Month: October 2014

Categories
In the News UK

Call centre customer service declining
: new programme launches to raise standards



Customer service satisfaction across the UK’s call centres has fallen over the last 18 months from 62% to 50% according to research of two million consumers.

Long waiting times and shuffling between departments mean that the general public is getting more frustrated with a sector which now employs one million people in the UK.

To improve standards and help safeguard the industry, a new customer service standard – called the Gold Standard – was launched this month in London.

Supported by the industry body, the Call Centre Management Association (CCMA), the standard will help companies improve customer service, operational performance and staff engagement by benchmarking their service levels against best practice.

The study, conducted by Bright UK, a consultancy for call centres, found that the proportion of customers saying they were very satisfied or satisfied with their experience had declined from 62% to 50% over 18 months.

The call centre customers surveyed were within every sector of the economy – including banking and insurance, telecoms, retail, energy and travel and leisure.

Supporting these findings, the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) reported in July that consumers are currently less satisfied with their customer experience than at any point since January 2011. The ICS’s UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) surveyed 10,000 people and found that only ten major organisations in the top 50 have improved on their performance since July 2013.

Research has shown that there is a strong link between good customer service and profits, with knowledgeable and effective call centre advisors helping companies increase sales by ten per cent.

The Which? Best and Worst Brands for Customer Service announced recently agreed, stating, ‘Outstanding service leaves you feeling positive, valued and likely to want to repeat your experience – but our survey shows that many firms still have a long way to go in delivering this’.

Simon Thorpe, programme director for the Gold Standard, said: “Frustrations within the call centre industry run deep – from consumers being unhappy, to employees feeling aggravated and the executive seeing the call centre as a cost centre.

“Technology and training are available to help improve performance, but is not necessarily applied where it is needed most – simply because operations don’t have access to the information they need to make the right decision.

“It is through the Gold Standard that organisations can understand how they can improve their operational performance, employee engagement and ultimately their customer service. For organisations that are getting it right, they will be recognised with the Gold Standard.”

Julian Price, head of customer contact at John Lewis, said: “John Lewis has long been known for excellent customer service and our focus on our customers is at the heart of everything we do.

“An essential part of the partnership ethos is to continually challenge ourselves to improve and participating in the Gold Standard gives us insight and an up to date view of how we are doing compared to peers and other sectors. This information will help us prioritise in order to stay ahead.”

Ann-Marie Stagg, from the Call Centre Management Association (CCMA), said: “Effective customer service is vital to the success of every business. We are proud to be supporting the Gold Standard, which will help to improve standards within contact centres so that customers get the experience they are looking for and businesses can profit from the value an excellent customer contact centre can deliver.”


 

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UK

New firm brings together award-winning marketers Kemish and Grant to create new integrated marketing agency.

Junction counts a host of previous success stories as the motivation for its creation. Decades of front-line experience have forged its vision of what the modern world of marketing requires and shaped the approach and team structure.

The creation of Junction was spurred by the desire of the founding members to build a truly integrated agency focused on delivering ground-breaking creative solutions, backed by clear and highly measurable metrics. At the executive level, the leadership team reflects this ethos having built their reputations on creative yet accountable marketing.

“The shift in marketing isn’t just a shift to digital,” said Kemish. “It’s a shift from one-way messages to focusing on creating great branded experiences that benefit both the client and their audience. Junction was created to respond to marketers’ simultaneous needs for new and disruptive business strategies; digitally-led marketing ideas, and the data, technology and scale needed to execute them efficiently around the world.”

“We’re an interactions agency, not a communications agency,” said Grant. “We can address, not just brand awareness or lead generation, but all the points where audience and brands come together, no matter what the platform or channel.”

“In bringing together a core team of highly experienced and credible specialists, we’re able to leverage the best capabilities across our network. Moreover, we’re launching Junction with a strong and already proven track record of working with and for leading clients” said Kemish.

