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Our Top Ten Posts of 2012

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Nupur Chatterjee

The Percepta team in Europe have spent this past year understanding, analysing and making the best out of customer service, experience and insight trends and news to deliver the best for our clients and partners. This process has led to some great blog posts and we’ve put together ten of our most popular ones in this roundup of 2012. We hope 2013 brings our clients and partners across the globe, as well as our teams working with them, heaps of success, knowledge and joy. Wishing all our readers a prosperous 2013!

Our top ten posts of 2012:

Popularity, Influence and Loyalty

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Eva Sturm

Within social media marketing, three of the most talked about issues at the moment are fans on Facebook, followers on Twitter and endorsements on LinkedIn. In the past these key words were mainly reserved for celebrities and influential people. They have fans, they have followers (although they are often referred to as groupies in this context) and they use their influence on others to endorse brands or products. In today’s world, what does it really mean to be fan of somebody on Facebook, follow someone on twitter and be endorsed by others on LinkedIn?

For stars and celebrities it generally means the more fans / followers they have, the more income and popularity they receive. The more popularity they get, the greater the possibility of gaining extra income by endorsing others or their products. The concept of celebrities as brands is widely known, but the actual status of their fans is often neglected, especially once the artist can actually be called a star. Fans and followers are customers, who often have a strong emotional bond towards their subject of admiration. This generally indicates a high level of loyalty as well. Yet, the emotionality of this customer relationship may be the cause of its ruin if it is not cherished and respected. Does the same apply to fans and followers on social media? And what about the relationships created in either circumstance?

I recently read an article about a maid who was supposedly fired after asking a celebrity staying at the hotel she worked at for an autograph. Now, even though this might not have been the most professional approach for her to go autograph hunting while at work, I wonder whether this celebrity thought about the impact her actions may have on the loyalty of her customers, her fans. The mentioned celebrity now denies having had this maid fired, but what impact do you think even the possibility of this event will have on fans and followers?

Similarly, in the run up to the American Presidential election a very controversial comment was made on a company’s twitter account for all its followers and the general public to see. This tweet associated the death of President Obama’s grandmother and his first Presidential victory. Even though the company afterwards apologised stating that this was the mistake of one employee posting a private message on a company page, what impact do you think this incident had on the base of followers of this company and its reputation in the whole?

Being a fan, follower or subscriber of an individual or a brand therefore allows individuals the power to always know what is happening in the world of brands and celebrities. One can then either endorse or be critical of their doings. The consequence of this is crucial for the brand or person being followed. Through new technologies, anything celebrities or brands do can initiate a ripple effect on social media. This can either have a positive or negative effect on their social influence and a similar incremental influence on their fan or customer loyalty. This influence may not only tarnish their own reputation and loyalty, but also of everyone who endorsed their brand or has been endorsed by this celebrity. So how do you ensure this never happens to you? And how would you react if it did?

In Brands We Trust

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Christian Gondek

Brand Image drives Loyalty and repurchase decisions Brand loyalty and awareness are some of the greatest drivers of purchase decision in the European automotive market and beyond. How do I know? Let me tell you that years of feedback surrounding questions like “How can you drive such a car?” or “Hey, I’d have never believed this company could produce products so well!” has made me realise this. Especially due to the large variety of products sold under one brand, the image of the brand seems to replace specific products and becomes the umbrella reflecting the reputation and strength of the brand itself.

Research and studies about brand impact and loyalty have been undertaken over several decades. Yet, little is known about the real impact of and reasons behind brand awareness. Taking the historical example of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, blind tests have shown that consumers favoured Pepsi without knowing which soft-drink they tested. After the brand of the product was revealed during the field-test, 65% of the subjects considered Coca-Cola being the superior soft-drink. Interestingly, brand awareness seems to beat human senses like natural taste. Consequently, it would be reasonable to assume that rational decisions are heavily impacted by power of brands.

So, what is it all about? Some research highlights emotional positioning of brands whereas others focus on the perceived trust-worthiness of brands and companies. In a nutshell, most studies agree with the fact that brand reputation and image are key elements of repurchase decisions. Thus, companies need to enforce their brand image through all communication channels to all stakeholders in order to achieve their desired positioning.

Consider the example of Apple. It becomes obvious why Apple works hard to train their sales team to reflect the Apple experience in after-sales and sales. Given current technologies and social networks, positive impact on word of mouth can be taken for granted by such approaches. A few weeks ago, my own iPhone fell into a bath tub. After three hours of sorrow and one post on Facebook, the direct response came out of my personal network: “Just visit the Apple Store, as long as the iPhone is still in one piece, they will offer you a brand new one for the amount of 199 Euros.” You know what, this really worked and made me wake up this morning and order a new iPad mini. Why I have ordered it given the fact that I already own an iPad – I really don’t know. But for sure, I love the brand.

