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The Authority on Data-Driven Engagement & Operations
Webinars 101: Building engagement & filling the pipeline
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The single most important campaign decision you will ever make. Lots of decisions are made when you design and execute a marketing campaign. However one decision stands out. All the studies prove the same thing: if you want better campaign results, get a better list. That’s because 60% of your campaign’s ultimate success is due to the accuracy of the list. Sure, the offer, timing, and creative are important too. But the list will have far more influence on your results than any other decision you make.
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Engaging Prospects with Webinars
Webinars 101: Building engagement & filling the pipeline MARKETING
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By Paul Austin-Menear
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hat’s a webinar? Like many other Internet phenomena, the names of two things (‘web’ and ‘seminar’) were smushed together to make up a brand new noun (‘webinar’). After all, why not? Webinars are increasingly being leveraged by B2B organizations to generate awareness and preference. Typically delivered via a purposedesigned platform, the format is less costly than holding a seminar. Most ❱ DMN.ca
platforms include options for video and audio broadcast, screen sharing and presenting slides. When to Webinar Producing a successful webinar requires planning and commitment. As with any speaking engagement, you want to ensure that the presentation enhances your reputation and brand equity. Being prepared and polished will position you for success, while diving in at the last minute will likely cause something important to be overlooked.
There are two common content approaches for webinars: Product-centric webinars focus on teaching an audience about a product or service. They’re commonly used in the sales cycle to educate prospects on the value proposition and its effect on cost or profit centres. If you are wondering if this approach is for you, ask yourself the following: ❯❯ Is our sales cycle long (months or years) and multi-part? ❯❯ Is the value proposition obscure, technical or non-intuitive?
Is educating the prospect a significant part of our sales process? Product-centric webinars can help smooth over these friction points by presenting the answers in a structured, compelling way. Industry-centric webinars are often a component of content marketing, and build brand equity through sharing expertise. Think of the industry-centric webinar as a new format for the famed ‘panel discussion’ at conferences. This approach can be very effective when the webinars are produced continuously (but you also
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Engaging Prospects with Webinars need fresh content for every webinar). This requires more effort, but the residual value to your organization can be worth it if you treat the webinar as a content asset. You can syndicate recorded webinars through your marketing channels for as long as the subject matter remains relevant. Is this approach for you? Ask yourself the following: ❯❯ Is my target market in a highly competitive industry or is painful disruption in progress? ❯❯ Are my existing customers uncommonly invested in keeping up with industry trends? ❯❯ Is my industry or product suite commoditized or “non-sticky”? Industry-centric webinars can help you build engagement through demonstrating a critical intangible asset: your expertise. Can webinars be effective for B2C marketing? Yes, but this context is uncommon. If a consumer product is so complex that it requires training seminars, you’re likely better off investing in a product redesign than additional marketing. If you have a B2C business and want to connect with customers through more engaging media, consider producing a video blog. Earning your TOMA the webinar way Top of mind preference (TOMP) is a stronger indicator of future sales than top of mind awareness (TOMA), but many B2B organizations nurture preference through relationships. This often leaves awareness as the main focus of demand generation. TOMA is most effectively generated through engagement-building (ultimately a game of systematic outreach). Webinar production is high effort, so it makes sense to slot this tactic in near the bottom of the lead-generation funnel. Your vested interest is in making sure that the webinar spaces are occupied with the highest-quality prospects, as converting 100% of attendees to leads is extremely unlikely. To maximize opportunity value from the attendees who don’t convert, we can design our webinar using a concept from the data analytics world: microconversions. Macroconversions vs. microconversions A macroconversion is any action taken by a prospect identifying them September 2015
as a lead or directly generating a sale. Macroconversions include submitting a sales inquiry or calling a salesperson. A microconversion is any soft action that suggests future purchase interest. Microconversions include opting in to an email marketing list and subscribing to a social media feed. Designing for conversion Successful webinars generously share value with the audience, but also make it easy to continue the conversation by giving your audience a frictionless method to convert to a sales lead and/or building a passive audience through email opt-ins or social media subscriptions. Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) Mitigating CASL risk is best advanced by adopting the principles of permissions-based marketing: ask before doing, do what you say you’re going to do and ask if it was valuable. If CASL compliance is on your mind, visit fightspam.gc.ca and talk to a specialist in the field. Producing a webinar: The play by play At a high level, here’s how to start. Over time, tweak this outline to better fit your organization: 1. The cocktail napkin plan Every successful event starts with a plan. You don’t have to produce a novel, but it’s important to sketch out the basics. Your plan should identify the basics: who are we presenting for, what we will present on, why does this add value and how will we promote registrations? Collecting and analyzing engagement data is also key to determining if holding webinars makes sense for your business. This analysis can help paint a picture of the costs involved and how webinars influence deal opportunities. Examples include number of registrations, referrals, landing page analytics and macro/ micro conversions. As you produce more webinars and develop optimal workflows, preparation timelines will shorten. Many organizations that hold regular webinars produce them in three weeks, start to finish — though they also tend to have the benefit of an existing audience (another reason to design for microconversions). A final tip on planning: holding webinars on
a Friday is perilous — you risk losing the momentum generated from your presentation. 2. Collect registrations If you’re using a purpose-designed platform, registrations will be automated. If using a more generic conferencing platform like join.me, you’ll have to manually track and collect registrations. Beware: this will be time consuming, so carefully consider the cost/benefit of the cheaper platform. 3. Prepare collateral This collateral could simply be email copy and a website banner, or a full content marketing push leading up to the event. Whatever you decide, it should answer the following question: What value will my audience get from attending? Always prepare a formatted, professionally branded presentation deck and make it available for download after the webinar. 4. Promote, promote, promote! Promote to your existing customer base first (if it fits your objectives), and then through your established marketing channels. If you’re concerned about securing enough registrations to make the webinar worthwhile, consider co-marketing it with a strategic partner. 5. Remind, remind, remind! Half of your registrations or more will be no-shows without timely, consistent reminders. Send out a reminder email (including a calendar invite) a week prior, a day prior, and four hours prior. Even with these reminders, there will still be some no-shows. With each webinar you produce, begin to look at the historical no-show data and factor this into your planning. 6. Hold the event It’s a good idea to be set up and ready to go 30 minutes early to conduct a last minute technical check. If including Q&A in the webinar wrap-up, have someone on your team collect, vet and organize the questions as they’re submitted (most platforms include a chatroom or messaging feature). The principles of effective presentation are as important to webinars as they are to keynotes. It’s especially important to clearly enunciate and speak at a normal pace, as web audio can suffer
// 5 quality issues. Presenting while standing up is helpful, even if there’s no video broadcast — this gives your diaphragm room to expand and makes it easier to speak clearly. 7. Follow-ups Follow-ups should start within a day of holding the webinar. If you lack the bandwidth to complete all of your follow-ups within a day, start with the sales leads. If you plan to stream the webinar recording in the future (hint: do this), let your audience know that an email will come once that link is available (great for capturing some of the no-shows). Final thoughts: Hand it off or bring it home? In designing for conversion, there’s a fundamental question to address: who’s going to handle the leads? For many organizations, it’s the sales team. For organizations without a structured sales team, someone has to be assigned to follow up. This requires a ‘handoff’ between the presenter and the person who’s going to chase down the deals. Leveraging the pursuit marketing model can eliminate this inefficiency. In pursuit marketing (for webinars), presenters also chase down the deals. One of the strongest advantages of pursuit marketing is the continuity between presentation and followups. There’s no time lost in handoff activities. If your organization has a sales team, experiment with involving the sales team early on. Have a salesperson (or sales manager) participate in planning and delivering the webinar. This can help dissolve silos between sales and marketing. When marketers and salespeople are joined at the hip, wins get chalked up more quickly and more often. Are you ready to begin producing your own webinars? Visit menear.ca/ gowebinar to download a sample plan and templates created exclusively for Direct Marketing readers. Paul W. Austin-Menear is an experienced marketer and consultant who specializes in creating rich multichannel experiences that leverage marketing automation. Over the last decade, he’s worked with both entrepreneurs and the c-suite to fuel business growth in a variety of industries. Learn more about Paul at menear.ca.
