HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

BE PREPARED BEFORE YOU LEAP!!!

Nowadays everybody is hype about the social media. Technology has evolved the way we communicate. But are we ready for this much talk about hype?

I have been working rigorously with a client recently. The client has invested heavily in the social media and internet marketing but nothing seems to go as planned. What they got are only non financial impacts (such as website visitors, click-throughs, facebook friends) but they have not got the financial impact that is needed which is the ROI and sales do not seem to increase. In addition, social media does not act like a genie who will just grant your wishes. Social media is not FREE!! It takes people, technology and time and all this are limited resources.

What I realized is that this client does not even have a proper CRM in his organization. The fundamental of a business is to know your customers well. What I am trying to say here is that by setting a proper CRM, you will be able to identify your customers and your customer needs. By identifying this, it will be easier to use social media in targeting and engaging your customers.

In this challenging business environment, the way you engage your customers will differentiate yourself from your competitors but the more critical issues are who and how do you want to engage your customers? We all know that the internet is a powerful tool and WOM is the most effective way to communicate but many of us just forgot about the fundamentals and just wanted to jump ahead of our competitors. But isn’t it important for us to build a solid base before we leap?

I have attached an article on what happened if you are not ready to engage your customers. You are able to view the whole article by clicking the link.

“In 2006, McDonald's launched its first blog, Open For Discussion, signaling a desire to engage with customers. Less than a year later, the blog was flooded with customer complaints about the company's decision to include toy Hummers in Happy Meals — and McDonald's was slow to respond. When your company decides to venture into social media — by starting a group on Facebook, launching a blog, or Twittering — be prepared to truly hear what your customers have to say, and act on it. Providing a forum for people to share opinions about your products and services is a great way to build customer relationships, but only if you're ready to engage.”

In my opinion, the traditional CRM (CRM1.0) is crucial and it should work together with CRM2.0. Try building up a solid base first by using the traditional CRM before we just jump into social media. If we are not careful enough, news that will go against us will spread much faster than news that is positive to us. I have attached the functionality of CRM1.0 as in the diagram and it should be the core/ pre-requisite before you start with CRM2.0.

It seems like this is my last blog for the year. Hopefully we are well prepared for the social media wave in 2010. See you all guys next year!!

The Social Media Buzz

Many organizations today are jumping into the bandwagon of social media as one of their marketing tools. What are these social media buzz is all about? Primarily, social media depends on both way interactions between the customers and the organization using technology. Social media can be in many forms such as forum, wikis, blogs, podcasts, etc. and some popular social media applications are facebook, twitter, wordpress, myspace, flickr, etc.

During the weekend, I came across an e-book on social media which I wish to share. Please click below to download or read the e-book.

The e-book will briefly gives a guide to marketers who are using social media as one of their marketing tools or anybody who are planning to pursue social media. It focuses on social media imperatives, social media metrics and other related issues. Hopefully in my next blog, I would continue on how we should embrace the social media/ web 2.0.

Is This The Way You Engage Your Customers!!!! – (part 2)

In my last blog, I have written on how bad a customer service can be. So to continue with this topic, I would like to write on how we can build customer satisfaction. Developing the right methods to gauge customer satisfaction for any organizations can be summarized as below:-

1. Understanding the organization’s goals, vision and mission and core competencies. These will affect the performance measures of what you are developing. For example, if your vision is to become a luxury product supplier, then your measures will focus more on quality rather than costs.

2. Understanding customer touchpoints. Customer touchpoints are those interactions a customer has before, during and after a transaction in respect to a purchase of your products/ services/ brand. These can be face-to-face contacts, receipts, offerings, websites and so on. Understanding the customer touchpoints is like mapping the customer internal processes to meet his needs or expectations anytime. Lists, improve and measure all the customers touchpoints in your departments/ personnel/ functions that will affect your customers experience.

3. Determine your customers’ needs at the touchpoints. Below table shows some examples of customers’ needs. List and see what is relevant to your business and customize the performance measurements which may impact your customers’ satisfaction. For example, if you’re a retailer and the availability of your products is critical for your outlet, ensure that your stocks are replenished more frequently to avoid out of stock situations for your customers.