What are your thoughts around brands and brand loyalty? Have you ever recognized a brand fulfilling their brand image in their operating business or the other way around? I am keen to learn your thoughts and experiences.

Customer Loyalty and Generation Y

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Eva Sturm

Generation Y (Gen Y for short) is a widely used term to refer to the Millennial Generation composed of people aged between 18 and 30. In the UK alone it numbers almost ten million people. This Generation is connected, influential and profitable, has a high purchasing power, and is thus a significant component of any business strategy. Yet, the question arises around how best to create lasting relationships and engage with this generation.

Recent research results by a leading customer experience company has shown that two key customer loyalty drivers among the Generation Y segment are general brand popularity and word-of-mouth from friends and family. As a result, the decision-making process and loyalty of Gen Y members are more changeable than that of older generations. However, loyalty programs do make a difference – according to the research, 74% of Gen Y individuals stated that a good loyalty program is likely to influence their purchase decision. Added value through rewards or incentives attract this generation – ranging from straight cash-back options over product rewards to soft incentives. Irrespective of the choice of reward or incentive, the key consideration is that they can earn them fast and frequently.

Trust remains a major issue for young people joining loyalty programs. Companies need to establish an environment of trust where customers can be sure that their personal data is secure and only used exclusively for its intended purpose in an ethical manner. This insight is especially important for companies because with the prospect of rewards, Gen Y consumers are more likely to share further information.

One major difference between Gen Y customers and those of an older generation is their use of technology when engaging with brands and loyalty programs. Mobile devices like laptops, tablets and smart phones are preferred for browsing the web over desktop PCs. They are therefore more likely to engage and conduct business with brands and companies through smartphone apps and social media. In fact, about a quarter of Gen Y consumers use apps and over half of them utilise social media to interact with loyalty programs, and prefer mobile apps over plastic reward cards.

This, however, leads us back to the social component of trying to connect with Generation Y consumers through loyalty programs. Not only do they want to be rewarded for sharing their information, but they want to hear from you and build relationships at the same time. So how does an organisation do it? How can a brand successfully attract the attention of the Gen Y consumer and ensure their loyalty? Let us know your thoughts via the comments section.

Succeeding at Social Media Customer Service

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Nupur Chatterjee

An article published on PR Squared last month gave us all something interesting to think about. It consisted of an overview of what Frank Eliason, the SVP of Social Media at Citibank felt about social media as a channel for customer service, and how companies are failing at it. Eliason addresses several issues within the customer service business, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how many of these issues we’ve spoken about here at the Percepta Blog. Briefly condensing Eliason’s and our views:

Who owns Social Media Customer Service?
Where does customer service via social media sit within your company? Is it considered a function governed primarily by your Marketing Team, your PR team or your Customer Services Department? This needs to be defined by every organisation, social media isn’t just a plug-in channel to rest of your business. It has the power to alter your brand image, because it gives you the power to connect with consumers and potential consumers, and also gives you the power to decide what you want to do with social media. There are no fixed rules. Define your strategy, and get the support you need by:

Getting senior management buy in
Everyone within the company, specially those with the power to make decisions, needs to understand the significance and potential of social media. As with Customer Experience Management, social media needs to be supported by every department, and the heads of these departments should be aware of the strategy. Social Media provides opportunity for several functions within an organisation. There’s no reason why your organisation shouldn’t be making the best of it.

Social Influence
Frank Eliason believes an organisation shouldn’t channel their focus on to customers with high Klout (social influence) scores. Previously on this blog, we’ve spoken about influence measurement and its importance in social media customer service, as well as the Net Promoter Score and its relevance in today’s digitally focussed times. While we know social influence scores and the NPS score do convey an important customer insight, it isn’t and shouldn’t be a standalone metric. They need to be used in conjunction with customer surveys and other methods of customer insight gathering. After all, if a customer has a higher social influence score, he/she isn’t necessarily an influencer in your field of business, and a customer with a low Klout score has the potential to create content that could go viral.

Bigger doesn’t always mean better! The key to successful customer service, whether online or offline depends on whether you place the customer at the heart of your business. Make customer and customer service and integral part of your business strategy and you will be able to serve better. That seems obvious enough, but considering social media customer service and all the debate around its success rates and calculating RoI, remember success is a metric you define for your business. Make your approach to social media service customer centric and you will be able to understand your customers’ needs and create a winning strategy. Those are my thoughts, what do you think are the key steps in delivering successful social media customer service?

