Simplifying Web 2.0: It’s not really that technical!

If you are not comfortable with technology and its concocted numerical nomenclature. If you haven’t figured out Web 2.0 yet, we give you a load up on what it really means to get connected!

By Shiraz Datta

How many of us are comfortable with technology and advancements in it? Not too many, I’m sure. The recent generation is a little more ‘Tech-savvy’ they say, but even then it’s just a very superficial understanding of the terms and their purposes. Under this condition, when someone mentions Web 2.0, it seems a little over your head! Have they actually reinvented the web? Isn’t that what 1.0, 2.0 etc are supposed to mean? Different versions of the same thing. So does this affect the way we use the web? It will probably become more complicated with more tools, more buttons, more of everything to make the user think even more while using it! So many questions that tend to make Web 2.0 seem like some enigma which is understood by just a few and blindly used by the rest. But the fact of the matter is that, Web 2.0 would not exist if it was not for the common user. It is us that make the new version of the Web, and not the geeks in their cubicles writing innumerable lines of code.

Web 2.0 was a term introduced to the world during the first O’Reilly Media
Web 2.0 conference in 2004, but has never really been accepted widely as the right nomenclature. We could possibly define Web 2.0 as a knowledge-oriented environment where human interactions generate content that is published, managed and used through network applications in a service-oriented architecture.

This by itself is obviously confusing and is not how you would want to describe it to someone who you are trying to explain the simplicity of Web 2.0 to! However, I have mentioned it here for those who are interested in knowing the technical description of the term. For the rest, it is basically trying to say that Web 2.0 is a place where you, your friends, your family and anyone else can come share information in various forms and get connected to each other in the process. Basically, let’s come hang out and exchange information!

Simple isn’t it?
Let’s take some examples to get into the spirit of Web 2.0 a little more. How many of us have an Orkut, Facebook or MySpace account? Pretty much everybody. And this is exactly what Web 2.0 is all about. People no longer use the Web just to check their mail and send out information at fixed points of time.

It’s now all about making everything real time and sharing and exchanging information then and there. The sites mentioned above allow you to put up photos, write down your thoughts, make a profile that people can browse, share videos and lots more. Suddenly no one on the net is a stranger. People can look through your profile and learn more about yourself even before they have met you. You can connect to people you would never have directly met, but who may be able to help you in a number of ways from hobbies, to accommodation, to education and a lot more. These sites function on user-generated content and that’s what Web 2.0 is all about.

Putting the power in the hands of the user!
You will no longer be told what to do online, but will be asked what you want to do. The Web is no longer a place for the ‘Tech –savvy’ or the professionals who want to showcase their skills. It’s all about the common user who wants to share his thoughts, his work, his skills and allows others to view and rate his work.

Everybody can now have their own web page, and even a custom URL to give them their own online identity. Blogs have already been advanced enough to allow you to not only write about your experiences, but to also include pictures, videos and lots of other features that make them a rich source of information and an outlet for the creatively inclined to showcase themselves to the whole world.

Gone is the time when you had to have big bucks behind you to do anything online and even then have technical expertise to execute it. Now, all you need is some basic computer knowledge and you are on your way to destinations unknown! You no longer need a space ship to “Boldly go where no man has gone before!”

But for all its plus points and advantages, the Web 2.0 advancement also has some serious privacy invasion and identity theft drawbacks. With the amount of personal and potential sensitive information online, you need to make sure you take care of who is looking at your web pages and blogs. Identity theft for creating bogus accounts, image theft, misuse of personal information are all very serious and real threats that abound in this brave new world of the Web.

The movies “The Net” and “The Net 2.0” dealt with a fictional situation of the ill effects of the World Wide Web, but these seem very plausible with the simplification of the Web of late. But with the ease it introduces and the scope for enrichment of our lives, Web 2.0 cannot be viewed as a bad advancement at all.

It’s just up to the user to ensure that he/she uses it responsibly. “With great power comes great responsibility”, said Spiderman and that applies to the Web as well. With the new power and control that it offers to the common user, it is up to him to ensure he uses it carefully and makes sure he watches his own back and other’s as well. At this time of sharing information and thoughts, sharing concerns and watching out for your online colleagues is a must. After all, isn’t that what Web 2.0 is all about. Sharing, exchanging and experiencing what others have.