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Engaging Prospects with Webinars
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Your webinar generated a stack of leads: Now what? By Chris Lucas
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our lead generation efforts have never been better. You’ve enhanced your web forms for maximum effect, and they are high-converting gems. But are you taking the necessary steps to transform your leads into
customers? All the time you spend optimizing your forms for lead generation is wasted if you don’t have a good plan in place for nurturing your leads. Most marketers (a resounding 94% according to Bizo’s recently survey, The State of B2B Lead Nurturing) agree that lead nurturing is an important part of their marketing strategy. That’s because it’s a great way to stay engaged with prospective customers. Sharing relevant content and consistently connecting with leads via email gives your brand a better chance to be top of mind when prospects are ready to purchase — which is pretty essential since some buyers pass through 90% of the buying process before contacting a sales representative. Are you doing all you can to turn your leads into customers? Here are some best practices to keep in mind for nurturing your generated leads. Start immediately Get your leads’ attention by interacting with them right after they submit your form. Some great ways to do this include the following: ❯❯ Send automatic confirmation emails to let your leads know you received their submissions. Go a step further and use Email Logic to create more personalized confirmation emails based on form responses. ❯❯ Post automated tweets when a prospect submits your web form. Take information straight from the submitted form to customize the tweet. ❯❯ Pass new leads into your customer relationship management (CRM) system right away to get started on your sales funnel automation. Segment leads Ramp up your lead nurture efforts by creating customized email experiences (i.e. different nurture tracks) based on where your leads are in the buying process. According Continued on page 16
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September 2015
Call for Nominations
Direct Marketing’s Top Five Women in DM Awards Do you know a woman on the cutting edge of the direct marketing industry? Perhaps she is your mentor, or a rising star on your team. If so, we want to hear from you! Submitting a nomination is easy – simply tell us in 200 words or less why your nominee deserves to be recognized for her contributions to the industry. Winners will be selected and profiled in the December issue of Direct Marketing.
Please submit all nominations to Editor Sarah O’Connor at sarah@dmn.ca by October 30, 2015. Direct Marketing is a Lloydmedia, Inc publication. Lloydmedia also publishes Financial Operations magazine, Canadian Treasurer magazine, Canadian Equipment Finance magazine, Payments Business magazine and Contact Management magazine.
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Targeting & Acquisition Phase 1
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Phase 2
Executing a 180° shift in B2C media planning Thomas Königsthal Jr, Kamara
Part two of a media optimization series on consumer profiling, market analysis, planning and measurement.*
By Alec Paterson with Lynne Hoppen
Memo to: CEO From: CMO Date: Q2 2015 Subject: Transition Update—Retail Media Planning Following up my strategic planning memo earlier this year, here are the planning steps we have implemented to improve marketing and advertising performance and, more immediately, to reduce our dependence on flyers.
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Summary Our goal: To grow the business while developing the practices to ensure double-digit predictable, profitable campaign results that we can scale. To address this goal and accelerate results we have: ❱ DMN.ca
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Acquired more third-party data and reduced our reliance on data service companies; Applied much more rigorous customer profiling and market segmentation methods; Developed and educated our team on the new Enterprise Customer Database; Found new ways to target and reach customers and prospective customers based on their value and our objectives such as acquisition & retention; Introduced customer segmentation and geo-location to all online communication; Updated and accelerated measurement and analysis capabilities; and Designed multiple tests to run in the background of all B2C communication, alone and in campaign combinations.
Early results have been very encouraging. Consumer response and sales from early testing indicate that revenue per ad dollar can be improved and compounded by 200% and 300% over the next two years (up from 20% and 100%). And we’re ahead of the curve—an independent U.S. study recently reported that 55% of surveyed companies have yet to begin even the most basic steps I’ve listed above. Optimized trade area map: For a fast look at what has been done in a pilot store trade area note the Optimized TA map enclosed (Phase 3). Each six-digit postal code or customer has been assigned or given a communication method based on stated preference and their value. Facebook is being used for prospecting until we can get their user data to analyze and segment it. I have also included maps showing where we started and what the TA looked like during the testing phase.
Next steps Sales will stay flat and our competitive advantage will erode if we do not take steps now to evolve our marketing and media planning practices. This involves a 180° shift in the way we think and work. The following steps are underway: STEP 1: Establishing new procedures We’ve made some big changes to help us better determine the Lift, Burn Rate, Lifespan and ROI of all communication—measured against all customers and market segments. Specifically: Agency partners: We’ve streamlined our agency mix and have better defined their mandates. Our agency partners are onboard and are connected to us and to each other. Our agencies are true partners. They walk our talk. Data mining: Through our data September 2015
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Targeting & Acquisition mining efforts, we now have 14 distinct customer profiles—not the four profiles we’ve been using for years. Enterprise database: Internally, I now have all departments—including real estate and merchandising— running off one very comprehensive enterprise database. We’re all using the same customer profiles to prioritize online active and media buying. Geo location: Geo location is proving increasingly important for the mobile and online channels. I’ve made sure that every customer, prospect, store and competitor location is mapped. This mapping will really help us reach all customers and ranked prospects using their preferred media preferences. Penetration analysis: I have also taken steps to change the way we use Facebook. I’ve moved to GIS-based penetration analysis and targeting to allow us to see and measure multiple forms of B2C activity at any geographic level, by store. Online sales activity: Each week we’re adding online sales activity into the database. The plan is to have analysts break down the buyers by product type and household location. We want to profile and rank all online buyers in our enterprise database. We’re also testing multiple incentives that might unlock additional profiling information. Standardized measurement criteria: Finally, everyone—from marketing to agency partners—has begun entering campaign results into a common database. They’re using standardized measurement criteria based on conversion percentages and cost so we can compare and contrast across all market segments. STEP 2: Taking control of all advertising & communication We are overhauling the way we advertise and communicate with our customers. Everything we do must now be supported by lift and CPA numbers, and applied against new customer and prospect profiles. For example: ❯❯ For the first time, we will only be working to hard numbers with financials. ❯❯ Spending will be weighted and allocated against acquisition, retention and sales objectives. ❯❯ Budgets, media, weight and mix will be approved quarterly, based on prior period results. ❯❯ Marketing and agencies will submit plans and costs for the year, together September 2015
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with quarterly updates and detailed projections for lift and ROI. Together we’re building the plan, calendaring the tests, learning— and updating plans quarterly.