Cold Calling: Just as it Says

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Alan Bates

As someone who really values a strong relationship with the brands I do business with, I find it increasingly troubling how much focus companies still put on cold calling and ‘cold’ telemarketing (i.e. they know about you, but don’t use it).

Whilst there are some benefits to companies (otherwise, I assume they wouldn’t do it), the number of complaints about cold sales calls has rocketed, suggesting that customers are becoming less and less tolerant. A whopping increase of 147% year on year complaints to the Telephone Preference Service (Source: Marketing Week) about cold calls is not a good result. The fact that nearly 18 million people are registered with the service should be an indicator that they are not particularly welcome. So why do it?

The route to strong future sales growth is surely focussed on building trust, a connection and a real understanding of your customers. The sales guy calling me at 8pm to sell me more services – from a company I already do business with – does not sit well at all. If they were to match the service to my needs then I may be a little more tolerant. Given I haven’t changed my bank or mobile provider for at least ten years, you would like to think they knew more about me and how I use their services.

So if not just to gather updated information on customer preferences (which I can understand), what other benefits do companies realise from cold calling? Would an investment in customer research, insight and loyalty be more worthwhile?

More and more big businesses want to be seen to be moving forward and strengthening consumer bonds, yet many won’t let go of the past.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Me and My Network: Exploring Customer Lifetime Value

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Lindsay Morrison

Exploring Customer Lifetime Value and customer network When I was at university, we were taught that the customer lifetime value (CLV) can make or break a company. And to a certain extent I believe this to be true. If Jim regularly spends more in a shop than Jane, over a period of time his value will be higher. But are there any circumstances in which Jane becomes more valuable than Jim? Let’s explore the concept of Customer Lifetime Network Value….

Jim spends £400 on a television, and on average purchases one every 2 years. Jane only spends £200 on a television, purchasing every 4 years. In the space of 20 years, Jim spends £4000 with the company, yet Jane only spends £1000. Jim has a higher CLV than Jane.

But what happens when Jane tells 10 people of her shopping experience? Over the course of the 20 years, that may bring in a further £10,000 (£1000 per person, if they spend in the same way as Jane). Jim on the other hand, tells only 1 person, who spends a further £4000 in 20 years. Let’s revaluate. Jim’s CLV (including his network) is now at £8000, while Jane’s has reached £11,000. Jane now has the greater value.

In other words, a customer’s network can make a great deal of difference. But are companies taking this seriously? Do they understand the value that word-of-mouth like this can have on their business? They may not have 10 years ago, when Jane’s network of 10 may have consisted of close friends or family, all of whom may not have been likely to spend in the same way. But now they may be strangers, reading her review of the product online, with the full intent to purchase. After all, more people are using TripAdvisor now than ever before. So can we afford to ignore the Customer Lifetime Network Value? Or perhaps more importantly, can businesses afford to ignore it?

Who Owns Your Social Media Customer Service?

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Nupur Chatterjee

Last year, we discussed Customer Experience Management and whether the development of its strategy should be owned by Marketing, HR or Customer Services. I came across a similar question the other day, while listening in on a presentation about social media customer service. Who should define your social media customer service strategy? Should it be the Marketing department who owns all the content linked to your brand or should it be the customer services department whose aim is to find and resolve customer concerns?

One very interesting point of view offered by the presenter was that customer service on social media is actually a part of an organisation’s PR strategy. It is as important as content and as critical as good customer relations. And just like Customer Experience Management, it should be owned by the entire company. One could argue that a representative from the marketing team could work alongside customer service representatives to define and execute search and rescue programmes for customers on social media. This is possible, of course, but is risky due to the evolving nature of the medium and the exponential exposure all social communication is subject to.

Experts would advise you to spend a significant amount of time planning your social media strategy across the board – figuring out the budget, the approach, the tone, resources and the tools you’d need. Another aspect to keep in mind is that social media strategy will have to be revised every few months, because it is a dynamic medium; the forums, tools and your social customers are constantly evolving.

It could be that only one department in your company cannot effectively own your social media customer service, and just like Customer Experience Management, the buy in and effort put into its execution should come from your company as a whole. Where does customer service through social media sit within your company? Is your current approach working or would you consider splitting its ownership across different departments? Let me know via comments. Thanks!

Bigger Doesn’t Always Mean Better

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Alan Bates

With the announcement by Lloyds Banking Group this week that they are about to ‘overhaul’ the handling of customer complaints came a small reminder for me from recent experiences of working with clients. A well-recognised brand which attempts to portray confidence, professionalism and customer focus isn’t always representative of what is happening on the inside.

In this age of consumer focus and customer-driven strategy (there are many more buzz words that I will avoid), you would be forgiven for thinking that such big organisations who employ thousands of people in customer marketing, customer service, customer relations and customer insight actually have the customer at the heart of the culture.

