Customer insight is rapidly becoming a vital component in any business strategy; after all, who can afford not to know who their customers are, how they behave and how their loyalty can be assured? Put simply customer insight employs the collection, analysis and use of data, allowing businesses to create customer acquisition, development and retention strategies.
Customer insight can play a massively important role in planning and implementing marketing campaigns, helping marketers to extract the greatest revenue from limited marketing budgets. It does this by creating best match profiles for potential, loyal and the most profitable customers.
Fundamentally greater customer insights allows for more effective targeting. It has been a long known fact within marketing that a campaign can stand or fall on its ability to target the right type of people. A misguided campaign can be a costly mistake; conversely a well targeted campaign can court potential customers, produce profitable relationships and develop future prospects.
Understanding where targets should be focussed is only possible through in-depth analysis of data. Data is one of the most powerful tools at the marketer’s disposal and an integral element within modern customer insight services. In most cases, this data is easily accessible and gives the opportunity to identify profitable prospects, rather than pursuing customers that will provide little if any return on investment.
Existing customer data creates massive up and cross-selling opportunities. The profiles created using segmentation and modelling help to identify precisely which customers should be targeted through a greater understanding of their purchasing behaviour, the types of products they are likely to buy and an idea of their likely spend.
Understanding the behaviour of customers means marketers have the knowledge to implement campaigns that target these profiles in a very specific way, taking into account when and how they spend their money in order to extract the greatest revenue. It is this potential that attracts so many marketers to customer insight services; understandably, having the knowledge of how your customers spend their money is an extremely valuable asset in business.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Outsourcing Contact Centres – A Path to Reduced Costs?
Outsourcing has always been presented as an excellent way for companies to save money and reduce their overheads. With the current economic situation now is the time to make the most of outsourcing contact centres, eventually granting more freedom for a company to manoeuvre. But whilst using the correct outsourcer will help to save money, precisely how will outsourced contact centres reduce overall spend?
This is fairly self-explanatory but essentially, if a company reduces the amount of work it must do for its customer contact operation, requires less hardware and infrastructure and reduces the number of staff devoted to the task, they will save money. Outsourcing practically eliminates the low-value work and tasks that add up in terms of hours and cost. Fundamentally, the Service Level Agreement and metrics provided by an outsourcer offer return on investment without draining company resources indirectly.
Similarly, whilst the workload is reduced, the amount of spending needed to achieve the same or better results is also reduced. This increased efficiency per pound spent is a result of the professional set up of the outsourcer and the fact that their contact centres are filled with highly trained, dedicated customer service professionals that are highly capable and deliver predefined results.
Fundamentally, by combining these two features of outsourcing it is possible to reduce costs. These costs can be reduced by downsizing the number of people dedicated to customer service within a business; by removing the need to employ so many contact workers. In addition, the reduction in infrastructure and IT spend also reduces the investment needed in comparison to an in-house solution.
With the right outsourcing provider considerable savings can be made when it comes to running and maintaining contact centres. Vitally however, it should be recognised that reducing costs should not mean sacrificing standards, ideally an outsourcer should be able to provide services that are equal or better than what would be possible in house, at a price that is also cost effective.
This is fairly self-explanatory but essentially, if a company reduces the amount of work it must do for its customer contact operation, requires less hardware and infrastructure and reduces the number of staff devoted to the task, they will save money. Outsourcing practically eliminates the low-value work and tasks that add up in terms of hours and cost. Fundamentally, the Service Level Agreement and metrics provided by an outsourcer offer return on investment without draining company resources indirectly.
Similarly, whilst the workload is reduced, the amount of spending needed to achieve the same or better results is also reduced. This increased efficiency per pound spent is a result of the professional set up of the outsourcer and the fact that their contact centres are filled with highly trained, dedicated customer service professionals that are highly capable and deliver predefined results.
Fundamentally, by combining these two features of outsourcing it is possible to reduce costs. These costs can be reduced by downsizing the number of people dedicated to customer service within a business; by removing the need to employ so many contact workers. In addition, the reduction in infrastructure and IT spend also reduces the investment needed in comparison to an in-house solution.