Performance measures on customer satisfaction may vary from one business to another. However, it is crucial to align the measures to the organization’s business objectives and relate them to financial performance. Some performance measurements that we should not neglect are as below:-

1. Level of customer satisfaction
2. Customer retention
3. Customer purchasing behavior (volume and frequency)

From these measurements, the development of a customer-centric organization can be clearly defined and the above will give you a rough guide to improve customer satisfaction.

Customer Experience- Is This The Way You Engage Your Customers!!!!

I had read this blog by the Sales Ninja in regards of sales and customer service and would also like it to be the topic of latest blog. I guess many of us have experienced these scenarios and it really disgusts us with the sort of service we get. I would like to share the experience that my wife and I had gone through last week that really frustrated her.

But first, I would like to share an excerpt from the Sales Ninja blog on his experience in a branded outlet:-

Now, let’s talk about Armani, one of my favorite designer labels. I was in KLCC (a high end s.h.o.p.p.i.n.g. m.a.l.l in Kuala Lumpur), walked into Emporio Armani to get some clothes. You may or may not know, Emporio Armani is very expensive! That day, I bought about $3,000 worth of clothes.

As I was paying, I was waiting for some super service lines that this super expensive store will give me.

Know what I got? “Thank you, please come again.”

What the…?? Can’t you see my name written on my credit card? Can’t you ‘customized’ your canned speech to, “Thank you Mr. Hanzo for s.h.o.p.p.i.n.g. at Emporio Armani, the choice you made with the fine shirt and Armani Jeans is fantastic, you look absolutely great in them. (or whatever ego brushing script) Please come again.”

This is what I meant SERVICE that sucks…… It is true what the sales Ninja has wrote. By just quoting your customer’s name (which is already written in his credit card), you have already engaged the customer to another level. You have made your customers feel different, closer and appreciated and he will definitely leave the outlet with a smile. Everybody likes to be called by name. Isn’t this what we want to offer to our customers: enhance the customer experience?

Now this is what happened when my wife and I visited Wong Kok Char Chan Teng in Sunway Pyramid last week. We have a voucher with us that provided us either a free drink or some sandwiches. So we decided to go there and have a drink and my wife just needed to order another one for her. To our surprise, the waitress told us that we need to spend at least RM10 in a single receipt before we were entitled to use the voucher. After hearing this, my wife was very unhappy and felt cheated because there are no such terms and conditions in the voucher.

I do understand her reaction. It was not because of the price issue that provoked her. She just felt she was being cheated by the voucher and the coffee shop. When my wife asked the manager why didn’t the terms and conditions stated in the voucher, he just told her that it was a printing error and the management’s decision to apply the terms on the voucher. Then he just told us to file a complaint to the HQ if we wanted to.

It was an unbelievable experience. Is this the way of a big chain of restaurants engaged their customers? The way you communicate and engaged your customers really reflects the identity of the company. As an established group, you need to ensure that all customer touchpoints are properly managed, and be ascertained to improve your customer experience to align to your brand promise.

All marketing materials should be checked thoroughly before sending out to your customers. What you communicate with your customers is the promise that you need to fulfill. By giving out misleading information will leave a bad experience to your customers and gives a negative perception of your brand.

Even your error is out in the market, please admit your mistakes. Inform your customers. Like in this case, write an email or sms to inform your customers. Or maybe even a notice at the entrance of the restaurant. Your customers will be forgiving enough if you admit your error. Don’t let your customers find out themselves and make your customers puke and leave a bad taste in their mouth.

Lets Get Back To Basics

With the volatility of the market and the challenges that we are currently facing, sometimes we really need to take a look at some basics to prevent sales from dipping further. Below are some steps that we might be able to use in increasing marketing effectiveness during these challenging times.

1. Check Your Product and Service Mix
Talk to your customers. Find out how you can provide more value to your customers. How can you meet smaller clients demand or customers with a lower budget? Your customers are more willing to tell you what the market needs.

