Multi-Channel Articles - Personalics

Three Pillars of Omni-Channel Communication: Consistent, Continuous, and Holistic

Ohad Shperling — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 12:01:53 +0000

As a marketer, you’ve likely come across the buzz-word “omni-channel” in the context of online marketing. There are countless sources that try to explain to marketers exactly what omni-channel is, but often, these explanations are abstract and lack concrete examples. This leaves marketers feeling confused and unfulfilled, which is problematic because omni-channel is used everywhere in the eCommerce world. It is imperative for marketers to understand what an omni-channel experience would feel like to a consumer, when implemented correctly.

Omni-channel can be defined broadly as cross-channeling through a consistent user experience. You may ask, what does this even mean? Well let me tell you, conceptually, that omni-channel is quite simple! Let’s start by breaking down the basics.

What are Channels?

The most essential part of omni-channel is understanding how channels are relative. Channels of communication are the means through which people communicate. In eCommerce retail, aka E-tail, the major channels include electronic (all email, Internet, social media) and mobile (private and individualized messages). A major channel that e-tailer’s lack is face-to-face, or personal communication, which they must make up for using personalization techniques, in order to ensure a connection with the customer. Organizations must employ various tactics to instill a level of personalization so they can effectively converse with consumers through an ongoing conversation. This is where Personalics is here to help.

When different communication channels overlap, this is called cross-channeling. The blending of channels creates a dynamic center of communication, which simulates the high level of personalization and service like a customer would experience in-person. Omni-channel is combining these channels to most effectively create a continuous and seamless consumer experience online.

Why Omni-Channel?

The omni-channel experience is most relevant to our current market because it dynamically interplays channels and brands, in order to maximize navigation and efficiency for users. This creates a seamless and consistent experience across all channels of the brand. A surface level example from Harvard University for a bricks-and-clicks business, is when a mobile app matches the reflective design of the website, which thematically echoes the look and feel inside the store.

Combining multiple platforms, the omni-channel experience blends both digital and physical worlds, allowing retailers to interact with customers whether online on a computer, in local stores and kiosks, through mobile devices, TV’s and beyond.

Here’s one example that really demonstrates a fluid, dynamic, and holistic omni-channel experience:

I go online, login with my customer ID, and browse some pants.
I find a pair that I like, but I don’t want to order them online because of the shipping cost and hassle.
I want to try them on in the retail store to ensure proper fit.
While walking in the mall, near the store, I receive a predictive push notification on my phone (because I opted in for the retailer’s app to use my location) from the brand. They are offering me an extra 10% incentive for those pants and telling me that my size exists in the store nearby.
When I arrive at the store, a digital screen greets me. After typing in my ID, the screen directs me toward the exact in-store location of the pants.
I apply the coupon at check-out, and the cashier addresses me by name as he thanks me for shopping with the brand.

In the above example, it can be noted that the omni-channel experience goes beyond merging media platforms and blending consistent aesthetics across channels. The omni-channel strategy integrates data from multiple sources to track the customer’s decision process throughout all channels and touch points. It predicts the next best message, which will yield the highest engagement. This is predictive, continuous, and consistent omni-channel that converses with the consumer.

Even for an E-tailer, Omni-Channel Extends Beyond the Boundaries of Media Channels

You may be thinking an online retailer lacks an important channel of communication: a physical, in-store relationship. However, e-tailers can still ensure personable communication without ever meeting in person. Deloitte Point of View even claims it’s easier for e-tailers to develop physical presence than it is for bricks-and-mortars to increase their digital presence.

A successful brand will employ this by synergizing their existing channels and all potential stakeholders. Each department (i.e: executives, IT, marketing, customer service) works closely together to create a productive and seamless experience. Personalics embraces this strategy in the following example:

A shopper clicks to open and read their personalized email, shopper calls Customer Service to ask a question, the personalized data is presented to rep, who can quickly recommend the best matching product and close the sale all during the same conversation.