Supporting Junction’s integrated model are its data-informed approach and advanced analytics tools.  These allow the firm to optimise and improve its work over time, and to provide clear and detailed metrics that help clients accurately assess the impact and Return On Investment of their campaigns and initiatives.

The firm develops solutions across the full marketing landscape, combining traditional marketing with digital media including mobile, web, inbound, online advertising and social media: bringing technology and creativity together in innovative ways that drive both awareness and business growth.

“In forming Junction, these multi-skilled marketing experts bring together a complementary mix of resources and talent that is truly world-class,” added Grant, Managing Partner and Founder. “We are pleased to demonstrate that marketing does not have to continue in the same mode – There’s another way.”

 


Press contacts:
Finley Martin
hello@junction-agency.com
http://www.junction-agency.com
@junctionagency

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Three ways to prove social media ROI is a Real Thing

Don’t just talk about it, learn how to benefit from it, says Colleen Horan (pictured).

Here’s the thing about social ROI: many marketers talk about it, but not so many know how to measure it or speak to its benefits. Social media is a powerhouse tool and, while its practitioners believe in its impact, many outside of the industry fail to see its importance.

How do marketers prove its an essential component of reaching audiences and increasing brand value? They have to deliver campaigns and metrics that demonstrate just that! Below are three ways social media marketers can prove that the investment in social media yields big benefits for brands.Colleen Horan (WEB)

1: Web Traffic

Social media interactions between brands and consumers have potential to impact the amount of web traffic, a key metric for e-commerce brands in particular, but valuable to any.

Social media marketers linking back to a website or website blog in posts, pins, Tweets, etc, can measure the impact of their efforts using Google Analytics and its features such as UTM parameters to track sales conversions by channel, post type, or creative. In addition, social media marketers can directly track revenue as well by pulling data from their CRM.

The path between social content and a brand website must be easy for consumers to travel, allowing them to get where they need via the content they enjoy the most. Designing this path requires an array of quality content, regular engagement, a stream of fresh incentives to click over, and tools like triggered responses to claim contest entries.

2: Purchase Influence

In early 2014, Invesp reported (based on compiled research) that 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals. What brands post has a major influence on purchase decisions by online shoppers.

Whether its due to direct brand-to-consumer social media interactions or a result of friends sharing effective content to their networks on behalf of brands, the proof is there that social media impacts shopping decisions. However, measuring it requires quality analytics and tracking tools.

Creative digital marketers don’t just rely on brand-side posts to influence purchase decisions. They’ve gone as far as to integrate real-life, user-generated content into websites and social sites to help consumers purchase the products that they want because their friends, peers, and social network wants (and has) them.

Demonstrated here, Hudson’s Bay aggregates user Instagram content to a gallery on their website allowing consumers to purchase items from a realistic, social setting. In a day and age when consumers are admiring Instagram photos above stock images, this kind of social media tie-in can make a hard-hitting impact on brands bottom lines.

3: Multi-Channel Marketing

The impact of social media can spread to multiple marketing channels, cover a lot of ground, and once again drive purchase and conversion metrics.

Take, for instance, the US-based hockey team St Louis Blues. They used social media to incentivise fans to share email addresses and refer their friends to share email addresses, too. By offering fans a chance to win prizes such as season tickets, they were able to collect 17,000 opted-in email addresses. They turned around and used those to send targeted email blasts, campaigns that drove increased ticket sales resulting in a whopping 235% ROI.

Social media campaigns can be integrated or the centrepiece of TV commercials, YouTube videos, ad collateral and more. Hashtags, UGC, and incentive programs are just a few examples of how social and traditional advertising and marketing can cross paths and deliver value as cohesive efforts.

Colleen Horan is senior director of global marketing, Offerpop.

Categories
In the News UK

Yoast is king of WordPress plug-ins, research shows

New research by web hosting firm 34SP.com has revealed that WordPress SEO by Yoast is now the most popular plug-in among developers.

While antispam plug-in Askimet, All In One SEO Pack, and Google XML Site Maps and Contact Form have all been downloaded more often, it seems among experts WordPress SEO by Joost de Valk’s Yoast is the most popular among those in the know.