Why Personalized Customer Communications is Mission Critical

Creating a consistent message across disparate media

By Troy Gross  - Cincom Systems

 

In a world run amok with data, it’s the rare company that doesn’t know something about their customers. If a customer has done business with a company in the past, that company can retain pertinent information about them for years to come.

 

The question is, what exactly does a 21st century business do with all that information?

 

Savvy companies are starting to realize that using that data for “personalization” needs to be taken to a higher level. Consumers aren’t impressed if your personalization efforts stop at putting their name on a document. If you want to engage your customers, highly personalized communications with a consistent message are key.

 

Not just document automation

 

Let’s tackle a few industry terms first. “Personalized customer communications” does not mean just “document automation”. A document automation system consists of pre-defined models with standard information about your customers. They are capable of sending out mass mailings, but only mass mailings of the same information to thousands of customers.  Above all, a document automation system is focused on saving your company money.

 

On the other hand, a personalized customer communications system is focused on your customer. The goal of such a system is to provide timely, relevant and concise information to your customer. This information can be communicated via email, fax, a website, written documentation or even a real-time phone conversation. It uses your existing data to provide information that is relevant and targeted only to that customer.

 

Here’s an example. At a health care company, a document management system could send out mass mailings of the same welcome packets of information to each new member. The packets contain dozens of forms that new members need to sign and return. But only certain members need to fill out certain forms. The other forms – at best – will be discarded. At worst, they will frustrate and annoy your new customer.

 

A personalized customer communications system handles the mailing very differently. It sends the same welcome packets, but includes just the forms that each individual member needs to complete. Based upon pre-existing data, the system knows which member needs what form and can even increase font size for older customers. There’s no waste and no frustrated customers.

 

It all boils down to the three cycles of customer care – acquisition, retention and extension. You may acquire that new customer, but if they have a bad experience in the next two phases, you stand a good chance of losing them. A personalized customer communications system helps you to engage your customer through each of the three phases.

 

The bottom line? A personalized customer care system is built upon the radical idea that you shouldn’t just collect data on your customers, you should use that data to continue to engage them.

 

New system, new efficiencies

 

Engaging the customer sounds like a lofty goal. It also sounds like a goal that costs a lot of money. What are some the internal efficiencies and cost-savings that a personalized customer care system can bring?

 

The flexibility of a personalized customer communications system brings the most efficiency. Standard language and a consistent message are crafted and implemented by functional line of business areas, such as sales and marketing teams, without the need for a heavy-handed IT presence. If you can edit a Word document, you can make changes to your company’s correspondence and message in various forms of customer communications.

 

Further flexibility is found in the medium itself. A personalized customer care system can help your company create a consistent message across various forms of media, including email, faxes, web sites and written correspondence. A fully-utilized system can also interface with your telephone support system. Customer care reps can have access to real-time data about your customers. They can make decisions and immediately create correspondence based upon known and live feedback from that particular customer.

 

Another efficiency of a personalized customer communications system is found in scalability. The best thing that can happen to your business is more customers, right? Not necessarily. If your call volumes are going up, but you don’t have the staff or systems to handle the resulting documents that need to be produced, your service levels may falter. That lack of top-notch service could drive current or potential customers away.

 

 

Cost center to profit center

 

While increased efficiency, flexibility and scalability will save your company money, forward thinking companies are also using their personalized customer communication systems to generate income. It moves your customer response center from a cost center to a profit center.

 

Consider something as mundane as an invoice. A company that sells limited edition ceramic figurines sends an invoice with every purchase. It’s something the customer will review to make sure they received the correct item at the correct price. Why not take advantage of this time with your customer to expose them to new products?

 

On the invoice, you could include ad copy and photos of new lines of figurines. Based upon the customer’s purchase history, you could suggest a high-priced purchase or a medium-priced item. If you know they purchase gifts for others from your company, you could suggest the item as a gift. 

 

The insurance industry provides another example. Insurance is basically selling a promise. The customer purchases a promise of payment under certain circumstances. That promise is summarized in a document, a piece of paper. Since you are required to send the customer that piece of paper, why not make the most of out it? Why not put everything you’ve got into that document?

 

Instead of sending out a massive amount of information, tailor the document to just the information that consumer needs to know. Send a two page summary instead of a two pound packet of information. Personalize that summary based upon that customer’s purchase – and what you have learned is important to them.