The only way to achieve this efficient transaction is by implementing omni-channel strategies. It’s more effective for representatives to engage dynamically with customers if the brand’s touch-points are connected and customer data is logged. No matter the channel, consumers expect the same service levels and same access to information throughout their entire shopping journey.

Not only do customers appreciate fluidity and convenience of a consistent user experience, they are more likely to purchase from you if the process is easy and accessible across platforms. With so many competing retailers and e-tailers in the contemporary market, consumers won’t settle for anything less than a seamless experience.

What’s the Catch for E-tailers?

In order to hook new customers and retain interest without ever personally connecting face to face, e-tailers must create highly effective personalized offerings and appeal to sensual design aesthetics. Amazon does this incredibly well. Their website exhibits a savvy and user-friendly display that grabs attention and is consistent across all channels. Customers are more likely to purchase from you if navigating the site is easy, accessible, and convenient. In addition to the consistent user experience, Amazon offers certain perks depending on which channel you use. For example, on mobile, they offer quick purchasing options through “buy now with 1-click” so while you’re on the go, you don’t have to navigate through multiple pages because the customer’s information is already stored.

A Deloitte study states that 45% of smartphone owners are making purchases using a mobile device…every month!

It takes time to develop omni-channel infrastructure

Implementing omni-channel is a goal that brands must commit toward. They must develop a plan to discover and analyze existing departments and furthermore decide to enhance or generate new ones. This journey helps a brand understand different sections of their organization and how to best appeal to their desired audience.

To become a legitimate competitor in the ever-changing market, and appeal directly to consumers, a brand should consider reviewing operations from these two perspectives. Let’s review:

Increase marketing effectiveness

Understand your audience and provide them with the most relevant content upfront—don’t make them dig for it.
Easy to navigate and appealing interface that is recognizable and consistent across each platform.
Implement CRM—ensure personalized marketing doesn’t “chase” customers who have already bought or opted out.
Direct lines to Customer Service, if need be.

Convenient and safe pay options

Integrate multiple payment solutions for convenience, which will increase conversion rates
Diverse shipping and delivery options
Stay up to date with new technologies to ensure customer’s trust in storing their important information online

These two perspectives cover the entire customer journey, from the moment they click your website to closing a purchase. Understanding the effectiveness of omni-channel and integrating it into your online brand will create a worthwhile experience for users, which will increase revenue.

Any questions or comments about omni-channel? Personalics would love to hear from you!

The post Three Pillars of Omni-Channel Communication: Consistent, Continuous, and Holistic appeared first on Personalics.

Facebook marketing for re-engaging non-email-openers

Ohad Shperling — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 12:14:19 +0000

Most of your email subscribers are not opening your newsletters.

30%, 50%, 70%, even as high as 90% of your subscribers are not reading your newsletters.

You are not alone.

Before we get into the Facebook marketing and cross channel solution. Let’s understand why email open rates are declining.

This happens for a variety of reasons:

More brands are aware of the power of email subscriptions, and hence – incentivizing users to subscribe to their newsletter.
Therefore, there is higher competition for email visibility.
More emails get into the ‘Promotions’ tab and get somewhat less exposure in the clutter.
Overall – the ‘Promotions’ tab is getting more crowded with a larger number of competing offers.
Every brand is receiving, on average, less visibility to recipients.

And that’s a pity.

You probably invest quite a lot in your email marketing. Even though you are putting an effort into your regular newsletter promotions, subscribers are not seeing these offers and curated content.

Therefore, your brand perception is gradually declining and becoming less in your customers’ top-of-mind. Consequently those customers will be less likely to choose your brand as their ‘go to place’ for shopping.

So, what should you do about it? In this increasingly competitive environment, how can you capture your customers’ attention again?

Answer: Re-engage those customers in another non-email channel – such as Facebook.

By using Facebook marketing and Custom Audience, you can re-engage with those specific users who do not open your newsletters regularly. This is a very effective cross channel strategy if you implement it correctly.