STEP 3: Stepping up our media plan optimization efforts Our media plan optimization efforts will begin with flyers. I expect that our efforts here will help fund other optimization efforts (including direct mail, email, user experience and mobile). Flyers: ❯❯ Distribution will be refined based on customers’ channel preference (email, direct mail vs. online). ❯❯ We have introduced the option to receive addressed flyers and will actively solicit households. ❯❯ New penetration and business objective analysis will validate every deliverable unit. ❯❯ We plan to test: digital flyers, customized, addressed & ‘mini’ flyers, ROP in rural markets, etc. Direct mail: ❯❯ Rented lists will be eliminated and replaced with lists made from our own customer and prospect address information. We’ll do this by reverse engineering targeted postal data. ❯❯ We plan to supplement the above with third-party data. ❯❯ 1:1 custom DM programs will be used to manage high-value customers, lapsed customers and as part of our retention program. ❯❯ Finally, we will begin testing predictive analytics software that allows us to use our customer data to select high potential postal code and household level data and initiate offer pre-testing using landing pages driven by online activity and email against customers. Email: ❯❯ Email will be more targeted now, according to profiling, segmentation, business objective, location (customer and store) and even weather. ❯❯ We plan to improve offer relevancy based on the above. Timing will be aligned to normal product purchase frequency. Site traffic and user experience: ❯❯ Our agency partners plan to deliver buying costs based on site traffic data. ❯❯ Our ultimate goal is to secure a continuous stream of data, analysis and a dashboard that’s based on ongoing site user surveys. Mobile: ❯❯ We’ve already eliminated the
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app. There was no clear ROI and consumer use and downloads were declining. We will determine how we can best integrate customer data and digital marketing in real time. We will finalize testing of GIS-based traffic-driving offer software.
Summary It is going to continue to be a very challenging year. As they say in the construction world, we’re ‘pouring a new foundation’—and we’re building on this marketing foundation; changing the way we think and work. The business will be much better for it. A recent U.S. study showed that customer experience market leaders have a 3x higher return on capital than the S&P Index. I’ll keep you posted in a few months on our progress. *The subsequent article in this Media Optimization Series will cover Execution and Measurement in more detail and include actual case study results where available. For more information, please visit customerlink-mis.com.
Alec Paterson is the managing director at
CustomerLink which has been operating in Canada and the U.S. for over 20 years. The company started with a heavy focus on measurement for every form of print communication and has expanded into most forms of media and consumer communication. To date they have measured over six billion consumer transactions and have evolved to become media and consumer data specialists, software developers, supply chain managers and consultants to some of the county’s largest retail organizations and media groups. Lynne Hoppen has more than 25 years of experience “making the complex simple” for Fortune 500 companies, not-for-profits and government agencies. From launching an employee program to creating a national ad campaign from the ground up, Lynne’s specialty is building emotional connections to brands. Lynne is co-founder and editor-in-chief at Hope & Hoppen Design + Communications, a newly branded Toronto-based marketing agency.
Fasten your seatbelts. Roll up your shirtsleeves. And prepare yourself for an information packed day.
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BigWorkshop Data Using Big Data, Small Data and Predictive Analytics to Solve Marketing Problems
October 28, 2015 Twenty Toronto Street Conference Centre
E FRE es a ok v i e rec s bo gate oire’ gers dele Rich B r Mana h c Ea py of ing fo co Min Data
In a world of Big Data, fragmented marketing channels and the rise of social media, how do you ensure that your organization is driven by hard data rather than just gut feel? How do you leverage your customer information most effectively? How do you incorporate Analytics in general, and Predictive Analytics in particular, to improve your business results?
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Targeting & Acquisition
Leveraging lists for an OMNI experience How Cornerstone is working to bring lists alive for marketers By Bob Cole
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n 2000 Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronics Document Act (PIPEDA) rolled out. Many marketers predicted the decimation of the list rental market… but that didn’t happen. Yes, some lists went off the market but for the most part PIPEDA established a higher level of transparency, cleaned up the list business and reduced the number of complaints and name removal requests from consumers. Fast forward to 2014: Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL) came into effect, and many marketers again predicted a massive negative impact to the email list rental business… only just like with PIPEDA there was little effect. Hundreds of opt-out email lists did disappear from the rental market because they weren’t compliant with CASL, but it turned out that the majority of these lists had seldom been used because emailing to them wasn’t very effective. This was primarily due to two factors; first, the degree of customer engagement on non-CASL-compliant lists was low or non-existent and, second, the volume of irrelevant email solicitations over the years had desensitized consumers and businesses alike. Introducing OMNI To address the exodus of Opt-Out email lists but more importantly to develop a product that both embraced the proliferation of digital marketing and would actually work for marketers, Cornerstone began partnering with several organizations that have large lists with opt-in email addresses and civic addresses to create a very large, highly selectable, CASLcompliant prospecting database. The result is an innovative new product that we’re calling OMNI. Why OMNI? Because an exciting feature of OMNI is that in addition to it being a source for traditional direct mail, email and telemarketing, OMNI can also be used to link email addresses to digital advertising networks including Facebook Custom Audience. That means that offline marketers and ❱ DMN.ca
online marketers within the same organization have exciting options to collaborate with one another to reach prospective consumers via multiple communication channels, at the same time or in follow-up. So far, the majority of Cornerstone’s OMNI partners are in the daily deal and coupon spaces where organizations have large databases of customers who have signed up and expressly opted-in to receive thirdparty marketing offers. These offers typically contain multiple products, which don’t fit nicely with most of our clients’ one-product solicitation models. So we have worked with our partners to limit their OMNI Canada solicitations to solo offers only.
