Resources

An Insight Into A Big Media Player – STV

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Emma Kennedy

The Percepta marketing team recently attended the Communications Breakfast in Glasgow with guest speaker Rob Woodward, Chief Executive at STV. The theme of the breakfast was ‘Digital STV – the Future’, focussing on the vision of the organisation and how television is going to affect us and the businesses we operate in, in years to come.

Rob opened his presentation by demonstrating that people who watch TV are more than just viewers – they are consumers. They dictate what they watch, where and when, and this has been heightened by the ability to stop, record and play live TV. He pointed out that this will only become more evident as the lines between television and internet become increasingly blurred.

Being one of the first channels to launch its own channel on YouTube, undoubtedly places STV at the forefront of digital media. Rob pointed to the fact that their success in this area can be attributed to the combination of excellent technology coupled with an enthusiastic and skilled workforce. Creating an effective team ethos and culture is central to the progression of the organisation, and Rob gave us an insight in to how they do this at STV:

Be accessible internally and externally
Trust instinct
Instil confidence in the team
Know when to make change in your organisation
Communication internally with staff is key – they must be informed
Implement and measure your KPI’s
Companies can ‘super perform’ by inspiring others to over achieve

Rob talked about the 3 pillars of STV – Connectivity, Community and Creativity. Our data rich environment means we know more about customers than ever before, and STV utilise this information to create a community with customers. At STV customer insight is key to enabling new relationships, something that Rob insists is a marketing must for all businesses who want to survive and thrive.

Facegram or Instabook: What Does It Mean For Users?

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Nupur Chatterjee

We’ve all read how the 13 Instagram employees woke up Monday morning richer by much more than anyone had imagined! Facebook acquired the photo app company for $1 Billion, which has managed to raise quite a few eyebrows, because Instagram was valued at $500 Million on the 6th of April, 2012; that’s four days before it was bought for double that amount.

Does Zuckerberg intend to annihilate his competition, since Facebook’s strength lies in photo sharing, or does he intend to turn it into another channel to push ads through? Instagram has an impressive user base of almost 30 million registered users, but almost no revenue. I’ve read a couple of articles today that explain how Instagram puts the soul back into social sharing, making the experience more personal and intimate through the art of photography, tinged with nostalgia through multiple filters. Facebook, on the other hand, is seen as a social media conglomerate, which has managed to turn friendly social interactions between friends into highly targeted marketing campaigns for advertisers. Will Facebook keep Instagram alive as it is and as users like it or should we expect a hybrid photo sharing app for our timelines soon?

Another reason I’m writing this blog is to address the impeccable timing of the acquisition. Instagram launched its app for Android devices just last week, prior to which it was available only to iPhone, iPod and iPad users. Is this another way of staying ahead of Google, Facebook? No matter which angle I consider, it seems like a very interesting scenario, for the two companies involved, their users as well as their competition.

What do you think this acquisition holds for you as a user, and for the market? Let me know through your comments!

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!

The Multichannel Question: More or Better?

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Lindsay Morrison

In last week’s blog, I began to talk a little about multichannel customer communication and the positive impact certain forms can have on customer loyalty. In particular, I picked up on the fact that face to face communication, albeit not as common as it was ten years ago, has the ability to create a strong bond between customer and company.

This begs the question – if one such channel can influence the experience your customers have so much, should you dedicate your time and resources to this channel alone? Or should consistency across all channels of communication be maintained?

Let’s explore both sides of the argument.

A recent study of UK retailers revealed that 70% believed the in-store experience they provide for customers delivers the highest level of customer service, and is the most profitable of all their channels.

Results from a separate study highlight that more than half (54%) of retail banking customers prefer to communicate with their bank in branch, and that this channel scored the highest for customer satisfaction (marginally higher than online communication and significantly higher than telephone communication).

Do these results suggest that UK retailers and banks should spend more on the service they provide in branch rather than over the phone? Certainly this would vary from sector to sector; those in finance may consider the branch to be more influential, whereas energy firms may find telephone communication harnesses greater power over customer loyalty. But can they afford to spend the time and resources on determining which channel is best for them?

On the other side of the coin, a whopping 98% of the retailers surveyed above recognised that a multi channel approach is necessary to remain competitive in the market, and more than two thirds believed that inconsistent levels of service across multiple channels can damage customer loyalty.

Results here begin to demonstrate the potential power of the multichannel approach, and its influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Perhaps the retailers above could adopt the same approach to customer service for all channels as they do for their most profitable. But will this prove equally as expensive?