With the right outsourcing provider considerable savings can be made when it comes to running and maintaining contact centres. Vitally however, it should be recognised that reducing costs should not mean sacrificing standards, ideally an outsourcer should be able to provide services that are equal or better than what would be possible in house, at a price that is also cost effective.
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Onshore vs. Offshore Contact Centres – The Real Benefits
In the past major companies made the most of utilising offshore outsourced contact centres in order to maximise profits and reduce the costs of providing customer services. The low cost solution offered by contact centres in the developing world meant that the price per minute was much lower than what had been available in the UK or “onshore”. However, whilst the offshore model is still certainly popular, there is a growing trend for bringing back contact centre services to the UK.
There are a number of reasons behind the re-emerging popularity of home based services. The largest contributing factor has to be the overwhelming customer demand for customer services and contact centres to be operated within their own country. Customer frustration is one of the major causes of this demand for change with communication problems, a lack of specific technical knowledge and an inability to effectively resolve issues topping the list of customer complaints.
Companies have now realised that the costs of customer services are not purely the management fee of a contact centre or a cost per minute for each enquiry. It has now been realised that the combined costs of offshore contact centre management, the loss of customers due to poor customer service and the increased call length due to misunderstandings makes the entire offshore customer service option less financially palatable.
Essentially, if pursuing high customer satisfaction rates then the onshore contact centre is a far better option. When combined with highly trained customer service professionals the benefits are astounding. Major UK companies have followed this route, for instance, insurance company Norwich Union announced that 150 call centre jobs would be brought back from India to be carried out in the UK whilst energy supplier Powergen has completely shut down its Indian contact centre operations in favour of UK based services.
So, whilst companies initially saw massive financial and operational benefits to outsourcing their customer services, in recent years, the popularity of offshore contact centres seems to have been stymied. With a greater understanding that customer service is less about minimising costs in the short term, and instead about forging and maintaining good customer relations as a long term goal, confidence in the UK contact centre industry has increased.
There are a number of reasons behind the re-emerging popularity of home based services. The largest contributing factor has to be the overwhelming customer demand for customer services and contact centres to be operated within their own country. Customer frustration is one of the major causes of this demand for change with communication problems, a lack of specific technical knowledge and an inability to effectively resolve issues topping the list of customer complaints.
Companies have now realised that the costs of customer services are not purely the management fee of a contact centre or a cost per minute for each enquiry. It has now been realised that the combined costs of offshore contact centre management, the loss of customers due to poor customer service and the increased call length due to misunderstandings makes the entire offshore customer service option less financially palatable.
Essentially, if pursuing high customer satisfaction rates then the onshore contact centre is a far better option. When combined with highly trained customer service professionals the benefits are astounding. Major UK companies have followed this route, for instance, insurance company Norwich Union announced that 150 call centre jobs would be brought back from India to be carried out in the UK whilst energy supplier Powergen has completely shut down its Indian contact centre operations in favour of UK based services.
So, whilst companies initially saw massive financial and operational benefits to outsourcing their customer services, in recent years, the popularity of offshore contact centres seems to have been stymied. With a greater understanding that customer service is less about minimising costs in the short term, and instead about forging and maintaining good customer relations as a long term goal, confidence in the UK contact centre industry has increased.
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Does your CRM system give you everything you need?
EWA recently had a stand at the Data Marketing Show, part of Marketing Week Live and over the course of the two day exhibition, I had numerous conversations with people about all things data and CRM related.
One topic that kept cropping up was the failing of “off the shelf” CRM systems and the frustrations experienced by marketing personnel in particular.
“It doesn’t integrate with our email marketing software”, “I struggle to export the data in a usable format”, “We’ve had to change our processes to suit the way the system works” and “All I need is a system which I can use for mailings and allows me to keep my data up to date” were all common themes I heard. Now of course I’m sure some of the frustrations vented can be put down to what I like to call “user error” but not everyone I spoke to can be guilty of under-using or mis-using their CRM system. Which leads me to the question, are proprietary CRM systems right for everyone or have we all been a little sucked in by the hype?
A little bit of Googling returned some interesting stats to help answer the point raised.
