Customer World

Does measurement kill creativity?

I was reading an interesting article in a blog that has been in my mind and  have been discussing this for sometime - does measurement kill creativity? The article has some interesting points:

Many times I have been in a meeting with angry marketers, designers, or agency account managers because I was demonstrating that their ideas didn’t work. Didn’t work for the business that is. Meeting quantitative goals online, when you take the pain to define them, is something very hard to do; amazingly, people tend not to behave the way we would like them to!

To me, people who think measurement kills creativity simply have problems handling accountability. Businesses constantly face problems, and finding solutions to those problems is when creativity is at its most useful. Creativity performs best under pressure, and it’s measurement’s role to apply it.

I could not agree more with some of the points made here not just for online marketing but for any multi-channel marketing program. I think there needs to be a right balance between measurement and creativity across all media vehicles - TV, internet, direct mail, email, mobile, social media etc. Just blind measurement focus, tends to reduce the "need to experiment mindset" as everybody who is involved with the marketing programs then is worried about results and never try to innovate due to fear of failure. While on the other hand just being creative tends to be a silo and self-fulfilling proposition where there is very little 'acceptance of accountability'. Hence, there is a defensive approach to results and there always tends to be a blame game on how results were not truly measured, the metrics used was wrong etc. 

I used to, in my earlier job, talk of concept of the need for "IMAGINACTION" in marketing programs - where imagination without action and action without imagination, has no place in marketing programs. The account managers and marketers need to do both if customers need to be involved and engaged with their programs.

Retention is the new acquisition

Joseph Jaffe makes some incredible points in his new book Flip The Funnel.

Most industries really forget existing customers in their strive to grow market share through new acquisitions. For example, the auto industry is no exception. He makes some fantastic points on how Automotive industry must focus on retention as a foundation for acquisition:

Instead of “ending” all outreach efforts at the point of customer purchase, why not use this moment of truth to kick relationship building efforts into high gear? For some reason, most auto brands become goldfish the moment their customers drive out of their showrooms with their new leased car. Out of site. Out of mind.

Here are some opportunities that he identifies:

Acknowledgment – everything from courtesy follow-up calls to period check-ins; calls on birthdays; updates on new accessories, technology patches. And then again there are the two most powerful words in the English language, “Thank you” (there’s also I’m sorry but that’s another story for another day). The other day I went into a local bank to apply for a loan. My contact made a point to introduce me to the owner of the bank. When last did you meet the owner of your local dealership? Do you even know who they are? Or more importantly, do they even know who you are?

Dialogue – Does your local salesperson have a Facebook page? Maybe they should? What about the brand itself: are they active on Twitter? Does that even mean anything? More importantly how do they escalate or route queries or concerns to the right and relevant parties?

In the automotive world, there is a gaping chasm between sales and service (support).

I could not quite disagree with him on this. Take a look a host of opportunities available for them

Not many companies or brands have mastered the art of treating retention as a form of acquisition. They neither have templates nor a  follow-up plan of how to leverage this. This either ends-up in poor investments in retention or even if they invest in retention programs, there is no organized method of  building a value out of the efforts that are put in. Hence, the results are neither measured nor made a part of the overall enterprise-wide initiative.

Remember, retention cannot be made a department responsibility or accountability but needs an organization-wide ownership. This has catalytic effect on acquisition because of better word-of-mouth, better customer experience, better customer feedback gathering and resolution across departments.

When is your company ready to treat retention as a form of acquisition? Make it happen today.   

Michelin's famously anonymous intrigue misses a trick or two!

Michelin has come-up with lovely idea to connect with their customers - famouslyanonymous.com. This is a great case for open-source marketing! This is perhaps how marketing will be done in the future for many brands.

The Michelin guide was first published in France in 1900 as a free directory that offered listings of hotels to promote road travel which would in turn help sales of Michelin brand tires. By 1926, they started charging for the guide and also started rating the restaurants. Michelin has its secret reviewers going into restaurants and giving them a 3 star rating to them based on their experience. Now, they seem to be making the identity of these reviewers public and therefore giving it a lot of credibility.

Here's my experience of the customer engagement and the gaps that I saw

I had visited the website as it generated a lot of interest in me due to  high decibel PR. While the campaign seems to be at a teaser  stage just now, the website had some interesting content around the history of the guide etc. I wanted to see the interview with the inspectors section and it asked me to comeback on Oct 5th. This is where they I felt they got it all wrong and dropped the ball!

Take a look at some great opportunities to build  the depth of this engagement further with consumers:

1. Interview Alert:  They could have asked me to register for the interview alert with inspectors as and when it happens on the site. A simple and easy trail that I could have left behind - build a prospect database for the guide. I would have gladly agreed to do so. Oct 5th is quite a long way off and I might just forget to revisit the website amongst my other commitments. Hence, the engagement needs to be at the behest of the brand and not leave it to chance of my coming back.
2. E-book Track: Having come-up with a great story on the heritage of the guide, there was an interesting opportunity that seemed to be available - to capture my identity to build a dialog further. Brands need to understand conversations like this happen over multiple touches with  consumers. The heritage story has interesting levers to "extend the conversation"!
3. Leveraging the power of multi-channel for trial:  There is a huge opportunity for this campaign to use a multi-stage, multi-channel campaign approach which seems to have been missed. There is a great case for using mobile marketing by registering the vistors' mobile numbers and texting them on "interesting happenings on this website or restaurants" when they are not on the net. Also, if  consumers don't pre-book, there can be a trigger for the 'trial' of the guide. Consumers could use mobile texting(SMS) or email alerts to know more about a particular restaurant of their interest and their rating. This could act as a "sampling" for the new guide and encourage more purchase interest in the guide. This will open-up new opportunities for dialog and a continous one too.

