In my last blog, I talked about the importance of sharing customer data across all customer touch points so that 1) your customers receive the best possible relevant experience and 2) your organization can leverage that information to offer products and services that best meet the customer’s needs. What about sharing your customer data with other organizations?
My thought is: it depends. If you have business partners that you work with to meet the extended needs of your customers, then sharing customer data might be a good idea. Your two organizations could appear seamless to the customer – something that not many partner organizations have mastered yet.
However, if you are thinking of selling your customer data, say, to a mailing list company, my question would be: why? Why would you want to sell your one true competitive advantage for a short-term gain? Because customer data is truly the only competitive advantage your company will ever have.
Think about it: Your competitors can (and do) easily copy the products you sell and the services you offer. Sure, it may take longer in some industries than others…in the pharmaceutical industry, for example, the patent on a drug may last for years, but eventually that patent expires. Ultimately, your product or service will be replicated. Any marketing program you create can be copied and even improved.
The one thing your competitors can’t duplicate is the information you have on your customers. They have no way of knowing which products your customers have purchased, what their behavior has been on your website, or the details of feedback customers may have provided. Your competitors don’t have access to how frequently your customers purchase or even which customers are the most valuable customers for your company.
Customer information and the insights that come from it is worth its weight in gold and should be guarded as closely as Fort Knox.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The Great Data Debate – To Share or Not to Share
True story: I use the services of a company that I have a long-standing relationship with. Recently, this company was purchased. The new owners of the company have decided to limit the amount of customer information an employee can access when working with a customer. Each employee is given the bare-bones minimum to provide the services the customer has requested FOR THAT DAY. Employees are not given information about past customer requests, preferences, purchases or history. And yet, employees are expected to take detailed notes on their interactions with customers so that the customer information can be captured and stored.
The result is that it is virtually impossible for the employee to provide an exceptional experience for the customer. That’s not to say that the employees don’t provide good service and work – they do – but without having access to more customer information, it is very difficult for them to make recommendations of additional products or services the customer could use since the employees can’t see what had been offered or suggested in the past.
And, it is virtually impossible for an employee to know which customers deserve preferential treatment because of their value to the organization. Case in point: one customer – let’s call her “Sue” – called up this company to reschedule an appointment she had. The receptionist didn’t have access to Sue’s information, so she didn’t know that Sue was an extremely valuable customer who had also referred a number of new customers to them. The receptionist was unwilling to make any time concessions to Sue. Sue was very frustrated – because she knew how valuable a customer she was – and moved her business to a competitor.
This type of situation could easily be avoided if employees had access to the right customer data that would help them do their job better – and improve the customer experience. If the receptionist knew that Sue was a very valuable customer, she would have been more willing to be flexible on the appointment time. If the day-to-day contacts knew the past customer requests, preferences, and history, those employees would be able to sell even more products and services to customers.
Why don’t these new owners want their employees to have access to customer data? They’re afraid. They’re afraid if they share too much information with their employees that the employees will be in a more powerful position than the owners are. Or that if one of their employees left, some customers would follow that employee to a competitor. Or that the cost to serve customers might go up. Or…or…or – there could be dozens of reasons why.
But, the bottom line is: when you withhold important customer data from your employees that provide services to those customers, you are reducing your bottom line.
The result is that it is virtually impossible for the employee to provide an exceptional experience for the customer. That’s not to say that the employees don’t provide good service and work – they do – but without having access to more customer information, it is very difficult for them to make recommendations of additional products or services the customer could use since the employees can’t see what had been offered or suggested in the past.
And, it is virtually impossible for an employee to know which customers deserve preferential treatment because of their value to the organization. Case in point: one customer – let’s call her “Sue” – called up this company to reschedule an appointment she had. The receptionist didn’t have access to Sue’s information, so she didn’t know that Sue was an extremely valuable customer who had also referred a number of new customers to them. The receptionist was unwilling to make any time concessions to Sue. Sue was very frustrated – because she knew how valuable a customer she was – and moved her business to a competitor.
This type of situation could easily be avoided if employees had access to the right customer data that would help them do their job better – and improve the customer experience. If the receptionist knew that Sue was a very valuable customer, she would have been more willing to be flexible on the appointment time. If the day-to-day contacts knew the past customer requests, preferences, and history, those employees would be able to sell even more products and services to customers.
