why.Modern customers and consumers have an unprecedented ability to communicate with each other. As a result of the comments, interactions and opinions of customers published across every digital channel, there now exists a vast knowledge pool of insights into every business, and almost complete transparency in every marketplace.
Social media strategy starting points
Social media adoption promises plenty of positive benefits to modern businesses. It is simple, quick, cost-effective, and can help organisations to reach out and collaborate with wide audiences in a variety of interactive forms that simply can’t be achieved through direct communications. Forrester Research analysts predict that by 2010, 82% of all companies will be using social media marketing. Unfortunately there are now too many companies trying their hand at social media without a well thought through strategy. They are blindly jumping on the social media bandwagon without any clear understanding of how to implement it. Companies need to take a step back and plan sound social media strategies as they would any other projects they choose to undertake.
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Focusing customer experience strategy
Many multi-channel businesses are now convinced that making an investment in tailoring their customer experience strategy is time, effort and money well spent. They’ve seen for themselves that improving the experience of customers has a demonstrable impact on engagement, as well as commercial activity if that is part of the goal. So what should be the next step for these businesses? Should they simply maintain the measurement, analysis and improvement of experience for the broadest possible range of customers? Or is there potential for some of those businesses in focusing their efforts on their most strategically important customers?It would be naïve to believe that some companies aren’t already identifying segments of their customer base that represent the largest proportion of commercial profit, in some form or another. It’s a relatively simple process to isolate and track customers by certain criteria – their postcodes perhaps, their membership of a loyalty scheme, their past purchase record, or a particular behaviour they display during their interactions. These triggers could be used to deliver an enhanced, or at least different, customer experience. Perhaps they should be guided towards particular offers or incentives that have been selected to appeal to their profile? Or maybe their interactions should be monitored so that they can be contacted by virtual or human agents if their purchasing journey is aborted for any reason? These are intriguing possibilities with plenty of potential.
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3D Secure or not?
To 3D Secure or not to, that is often the question. We did some work for one of our clients and 3D Secure was part of the study. In summary:. Read more…
Do not ignore the role of ‘user perceptibility’
Jacob Nielsen has certainly created a ‘buzz’ recently in the online world of blogs and forums. The subject – password masking should be stopped.
He outlined his case in the article ‘Stop password masking’ (June 2009) in his recent bi-weekly column (Alertbox). Password masking is typically used for login screens and login dialog boxes. This is where the password is hidden using an asterisk symbol to mask or echo the characters being entered. Read more…
Putting the ‘twit’ in Twitter
“Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you’re about as likely to find someone else interested in it.” — Lore Sjöberg. Read more…
Emotional attachment vs customer experience
Does emotional attachment to a brand prevail over the online customer experience for Internet-based companies? Read more…