to upload their customer data (email address being the primary data component) to match with Facebook’s massive database of email addresses. Facebook then serves ads to the matched Custom Audience. This allows marketers to communicate intelligently to their customers—cross-sell, up-sell and generate awareness. A particular challenge for marketers, especially those with large legacy databases where the majority of their customer records don’t have email addresses, is that they are only reaching a small percentage of their customers online. Enter OMNI. Cornerstone can match the marketers’ customer data against our OMNI data, match on name and
Offline marketers and online marketers have exciting options to collaborate with one another to reach prospective consumers via multiple communication channels. OMNI fills the void left behind by no-longer-available opt-out lists. And it’s much more powerful data presents marketing opportunities that go beyond straightforward email solicitations. In addition to facilitating combinations of email, addressed mail and telephone communications to targeted prospects, a marketer can match up its customer list without email addresses to OMNI’s civic address data. Then Cornerstone can send an email communication to the matching customer records. We can also make marketers’ Facebook advertising much more effective. Facebook’s Custom Audience product allows marketers
postal address and then upload the matches, with email addresses we’ve found, to Facebook. This dramatically increases their coverage. Here’s an example of how a marketer might execute an OMNI campaign. First, Cornerstone will run the marketer’s customer data and any other suppression files against OMNI to identify a first cut target audience. We will then run any predictive models the marketer has to score its data for selection and/or we can select records by any available OMNI select segment such as geography, age, income or dozens of other recordspecific behavioral segments. The marketer will then have a targeted
prospect audience, all of which have a name, postal and email addresses, and a telephone number where available. We can then: ❯❯ Upload the targeted email addresses to Facebook Custom Audience (we will match approximately 75% of the records) and run a one month Custom Audience campaign, adjusting daily ad spends based on performance. ❯❯ Help the marketer facilitate a direct mail campaign to all or a test cell of its customers a month after its Facebook campaign. ❯❯ Do a follow-up email and/or telemarketing campaign after that. When the campaign is closed we will do an attribution analysis by comparing all new customers acquired during the campaign period to the target audience that was solicited to determine which combinations, order of messaging and frequency of OMNI channels contributed the best response—all great learning for a subsequent campaign. So far, some Cornerstone clients are focusing on one or two OMNI channels (to start) while others are exploring a full OMNI channel strategy. And for those who choose to run with online channels only, they are still leveraging offline data to maximize their online advertising dollars by suppressing customers (the first time for digital advertising!) and targeting more effectively. OMNI is at the end of the day the first communication product in Canada that facilitates offline and online marketing integration. Marketers should take a long look at it when planning future campaigns. Bob Coles is a senior vice president and
partner at Cornerstone Group of Companies. He is responsible for Cornerstone’s Data Products and List Services division. His team helps marketers contact or verify Canadian consumers and businesses by providing them with the most comprehensive set of names, addresses, phone numbers and emails anywhere. September 2015
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Operations & Logistics
The importance of data cleansing & verification in a multi-channel ecosystem By Jacob Ciesielski
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n today’s ecosystem, most brands collect all sorts of data that helps them learn more about consumer behaviour and needs. From traditional data sources through transactional, online and social data, companies are trying to figure out how to tailor their communications to each consumer, with relevant and real-time personalized content. Each source provides lots of different information about consumers, and multiple data sources can be integrated on different levels (e.g. name, address, household, phone, email and more). To ensure all information collected is correctly linked between various sources, proper data cleansing and management process must be in place to makes sure all data elements have been validated for accuracy and quality. There are lots of new digital platforms available that provide marketers with new communication channels to their consumers. Those platforms, when properly integrated into the existing system, utilize consumer data for all interactions and communications. Without proper data quality in place, the marketers are at risk of targeting the wrong audience or not delivering the message at all and potentially negatively impacting the brand. Data cleansing and verification processes ensure that consumer information stays current and updated throughout all systems. Today’s marketing ecosystem is comprised of several different platforms and hundreds of various data sources. Marketing automation platforms, real-time decisioning and personalization engines that are fully integrated with email and database systems require clean and market-ready data to ensure highest results. Those data sources that make up the market-ready database should September 2015
follow very specific data cleansing and validation processes based on their channel and information available. Clean and corrected records can be flagged and automatically included in ongoing programs, while invalid and uncorrectable records will be identified and flagged appropriately so they can be omitted from any future campaigns. It is recommended that the data cleaning and verification process takes place during the initial data load, to ensure quality, integrity and consistency and, depending on the frequency of campaigns, during the final stages of campaign execution. The most common validation processes are listed below: 1. Email data validation enables marketers to verify subscribers’ email addresses and provide them with the intelligence to avoid data-driven deliverability issues. It lowers the risk of sending messages to spam traps and other fraudulent addresses. In addition, it also proactively protects sender reputation and deliverability rates and minimizes the risk of serious data issues that can cause major email blocks or delays on active email programs. Email data cleansing is instrumental for the success of many email programs/ activities including: email confirmation process, reactivation campaigns, acquisition campaigns and hard and soft bounce reduction. Most of the ESP’s have the basic service integrated as part of their platform offering, with a very few
vendors creating a separate service and solution that offers additional insights and ongoing support above traditional email validation process. 2. Direct mail data validation enables marketers to verify the address components against CPC data, using their approved tools and service providers. Invalid/ uncorrectable addresses that don’t meet the deliverability standards can be flagged and omitted during the segmentation process to ensure accuracy and increase mail deliverability. In addition to standard CPC tools and address verification, marketers should implement additional verification steps, leveraging insights and information from other data sources (whenever matching is possible). There are many companies that specialize in providing custom data cleansing and verification solutions for both retention and acquisition purposes. 3. Phone validation processes enable marketers to ensure phone numbers in their files or list rentals have been verified and standardized accordingly. Since telemarketing programs are fairly expensive, this process ensures invalid phone numbers are flagged and dropped from any telemarketing campaign efforts thus reducing the overall campaign cost. Given the high frequency of marketing communications across various channels and the constant battle
for the consumer between various brands, marketers need to constantly re-evaluate the campaign and analyze the returned/bounced messages for their quality. Consumers may take it personally if the information in the message is incorrect or the content hasn’t been personalized correctly; it can give the consumer the impression of being careless. Data cleansing and verification is a process, not a project, and needs to be executed and updated regularly, and be a part of any marketing ecosystem. A robust data cleansing and verification process ensures marketers can communicate with their consumers effectively, while reducing campaign cost and increasing ROI. It also helps in the process of data mining and analytics, where analysts work with large amounts of data and need clean data in order to create consumer profiles and statistical models. Clean data leads to higher customer satisfaction, higher engagement and positively impacts consumer experience with the brand. Jacob Ciesielski has over 17 years of extensive knowledge and expertise in helping marketers create, manage and execute their CRM strategies and solutions across all channels and platforms. His career includes work at InfoGroup, Proximity/BBDO, FSA Datalytics and Cornerstone Group of Companies, where he managed and supported large enterprise clients in Canada and in the United States across major industry verticals. Jacob is currently working as an independent consultant and can be reached at jacob_c@rogers.com or 416-454-5040.
Data cleansing and verification is a process, not a project, and needs to be executed and updated regularly. DMN.ca ❰
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Industry News
Peter Miron is a senior research associate specializing in data mining, customer profiling, demographic forecasting, financial modelling, behavioural analysis and target marketing at Environics Analytics.
Q&A: Peter Miron on WealthScapes 2015
New variables give Environics Analytics’ financial database more power than ever
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ith his background in database development, spatial modelling and advanced statistical analysis, Peter Miron has devoted much of the last eight years to building and refining WealthScapes, the financial database from Environics Analytics (EA) that measures the assets, liabilities and net worth of Canadians. But as a senior research associate at EA and the database’s lead developer, he knew the year-long effort to create the latest edition would involve significant work. “The biggest challenge this year was incorporating new data sets and increasingly complex time series methodologies,” says Miron, who notes that WealthScapes 2015 now includes data on pensions and tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs). While most yearly updates have involved work “under the hood”—that is, analysis and minor tweaking of previous data themes— the newest edition incorporates a number of new variables that, Miron says, “provide greater insight into the financial behaviour of Canadians for businesses and not-for-profits.” WealthScapes 2015 indicates
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that Canadians had a strong fiscal year in 2014. The findings show that households are saving more, investing more and slowing down their level of borrowing. Specifically, WealthScapes data show that household net worth increased as the stock market rose, and the gap between the rich and poor shrank slightly. From EA’s Torontobased office, Miron sat down to talk about EA’s newest financial product and its latest findings.
Q:
It’s been eight years since the first version of WealthScapes was released. What’s different about the WealthScapes 2015 database?
A:
Like previous years, WealthScapes is still built using sophisticated modelling techniques, gathering data from more than 30 different privacyfriendly aggregated data sources such as the Bank of Canada, Equifax and Statistics Canada. That part hasn’t changed. But what’s exciting is that this year we’ve added more than 50 new variables, which brings the total
number of variables up to 178. With this enhancement, users now have access to previously unavailable data, such as TFSAs, private pension values and RRSP contributions.
And with our new and added variables, marketers are getting even more information, which helps them enhance their campaigns and business plans to attract new customers.
Q: A:
Q: A:
So what does that mean for direct marketers? How can they benefit from using WealthScapes 2015?