Technical director at 34SP.com, Daniel Foster said: “While there are many other plug-ins that beat WordPress SEO for sheer number of downloads, Yoast’s WordPress SEO is loved by amateurs, owner managed business owners and professional online marketers.

“Our research shows that experts love the technical complexity and simplicity that the plug-in offers. While small business owners claim the plug-in is easy to use and that Joost de Valk’s Yoast offers excellent support and guidance on how to market a website online without necessarily being an expert in SEO.”

Joost de Valk, said: “Getting praise like this is, of course, always nice and shows that the huge investments we make in continually optimising our plug-ins pay off. We’ll continue to build and improve on our plug-ins to try and maintain our position as one of the leading plug-in development companies.”

 

 

 

Categories
In the News UK

Students’ best-used brands

UK students have named the brands they shop with most – Amazon, New Look, Superdrug and The Co-operative Food.

In the annual cardholder survey carried out by NUS extra – the discount and lifestyle card provider arm of the UK students union – 67% of students surveyed said that they had used Amazon in the last 12 months. New Look, the only fashion brand to feature in the top 10, was used by 45% of students, followed by Superdrug at 43% and The Co-operative Food at 41%.

The Co-operative Food, the only food retailer to currently offer a student discount, was also found to be the discount used most regularly by NUS extra cardholders, taking the top spot from New Look who was the most used discount in 2013/14 and 2012/13.

Alex Butcher, partnership and marketing manager for NUS extra, said: “This research gives brands and retailers a real insight into who students are shopping with. This isn’t just a stat about students’ favourite or more aspirational brand, these are the brands that our cardholders are using and spending money with, and they demonstrate a clear range of categories. It isn’t all high street fashion; online, beauty, groceries and eating out are all popular with our cardholders.”

Each year, more than ½ million undergraduates start higher learning. Commonly referred to as the ‘student pound’, they are a very valuable customer group for retailers and brands.

Andrew Mann, customer director at The Co-operative Food, said: “Undertaking this partnership with NUS extra and providing a 10 percent discount off our groceries to savvy students who want to save money, has given the Co-operative an opportunity to encourage students to shop conveniently and locally to their homes and place of study. With around 2,800 stores across the UK, they can use their discount wherever they live.”

Currently in 8th place in the top brands used by students, you might see rising star Pizza Express making its way up the rankings over the next 12 months due to their increasing engagement activity with students.

A Pizza Express statement said: “Partnering with NUS extra has been a great platform for us to tap into the student market. Students are becoming increasingly important in the restaurant business as they are one of the most influential groups when it comes to going out and socialising with friends. Every year, we are experiencing success with student offers and so we are increasing activity with NUS extra to further penetrate the market and engage with them.”

The survey also revealed that two thirds of cardholders’ use their card at least once every two weeks, making it part of their regular spending habits. Cardholders are drawn to the attractive discounts, and therefore are likely to show preference to brands affiliated with NUS extra.

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Why you need to understand quantum physics if you want a motivated team

Quantum physics tells us that we are simply huge clouds of atoms that interact with each other on a physical and personal level. Kieran Hearty (pictured) , author of ‘How to Eat the Elephant in the Room’ calls this ‘quarkiness’. And he believes that by understanding ‘quarkiness’ we can ensure we have a motivated team.

Quarks are incredibly small sub-subatomic particles; quarkiness concerns small, usually unintentional, sub-subconscious behaviours, mostly negative, which cumulatively have a corrosive effect on employee engagement and results.

In quantum physics, quarks are so tiny that they are almost impossible to see. In a team meeting, clouds of silent, covert messages are almost imperceptibly exchanged. This is ‘quarky behaviour’.Kieran Hearty HR (WEB)

Those small, negative message clouds (strange quarks) have an adverse impact on the recipients, whereas the significantly less frequent positive messages that we send out (charms) have a hugely positive impact on the recipients.