Here are the steps you should be taking to do it effectively:

Segment your subscriber list to ‘openers’ and ‘non-openers’. ‘Openers’ are subscribers who regularly open your emails, at least once a month, or once a week, depending on how frequently you send newsletters. ‘Non openers’ are those that haven’t opened your emails for a month or more.
Segment the ‘non-openers’ to different engagement levels, as follows:
- ‘Dormant’ subscribers, who haven’t opened your emails for more than 4 months.
- ‘At Risk’ subscribers, who last opened one of your emails a couple of months ago.
- ‘Drifting’ subscribers, who haven’t opened an email for a few weeks.
- ‘Loyal’ subscribers, who are regularly opening your emails at least once a week.
Per each of these segments – create micro segmentation according to their expected life time value. In other words, for each segment, categorize your audience according to how cold or warm they are – this audience should be divided again according to their expected ‘worth’ (or life time value) to your store. To calculate this ‘expected worth’, take into account several attributes such as their previous overall spend, how much time has passed since their last engagement, their engagement frequency, and average order value.
Prioritize your Facebook budget – start with the ‘non-openers’ who are relatively warm and have the highest expected life time value, and target only this segment with Facebook Custom Audience first. You should serve this micro segment the recommended products that they are most likely to engage with.
Spend your Facebook budget gradually. Begin with the warmest, highest expected lifetime value segment and continue all the way to the coldest, lowest expected lifetime value segment, while testing the ROI of your Facebook Custom Audience campaign.
When calculating your Facebook campaigns ROI, take into account other channels those customers interact with. For instance, if a customer has clicked on (or viewed) your Facebook Custom Audience campaign, she may not purchase right away, but she may be back into engaging with your brand via newsletter or directly with your site. This level of re-engagement may be enough to consider the Facebook campaign a success, or ROI positive, for that user at that point in time – the campaign has successfully converted the disengaged customer back into engagement. This way, you can actually increase the effective ROI of Facebook campaigns, because you consider engaged users via other channels as users who may not require additional spending in Facebook. Taking this broader view means you can allocate your Facebook budget more effectively to other relevant segments who require additional exposure.
Keep testing whether users who became engaged continue to be engaged, or require additional cross channel promotion. Your ultimate goal is to optimize revenues, or customer life time value. For maximum results, you should run this exercise on a daily basis and treat each user separately according to their engagement level and funnel.

In summary, email open rates are declining. But there is a lot you can do to converse with your shoppers in a relevant way via Facebook.

Have you tried implementing cross channel marketing for email engagement?

The post Facebook marketing for re-engaging non-email-openers appeared first on Personalics.

Multi-channel customer experience: still failing

Ohad Shperling — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 09:41:00 +0000

A bad customer experience. We all know what it feels like. The blow-a-gasket, go-ballistic, hit-the-ceiling, foam-at-the-mouth rage after an encounter with customer “service” that feels more like a scheme for customer derangement. And automation only makes the customer experience worse, as this humorous video from Solaris Media Ltd shows:

It makes you want to tear your hair out. Now, I don’t have any hair on my head because I shave it. But even if I didn’t, I still wouldn’t have that much hair because I have to call vendors’ customer service a lot.

It’s not as if nobody has ever identified the qualities and methods that go into consistently excellent customer experience. Zappos’ founder Tony Hsieh wrote a book, Delivering Happiness, re-defining what an excellent customer experience looks like.

Too bad many companies haven’t read Tony’s book. And even if they read it, they are far from implementing it. In fact, sometimes it feels like some businesses haven’t updated their customer service practices since the automobile replaced the horse-drawn cart. And I still feel like tearing out my non-existent hair when customer representatives – usually those from big service providers – telecom, electricity, cable TV, Internet providers – seem to be completely unfamiliar with even the most fundamental information about my history with their brands across channels.

Like the man in the video above, I’m angry because they don’t “see me.” They don’t get the picture of the experience I’ve encountered with the organization across channels.