1. In 2003, a Gartner report estimated that more than $1 billion had been spent on software that wasn’t being used.
2. In a 2007 survey, four-fifths of senior executives reported that their biggest challenge is getting their staff to use the systems they’d installed
3. 43 percent of respondents said they use less than half the functionality of their existing system
4. 72 percent indicated they’d trade functionality for ease of use
5. 51 percent cited data synchronization as a major issue
Given the facts above and the anecdotal evidence gathered during the exhibition, the answer to my earlier question has to be no, proprietary CRM systems aren’t (necessarily) right for every business and on some level, we have believed the industry hype.
This leads me on to my second point and one which addresses the other main thing I heard during the show, “if only I could have a system which just does… (Insert wish list here)”
And of course the answer is yes, you can have a bespoke CRM system which exactly matches your requirements, without all of the unnecessary functionality that you’ll never need and will have to work around.
“Hmmm, not sure about bespoke” I hear you say. “Doesn’t that mean it’ll be expensive and developed in some weird programming language?” In a word - No. In the past, bespoke, has been something of a dirty word when used in conjunction with software development. However; in just about every other circumstance, bespoke conveys a message of made to measure, quality and a precise fit which is exactly what a bespoke CRM system provides.
With the web technology available today, bespoke CRM systems can be quickly developed and deployed to multiple concurrent users giving them precisely the functionality they need, often far more cost effectively than a proprietary CRM system.
So if you’re considering a new CRM system it’s a good idea to take a look at the bespoke route, you may find it fits a little better than the off the peg version.
One topic that kept cropping up was the failing of “off the shelf” CRM systems and the frustrations experienced by marketing personnel in particular.
“It doesn’t integrate with our email marketing software”, “I struggle to export the data in a usable format”, “We’ve had to change our processes to suit the way the system works” and “All I need is a system which I can use for mailings and allows me to keep my data up to date” were all common themes I heard. Now of course I’m sure some of the frustrations vented can be put down to what I like to call “user error” but not everyone I spoke to can be guilty of under-using or mis-using their CRM system. Which leads me to the question, are proprietary CRM systems right for everyone or have we all been a little sucked in by the hype?
A little bit of Googling returned some interesting stats to help answer the point raised.
1. In 2003, a Gartner report estimated that more than $1 billion had been spent on software that wasn’t being used.
2. In a 2007 survey, four-fifths of senior executives reported that their biggest challenge is getting their staff to use the systems they’d installed
3. 43 percent of respondents said they use less than half the functionality of their existing system
4. 72 percent indicated they’d trade functionality for ease of use
5. 51 percent cited data synchronization as a major issue
Given the facts above and the anecdotal evidence gathered during the exhibition, the answer to my earlier question has to be no, proprietary CRM systems aren’t (necessarily) right for every business and on some level, we have believed the industry hype.
This leads me on to my second point and one which addresses the other main thing I heard during the show, “if only I could have a system which just does… (Insert wish list here)”
And of course the answer is yes, you can have a bespoke CRM system which exactly matches your requirements, without all of the unnecessary functionality that you’ll never need and will have to work around.
“Hmmm, not sure about bespoke” I hear you say. “Doesn’t that mean it’ll be expensive and developed in some weird programming language?” In a word - No. In the past, bespoke, has been something of a dirty word when used in conjunction with software development. However; in just about every other circumstance, bespoke conveys a message of made to measure, quality and a precise fit which is exactly what a bespoke CRM system provides.
With the web technology available today, bespoke CRM systems can be quickly developed and deployed to multiple concurrent users giving them precisely the functionality they need, often far more cost effectively than a proprietary CRM system.
So if you’re considering a new CRM system it’s a good idea to take a look at the bespoke route, you may find it fits a little better than the off the peg version.
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Should an agency be judged on more than just their results?
New business at a marketing agency can be a funny business sometimes. Part of my pitch always focuses on results as that’s primarily what any business that employs an agency like ours is looking for. But in order to get results, a good working partnership needs to be established. A great client/agency relationship leads to better insight, understanding and most importantly trust.
A call from the senior salesperson at the online marketing agency we use (and that’s quite a unique relationship, an agency using an agency) prompted this particular blog. The salesperson in question asked me to act as a reference site for a new prospect. “It’s all about conversions” he told me. “If you can focus in on that, it should clinch the deal for us”. Now I had no problem at all acting as a reference site or indeed talking to his prospective client about the excellent results they have delivered for us but personally, I rank the relationship I have with our agency as highly as I do the results.