In other words, we get a better return from the same amount of energy by being positive.

Strange quarks can be an eye roll, facial tic or a frown, an intake of breath, or a certain tone of voice; that feeling of being burdened with someone’s disapproval without knowing what happened to make you feel bad.

Have you recently experienced a situation where a small act of disrespect affected you for the rest of the day? I remember delivering an important presentation in which my performance was badly affected because of the way the CEO, sitting in the front row, was looking at me! How on earth do you explain such a thing?

A single quarky act of disrespect is hardly felt, but cumulatively, because of the sheer volume of quarky behavior that we engage in, it can have the corrosive and damaging effect of a sandstorm upon the motivation and performance of teams.

Think about this; if quarky behaviour is driven by our reaction to people that are only slightly different to us (resulting in semi-subconscious emissions of disapproval) what does this mean when the person is of a different colour, gender, religion or sexual preference? Quarkiness therefore has huge implications for the big workplace issues such as diversity and inclusion.

How do we make ‘quarkiness’ work for us rather than against us? Try this:

  1. Get the ‘language’ of quarkiness onto the corporate table. It then becomes significantly easier to confront it when it happens.
  2. Appreciate the value of our roles as observer of quarky behaviour. It is a lot easier and less uncomfortable to bring this stuff to people’s attention from a third-party perspective.
  3. Spread the word. Create discussion groups to share colleague understanding and experiences of quarky behaviour. Be prepared to deal with some strong feelings.
  4. Gain commitment from team members to focus on reducing the level of strange quarks that they transmit to each other.   
  5. Focus on a positive shift to charms. By looking at quarky behaviour – even on the tiniest of levels – we can help improve team motivation and performance by feeding them positive, not negative, energy.
  6. Consider and agree the value of small nods of approval, appreciative smiles, congratulatory high-fives and other affirmations. They cost (almost) nothing, require minimal energy, yet have such a positive and energising impact on others.

The language of ‘quarkiness’ is universal. It transcends gender, race, language and culture. Who would have thought that quantum physics could provide us with the answers we need?

Kieran Hearty is an author, executive coach, consultant and leadership speaker with more than 30 years’ experience across international technology and financial services companies. View the website.

Categories
In the News

Global study warns against brand damage through frequent change

  • Only 54% of marketers have a quantitative tracking system for brand properties,
  • 55% of marketers change their brand properties due to organisational change, especially a change in marketing director, with a further 20% changing brand properties based on a judgment call. Only 24% of marketers change brand properties strategically based on quantitative data.

The first global study on brand properties – shape, slogan, sound, symbols, celebrity, etc.– reveals new science for building iconic brands using a scientific approach that draws on neuroscience and psychology.

The study also warns that brand-owners may be destroying brand memory structure, and even promoting competitor brands, if they continue to chop and change brand properties based on subjective decision-making, or simply when a new marketing director is appointed.

The study is a collaboration between Phil Barden, managing director of Decode Marketing and author of ‘Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy’, and David Taylor, managing partner of international consultancy the brandgym, and author of ‘Grow the Core: How to Focus on Your Core Business for Brand Success’.

The research evaluated survey data from 85 senior marketing professionals from Europe, Africa, Asia, USA and Latin America. Also, 1,000 UK consumers took part in the Iconic Asset Tracker (IcAT) study, an approach that Decode Marketing developed.  The IcAT uses techniques from cognitive neuroscience to evaluate brand properties regarding their impact on branding and brand equity. The research was carried out in July and August.

David Taylor said: “The research shows that brand properties are seen as ‘highly important’. However, only half of the companies surveyed have a proper process for identifying and tracking the strength of these.

“As a result, brand properties are often chopped and changed based on personal judgement alone or as a result of changes in the organisation, such as the arrival of a new marketing director. This prevents the creation of valuable memory structure in consumers’ minds that can take several years to build. The study presents major opportunities for brand-owners to create stronger, iconic brands.”