Here are 11 examples of customer service experiences that make me want to blow my top; especially because all of them have solutions

Problem: Making me describe the problem over and over and over and over …

I explain my problem to Rep A, who transfers the call to Rep B, who asks me to explain the problem all over again. Simple solution: Implement a unified realtime CRM system for logging every customer encounter and categorizing it so that Rep B knows what the issue is before speaking with me. I wouldn’t mind – in fact I would be delighted – if Rep B asked, “please give me a moment to read the log of your previous conversation with Rep A to catch up.”

Problem: Expecting customers to remember order numbers.

If I buy something online and immediately call customer service, the system doesn’t recognize that I’ve just bought something online, and makes me identify the transaction with an order ID. Without that number, the customer service representative has to search for this order. I don’t have the number at my fingertips, because – guess what – I’ve been waiting on the phone for 20 minutes, and I’m doing other things while waiting – such as driving. Simple solution: Use the phone number I called from – the same one I entered when I placed the order – to find my order automatically. A smart CRM system would automatically pull up my recent order in front of the customer representative.

Problem: Continuing to sell after customers have bought.

I’ve just purchased a washing machine online. But an email / retargeting ad / Facebook post is still ‘chasing’ me across the Web everywhere I go with the same item. And it’s not a vacuum cleaner, which I might be interested in as a bundle because I’m a cleaning junkie. It’s an ad showcasing a washing machine, and I just purchased one. I’m not likely to want to buy another one for many years. Simple solution: Integrate CRM with all remarketing channels: email, including social media, sms, and mobile push.

Problem: Making returning customers re-enter billing and shipping information for new purchases.

When I log in, instead of confirming a short security question, I have to re-enter all my billing details from scratch. Simple Solution: Learn from Amazon’s ‘one-click’ checkout experience. Use an auto-complete widget for the billing form.

Problem: Failing to provide chat or email connections to customer service.

The only way I can ask questions or report problems is to call the company’s maddening Interactive Voice Response system (IVR). This means I can’t contact the company conveniently. I have to wait and listen to their endless IVR messages about how much they appreciate my business. They just don’t appreciate it enough not to waste my time. Really, really simple solution: Add an email address to the customer service page – and assign someone to respond to the messages.

Problem: Doubling down on the frustrating IVR customer experience.

While my frustration grows about treading water on “hold,” the voice coming out of the IVR relentlessly hypes the latest promotion, “Spring in Bratislava – Europe’s Best-Kept Secret” . Even if I were interested in a trip, I wouldn’t book one while I can’t get an answer to a simple question. Instead I have to endure these ads, and am about as likely to book the Bratislava trip as I am to book “Vladimir Putin’s Crimean Holiday.” Simple Solution: If I’ve made a transaction through any channel, the CRM / ERP system should be able to predict my likely reasons for calling, and take me to a relevant menu. And, if none of those choices meet my need, directly to a customer representative. The following IVR script would delight me so much that I would rave about your brand to everyone I speak with: “Hi, we see that, you have just done X with us. Are you inquiring about X?”

Problem: Failing to quickly identify my preferred local branch office and route the call directly, even if I’m a regular buyer.

They have my address. They clearly have their branches’ addresses. But they don’t connect the dots to route my call properly. Simple Solution: If I’m a repeat customer, who has purchased from a local branch before, my mobile number stored in the CRM system, along with the purchase history from that local branch. So a more effective IVR script would go something like: “If you want to inquire something specific from your preferred local branch such as branch X, press 2.”

Problem: Failing to give service representatives visibility of my history with the company.

Even if they load my order ID, they can’t see whether I purchased before, have been a loyal fan, or qualify for a certain deal. Every conversation with a customer representative feels like a first date. What a waste.Simple Solution: The unified CRM system I talked about earlier. When my call is routed to a representative, display the customer information that goes with that phone number or an account number that I entered earlier. A smarter solution would predict what I’m likely to be interested in and display those special offers and bundles to the representative. My shopping patterns are already in the database. Big data is about turning this information into insight.