Whichever side of the argument you come down on, one question remains. Can a multichannel approach only prove beneficial if a consistent service is provided across the board? Let me know what you think below.

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?

Communication: Everyone’s Talking About It

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Lindsay Morrison

How do consumers communicate with an organisation? How do organisations communicate with consumers?

Today, consumers can talk to a brand representative over the phone, through email, and online through social networks. But amidst all the discussions over “multi channel” customer service, whatever happened to good old fashioned face-to-face?

A large utilities firm is putting faith back in this method –equipping call centre staff with video links to create more face-to-face contact with customers – as they believe it has the power to encourage current customers to stay and lost customers to return.

But should we all be including face-to-face in our “multi channe” strategies, if it has the power to increase customer loyalty?

Perhaps examples from other industries can demonstrate the true potential of face-to-face communication, like o2.

Last Thursday, the Percepta UK marketing team attended Dunning Design’s monthly “Communications Breakfast”, hosted by o2. They presented “o2 Ville”, a collection of innovations designed to help consumers cope with all their communication demands. o2 Money senior partner Martyn Wallace opened the presentation with a demonstration of how many of us could begin paying for products or services using an internet enabled mobile device, rather than with a debit or credit card. And even as one audience member questioned the speaker on the problems o2 may encounter with the battery life of such devices, most attendees seemed taken by the idea. Tim Craven of o2 Wifi then took over the floor to explain how the organisation plans to provide dedicated nationwide Wifi hotspots, providing internet access for consumers, whatever they are doing, wherever they are. Moreover, this would be available for everyone, regardless of your mobile network.

Lastly, o2 Health associate Julian Rolfe introduced “Side by Side”, an innovative scheme which allows clinicians to speak to their patients hundreds of miles away, and share medical information such as MRI scans and x-rays with other medical professionals. o2 suggests that the technology can save on unnecessary and often time consuming travel. A pilot “Side by Side” scheme was rolled out by o2 and NHS Western Isles in 2011, and immediately made an impact to the lives of both patients and clinicians in this remote area. Some statistics to highlight this impact include:

67% of clinicians said that their ability to diagnose patients had increased
80% of clinicians said that they were able to see patients sooner and with greater ease
Travel was reduced by 9 hours for some patients
Around £6500 was saved on travel throughout the trial period – and was put toward other resources
Patients’ satisfaction scores recorded over the pilot scheme was higher

Overall, NHS Western Isles found that service capacity had improved greatly over the trial period.

As we left the presentation, I began thinking about how this technology could service other sectors as well as health.

For NHS Western isles, the need for face to face communication over any other form was clear, but could it be used alongside other methods? Could businesses begin to use such technology to reach out to their customers, and create a stronger bond? Communication, after all, is the key….let me know your thoughts on this.

When Social Media Goes Wrong – Poor BlackBerry

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Alan Bates

My personal online accounts have been flooded with comments from friends, colleagues and business contacts about the recent ‘disaster’ caused by system failure from BlackBerry owner Research in Motion (RIM).

So what got people so upset?

Well, firstly it was the problem itself. People today just expect that, as most of our lives are run by or with technology, it should always work – 100%, every minute of every day. That just doesn’t happen.

But overwhelmingly, the comments I read are about the complete lack of information from BlackBerry, with one or two messages posted each day on Twitter advising that something is wrong (well that’s a no-brainer to every single user). What makes this even worse is that news channels report the PR releases that all will be fixed soon and the days tick on where some customers just don’t see a fix in sight.

From such a tech-savvy business, I think we could be right in saying we expected them to handle the failure, and importantly the expectation, much better.

Why have so many channels of communication and not use them? The nature of Twitter, for example, is right now! Not 12 hours ago, but the last few minutes.

So, what could we learn from this?

Firstly, be multichannel. If you are going to open channels of communication with your customers, use them and allow them to be used.

Secondly, engage. The disaster might not be just so bad if only someone had kept things updated. From the messages I have read, slowly but surely over the past 24 hours, people started to come online. Well that’s a good message, so let your customers know that is happening and reassure.

Thirdly, act. Fix the problem (obviously). But now it’s known that millions of customers aren’t happy, prepare for the fall out. Have a plan to respond to those complaints & requests for compensation. Get your staff up to date on your simple ‘policy’ to help them respond quickly.

Maybe, a good response from the company and a good fall-out plan might just save the day.

For the moment, I’m sticking with my Apple though – with my fingers crossed.

Alan

Hello, Do You Know I’m here?

