I was at the Loyalty Summit in Mumbai where I shared my thoughts on how "How IoT is the third age of marketing technology". Here's the presentation.

IoT is truly giving a voice to products! Also, it is changing the way data is getting generated from many products based on usage and giving customer engagement a new meaning.

I was reading this article by Doc Searls on How do you maximize the help that companies and customers give each other?  It's a lovely commentary of how companies make it difficult & complicated for customers to do business with them but surprisingly companies that use common/similar systems/backend actually do a brilliant job. So, what makes this difference in customer experience?

As I think back to many of my interactions with companies, it is so true.  Think for yourselves as you read my experience:

• When I wanted to redeem my frequent flier points, I was told there are black-out dates and I cannot redeem them! My airline - Jet Airways - made it so difficult that I decided to move away from them silently. The relationship & effort was just not worth it.
• I received a pack from Citibank and they had a coupon which said "Fly with your companion Free!" I called the call centre and I was told this was available only for full fare seats! That's crazy I thought. When I have an option to fly at competitve rates, why would I fly full fare!
• My bank decided to upgrade and downgrade me basis my bank balance, usage - they wanted to maintain the relationship on their terms not on my terms. I just did not see value.
• It's frustrating my mobile service provider - Vodafone sends me 6 different packs of bills and reminders for me to pay in a month with different dates, as if it is 5 different relationships while all my subscriptions are within me & my family! Not once was I called by the relationship manager to consolidate, customize them & help. I call their call centre often enough. I am their customer now for over a decade!

The real question that companies should ask themselves hard is, do they really talk to customers or do they end-up managing a process? 

If they really talk to each other then customer intelligence needs to get understood, captured and there must be incremental improvements made every time to the relationship & the product or service - that's simple, convenient & authentic.

For sure, the customers will sense it.

Customer-Intelligence is becoming a competitive advantage in companies. Marketing is increasingly adopting the power of data, analytics & technology as a part of their intelligence-driven customer marketing strategy in addition to traditional marketing investments.

What can we expect as trends in 2015 and how ready are marketing organizations for the same. This quick survey will help us understand this. Even if you are a marketing practioner or service provider, do fill this with what you see in your organization or with your clients. Thanks for your time.

James Cherkoff had written a post a couple of months back:

"... as people increasingly lead their lives online, we have information about what is actually happening in a complex world.  So, for example, instead of mocking-up profiles of typical customers to help guide strategy - we can let the data describe the reality.  And we can see how that reality changes.  All of which, on the face of it, sounds like a good thing.  However, in fact, the move from reference to reality is tricky.  For starters, there's A LOT of this reality stuff and it's VERY messy.  But as with all technology, that bit will eventually be solved by some smart folk, a few machines and a bit of Gordon Moore's magic.  No, the tricky part is moving away from the reassuring, grand planning environment into one where you know who the customer is - because you can smell him.  It's The Cathedral And The Bazaar all over.  In the networked world data isn't an extrapolation or a sample - it's behaviour.  There's no need to second guess the market when you can just wander around it."

Here's my experience with a wireless service provider in India - Vodafone

I had this experience with my Vodafone account in India. I walked into their stores and had a query on my bill recently. As I walked out( in just a few minutes), I had an SMS requesting me rate the customer care associate. I was quite impressed with the way they managed the data and my interaction real time. Since my query was addressed well, I went to pay the bill and immediately I got an SMS thanking me for the payment. I had paid the bill fairly early - a week or ten days ahead. Just a couple of days before my due date for the same bill, I received an SMS reminding me to the pay the same bill! I was quite pissed and angry. To me it looked like one part of the organization was using the real time data for customer service & delight and the other part of the company - billing and collections department have not woken-up to this new world order. So is the case, when I go to their website and spend time subscribing or unsubscribing to specific services. They don't use this rich data of mine available online to leverage the relationship in the same manner. I think enterprises need to connect data across channels and experience and build  what I call a DUET( Data-led User Experience Testing). It will help them map the data to the user experience clearly and ensure there are sign-offs at every stage of the interaction. 