2. Audit Your Brand
How your customers see your products or services reflects your company. A consistent experience, a single ‘voice’ and the ways you communicate your brand is critical. Improve it and protect it.

3. Enhance The Customer Experience
It is always more expensive to acquire a new customer than get more business from the existing customer. Each customer you lose, you are drying up your own pocket over time. Enhance your customer experience and improve your customer touchpoints to increase awareness, acquisition, loyalty and retention.

4. Look Into Your Database
Your database is like a gold mine. Capitalize and use it. Reactivate your dormant customers with new promotions, products and services. Call up your current customers for referrals. They will be happy to pass you referrals if they are comfortable with you.

5. Gain More By Using Customer Insights
The more you know about your customers, the more predictive you can be. You can accurately target your brand and marketing to meet the specific needs of your customers. Your customers’ voice, your reputation online will all lead you to a better understanding and act accordingly with ease and speed.

6. Control Your Cost
Not to reduce cost but use it wisely. Ensure that your budget is used wisely with greater value for every dollar spent in your marketing activities. Always relate it to marketing ROI and cost control to ensure that the marketing investments bring the greatest revenue.

7. Marketing Measurements
What you can measure, can be improved. Many marketers are unable to ascertain whether their marketing efforts work. Smart marketers will combine science and art to ensure marketing effectiveness. Always measure the outcome to ensure your marketing investments give you the greatest return.

Customer Database: A Priceless Asset

Innovation has played a vital role in many years for the success of an organization. However in the present state, reports have shown that more than 80% of new products brought into the market are destined to fail. This shows that innovation is fleeting and capturing competitive advantage is getting tougher. No matter what innovative products your organization sells today will most likely be a commodity tomorrow.

Organizations today need to go beyond the traditional innovation process. Other than product or service innovation, customer innovation also plays a very important role. How does an organization achieve customer innovation? It derived from DATA and customer insights. Lots of organizations either don’t keep customer data or keeping loads of it.

Most organizations with plenty of data don’t know how to take the advantage of the insights and analysis it can offer. Innovative ways of using customer insights will enable organization to maximize the value of each customer interactions by delivering a great customer experience.

Below is an excerpt from the Sales Ninja blog regarding customer database which I fully agreed upon which I would like to share:

Retail is a highly competitive business. Traffic to the store is one of the primary sources of business. Most leads are generated through walk-ins – either from passer-bys, advertisements or from referrals.

Typically, food businesses thrive thanks to referrals.Whenever a colleague or associate plans a lunch treat for us, often enough, they already have a r.e.s.t.a.u.r.a.n.t in mind. As a restaurateur, the one million question is how can we stay in people’s mind so they will remember our eatery as THE right place to dine.

A prominently-placed advertisement shows up in the newspapers one day. Obviously, not everyone would be attracted to the ad, prompting the question, “how can retailers get to the top of the mind of shoppers” so they would not leave empty-handed whenever they v.i.s.i.t an outlet or even if they do, they are likely to return in the near future to make a p.u.r.c.h.a.s.e.

Many retailers make the mistake of failing to apply this one very powerful strategy – they fail to collect personal details of their visitors or customer for their database.

Grave mistake. Everyone who walks to our store is a potential buyer. Something must have attracted them to walk in. A lady shopper may like our coffee mug but it may be too pricey to her budget at that particular moment. So she puts her buying decision on hold.

Retailers have to remember that people b.u.y on emotions and back their decision with logic. In the context of the lady shopper, she may have the desire to come back but may not remember this anymore upon leaving the store due to her many commitments.

As such, if we keep details of this shopper in our database and put her in our mailing list where we can periodically but consistently mail her our new arrivals via e-mail, postcards, SMS or newsletters, then we would have “entered her world”.

You can view the whole blog by visiting the Sales Ninja. From the above, we could see that by having a proper customer database, organizations can strategize by using customer insights such as descriptive, behavioral, interaction, etc. and thus innovate at touchpoints across the customer lifecycle to enhance the customer experience.