Why don’t these new owners want their employees to have access to customer data? They’re afraid. They’re afraid if they share too much information with their employees that the employees will be in a more powerful position than the owners are. Or that if one of their employees left, some customers would follow that employee to a competitor. Or that the cost to serve customers might go up. Or…or…or – there could be dozens of reasons why.
But, the bottom line is: when you withhold important customer data from your employees that provide services to those customers, you are reducing your bottom line.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Pure Genius - Customer Intelligence in Action
Have you been to iTunes lately? I went online to upload some music and saw that iTunes is now offering a service called "Genius" to its customers. Genius creates customized playlists for you, based on the types of music that you like and - get this - recommends other songs or albums that would round out your music library.
Talk about smart! iTunes is using customer intelligence to sell more song downloads to its customers. And, they're getting customer permission to do it. When you sign up for the Genius service, they clearly state that they are going to look at your music selections and then aggregate them (anonymously) with the rest of their customers' music selections.
While I'm not privy to the details behind the scenes, I imagine it works this way:
iTunes notes that they are in the process of refining this capability and expects that, over time, the Genius tool will become even more focused and relevant in its creation of playlists and recommended songs to download. As customers opt-in to this functionality, their database and customer modeling will only become more accurate in its output.
The idea of customer intelligence has been around for a while - using customer insight and data to drive marketing, sales and service interactions to increase customer profitability - but the technology to make this happen just started catching up in the past few years. Customer intelligence is the basis of relationship marketing. iTunes has recognized a clear need in its customer base - creating playlists that capture a mood or music type - and is using that to increase the purchase activity of its customers.
That's what I call pure Genius!
Talk about smart! iTunes is using customer intelligence to sell more song downloads to its customers. And, they're getting customer permission to do it. When you sign up for the Genius service, they clearly state that they are going to look at your music selections and then aggregate them (anonymously) with the rest of their customers' music selections.
While I'm not privy to the details behind the scenes, I imagine it works this way:
- I select a favorite song that I would like to be the basis for a playlist.
- Genius uses the song tagging information (genre, artist, frequency of plays, etc.) to cull through my current play list to find similar songs and create a recommended playlist.
- At the same time, Genius is using predictive modeling to compare my music preferences with its massive database of customers' preferences.
- Once Genius has identified "look-a-like" customers, it compares my music selections with those of the "look-a-like" customers, and makes recommendations for me (similar to the Amazon.com model)
iTunes notes that they are in the process of refining this capability and expects that, over time, the Genius tool will become even more focused and relevant in its creation of playlists and recommended songs to download. As customers opt-in to this functionality, their database and customer modeling will only become more accurate in its output.
The idea of customer intelligence has been around for a while - using customer insight and data to drive marketing, sales and service interactions to increase customer profitability - but the technology to make this happen just started catching up in the past few years. Customer intelligence is the basis of relationship marketing. iTunes has recognized a clear need in its customer base - creating playlists that capture a mood or music type - and is using that to increase the purchase activity of its customers.
That's what I call pure Genius!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Real-Time Use of Customer Behavior Increases Positive Experience and Sales
Recently I was trying to book a rather complex international flight on American Airlines' website. Normally, booking my flights online takes just a couple minutes; however, for this flight, I spent several minutes going back and forth between several pages, selecting and de-selecting options. After doing this a couple times, a pop-up box appeared, asking me if I needed help. Simply click on the box, it said, and an American Airlines customer service rep will call you to help you. I thought this was pretty neat, and since I was having some challenges, I clicked. A message box asked me to confirm the number to call or change to a different one. Impressively, the number in the message box was for the location I was in (which wasn't my preferred or home number - I can't even begin to imagine how they got the phone number!).
Within a few seconds, my phone rang. It was the American Airlines customer service rep, calling to ask me how she could help me book my flight. She had all of my recent online activity in front of her, which meant I didn't have to spend a lot of time explaining to her what I had been trying to do. With just a few questions, she booked my flights for me. An email showed up immediately confirming my flight. What could have been a difficult or stressful experience ended up being extremely positive - and took a lot less time, ensuring the sale for American Airlines.
The idea of helping customers move through the life cycle more quickly is extremely timely given the current economy. Organizations are identifying where the customer experience breaks down and putting tactics in place to minimize this. They are actively reaching out to their customers to help them purchase sooner and more easily.