Not so, it would appear. And so Lloyds’ announcement that it was about time it had ‘one customer view’ is a big move, albeit a bit late. Now, maybe they can be cut some slack in that they have just joined three big brands in a very difficult market. But it would seem that, even within the individual brands, delivering a coordinated and choreographed service was slightly beyond their reach.

It’s not easy to change quickly, in fact for most businesses that just won’t happen. And a lot of the delays aren’t just about finances and technology, but in the heart of the business – it’s culture. If you drive and reward success on call targets, sales volumes and the odd half-hearted customer feedback round on the ‘front line’ then we shouldn’t be surprised that the whole business might just be run that way.

Some of the best businesses for customer engagement are those that have always had a culture for loyalty. Being the best for great customer experience is much more important than just being the best in a sector or industry. The energy sector demonstrates this point; it may be great to be the top of the big six for customer satisfaction, but if that top place only comes with around 68% satisfaction in an industry where 70% of customers said they were not fully satisfied but only 20% switched provider, it’s not much kudos.

My view.

Run your customer service like a small business (especially if it is a small business). If each person/team/department looked after their customers as if they were their very own, as if that customer coming back for more relied on that one interaction and experience, satisfaction and loyalty will follow.
Give your people the tools. A customer won’t care that you have seven different teams who deal with seven aspects of their account. If you want your customers to have a great experience, you need to let everyone see what that experience looks like. In addition, trust those who deliver for your customers to make the right decision. Give a policy to hide behind and an environment that doesn’t foster ‘do the right thing’ and don’t be surprised when your bland service doesn’t break any records.
Use customer feedback. If you take time to find out what customers really want, and you act on those wants and drivers of satisfaction (not just cherry-pick the ones that suit you) then you will see the results.
Reward and recognise outcomes, not outputs. Sometimes the smallest and simplest of reports show the greatest of results. If you want your customers to come back, to recommend you to others and to expand the services they need from you then recognise it won’t come from a hard focus on handling times and volumes alone.

Of course, there are many more ingredients to a great customer experience. I would love to hear your views on making your experience better. Who does it well and who deserves your loyalty?

Social Media Management – Personalised or Personal?

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Emma Kennedy

Vodacom, the largest major mobile communications provider in South Africa, has developed its customer service strategy through utilising social channels within their call centres as new platforms to better engage with customers. As a result, customer service agents will be able to seamlessly switch from social media interactions to another mode of contact without losing context or data.

In relation to this, a colleague of mine was recently writing about the multi channel approach to communication, highlighting the importance of face to face communication as an integral part of an overall communications strategy.

With many companies recognising the potential benefits of adopting a multi channel approach to customer service, and much discussion of late surrounding the concept of personalisation within the service industry, how important is it to be able to put a face to a name when dealing with customer service advisors?

Perhaps looking at two different examples can help provide some food for thought.

KLM Royal Dutch airlines are no strangers to social media. The company has been at the forefront of some of the most innovative social media initiatives designed to enhance the customer experience. In November 2010 it launched the ‘KLM Surprise’ programme. This involved flight attendants searching passengers’ social media profiles and meeting these passengers at the gate with a personalised gift. Following this, the airline announced its new ‘Meet & Seat’ programme, where participating passengers could view each other’s Facebook or LinkedIn profiles and use this information to choose who to sit next to during a flight. Despite this level of personalisation, the people behind social media at KLM are faceless – the company Facebook prohibits any personal details, such as names or email addresses of employees being disclosed and any tweets come from a generic KLM account. Wouldn’t we like to know the people behind the corporate accounts? Get to know the people themselves who champion these personalised campaigns?

Jaguar Land Rover’s approach to social media management, however, is a different one. Employees who manage and contribute to the JLR UK PR Twitter page are named, which they believe creates a much deeper connection between the brand and the customer. Furthermore, Jaguar Land Rover deploys a strictly personalised approach with each individual client. When a client first interacts with the brand they are assigned a dedicated advisor who will manage their case from start to finish, regardless of the number of interactions the customer may have with the brand. The customer knows their dedicated advisor on first name terms and is given their email address and direct line so they can call their advisor directly. But does customer service need to be this personalised? Should it matter that we know who we are speaking to as long as the overall service is efficient?

Some may argue that you do not need to who you are interacting with as long as you are pleased with the overall service but for me, it is the human aspect that makes these interactions that little bit more pleasant. It begs the question – why would a company want to be known for personalisation but not for being personal?

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Creating customer loyalty

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Category Archives: Marketing

In Brands We Trust

Cold Calling: Just as it Says

Me and My Network: Exploring Customer Lifetime Value

Bigger Doesn’t Always Mean Better