Since we first launched it, WealthScapes has always been a valuable tool for helping marketers in a variety of industries analyze the financial health of their current and potential customers. These analyses have always helped marketers plan business strategies and identify high-potential markets. For example, banks and insurance companies use the database to understand customers’ financial portfolios. Universities and charities have used it to find donors. And retailers and real estate developers use it to plan where to put their next store or residential development. It’s such a versatile database that the possibilities are really endless for direct marketers.
And what did the data say this year about the financial state of Canada?
We know that many Canadians are concerned about the state of our economy, and this concern has led to a lot more saving and a lot less spending on the individual level. In fact, Canadian balance sheets today look even better than they did before the financial crisis. And generally, Canadians are keeping a pretty close eye on their debt. We seem to be kicking our plastic habit, with credit card debt having risen only 0.3 percent. And on a national level, liquid assets have increased by 5.5%.
Q:
Does the data then show whether Canadians are getting richer?
September 2015
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Industry News
A:
According to our data, Canadians have definitely become wealthier, but some more than others. The national average saw an increase of 6.1%. But if you take a close look at the net worth of Canadians by quintiles, you see the top three quintiles experienced an increase of 5.6 per cent—it’s still growth, just not as fast. And while these upper quintiles are also actively spending more, we’ve found many are digging into their savings accounts to make purchases. The highest growth actually occurred at the other end of the spectrum in the lowest quintile, where the net worth of households grew by 9.3%. And it’s also interesting to see that the bottom two quintiles were actively saving, with members of the lowest quintile putting aside $3,307 and those in the next-to-lowest quintile saving $2,073.
Q: A:
Who else is saving? When you look at the numbers, in which provinces would we find those frugal residents?
It turns out that the provinces that are the best at saving are British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador. B.C. households saved $3,705 per household, while Newfoundland and Labrador had net savings of $1,075. With the boom in mining, oil and the gas sector, Newfoundland and Labrador saw a household income increase by 4.7 per cent—and most of that windfall went right into savings.
Q:
Speaking of British Columbia, last year it was ranked the wealthiest province, followed by Alberta, then Ontario. Are they still the richest and did that line-up change at all?
A:
Those three provinces have had a good year, and their rankings haven’t changed at all. This past year, British Columbia’s net worth grew 7.5% to $748,919 thanks to its skyrocketing real estate values. Due to stock market appreciation, Alberta’s net worth rose 7.3% to $701,003, and in Ontario, where households tend to invest more conservatively, net worth grew 6.7% to $681,600. As you would expect, the three wealthiest cities are found in those three provinces. Vancouver, Calgary September 2015
and Toronto are still the top trio and it’s no surprise that Vancouver is the richest city in the country. It’s still the most expensive real estate market.
Q: A:
What happened to the real estate market in other cities? Are any other places experiencing this type of boom?
I’ll first preface my remarks by saying that real estate nationwide is hot, but it’s not as hot compared to previous years. Data show that the national real estate holdings grew by five per cent, and if we want to point fingers, we can say that Toronto and Vancouver are to blame for driving up the average real estate holdings in Canada. Real estate holdings rose 7.4% in Toronto, whereas in Vancouver they went up by six per cent. Other cities that are also experiencing impressive real estate growth are Calgary and Edmonton, with values rising 7.1% and 6.4%, respectively.
Q: A:
Speaking of growing, years ago Manitoba was one of the fastest-growing provinces in terms of wealth. Is it still?
Q: A:
Overall, was there any particular finding that really surprised you?
What really stood out this year was that we saw a whole new story, which involved pensions. As I mentioned before, private pension values were among the new variables added into WealthScapes this year and it provided a completely new aspect to the financial profiles. And while the findings weren’t surprising, they weren’t necessarily what we expected. Although some cities and areas have high concentrations of real estate and liquid assets, we found that pensions are distributed evenly across the country—and learning this was really quite enlightening. Of course, there are always exceptions, and in this case those exceptions were Ottawa and Quebec City, which are the country’s pension capitals. Across the country, the national average for pensions is $119,468. For Ottawa, pensions grew 8.2% to $192,330 per household. Looking at it statistically, that’s 61%
more than the national average. Similarly, Quebec City pension values grew by 6.1% to $158,906.
Q: A:
And what do you think will happen to Canadian finances in 2015?
At the end of 2015’s first quarter, real estate values and debt were similar to 2014’s values. Somewhat surprisingly given the problems in the oil sector, there hasn’t been much change and at this time our financial state is in pretty good shape. But we have to remind ourselves this is only a snapshot in time. Sure, the first-quarter 2015 data show that liquid asset holdings are higher compared to last year, but the stock market decline in the second quarter may stop this trend. No matter what economic events occur, with WealthScapes 2015 marketers have the data to understand where consumers stand and can properly plan. So far, Canadians appear to be in a better position to withstand a future economic downturn compared to previous years.
Sadly, not this time around. In the past, Manitoba was growing thanks to the oil industry, but in 2014 it just couldn’t seem to keep that trend going. That’s not to say they’re seeing a decline in net worth, rather they just haven’t been growing at a significant rate. Manitoba’s net worth increased by only 4.3%—that’s basically subpar. You’ll find that Saskatchewan is also in a similar situation with net worth only growing by 5.1%.
Q: A:
Have there been any areas in Canada that may actually be declining?
I wouldn’t say any city or province was really declining, but Montreal in particular is kind of in a bad spot right now, compared to Canada’s 10 other largest cities. Montreal’s net worth at the end of 2014 was sitting only at about $460,000 in part because of relatively stagnant real estate values. The city’s growth has been anemic, with net worth increasing by only 2.9%, and the average household income growing by only 1.5%.
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Industry News
Direct mail beats digital advertising in driving consumers to act: Neuromarketing study A groundbreaking neuromarketing study shows that direct mail continues to play an important role in the marketing mix, stimulating 70% higher brand recall and driving consumers to act. Commissioned by Canada Post and conducted by leading neuromarketing expert Diana Lucaci, the study used research-grade technology to measure the emotional responses of people interacting with digital and physical ad campaigns. The study is the largest of its kind ever conducted and focused on the essential elements of media effectiveness, including ease of understanding and persuasiveness. “In a data-driven world, this study reminds marketers that consumers are, ultimately, humans and their emotions are a driver in their path to purchase,” said Diana Lucaci, the founder and CEO of True Impact. “The effectiveness of tangible pieces on the brain is undeniable and understanding when and how to blend physical and digital throughout marketing can work to create the best customer experience.” Key findings Direct mail is easy to understand and more memorable. Physical media requires 21% less effort to understand, and creates a 70% higher brand recall. ❯❯ Direct mail is far more persuasive than digital media. Where a two to five per cent positive difference in motivation between two stimuli is considered a predictive indicator that consumers are more likely to act, direct mail generates a 20% higher motivation score than digital. This means it is factually better positioned to persuade. This dramatically exceeds the threshold researchers see as an indicator of future ❯❯
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behavioural change. Direct mail gets the message across faster. The context in which it is processed is optimal: quick glance, low cognitive effort and high motivation. Direct mail is more likely to drive consumers to act. Researchers determine this by examining the relationship between persuasiveness (motivation) and understanding (cognitive load). This is known as the motivation-to-cognitive load ratio. In this study, only direct mail passed the crucial threshold necessary to trigger the desired action from the consumer. This is true across all age groups.
