In pursuit of the great customer experience

I’ve been doing some research figuring out how to set up advanced Internet capabilities in an emerging economy country and preparing an article on social media when I ran across not one but three FREE thought provokers on how to up your social media game.  If you are a CMO or CXO get ready, because the shift in marketing communications is move quickly away from traditional media.

The first though provoker is a pro and con about social interactions on the web from Pew Research entitled “The Future of Social Relations.” I think many marketers will have to shift from the easier forms of segmentation to understand segmentation approaches base more on psychographics and usability.  The pro and con points of view raised in this paper are great at showing the range of divergent views – and interaction styles – marketers must consider.  There is much more to find at Pew Internet & The American Life Project.

The second is a cornucopia of  ideas from the 360i Social Marketing Playbook.  Here’s an excerpt:

• Social media are highly effective in the middle of the purchase funnel, to improve brand or product consideration during the period when consumers are gathering opinions and listening to word of mouth. Social media endorsements have been a great influence on purchase intent.
• The value of social media is best measured by the frequency or depth of engagement with consumers, rather than by impressions delivery or by conventional direct responses, such as clicks. As the IAB noted in our just-released “Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions”, “For marketers, endorsement by consumers in the form of friending/following/subscribing validates their efforts and activates a viral distribution of their brand across channels.”
• Traditional “click here now” banner ads are not always appropriate in social environments. Marketers and agencies need to develop creative that incorporates social elements and engages consumers in a chain of activities, as do Facebook’s “Engagement Ads,” MySpace’s “Interaction Ads,” and the other formats showcased in the IAB’s newly released “Social Advertising Best Practices” whitepaper.
• Because social media cut across conventional marketing organizational silos and budgets – PR, marketing, customer service, etc. – all these groups need to be brought into the development and optimization of social media campaigns.
  Social media can help square the circle around bought, owned and earned media. Paid advertising, public relations efforts and a marketer’s own sites can be joined together virtually and virtuously to create a satisfying and valuable experience for the consumer that profits the marketer.
• Authenticity reigns. Conversations cannot be controlled, they can only be joined, so marketers have to be willing to listen and learn from the consumers they engage through social media.

I’m a big fan of Kristin Dziadul’s blog – A New Generation (and for the record, who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks).   As one of the up and coming social media marketers, she offers great insights from strategy to execution.  One great find on the site is her thesis paper,“From Outbound Marketing to Inbound Marketing: What 2010 Web 2.0 Means for Marketers”.  Wow!

Have fun!

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Today’s American Banker has an article about retail customers becoming less loyal (and less profitable) to their banks.  To quote:

“Our research shows a fundamental power shift between the banks and their customers since the financial crisis began,” Noel Gordon, global managing director of Accenture’s banking industry practice and co-author of the research, said in a press release.”

I had to laugh as I read this as  many banks seem to be stuck in the mediocre middle.  Seriously, one bank I worked with woke up one day and realized that they had a bit of a Frankenstein approach to customers as they simply were acquiring faster than they could really integrate.

One of the lessons of great banking was from a smaller bank where the CEO drove home three points.

1. The segment we serve is middle market commercial.
2. Within that we have a few areas we will excel in: multi-property cash management and near real time payments management – to name a few.
3. While we have relationships with other segments/customers, our capital, resources, and development will go to that niche, first and foremost.

Segment, Simple, Select.  Making those choices now and aligning to them may be the real key to customer experience breakthroughs.

So for some other ideas stop by Accenture’s Banking Practice page.  They have some great thinking and you can get them without the “sign up” hassle.

Cheers!

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