The IcAT study on ice-cream, beer and cosmetic brands measured the strength of brand properties, captured in a Branding Power Score and highlighting the ‘iconic assets’ that activate the brand and build brand equity. As an example, Magnum’s most iconic asset is the product shape, with a 93% activation score. In contrast, the brand’s slogan, ‘For pleasure seekers’, is less strong at 41%. Celebrities score much lower, with the most recent Magnum endorser, actor Benicio del Toro, scoring just 21%.

Phil Barden added: “One reason for the current, and narrow, perspective on brand properties is a misconception about how the consumer’s brain perceives and processes brand properties. Marketers continue to focus on the obvious – logos and colour – whereas properties such as product shape, images and fictional characters can also be powerful assets in building iconic brands.”

The IcAT approach uses insights from decision sciences on how brand properties are processed and how memory structures are built, in order to enable objective, fact-based management of these brand assets. It enables decisions about which brand properties are safe to change and which are iconic assets that should be sacred. Barden adds: “This knowledge enables organisations to protect their brand memory structure, avoid common branding pitfalls and save money on misdirected rebrands.”

Brandgym has produced a paper on the practical issues of identifying and amplifying brand properties, ‘The Power of Brand Properties’. Decode Marketing has produced a paper with more detail on the scientific background and how to set up an iconic asset management platform to effectively steer these important brand assets, ‘Unlocking the Power of Brand Properties through Neuroscience.’

Both of these papers are available free from the agencies on request.

Key research results:

  • 83% of marketers consider brand properties to be ‘extremely important’ in growing brands,
  • Only 54% of marketers have a proper quantitative tracking system for brand properties,
  • 55% of marketers change their brand properties due to organisational change, especially a change in marketing director, with a further 20% changing brand properties based on a judgment call. Only 24% of marketers change brand properties strategically based on quantitative data,
  • 95% of marketers use logos as brand properties and 85% use colour, but only 18% use sonic branding,
  • 90% of characters are used as properties for more than 3 years, but only 25% of celebrities are, possibly reflecting the risk of celebrities needing to be changed owing to problems in their behaviour (eg. Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong),
  • Product shapes have a significantly higher Branding Power Score than claims or slogans,
  • Brand properties that lack distinctiveness can inadvertently activate competitor brands, which means a negative return on marketing investment: 31% of people mistakenly associate Häagen Dazs when seeing Benicio del Toro, versus 21% correctly associating Magnum.
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Marketing Sherpa Summit 2015

Marketing Sherpa Email Summit 2015

The world’s longest-running research-based email marketing event.

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UK

Managing your marketing agency

John Cheney (pictured) says companies need to use their CRM systems to measure the quality of leads at every stage of the sales process in order to get best value from the marketing budget or marketing agency.

The way organisations allocate marketing budget has changed fundamentally over the past decade. From the traditional print advertising, public relations and trade shows, today’s businesses are now responding to the hype around inbound marketing and working with any number of agencies for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pay per Click (PPC) and social media.John_Cheney

These agencies are, of course, excellent at demonstrating their value to the business, using a raft of measurements to prove the quality of the campaign – from website visits to conversions and brand awareness. These metrics will often look fantastic – and make life far easier for the marketing manager to make the case for additional budget.

But how much impact does higher numbers of website visits have on a business’ top line revenues?  If the CFO turns the tables and asks the marketing team that question most, to be frank, will have little or no concrete information.

Missed Opportunity

Marketing teams are failing to make the essential connection between leads generated and sales made. But go back to first principles. The objective of marketing activity is to generate sales; providing the sales team with excellent, qualified leads that support an effective and productive sales process. It is not to deluge the UK-based sales team with leads that are primarily pan-European or to simply boost the company’s key word ranking. Unless these activities generate more business, it’s pointless.

Sadly, if a marketing team accepts the agency’s digital marketing uplift figures at face value, these are often the results. And this is not the fault of the marketing agency. Without clear, accurate feedback on the value of the leads being generated, the marketing agency can only continue with its sophisticated but scattergun approach.