To further enhance the effect of physical media, the study was also the first of its kind to examine it with the senses of smell and hearing. It found that direct mail’s motivation score jumped when scent (perfume) or sound was included in the creative material. ‘Sensory’ direct mail outperformed standard direct mail and had a 30% higher motivation score than digital media. Methodology The researchers developed two integrated campaigns featuring mock brands, applying the same creative and messaging consistently across each campaign’s physical and digital media formats. The 270 participants underwent brain imaging and eye-tracking to test for the campaigns’ ease of understanding, motivation and visual attention. Participants were later given memory tests to assess their recall of branded material. For a full copy of the study: www.canadapost. ca/action.
SMS/800 Inc. announces launch of texting & smart services registry Text-enabled toll-free numbers complement voice services to enhance the connection between businesses and customers
SMS/800, Inc. has announced the launch of the Texting & Smart Services (TSS) Registry. Designed to serve as the centralized routing database for all multimedia services associated with toll-free numbers, the TSS Registry is the first formal industry-wide system to support the growing demand for the text-enablement of toll-free numbers. By text-enabling toll-free numbers, toll-free service providers can broaden offerings to their customers, while messaging providers can now add toll-free services to their portfolios. This helps businesses expand the way in which they communicate with their customers as texting, along with other future multimedia services, allows for more convenient connections. SMS/800 provides administration and routing for all toll-free numbers in the U.S. and Canada as authorized by the Federal Communications Commission. For the TSS Registry, SMS/800 was chosen by CTIA, the wireless association that develops industry messaging guidelines, to operate the centralized registry for toll-free messaging and multimedia services. The TSS Registry integrates with the SMS/800 voice platform, helping to maintain the integrity of toll-free numbers. “Businesses are looking to complement toll-free voice with services that create broader and more convenient communications with customers, which is driving the expansion of toll-free towards more dynamic services,” said Gina Perini, president and chief executive officer of SMS/800. “SMS/800 has the technical capabilities for running carriergrade registries, and a history of providing unbiased service. This makes SMS/800 the ideal organization to develop and manage a neutral registry that can provide order, control, and transparency while upholding the integrity of Toll-Free.”
Creating an optimized branch of the future. During this interactive discussion you will gain insight into creating a more efficient, optimized operating model for your “Branch of the Future”.
Financial Operations invites you to a Free Breakfast Briefing Oct 29, 2015 • 7:30-10am
Twenty Toronto Street Conference Centre, 20 Toronto Street, Toronto ❱ DMN.ca
Presented by
You must be registered in advance to attend.
Free to register www.financialoperations.ca September 2015
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Industry News
The data exchange economy: Consumers willing to share personal data for a fair return But global report from Aimia shows businesses worldwide are failing to deliver on this exchange Eight in 10 (80%) consumers around the world are willing to share key pieces of personal information with brands. Yet businesses are failing to respond. Only eight per cent of consumers around the world feel as though they are actually receiving better offers from companies as a result of sharing their details. This is according to Aimia’s latest Global Loyalty Lens report, a major piece of international research surveying more than 20,000 consumers across 11 countries. An era of openness More than 80% of consumers in the 11 markets studied are willing to share personal information such as their names, email addresses and nationalities with brands. Seventy per cent or more will share their dates of birth, hobbies and occupations. Consumers around the world understand the value of their personal information to companies, with 68% globally ranking their data as valuable, and 31% ranking it as highly valuable. More than half (55%) say they will share their personal information to get better offers and rewards. However, they are not feeling the benefits. Businesses failing to make their business personal Businesses are not using customer data to personalize and tailor customer experiences effectively. Less than a quarter (23%) of consumers say the communications they receive from businesses are highly relevant to them. “This is a golden moment for companies to build meaningful relationships with their customers, but this opportunity will quickly disappear if companies fail to respond appropriately,” said David Johnston, group chief operating officer
September 2015
at Aimia. “Companies need to realize that the power in the data exchange economy rests with the customer. To be successful, companies must think about what they can do for the customer, not to the customer, with each personalized communication, experience and offer.” The study shows the opportunity is greatest amongst consumers in “disruptor” nations (those countries with quickly accelerating loyalty markets), and with Generation Z and Millennial consumers. These groups are much more inclined to share their data with brands, offering mobile numbers, lifestyle information, email addresses and other critical pieces of information. Disruptor nations Consumers in the UAE (71%), India (68%) and Brazil (59%) are the most comfortable among all markets with sharing mobile phone numbers. In “leader” nations (more established loyalty markets) just 37% of consumers will share their mobile phone numbers. ❯❯ Consumers in India are the most comfortable among all markets with sharing email addresses (90%), names (89%), and mailing addresses (68%). ❯❯ Consumers in “leader” nations guard their purchase data much more zealously with only 39% willing to share that information compared with 56% in disruptor nations. ❯❯
Digital natives Millennial and Generation Z consumers are more willing to share their mobile phone number than other generations. For example, in the U.S., 51% of 18–24 year olds are willing to share their mobile phone numbers, compared to 30% of Baby Boomers. The average across all age groups in the U.S. to share mobile phone numbers is 43%.
Environics Analytics Releases WealthScapes 2015 New data aids financial planning, fundraising, marketing and merchandising
Environics Analytics (EA), the marketing services and data analytics company, has announced the release of WealthScapes 2015, the most comprehensive database available on the assets, liabilities and wealth of Canadians. The latest edition has been expanded this year to include 178 key financial and investment statistics, including new categories of data such as employer pension plans, tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) and registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) contributions. Now in its eighth year, WealthScapes has proven to be a valuable tool for helping financial institutions, charitable organizations and large retailers better understand the financial and investment behaviour of their customers. Banks and investment companies use the database to market and calculate market share and potential sales for specific products like mortgages, mutual funds and GICs. Universities and charities use it to identify high-value donors from fundraising lists and areas that may be home to prospects with sizable investment portfolios. Retailers and real estate developers draw on WealthScapes data to plan commercial and residential developments and attract retail tenants. As with previous releases, WealthScapes was built using sophisticated modelling techniques and aggregated, privacycompliant, small-area data from a variety of authoritative sources, such as the Bank of Canada, Equifax and Statistics Canada. Applicable to every six-digit postal code in the country, the variables used in WealthScapes have been created to match the best available control totals in Canada so that they will be accepted by chief economists. This year, EA added more than 50 variables to WealthScapes 2015, and users now have access to previously unavailable data on TFSAs, private pension values and RRSP contributions. The new data enhance such standard variables as income and income distributions, disposable and discretionary income, savings by type, investments by type, RSP components, mortgages, loans, lines of credit and credit card accounts. The expanded dataset provides users with more details into the financial health of Canadian households to help them develop differentiated marketing strategies, targeted products and effective messages that address customers’ changing needs. “The new numbers indicate that Canadian household balance sheets are in good shape,” says Peter Miron, senior research associate at EA and lead developer of WealthScapes 2015. The database shows that net worth rose 6.1 per cent during 2014 while debt remained in check, increasing only 2.9 per cent; at the same time, real estate values grew 5.0 per cent, indicating a solid but not overheated market. “These data are relied on by the financial sector and are becoming increasingly valuable to marketers and analysts in all industries,” adds Miron.