 

That customer will recognize – and appreciate – the extra personalization that went into that document. But don’t stop there. While you have them engaged and impressed with your company, include targeted information about the insurance’s company’s other products that might appeal to them. This targeted new information would be based upon what you already know about the customer’s current situation and probable upcoming life events. The information you send would pertain only to them.

 

It seems like a simple idea – and a personalized customer communications system makes it possible. While that customer is already holding your required communications in their hand and is thinking about your company, why not engage them further and work on extending your relationship with them?

 

A consistent message above the fray

 

In a consumer culture where customers can Tivo through commercials and purchase software to block pop-up Internet ads, it can be difficult to get your message heard. By providing a consistent and targeted message across any form of media, your company can get its message directly to the consumers it needs to reach.

 

A personalized customer communications systems provides concise and relevant information to existing and prospective customers. By fully utilizing the system, your company can establish itself as responsive, knowledgeable, and truly customer-focused. By integrating a personalize customer communication system into your customer care strategy, you are utilize the data you already have on your customers to build an even stronger customer relationship.

Retailers, get ready for the magic of CRM

“International giants entering India in a big way was an impending trend only waiting to happen.  If you haven’t prepared for the tussle yet, this is your chance. Indian retailers are set to impress customers and increase their bottom-line with the aid of the right CRM”

 

By Shiraz Datta

 

It’s ironic that while the retail sector in India is estimated at US$350 billion, organised retail is estimated barely at US$8 billion. The upside is the expected growth rate. By 2010, organised retail is expected to grow up to US$22 billion, an estimated 40 percent compounded annual growth of return over the next few years.

 

Numerous international retail giants from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are entering the Indian market with enormous hope and investments. Retailers in India so far only prefer to increase the number of outlets within a city or to other regions as a part of their expansion drive. But they will now need to fight the burgeoning retail space with many new shopping centres and growing new markets like the kids’ retail revolution in apparel. To manage the tremendous volume of transactions and to beat international competition, Indian retailers have an immediate need for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools.

 

CRM will happen. It’s simply a question of how long it will take and in how many ways retailers will benefit. Customer Relationship Management is important, especially for your repeat customers and for them to feel camaraderie with the retailer. A good CRM will provide the right framework to retailers so that they can personalize merchandise purchases, services and responses across all communication channels for the customer’s satisfaction and for increased sales.

 

Low cost, high value

But before retailers embark on any CRM software, they need to ensure it comes at optimal cost, with minimal risk, high value, and a higher return on investment (ROI). It should install quickly, interface readily with existing systems, be easy to learn and to use, and deliver uncompromising performance.

 

Driven by changing lifestyles, strong income growth and favourable demographic patterns, the Indian retail market is growing at compounded annual rate of five percent and expected revenues of US$320 billion in 2007, according to a report by AT Kearney and the Confederation of Indian Industry. And big international and domestic retailers have realized this growth.

 

To sustain competition from the giants, Indian retailers must differentiate or brand their business. Customers expect retailers to do this is by personalizing products and services. And this is where a rightly implemented CRM comes into play.

 

Growing Communication Channels

India has more than 129 million mobile communication subscribers and the number is expected to go up to 300 million in 2008. This is a strong marketing channel retailers cannot afford to miss. “Truly loyal customers can’t imagine doing business with anyone else. They are your best means of advertising because they’ve become advocates for your company. They bore their friends with stories of how great you are,” write Shaun Smith and Joe Wheeler, authors of Managing the Customer Experience.

 

To implement the right CRM, retailers need to analyze customer preferences and trends, and then merge analysis with inbound and outbound calling via CRM technology so that customers can communicate with the retail chain by fax, phone, web, SMS and the like. The CRM framework links and integrates these channels to individualize the customer’s experience and ensure satisfaction.

 

Similarly, competition must be kept under a check. If a retailer offers volume discounts, its competitors must likewise offer comparable value to the customers. If a retailer has tools to reach more customers with personalized purchase offers, or to process orders faster, or with fewer errors, or more efficiently, other vendors must adapt or gradually surrender market share.

 

But unfortunately, only 30 percent of companies worldwide have actually implemented a commercial CRM software package. And most of these are only a year old. Of this minority, 54 percent have implemented just one part of CRM. With so much room for improvement in meeting customer demands, CRM can only help.

 

Contact centres form an integral part of CRM because they directly impact how customers feel about the retailer’s products, services and business. With an efficient system at the contact centre, retailers can help customers buy what they want and need. For instance, retailers are yet to utilize the opportunity of selling daily needs to a population that is using the latest technology to purchase almost everything.