Paul Greenberg gives us an excellent overview what's in store for CRM in the future:

http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=crm-state-of-the-market-2008-beyond-1213217988913940-9

| View | Upload your own

While there has been lot of discussions around the need for single view of customers across an enterprise over the last few years, 2008 seems to be a year when this trend could gain a lot of momentum.

Aberdeen Group surveyed over 250 companies to identify the strategies, capabilities and enablers that Best in Class (BIC) companies are using to improve sales and marketing alignment.

Some highlights from the report:

• Best in Class organizations plan to invest in analytics at 1.4-times the rate of the Industry average and 1.7-times the rate of laggards.
• The customer is the core of BIC companies' plans to alleviate the pressure of increasing top-line revenue. Eighty percent (80 percent) of the BIC grate lead qualification and measurement efforts between sales and marketing, compared to 55 percent of laggards. Further, 25 percent of the BIC are preparing to better meet customers' product configuration or personalization needs.
• BIC firms are developing processes around the customer's needs. As customer knowledge and expectations rise, the BIC are adapting. The BIC are 1.9 times more likely than laggards to formalize processes for generating customized proposals, and 1.4 times more likely than laggards to set standards for knowledge sharing between sales and marketing.
• Sixty percent of the BIC currently have cross-functional teams, with an additional 15 percent planning a change.Over one-third of laggards have no plans to implement cross-functional teams. Working side by side facilitates knowledge transfer and increases operational efficiencies. The BIC are also adding operations roles to support sales and marketing. Currently 40 percent of the BIC have these resources in place, and 75 percent of them plan to increase their investment in dedicated personnel next year.

To me it looks like many companies will be putting together a lot of plans around setting-up cross-functional, collaborative teams to enable customer-centricity in their organizations. Also, the need for technology to get a single view of a customer's journey across the enterprise  is becoming more important to extract value/ROI out of marketing investments they are making, is getting a lot of focus amongst CXOs.

With so many in the industry caught up in the arms race of who can give out more rewards, no one has stopped to notice that most of them(loyalty programs) aren't particularly effective at building customer loyalty or returning profits.

According to a recent Jupiter Research study, "Too much sameness," is how Jupiter analyst Patti Freeman Evans sums up the enormous and still-growing customer loyalty landscape. "Giving people points means competitors can undercut you, and you lose your customer anyway."

"Points for the sake of points is just buying off the customer, it doesn't drive loyalty," says Gartner Research analyst Adam Sarner, who tracks customer loyalty programs. True loyalty, Sarner says, means getting increasing amounts of information from a customer who's happy to give it in return for a benefit. Surprising good customers with a sudden, unexpected discount or upgrade would go miles toward making them swear by a brand for life, he believes.

Read more

thro' Forbes

Looks like consumers across world expect companies to do the basics right. Reading the findings, it further reinforced my view that customers move their business without informing you, if they are unhappy. They have got no patience to deal with companies that don't care about them. They just expect you to get your act right. Leave the fluff behind. Ensure you walk the talk. And above all, they want you to execute flawlessly.

The UK customer experience report, seems to capture this essence of customer experience and expectations quite well.Take a  look at the topline findings of this report:

• Over 65 percent took their patronage elsewhere because of poor customer service experiences
• Around 27 percent said they would never return, no matter what the enticement
• More than 53 percent said they would return only if the company proved they had improved their customer service level
• Nearly 50 percent said the company would have to prove it valued their patronage before they decide to return
• All respondents voted that more than 25 percent of their customer experience service last year was not good
• Around 78 percent said they would increase their custom if they perceived continuously excellent customer service

thro' CRM Blog

Here’s a great quote that helps you appreciate and realize the importance of customer churn and loyalty.

"Suppose your company lost 10% of your inventory last month, you wouldpanic. You'd get your staff together, lock the doors and figure out exactly where that inventory went. However, the same company can lose 10% of their customers without even noticing."

There is ‘customer pilferage’ in every company. There is a competitor out there who is stealing away your customers.

A well planned and executed loyalty programme has the power to transform a business into a customer-centric profit generator. Here are thirty factors for you to consider....

Read more

thro' thewisemarketer