To send press announcements, please direct them to Sarah O’Connor, Editor, at sarah@dmn.ca
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Industry News
Manulife customers can say “so long” or “au revoir” to passwords & PINs Market-leading technology from Nuance centred on customers’ voice first in Canada to offer natural language understanding and voice biometrics in both French and English Manulife has announced that it has enhanced its contact centre customer experience with the deployment of natural language understanding (NLU) and voice biometric technologies. Manulife is the first company in Canada to introduce voice biometrics as well as natural language understanding in a single interactive voice response (IVR) system offered in both English and French. First introduced in July 2015 to Manulife Bank customers, the new IVR system provides customers with a secure system that recognizes natural conversation. For customers who choose to enroll in the voice biometrics option, they can now simply say “at Manulife my voice is my password” to access their accounts without the need for additional passwords, PINs and security questions, for subsequent calls. Manulife is also providing this service to its retail advisors who contact us for obtaining product information, placing new business or checking on existing business on behalf of their customers. Manulife serves one in three adult Canadians and its customer contact centre receives almost 28,000 calls a day. With these new combined technologies, Manulife is enhancing customer security while eliminating up to four steps in the authentication process which will streamline the amount of time spent by customers on calls with us in a meaningful way. “This customer-focused technology provides a more natural, faster and more enhanced customer experience within our call centres,” says Marianne
Harrison, president & CEO, Manulife Canada. “No more PINs or passwords to remember—customers just use their voice as their password. The introduction of these enhancements is another example of Manulife’s commitment to providing customers with innovative, forward-thinking solutions for a superior customer experience.” Customer experience & security To offer this technology to its customers, Manulife partnered with Nuance, a global leader in the development of NLU speech, conversational interfaces and voice biometrics technology, which are at once convenient and secure. There is a series of security measures built into this technology to protect customers’ information and accounts. Manulife’s solution analyzes more than 100 unique voice characteristics to create individual voiceprints for customers, each unique, much like a fingerprint. When a customer calls in to access their account, their voice is compared against their voiceprint and, if matched, access is granted. “When it comes to improving the customer experience, few things gain traction as quickly as services that reduce hassle. Natural user interfaces offer new methods for interacting with software, data and services, and inputs like touch, gesture, and voice can deliver contextualized, individualized, and more secure customer experiences, enabling companies to meet their customers’ needs in easy and enjoyable ways,” said Allegra Burnette, principal analyst, Forrester.
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Engaging Prospects with Webinars Continued from page 6
to MailChimp, email segmentation can significantly improve open and click-through rates. Here are a few ideas to get you started: ❯❯ Sort your leads into targeted email lists and send each list unique and relevant tips, offers and updates. Providing highly targeted content to your leads will help them feel more like valued assets and less like numbers in your CRM. ❯❯ Make sure your email subject lines are just as targeted as the content in the emails. You don’t want your emails to get discarded or lost in crowded inboxes, so craft attentiongrabbing subject lines that speak to specific prospect needs. Create great content Develop relevant, informative content that helps move your prospects through the buying process. Content marketing shapes most marketing efforts these days, so content is a key player in any lead nurture campaign. Here are some areas to focus on when creating content to nurture leads: ❯❯ The content you share with leads should answer their questions and address their needs. Perhaps you can direct prospects to an informative blog post that highlights your product’s key features or a webinar that explains how to use your product. ❯❯ You should provide leads with content that lets them see how others are solving problems similar to their own. Consider drafting case studies that describe how customers have seen success with your product. Personalize your efforts Similar to creating targeted email lists, personalizing your lead nurture efforts can go a long way in keeping leads engaged. Here are a couple ways to create more personalized experiences for your prospective customers: ❯❯ Don’t send graphic-heavy, HTML emails. You want your emails to seem like a 1:1 conversation, so keep them simple by using rich-text format. ❯❯ Let your email recipients’ behavior be your guide for follow-up communications. Include links in your emails that, if clicked, can give you insight into the type of content your leads want. Work with your sales team Don’t make the mistake of thinking lead nurturing is the sole responsibility of the marketing team. Sales and marketing departments should work together to move leads from prospects to customers. Here are some ways your sales and marketing teams can collaborate on lead nurture efforts: ❯❯ Sales representatives can help marketers develop a lead scoring system that determines when a lead has had enough interaction with your brand to move on to sales engagement. This is important because you want to make sure your sales team isn’t wasting time on unqualified leads. ❯❯ The sales team can also pass leads back into a nurture track if a representative determines that the lead wasn’t quite ready to engage with sales. Chris Lucas is the vice president of marketing for Formstack. He is passionate about setting the vision for Formstack’s marketing department, as well as discovering new ways to drive web traffic and leads. Follow Chris on Twitter at @chris_c_lucas. September 2015
THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE ISSUE 3 • 2015
Contact centres: ‘Go digital, or die’ Part three of a series on challenges facing the Canadian contact centre industry Also in this issue: ❯❯ Improving employee retention with smart software
❯❯ Piece of cake: A 6-step recipe for talent planning
Travel & Tourism
Are your CSRs order takers or sales advisors? By Mike Aoki
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hen someone calls your contact centre, are they dealing with a glorified order taker or a genuine sales advisor who helps them make the best buying decision? For example, one of my clients in the travel industry found their phone representatives were good at processing a sales order—if the customer asked for it. However, they were terrible at recognizing opportunities to proactively advise the client on additional services to give them peace of mind. How much money is your contact centre leaving on the table when they miss obvious up-sells such as travel insurance and medical coverage?
Cancellation insurance For example, trip cancellation insurance is a big money maker for the travel industry. It has a high profit margin and people rarely claim it. On the other hand, trip cancellation insurance also offers a huge benefit for customers. That makes it a true win/win situation. Some travel industry customer service representatives (CSRs) think customers will automatically say, “no” to trip cancellation insurance. However, that is usually the result of two big mistakes: reps wait until the end of the call to mention it and fail to describe its benefits. Reps fight an uphill battle by waiting until the end of the call to upsell. By then, the customer has already mentally settled on a price. For example, they already made a buying decision based upon, “$5,000 for my week-long family vacation” when your CSR suddenly re-opens the negotiation to get an additional $250 for insurance. No wonder customers say, “no” to surprise add-ons at the end of a call. Instead, coach your CSRs to ask the right questions and listen to their customer to determine if they are a good candidate for trip cancellation insurance. If they are, include it as part of the vacation description rather than leaving it for the end of the call. Note: some jurisdictions legally require CSRs to mention trip cancellation insurance. However, “mentioning it” and being really good at selling it are two different things. Begin by having your CSRs ask the obvious questions: Where is the customer headed? How many people are going with them? How many days long is this trip? How often do they travel per year (this may suggest multi-trip insurance coverage)? What are the ages of the people going on the trip (this may suggest certain kinds of medical coverage)? Do any of the travelers have pre-existing conditions that might exclude them from coverage? Have them listen to their Issue 3 • 2015
customer’s answers to see if they can help them. Here are customer clues for trip cancellation insurance: There is a long lead time before they leave. No one can predict the future; however, a lot more can change in six months than in six days. If the trip is several months down the road, introduce the idea of trip cancellation insurance early in the call. Explain the benefit: it may protect them if they need to cancel their vacation due to unforeseen circumstances. To reinforce this benefit, use a cautionary story. For example, a friend of mine booked a flight/hotel package for a certain date only to cancel it later due to a family emergency. She did not have trip cancellation insurance and had to pay a large re-booking fee as a result.
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They have small children or elderly parents. If a customer is travelling with small children, explain how trip cancellation insurance may protect them if their child gets sick and they have to cancel their flight. If they have elderly parents, they may have to cancel a trip due to a medical emergency at home. Trip cancellation insurance may help them avoid penalty fees and give them peace of mind. The only thing worse than cancelling a trip is PAYING to cancel the trip! As always, explain any restrictions or exclusions so customers can make an informed buying decision.