 

If you are looking at moving to customer-centric marketing, this means that all customer functions are subject to CRM’s analytical processes. This helps retailers understand both how the customer base is presently segmented and, for the future, according to what retailing values. Other analyses identify new services, evaluate their ROI, shift focus from less to more profitable customers, etc. The outcome from CRM analytics is better service, improved planning and profitability, and more appropriate pricing.

 

Customer Analysis

CRM analysis can help retailers make a smooth shift to a customer-focused enterprise by allowing processes like differentiating customers into segments, discovering precise needs of customers and redesigning compensation and rewards to effect behavioural changes. This process establishes the context that stimulates the customer to shop and buy. Hardcore marketers make their own analytical understandings with the help of a CRM to evaluate what their customers need.

Improved Sales

Better services imply the customer’s improved ability to make purchases. They will make informed decisions and be happy with their purchase. Such efficient shopping will only mean a patronizing customer. For the retailers, this means higher transaction rate, increased revenues, and a wider profit margin.

 

Smart retailers are looking up new and critical CRM tools like the unified agent desktop that allows customer service agents to respond faster and with greater accuracy and consistency every time a customer picks up the phone, accesses e-mails or chats. The unified agent desktop brings the customer into focus at the desktop and turns the agent’s screen into a hub that can access all enterprise applications and databases necessary to respond rapidly to the customer.

 

The result is increased quality and decreased operating costs, leading to one of the most handsome ROIs in the industry. It also eliminates data redundancy like repeating customers with the same requests or relying on agents to recall the correct systems to enter a new customer record or service request.

Questions to ask about any CRM Framework:

·          Does it allow the supervisor or manager to access and process analytical data online? Preferably through a web portal?

·          Does it use just one screen to manage all customer channels – e-mail, voice, chat, fax, web self service – so that agents stay productive and don’t get lost in the transaction?

·          Does it offer a universal view of your retail CRM data on a single screen – contact information, history of recent activity, knowledge base, workflow interaction, resource management?

·          Does it make efficient use of your and the customer’s time by minimizing clicks so that managers and agents don’t have to toggle to other screens or other applications while the customer waits impatiently?

Four Components of the Successful Customer Experience

It’s about more than fulfilling a transaction - By Randy Saunders, Cincom Systems

 

Contact center leaders are canny and battle-tested enough to know that each and every customer touch is a test of the service organization as a whole. But not everyone realizes that each and every customer touch is a test of the entire brand and its promise to that customer. When a customer and your representatives make a connection, that one experience will be the culmination of all the time, money, and materials invested by both parties – and the outcome of that encounter will be the impression and the memory the customer has of your company.

 

When your brand goes on trial, the only way to succeed is to deliver the kind of experience that transcends the ordinary and the everyday, and reaffirms the company’s entire brand premise. In the contact center, the front line of so many businesses, revenue is made and lost every day not on price or performance, but by the quality of the customer experience.

 

Connections. Not collisions.

The organization and its management are on the line every time the customer joins a call. Customer experience expert Shaun Smith of Shaun Smith + co warns against looking at customer interactions as compartmentalized moments in time. “Experience is every firm’s value proposition because no company can avoid delivering a total experience. A customer cannot not have one,” he says. “The million dollar question is: ‘Was the experience the one you intended?’”

 

Like it or not, consciously or not, customers evaluate their business relationships every time they touch your company. Learning to manage the experience every time the phone rings or the inbox chimes is an essential skill to maintain and build business with customers who are empowered to be brand-agnostic and effortless switchers. Above all else, the function of the contact center is to positively construct connections and to not negatively cause collisions between the customer and the provider.

 

Four components of the successful customer experience and positive connection

Customer experiences are not created in a vacuum. They evolve from industry conventions, customer demands, executive orders, peer exchanges, and expert advice, just to name a few influences. But up until recently, what the brand wants to stand for has not directly influenced the way that service is delivered in the call center. But that is changing fast. Relying on technology or expert advice alone to craft your customer experience is a losing strategy – those tactics are too easily copied. Doing what you have always done in the contact center (or worse, what everybody else appears to be doing) will not differentiate your brand. “Managing the customer experience is a complex undertaking, which requires strategic choices to be made, new competencies to be developed, and management’s will to execute,” Smith says.