Which led me to the question, if I didn’t get on as well with the staff who work on our account and if they didn’t have a really good understanding of our business, would we still see the results we do?
Well of course the answer is no (I’d be contradicting myself a little if it was yes!) But that led to another question… If we were getting results but they were a pain to work with, would I be looking elsewhere for another agency? And the answer to that question is probably yes. No one wants to work with an agency or indeed an individual with whom they don’t have a good relationship.
If though, the results are good and you feel you get value for money then small misdemeanours can be over-looked sometimes. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time but in my experience, it’s how you go about fixing those mistakes that really counts. If done well there is no need for a relationship to suffer and often it can become stronger as a result.
So next time you’re on the hunt for a new agency or a new business manager (like me!) is pitching to you, take a second to look beyond all the ROI metrics and ask yourself the question – “do I like this person and can I work with them?” Hopefully, if it is me in front of you, the answer will be yes!
As always, what do you think? Is it all about getting bangs for your bucks or should a good working relationship be as, if not more, important?
A call from the senior salesperson at the online marketing agency we use (and that’s quite a unique relationship, an agency using an agency) prompted this particular blog. The salesperson in question asked me to act as a reference site for a new prospect. “It’s all about conversions” he told me. “If you can focus in on that, it should clinch the deal for us”. Now I had no problem at all acting as a reference site or indeed talking to his prospective client about the excellent results they have delivered for us but personally, I rank the relationship I have with our agency as highly as I do the results.
Which led me to the question, if I didn’t get on as well with the staff who work on our account and if they didn’t have a really good understanding of our business, would we still see the results we do?
Well of course the answer is no (I’d be contradicting myself a little if it was yes!) But that led to another question… If we were getting results but they were a pain to work with, would I be looking elsewhere for another agency? And the answer to that question is probably yes. No one wants to work with an agency or indeed an individual with whom they don’t have a good relationship.
If though, the results are good and you feel you get value for money then small misdemeanours can be over-looked sometimes. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time but in my experience, it’s how you go about fixing those mistakes that really counts. If done well there is no need for a relationship to suffer and often it can become stronger as a result.
So next time you’re on the hunt for a new agency or a new business manager (like me!) is pitching to you, take a second to look beyond all the ROI metrics and ask yourself the question – “do I like this person and can I work with them?” Hopefully, if it is me in front of you, the answer will be yes!
As always, what do you think? Is it all about getting bangs for your bucks or should a good working relationship be as, if not more, important?
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Are Your Messages Getting Through?
Successful relationships are surely the key to life – whether they are family; friends; business or social they are, essentially, what can separate us from the animal kingdom… Our ability to communicate across multi channel media with any of ‘our circle’ enables us to engage appropriately at any time.
We recognise and differentiate the channels depending on the message and the recipient – whether we are texting our kids; phoning our parents; writing to the bank; or emailing a friend; we often subconsciously select the right channel for the best and most certain response… But, do we do the same in business or does cost and ‘efficiency’ override our inherent knowledge that what’s right and appropriate for one recipient is inappropriate for another?
Surely we cannot dispense with years of learning to jump onto the next comm’s bandwagon? As I write today – social networking is the fad. I am old enough to remember direct mail, and then the telephone, before email became all the rage. At each stage of communication evolution we leapt fully into the new world and dispensed with the old. What happened? In the main – very little! Lots of money was invested in making calls and sending emails to attract new business – sometimes with calculable evidence of a required ROI; however, rarely was the leaky bucket of customer attrition addressed and so real growth was not achieved.
Understanding customers, developing relationships and building loyalty will; surely remain the key to successful business and growth. Partnering with the right specialists can help reduce investment, and - will most certainly add value - as you benefit from a range of experience and not just your own.
So before embarking on Twitter and Facebook; before you purchase another batch of data to fire off some more emails; why not stop and take stock…?
• What can your current customer data tell you?
• How can it help inform your future strategy?
• Where does your profit come from rather than just your revenue?
• Which customers are more likely to lapse and which should you endeavour to keep?
• How and why do they like to be communicated with?