One organization that I worked with is using online customer behavior to not only customize the content of the web page, but also to place targeted ads in front of the customer, real time. These ads have a higher click rate because they are relevant to the customer. Another client is exploring how they can use purchase and payment behavior to identify those customers that have the potential to miss paying their bills and go into collections - and putting in place strategies to prevent that before it even happens. Imagine the cost savings and increased customer profitability!
Think about it. How can you use your customer insights and behavior to make it easier for them to purchase from you?
Within a few seconds, my phone rang. It was the American Airlines customer service rep, calling to ask me how she could help me book my flight. She had all of my recent online activity in front of her, which meant I didn't have to spend a lot of time explaining to her what I had been trying to do. With just a few questions, she booked my flights for me. An email showed up immediately confirming my flight. What could have been a difficult or stressful experience ended up being extremely positive - and took a lot less time, ensuring the sale for American Airlines.
The idea of helping customers move through the life cycle more quickly is extremely timely given the current economy. Organizations are identifying where the customer experience breaks down and putting tactics in place to minimize this. They are actively reaching out to their customers to help them purchase sooner and more easily.
One organization that I worked with is using online customer behavior to not only customize the content of the web page, but also to place targeted ads in front of the customer, real time. These ads have a higher click rate because they are relevant to the customer. Another client is exploring how they can use purchase and payment behavior to identify those customers that have the potential to miss paying their bills and go into collections - and putting in place strategies to prevent that before it even happens. Imagine the cost savings and increased customer profitability!
Think about it. How can you use your customer insights and behavior to make it easier for them to purchase from you?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Using Twitter to Build Customer Relationships
Customers that sign up to follow your company through Twitter are asking to have a relationship with you. How can you tap into this?
Here are some ways that companies can use Twitter to build better customer relationships:
I’d love to hear how your company is using Twitter and the results you’re getting. Feel free to post your experience here or send me a tweet @jennifermonahan.
Here are some ways that companies can use Twitter to build better customer relationships:
- Provide updates or information to customers.
This is probably the most frequent way companies use Twitter. Tweets are sent out about sales, news releases, and product updates, usually with a link for more detailed information. Some recent examples:
UnitedAirlinesWeekend plans looking more like weak-end? Put that missing "E" back in with our E-fares! Check 'em out @ http://tinyurl.com/nl6q9o
cnnbrkTwo American journalists, detained in North Korea since March, were reunited with their families early Wednesday. http://bit.ly/emlzv
amazondealsLightning Deal! $44.99 - Petmate LeBistro Portion Control Automatic Pet Feeder, Black, 10 Pounds http://tinyurl.com/7lnpkg - Get customer feedback and help shape new products or services.
Using Twitter to ask customers how they feel about your products or services is a great way to get instant feedback and ensure that you’re meeting their needs. It can also help your company determine new needs customers may have.
HP_SMBRead real user reviews of the HP Officejet Pro 8500 All-in-One printer here and let us know what you think: http://tinyurl.com/nqgjvr
savethechildrenLast day to vote in our holiday card poll! Vote today and then sign up to receive your free holiday cards. http://bit.ly/2htB5W - Provide an alternative interaction or customer service option.
Twitter can also be used to interact with your customers and answer their questions on the spot. For customers that have a quick question, this can be an effective way of providing customer service to them.
Ask_WellsFargoGood morning. This is Ian signing on for @Ask_WellsFargo. Please keep personal & account info private. Do not share it on twitter.
HiltonAnaheimRT @HyattIrvine: RT @Anaheim_OC: Coming to Orange County and need visitor information? Just #AskOC - Build entanglement and create community.
Finally, companies can use Twitter to create a sense of community by asking customers to participate in their relationship with the company. This can take the form of challenges, providing expertise or sharing experiences, for example.
pepsiLast chance 2 weigh in on #Throwback and share w/the Pepsi team: comment on FB group http://bit.ly/2uSBKD or give us your 2c on Twitter!!
charitywaterWhat if your employees came together and raised $5k like Saks 5th Chicago? This could happen: http://vimeo.com/4247997
JetBlueTravel Tip Tuesday! We've partnered with @PETCO to give 50% off pet travel fees: http://bit.ly/TZX6g What are your pet travel tips? #TTPets
WholeFoodsThink public school lunches could be better? Way better? Join us and @ChefAnnC in the School Lunch Revolution! http://bit.ly/CJvlO
I’d love to hear how your company is using Twitter and the results you’re getting. Feel free to post your experience here or send me a tweet @jennifermonahan.
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