In the world of open-source marketing and web conversations, there is a need to look at building the dialog thro' bits and bytes all the time. One must be able to link every "customer interaction chain" into a next step that can fulfil a behavioural objective - reinforce, reopen the dialog, inform, reiterate etc. and this is critical if the campaign objectives have to be met.

Five levels of customer experience maturity

Here's a lovely article by Jessica on how customer experience is set to become the cornerstone for successful companies of tomorrow. According to me, the actionable items - going beyond lofty beliefs and intention, that need to be taken have been summarized very well in this article. The questions companies need to ask themselves are simple and easy to get answers for, in terms of how well they do on these parameters.

The key point is companies need to answer these questions from a customers' point of view rather than from their point of view:

1. Did the interactions meet your needs?
2. How easy is the company to work with?
3. How enjoyable are these firms to work with?

Key strategies( according to Bruce Temkin,  vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research), for building long lasting customer experience are:

• Obsess about customer needs, not product features: Adding this gadget or that widget may look cool, but if the "innovation" confuses the customer, the entire purpose is lost. Temkin encouraged the audience to engage in a "LIRM"-ing process: listen, interpret, react, and monitor. These elements, he said, are critical to developing a program to capture the Voice of the Customer.
• Reinforce the brand with every interaction, not just communication: Every employee in the company needs to understand the brand message and the brand promise. Every interaction should be based on this promise, a promise that must be insulated from damage when times get tough and cuts need to be made.
• Treat customer experience as a competence, not a function: Customer service is everyone's priority, not just that of the contact center. Call it "customer experience," "customer advocacy," "customer insight—anything, Temkin pleaded, that avoids dumping it into a siloed department. "The customer experience team cannot be another ‘function,' " Temkin said. "The group has to remain as a support to other parts of the organization." The leader of this group, he added, can be anyone — the CIO, the CMO, the COO — but the person cannot be more than two levels under the CEO. More important, whoever leads the group must possess enthusiasm about the cause — and be a champion for it.

To truly evaluate where your company's initiatives stand today, here's a scale to measure and improve your customer experience plans:

• Level 1: Interested (19 percent) - customer experience is important, but funding and upper-level support is minimal.
• Level 2: Invested (22 percent) - customer experience is important and initial programs are being put in place -- but the effort is still not connected with profitability for the organization.
• Level 3: Committed (11 percent) - customer experience is critical to the company and executives understand how it's connected to fundamental results: It's not customer experience for customer experience's sake.
• Level 4: Engaged (8 percent) - customer experience is a core part of the company's strategy and objectives.
• Level 5: Embedded (4 percent) - it's in the company's DNA, the essence of everything and anything the company does.

Nissan gets customers involved with lost keys

NY Times reports:

HOW does a carmaker unlock the door to reaching distracted, elusive customers in an increasingly competitive category? Nissan North America is hoping the answer may lie with, um, keys.

For the promotion, 20,000 key rings will be deliberately “lost” in bars, concert halls, sports arenas and other public places in seven large markets.

Each key ring will have three keys, all real, and two tags. The biggest key resembles a car key and the other two look as if they could fit the locks on house or office doors.

One tag declares, “If found, please do not return,” because the Altima “has Intelligent Key with push-button ignition, and I no longer need these,” a reference to the technology that allows an Altima owner to start the car by pressing a button on the dash rather than inserting a key.

The same tag invites the finder to learn more about the ignition system by visiting a section of the Nissan Web site (nissanusa.com/altima).

The other tag, labeled “Gas Card,” resembles the plastic keychain devices for electronic payment sponsored by service stations like Exxon and Mobil. The tag offers the finder of the key ring a chance to enter a sweepstakes, either by sending text messages or visiting another Web site (altimakeys.com), which is to be available this week.

Just-in-time shifts based on customer flows

Walmart has come-up with an innovative worker shift system. Shifts will be based on customer flows and employees will know it  3 weeks before!

I think this is an interesting evolution where shoppers, customer service and optimization of costs are at the central focus of this decision. As we move from a "mass manufacturing" era to "mass customization" era, new management principles and methods have to be invented for the companies of the future. We are yet to see some innovations in this area. If Alfred Sloan changed the auto manufacturing thinking for GM or if Henry Ford brought-in the mass manufacturing methods during early 1920s, the new service economy will have to dump the old economy rules and transition to new ones. Because, 24x7 businesses need to find innovative ways of developing superior customer service while balancing it with fair HR policies.

MSNBC reports:

Wal-Mart said the new system ensures that stores are fully staffed at peak shopping times and it takes into account the hours employees prefer to work.

“It is much friendlier and more predictable than the previous system in that it actually asks for our associates preferences of when they prefer to work,” Clark said.

She said under the old system, store managers drew up schedules based on the level of sales in a store. Now, increased staffing will coincide with times when customer traffic surges, she said.

Toyota adds customer-centricity to its design technology

Toyota has come with an interesting design concept to stop drunken driving.According to news reports:

Toyota Motor Corp. is developing a fail-safe system for cars that detects drunken drivers and automatically shuts the vehicle down if sensors pick up signs of excessive alcohol consumption.

Cars fitted with the detection system will not start if sweat sensors in the driving wheel detect high levels of alcohol in the driver's bloodstream, according to a report carried by the mass-circulation daily, Asahi Shimbun.

The system could also kick in if the sensors detect abnormal steering, or if a special camera shows that the driver's pupils are not in focus. The car is then slowed to a halt, the report said.

The world's No. 2 automaker hopes to fit cars with the system by the end of 2009, according to the report.