Problem: Making irrelevant product recommendations.

I’m not likely to pay attention to complementary cross-sell or up-sell products that are irrelevant. If I just booked “Acapulco Spring Break: Booze, Boogie and Babes” in Cancun, chances are I’m not interested in “Photography Month in Bratislava.” But I may be very interested in hotel room upgrade or a tequila tasting. Simple Solution: Use a smart product recommendation system, which can be easily integrated with your CRM and marketing channels: email, social media, sms, customer service center and others.

Problem: Explaining why you can’t do “it” instead of just doing “it.”

For example, I have a mortgage, checking account, and credit cards with one financial services company. I expect to be able to find out the most recent payment received on my mortgage, the last transaction that cleared in my checking account, and the balance on my credit card in one call. Instead of getting information, I get an explanation of why I can’t get that information. That explanation is that these are three separate business units, each of which has a different information system. Another example: I’m using a payment processing system for my business, and suddenly, when I can’t process customer payments – and therefore can’t ship product. I get an excuse that the system is down for an indefinite period. Simple Solution: Address internal systems and operational problems and empower service representatives to “solve” problems – not just “respond” to them.

Problem: Finger-pointing instead of problem-solving.

Many of businesses’ core services require integrate multiple functions – for example, event management and payment processing – and sell the functionality as a package. But when I have a problem with part of the solution – say, credit card processing – customer service tells me they don’t support that functionality and I have to call the payment processing company. This is a vendor that I had no choice about. It has no customer service phone number. The only online “help” is a set of FAQs that link to documentation on how to use the API. Then my unsatisfactory vendor gilds the lily by emailing me daily to sign up for conferences, classes, webinars and how to improve … customer experience. It’s a bad customer experience trifecta that will have me looking for a new way to do things – two apps that work. Simple Solution: Implement a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) service model for managing service calls from end to end.

I’m sure you’ve had at least a few of these infuriating customer experiences.

A lot of people share my frustration, according to ADS Marketing. A study by customer service software provider ZenDesk reveals some statistics to think about:

16 percent of angry customers vent their frustrations on social media after a bad customer service experience,– but only 8 percent will post about a good customer experience.

60 percent of customers say they are strongly influenced by a company’s ratings and customer comments on social media sites

35 percent say they stop buying from a company after a single negative experience with customer service.

42 percent of respondents said their biggest frustration with customer experience was repeating their problems to multiple reps.

Why is customer experience still like this in 2015, when integrated software systems should be the standard for doing business? And at a time when “software is eating the world.”

My take is that poor customer experience is more prevalent in monopoly markets and less so in competitive markets.

In monopoly markets, customers don’t have choices. If a company is the only provider, customers have no choice but to buy from that supplier, regardless of how poor the customer experience is.

The more competitive a market becomes, the more alternatives are available to the shopper. The more alternatives, the higher shoppers’ expectations are for a seamless customer experience across channels.

The only way to deliver better customer experience across a wide scale of services is to introduce competition in the market. This forces businesses to integrate systems and deliver an excellent customer experience across channels, or else see customers replace those vendors with their competitors.

It seems to me that many times customer experience boils down to regulation. The lighter the burden of regulation, and the lower the barrier for more market entry, the more alternatives will become available for customers. More companies will be forced to deliver better customer experience. (If you want a better customer experience, perhaps the first thing to think about is how you vote.)

As new competitors jump into the market, it’s simply good business to deliver proactive, instead of reactive, customer service. You need a campaign to identify and fix weaknesses in your customer experience before enraged customers start a social media campaign against you.

Not everyone would describe his or her business as “delivering happiness,” the way Tony Hsieh does. And even Hsieh is clear about the business benefit of his happiness strategy. Great customer experience can be a strong business advantage, and one that lowers costs overall.

Have you had notable experiences of bad customer experiences? Please share!

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