In summary - the right partner can help with these questions and make your business grow healthily and less expensively because they use the knowledge locked within your data to expose the communication opportunities of the future. Sometimes the answers are right under your nose!
We recognise and differentiate the channels depending on the message and the recipient – whether we are texting our kids; phoning our parents; writing to the bank; or emailing a friend; we often subconsciously select the right channel for the best and most certain response… But, do we do the same in business or does cost and ‘efficiency’ override our inherent knowledge that what’s right and appropriate for one recipient is inappropriate for another?
Surely we cannot dispense with years of learning to jump onto the next comm’s bandwagon? As I write today – social networking is the fad. I am old enough to remember direct mail, and then the telephone, before email became all the rage. At each stage of communication evolution we leapt fully into the new world and dispensed with the old. What happened? In the main – very little! Lots of money was invested in making calls and sending emails to attract new business – sometimes with calculable evidence of a required ROI; however, rarely was the leaky bucket of customer attrition addressed and so real growth was not achieved.
Understanding customers, developing relationships and building loyalty will; surely remain the key to successful business and growth. Partnering with the right specialists can help reduce investment, and - will most certainly add value - as you benefit from a range of experience and not just your own.
So before embarking on Twitter and Facebook; before you purchase another batch of data to fire off some more emails; why not stop and take stock…?
• What can your current customer data tell you?
• How can it help inform your future strategy?
• Where does your profit come from rather than just your revenue?
• Which customers are more likely to lapse and which should you endeavour to keep?
• How and why do they like to be communicated with?
In summary - the right partner can help with these questions and make your business grow healthily and less expensively because they use the knowledge locked within your data to expose the communication opportunities of the future. Sometimes the answers are right under your nose!
Thursday, 3 June 2010
What are the factors behind a good client/agency relationship?
What are the main elements that go to making a good, long term client/agency relationship? Tough question isn’t it? Cultural match, ROI, outstanding creativity, awards even perhaps… all have their place but sometimes it can be a little more intangible than that.
I was presenting to a prospective new client recently and was asked how long on average our clients had been with us. In our case it’s around 5 or 6 years which I think is pretty darn good for a CRM agency such as ourselves (we currently have clients that have been with us for as long as 15 years). But the question got me thinking, why do our clients remain so loyal to us and why have we been successful in developing their accounts? Well I’m not about to reveal our secrets or bore you to death with a diatribe on our approach to Account Management. What I will do though, is tell you what factors I believe make a good client/agency relationship and some of the things to look for if you are searching for a new partner.
Trust – The foundation upon which any good relationship is built and by far the most important factor in forming a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership. If there is no trust between a client and their marketing agency every project, idea, suggestion or piece of work will be second guessed or viewed with suspicion. A client has to believe and trust that their agency has their best interests (and those of their brand) at heart in order to produce the best results.
Cultural Match – Without exception, every business has a distinct identity, a culture and a work ethic. If the relationship is to be successful it’s important that the business finds an agency whose culture mirrors or complements their own. That’s not to say that there shouldn’t be differences as often the best work or campaign can be produced when ideas and the established status quo are challenged by both parties.
Personalities – Never underestimate the importance of matching account management staff with the client, if the two get on both on a professional and personal level then the relationship will undoubtedly flourish. Get it wrong and the exact opposite will happen, trust won’t be established and creativity will be stifled.
Honesty – We all get things wrong from time to time but if your agency is honest enough to own up to mistakes and they go the extra mile to put them right, then that can only be a good thing. Honesty is also important when it comes to communication and feedback which leads me to my next point…
Communication – Open and honest communication, particularly feedback is essential in the client/agency relationship. As a CRM agency, feedback whether positive or constructive (no one likes negative!) is invaluable if we are to continue to innovate and drive the client’s communication strategy forward. We do our upmost to ensure that the key stakeholders on any project are talking all the time and that any little ripples are ironed out along the way.
Value for Money – A topic that can be highly subjective to say the least! An agency and their client may well disagree on what constitutes value for money but what can’t be disputed is the more accurate measurement of Return on Investment (ROI). As an agency, ROI is all important and if we’re to retain our clients then we must be able to accurately measure and demonstrate ROI. That is why each programme we implement has metrics built in whether it’s establishing control groups to measure the impact of an eCRM campaign or KPIs for contact centre performance.