 

Smith cites four criteria that are the base for any solid, sustainable customer experience management effort. A positive, managed customer experience must be consistent, intentional, differentiated, and valuable. Meeting them head-on is critical if the customer experience is truly a top priority.

 

1. Consistent: Your customers are not interested in the many complex layers of technology and analysis required to manage each and every call they make. All they are interested in is their own experience, and it is disastrous to that experience if they believe the quality of that call is subject to a roll of the dice. Consistency at the agent level is about more than simply giving everybody access to the same screen pops, call scripts, and escalation protocols, however. It requires being able to identify and anticipate the needs and interests of a customer, and ensuring that the right steps are taken – every time – to satisfy those requirements in a timely, predictable manner, and in a way that is “on-brand.” Inconsistencies and lamentable misses will damper the experience – and returns from that customer. Consistency is a hallmark of organizations as high-tech as Amazon, whose shopping cart interface has become a web standard, and as everyday as McDonalds, where replicable taste and process is the fundamental strength of the business. In the contact center, consistency hinges on the organization’s ability to know everything relevant about the customer, regardless of the contact channel or agent handling the interaction. The integration of flexible, powerful customer information systems that are easy to use by both agents and customers alike can go a long way toward supporting consistency. But just as McDonald’s found, consistency alone is no longer enough.

 

2. Intentional: The contact center must be able to clearly articulate and understand the customer experience it is trying to create and preserve in order to carry it out. Furthermore, the procedures and policies of that service organization must be specifically geared toward meeting the needs of the customer and, by extension, gratifying the customer experience. That is the failure of many CRM implementations; management assumes that technology will drive the customer experience, whereas, in fact, the opposite should be true. The customer experience must be designed first and then implemented throughout the organization. Note that this should not be interpreted to mean that the best customer experiences must always be directed from on high. Individual agents or teams may have developed their own, undocumented, but still intentional methods of delivering a superior experience, but these must be developed within the framework of the brand strategy – otherwise well-intentioned anarchy will result. Be on the lookout for customer experiences that outstrip the norm, and consider whether there may be an intentional aspect to them that could be used in the larger contact organization. Calculated intention can be expressed as a way of using channels that serve a clear purpose and deliver clear value to both the customer and the company.

 

3. Differentiated: “Simply put, if your customers cannot discriminate between the experiences they achieve with your company and that of a competitor, they won't distinguish.” If they cannot distinguish you from your competitors, you will feel it in the form of a significant, quite possibly unconscious, lack of loyalty. The experience you deliver to your customers must produce a feeling on some level that no other organization can do quite the same thing for its customers as you can. Skeptics may believe that this factor is based entirely on issues of product and pricing, but such an assumption misses the entire impact of the customer experience. Nothing saps the joy of feeling part of a singular, irreplaceable community than a customer experience that is bland and run-of-the-mill. If Harley-Davidson treated its customers like a faceless quick-lube shop treats its clients – as an anonymous assembly line of vehicles and owners – it would not be the brand and customer experience standout it is today. No organization can afford sameness in its customer experience unless it is happy to allow price to become the determining factor.

 

4. Valuable: In a sense, this is the validating step after the first three directives have been considered. Once a consistent, intentional, and differentiated strategy is devised, the question must be asked – will implementing this strategy produce value for both the company and the target customer base? For example, First Direct, an online U.K. bank with 1.2 million customers, wins a new customer every six seconds. The bank spoke to their most loyal customers and asked them what they valued most about First Direct. The research identified that being able to engage with a real person was an important driver of satisfaction. As a result, First Direct’s advertising agency created an ad that featured a customer speaking of her experience of calling First Direct and getting through to a real person, any time of the day or night and getting the kind of help that most call centers can only dream of. The ad’s engaging message and apparent empathy struck a chord with target customers. Customers have become its biggest advocates because of the value they receive. And by “value” we are not talking here about relative price, but the whole experience they have of the brand. Perhaps it’s no coincidence then that 36% of First Direct’s customers come to them through referral.

 

Receiving value is the validating test of all brand experience.

 

This article is an excerpt from the white paper “Customer Experience Happens in the Contact Center, With Insights From Shaun Smith." Go to www.cincom.com/shaunsmith to download the complete white paper or to view a webcast titled "See, Feel, Think, Do - Creating Breakthrough Ideas to Deliver the Perfect Customer Experience," in which Shaun Smith presents a lively discussion on how to build great customer experiences.