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Luke Demery

I was recently enlisted by a friend of my father’s into helping him buy a new car. With 12 years in the automotive industry, and considering myself a bit of a petrol head, I was only too happy to help, and thought that it would be a piece of cake (and a lot of fun helping someone else spend their hard earned money). Having known him for 20 years, I knew that he have a great idea about what he wanted the car to do, he’d have researched the alternatives thoroughly and to be honest I thought my role would be to give him a seal of approval for his choice, or to make sure he wasn’t paying over the odds.

Sure enough he’d done the leg work – visited almost all the garages in his local area, and had brochures, prices lists and options lists coming out of his ears, but he was lost. Somewhere in all the information thrust upon him by the eager salespeople at the dealerships, they’d forgotten to ask him what it was he used the car for. Everything had become too complicated for him – he had been given too much choice. And he wasn’t enjoying his experience.

When I asked, he simply said he needed it to get into town to shop and pick his daughter up from the station. He wanted to do that as cheaply and safely as possible, and with the least chance of breaking down. And if it did – he wanted the dealer to look after him properly.

He didn’t care about sat nav as he knew where he was going (and happens to collect maps), he didn’t need parking sensors as he didn’t trust them, the thought of cruise control scared him half to death, and the 20 speaker stereo system wasn’t really needed for Test Match Special. He had no idea what DAB was. He wasn’t that interested in the intricacies of the finance deals, or the time it takes for a convertible roof to fully open. To make matters worse, having left the dealerships without the information he actually wanted, the days that followed brought with them postal surveys, even more brochures and business cards from the sales staff.

It struck me that perhaps the simplest concept of customer service had been ignored. Listening.

Not one of the sales staff had sat down and taken the time to find out why this gentleman was sat in front of them. What did he actually need? Not what did they think he wanted, but what did he need? They had forgotten who the most important person in that room was, and had potentially alienated him for good.

Over the next few days, he began to notice letter after letter from the various dealerships. Customer Satisfaction Surveys, even more brochures, even more special deals that didn’t interest him.

Now today’s world thrives on information. We all know that and it’s nothing new. It’s not the future – it is the now. But what of those who aren’t quite ready for it? Those who don’t want a mobile or don’t understand why they need the choice of contact by text, e-mail, twitter or Facebook? Should we abandon those who don’t want to take that route?

It seems to me that this highlights the one thing that those sales staff forgot. That the customer gets to choose how, when and where they interact with a business, and it’s up to the business to make sure it’s flexible enough to react.

It won’t be easy staying that flexible. I’m sure we all know the power of social media and modern technology. Opinions are formed, shared and reformed at a rate never before experienced. And that’s great – if you’re doing things right. If you’re not then where do you start?

The answer? Well, if I could answer that in a short blog then I’d be making millions from it – but it strikes me that there is an excellent and incredibly simply starting point.

Listen. Listen to what the customer wants from you. Listen to when they want it. Listen to how they want it. Not rocket science, but definitely effective.

What challenges have you come across (on either end) of service where you’ve either not listened/haven’t been listened to?

Thinking Outside of ‘The Box’

Posted on August 4, 2011 by admin

Television, without a doubt, is one of the greatest forms of advertising but is also one of the most costly. For a typical TV advertising campaign you’d be looking at around £40,000 to £250,000 per month…and that’s without adding on the costs of the production of the advertisement. Bearing in mind you can’t pick exactly who you want to target as the campaign is based on profile selection of Tv Show viewers, it’s not exactly the most cost effective form of advertising.

However, through Social Media, you’re able to pick exactly who you want to target, and how much you want to spend on each person. Facebook, in my opinion, is the greatest of Consumer profiling. Instead of basing your advertisement on an external product’s viewers, it lets you choose which Consumers you want to target, with profile information provided directly by the consumer…essentially cutting out ‘Middle Man’ consumer filters.

If, for example, I wanted to target users in Manchester advertising a Kitchen appliance designed for Students, I can bring back an exact number of people I could reach. A quick play about with the criteria, entering specified interest keywords (cooking, baking, eating, food etc) presents me with the following:

3,220 people
who live in the United Kingdom
who live within 80 kilometres of Manchester
between the ages of 18 and 25 inclusive
who like cooking, eating,food, baking or eating out
who are at university

Although not everyone uses Facebook, is it not better to have focussed advertising such as this and save money, especially as you can set exactly how much you want to spend per day and stop the campaign anytime, than use something such as Television Advertising and perhaps never reach your target audience?

Is your business using Facebook Ads to get your product out there? Any thoughts on the topic would be welcome.