And finally…
Shared Objectives – We’re all in business to make money (well most of us are anyway). If we’re honest about this and don’t try to screw every little last piece of discount or margin from each and every deal then the trust and relationship that we worked so hard to establish won’t be affected. By all means challenge your agency to justify their charges (and hopefully they’ll be honest about them) but don’t be surprised if the quality of work begins to slide if you’ve beaten them down to a rock-bottom price. Likewise from an agency perspective, if a client gets even the slightest whiff that they’re being taken for a ride, they won’t be a client for much longer.
In Summary
So there we have it, what I believe to be seven important elements that go together in making the foundation of a solid client agency relationship. Clearly the list is not exhaustive and there are many other less fundamental factors which cumulatively can have a dramatic effect. But what do you think - are there any other major factors I have missed, would you like to challenge any of the statements I have made? All feedback (well most!) will be gratefully received.
I was presenting to a prospective new client recently and was asked how long on average our clients had been with us. In our case it’s around 5 or 6 years which I think is pretty darn good for a CRM agency such as ourselves (we currently have clients that have been with us for as long as 15 years). But the question got me thinking, why do our clients remain so loyal to us and why have we been successful in developing their accounts? Well I’m not about to reveal our secrets or bore you to death with a diatribe on our approach to Account Management. What I will do though, is tell you what factors I believe make a good client/agency relationship and some of the things to look for if you are searching for a new partner.
Trust – The foundation upon which any good relationship is built and by far the most important factor in forming a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership. If there is no trust between a client and their marketing agency every project, idea, suggestion or piece of work will be second guessed or viewed with suspicion. A client has to believe and trust that their agency has their best interests (and those of their brand) at heart in order to produce the best results.
Cultural Match – Without exception, every business has a distinct identity, a culture and a work ethic. If the relationship is to be successful it’s important that the business finds an agency whose culture mirrors or complements their own. That’s not to say that there shouldn’t be differences as often the best work or campaign can be produced when ideas and the established status quo are challenged by both parties.
Personalities – Never underestimate the importance of matching account management staff with the client, if the two get on both on a professional and personal level then the relationship will undoubtedly flourish. Get it wrong and the exact opposite will happen, trust won’t be established and creativity will be stifled.
Honesty – We all get things wrong from time to time but if your agency is honest enough to own up to mistakes and they go the extra mile to put them right, then that can only be a good thing. Honesty is also important when it comes to communication and feedback which leads me to my next point…
Communication – Open and honest communication, particularly feedback is essential in the client/agency relationship. As a CRM agency, feedback whether positive or constructive (no one likes negative!) is invaluable if we are to continue to innovate and drive the client’s communication strategy forward. We do our upmost to ensure that the key stakeholders on any project are talking all the time and that any little ripples are ironed out along the way.
Value for Money – A topic that can be highly subjective to say the least! An agency and their client may well disagree on what constitutes value for money but what can’t be disputed is the more accurate measurement of Return on Investment (ROI). As an agency, ROI is all important and if we’re to retain our clients then we must be able to accurately measure and demonstrate ROI. That is why each programme we implement has metrics built in whether it’s establishing control groups to measure the impact of an eCRM campaign or KPIs for contact centre performance.
And finally…
Shared Objectives – We’re all in business to make money (well most of us are anyway). If we’re honest about this and don’t try to screw every little last piece of discount or margin from each and every deal then the trust and relationship that we worked so hard to establish won’t be affected. By all means challenge your agency to justify their charges (and hopefully they’ll be honest about them) but don’t be surprised if the quality of work begins to slide if you’ve beaten them down to a rock-bottom price. Likewise from an agency perspective, if a client gets even the slightest whiff that they’re being taken for a ride, they won’t be a client for much longer.
In Summary
So there we have it, what I believe to be seven important elements that go together in making the foundation of a solid client agency relationship. Clearly the list is not exhaustive and there are many other less fundamental factors which cumulatively can have a dramatic effect. But what do you think - are there any other major factors I have missed, would you like to challenge any of the statements I have made? All feedback (well most!) will be gratefully received.
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