Tracking Leads with CRMCRM

Marketers need to scrutinise in detail the ‘leads generated’ and determine whether the leads are within the company’s key target markets and geographies; whether they convert into the expected sales pipeline at the ratio expected; and ultimately into closed deals. Companies need to measure, and not just estimate, the true return on marketing investment.

The only way to determine an accurate ROI is to track the leads throughout the sales process. Using an effective CRM system a business can follow the progress of the unqualified leads that arrive at the web site. The first stage is typically Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL), those that meet the basic qualification criteria, such as geographic region or size of company. The next stage is usually Sales Accepted Leads (SAL) or Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) that meet most of the normal BANT qualification rules – Budget, Authority, Need and Timescale. Most will then consider a conversion into an ‘opportunity’ for the sales team when all four criteria are met. But, finally, and most decisively, ‘closed/won,’ which enables the finance team to generate an invoice – the ultimate proof of lead value!

Using the CRM to report all the way through that journey provides a clear and accurate measure of the number of unqualified leads generated by the agency that actually resulted in invoices. Critically, by sharing this information with the marketing agency, the company can drive better results. Provided with accurate information about which campaigns generated the best leads, the marketing agency can immediately start to tailor activity and refine campaigns to deliver more of the same and drive up the overall value of investment.

Don’t just rely on Google Analytics

Today, too many marketing departments are happy to measure on the basis of overall lead generation numbers not quality. But believing the information the agency delivers from Google Analytics or search engine result tools is not just short sighted, it is lazy. Marketers need to get real value from an investment in inbound marketing and that means understanding just how those new leads perform. Without this insight companies are missing the opportunities provided by the flexibility and power of today’s marketing tools and constraining an agency’s ability to quickly refine campaigns and turn up the dial on successful content and activity.

Given that many SMEs are spending several thousand pounds per month on digital marketing – many on PPC alone – and a subscription-based CRM system can be acquired for just a few hundred pounds, why are more companies not actively exploiting end to end lead tracking to constantly challenge and improve the quality of digital marketing activity?

Digital marketing offers companies an unprecedented opportunity to measure ROI. By failing to close the loop between marketing investment and sales, that opportunity is being wasted. Without an accurate understanding of the cost per lead, how can a business determine whether the agency is delivering value for money – or whether that investment could be better placed elsewhere?

John Cheney is CEO of Workbooks.

Categories
In the News UK

Top UK retailers losing out from abandoned online shopping trollies – report

Genesys research shows that out of those surveyed, only 20% of UK online retailers followed up after goods were abandoned before check-out

Genesys, a major provider of multi-channel customer experience and contact centre solutions, has announced the results of a survey on the abandonment of online shopping carts.

In August, it commissioned a study into how engaged online retailers are in assisting their potential customers.

During this survey, around £140 of goods were put into the online shopping carts of 75 of the top UK retailers, which were subsequently abandoned before the check-out. Only 15% of the 75 retailers studied followed up with an email or phone call within 24 hours, and only 5% followed up again in the subsequent 24 hours. None proactively engaged with the customer during the online shopping session despite customers being active on the website for the entire time before the abandonment. Just 7% of the companies had chat as an available option and none of them used this option during the process.

Brendan Dykes, director of Strategic Marketing, Genesys, said: “We were shocked at the amount of retailers that didn’t follow-up on the abandoned shopping carts, despite the customer being online the entire time and providing their contact details.

“In other words, of the potential £10,830 revenue on offer to the retailers, £9,180 was not pursued at all and only £1,650 was pursued after the shopping cart had been abandoned. This wouldn’t happen in bricks and mortar stores, where assistants would be only too keen to follow-up or cross-sell and up-sell.

“Other industry research shows that more than 65% of online shopping carts are abandoned. In an online store, not only is business lost, but the store would probably lose customers to their competition, too.

“Retailers should not just follow-up afterwards by email or phone, but should also look to make simple additions to the online customer experience such as adding web chat – this can make a real difference to the customer, and help them find what they want.”