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It is an expensive vacation. The more a vacation costs, the greater the potential loss to cancel or re-schedule. So, position the benefits of trip cancellation insurance as part of the initial price discussion.
Educate your reps on the coverage and exclusions for your policies, so they can listen for the right customer clues. Reps also need to explain the limits of each policy so customers can make a fair buying decision.
Medical coverage Medical coverage is another travel industry up-sell. For example, if a customer breaks their arm while in the United States, a local hospital may charge $25,000 for x-rays, pain killers and a cast. Their provincial health plan may not cover them in the U.S. or other provinces. Their workplace group insurance plan may only cover them for workrelated trips, not a family vacation. In addition, older travellers may have a higher risk/likelihood of needing medical care. So, travel medical coverage provides peace of mind while traveling. Have CSRs help customers make an informed decision by mentioning the benefits of a medical insurance plan, as well as any restrictions such as pre-existing conditions and limits to coverage. Good vacation memories last a lifetime. Unfortunately, so do bad ones! Help your customers plan a great trip with upsells that give them peace of mind before and during their trip! Mike Aoki is the president of Reflective Keynotes Inc. (www.reflectivekeynotes. com ), a Canadian training company that helps contact centres improve their sales, customer service and management results. A call centre expert, Mike has been interviewed by the Customer Experience Show and the Globe and Mail. He also serves on the Advisory Council of GTACC (the Greater Toronto Area Contact Centre Association (www.gtacc.ca)) and was master of ceremonies for their 2012, 2013 and 2014 annual conferences.
contact management | 3
Cover story
Contact centres: ‘Go digital, or die’ Part three of a series on challenges facing the Canadian contact centre industry By Sarah O’Connor with Amy Bostock
A
ll around the world, more and more customers are choosing to interact with contact centre agents through digital channels (e.g. email, web chat, social media and self-service channels) rather than over the phone. Dimension Data’s 2015 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report suggests that if this shift continues at its current pace, digital will overtake voice-based contact within the next two years. The fact that this evolution has been looming for the last decade does not make it any less bewildering. It’s one thing to appreciate that your customers want an integrated experience in an omnichannel environment, but it is quite another to deliver it strategically, consistently and, of course, at a globally competitive price. Dimension Data’s report demonstrates that analytics is recognized by the majority of contact centres as the factor most likely to influence the industry over the next five years, and yet four out of 10 centres still have no internal data analysis capability whatsoever. “There’s this perception, which still exists predominantly outside the industry, that when we talk about contact 4 | contact management
centres we’re talking about telephone calls,” observes Dimension Data’s Head of Solutions and Global Benchmarking Andrew McNair. “And sometimes it still exists within organizations as well. We’re guilty of it ourselves. When we edit our report each year, it’s one of the real points that we’re so conscious of that, hey, are we talking about call centres? I think that’s a real key point that organizations need to focus on going forward, that if they’re looking to attract overseas or U.S. traffic into Canada, and equally if they’re looking just to re-shore some of what, in the past, has been sent overseas, it’s not about just having that telephone capability any longer. That is not the future of the contact centre. “The telephone capability is going
to be crucial and, if anything, when the transaction reaches the telephone, it’s going to be more important than ever before. But, I think it’s around having those channels available and having those channels joined up, and understanding how to use those channels to maximize the returns for your business. And, the key to that is through analytics, which [the report illustrates] is a real area of neglect as well.”
An increasingly complex industry In just 10 years the industry has shifted from all calls, all the time to today, where digital interactions account for 35% of all interactions and are expected to grow to 87% of all transactions. Delivering a frictionless Issue 3 • 2015
Cover story next 18 months or so, but it was a surprise to see the sheer level of that neglect across all levels of measurement, analytics and management. “It’s all very well having the channels and it’s all very well having an aspiration to then connect those channels so that we can try and aspire towards this kind of omnichannel experience. But, in reality, in order to offer your customers the best possible services, but also from an organizational perspective to maximize your own returns from those new channels, you need to understand how, and where, and for what transactions should be routed for each individual interaction type. And, that’s where there’s just an absolute lack of understanding. “A basic example there would be a personal loan application. There’s no point trying to push that towards email or online, if you know that the conversion rates are perhaps only 20% through those channels. If you know that you can get an 80% conversion rate via telephone then, by all reasoning, you absolutely want to route that particular type of transaction to the telephone agent, where they can convert that and maximize your return.”
Over half of all organizations will soon be managing a multichannel contact centre offering service through at least eight channels. customer experience that results in a satisfactory resolution of their concerns has become dramatically more complex. “The more touch points, the more complex it gets, the harder it is to aggregate all that data from different touch points into a consistent customer story,” says Mike Morrison, vice president of sales at Millennium 1 Solutions. “It started with inbound calling, and then it progressed to inbound and outbound,” adds Don Moffett, CEO of Millennium 1 Solutions. “And, then email was introduced as a new service channel. And, then chat was introduced as a new service channel. And, in very recent history, social media has become a potential service channel. And, social media actually changes the game considerably, because in the previous scenario, phone, email and chat, the servicing delivery model has been one to one. In the social channel, it’s one to many. So, one person makes a post, it gets responded to, hundreds, or thousands, or millions of people view the post.” The stakes are getting higher as customer satisfaction levels are dropping. Social media is already the preferred channel for Generation Y globally, and yet six in 10 contact centres have no social media capacity. The majority of organizations (75%) view the contact centre as a key differentiator (rather than just a cost centre) but 80% recognize that their current IT infrastructure won’t meet their future needs, while 40% say it doesn’t even meet their current needs. Dimension Data predicts that over half of all organizations will soon be managing a multichannel contact centre offering service through at least eight channels. These myriad channels require support from a strategy designed to deliver consistent service in an siloless model that generates useful data. The alternative is a frustrating confusion of contact options and a waste of resources. “We really broadened the report, to start looking at a lot of the traditional measurements which are generally in place for the stereotypical call centre, telephone-based interactions, and we broadened that out to look at what are others seeing, methodologies and processes and systems. Are they in place across the digital channels as well?” says McNair. “And, we were very surprised at just the sheer lack of some of the basics. And, it’s almost as though a lot of organizations have rushed to establish this presence. They’ve not connected to channels, and at the same time, there doesn’t really seem to be clear ownership on a lot of these digital channels as well. So, very simple practices that, as I say, are very much in place in the call centre industry are just being neglected, and that was a real surprise. I’m sure there will be a catch up over the Issue 3 • 2015
Delivering what really matters The proliferation of technology capable of managing an omnichannel service model concurrent with the ability to mine myriad data for meaningful insights in real time presents unprecedented opportunities for the modern contact centre. At the same time, delivering a real connection with another human being is also more important than ever. “What consumers are really interested in, what they’re really looking for is that ease of resolution,” says McNair. “That’s their prime concern. So, channel choice, yes, is important, but ultimately what they want is to resolve that enquiry. There’s still the opportunity to accommodate a lot of their interactions offshore through some of the faceless transactions, so things like web chat and social media, which we anticipate will grow as a customer service channel. That’s where we’re going to see growth in agent head count in the years ahead. It’s not voice which is going to create that growth, it’s going to be those back
office channels, where we still need human intervention but they’re not necessarily talking to the customer.” The challenge is to leverage technology and data in order to create more positively impactful human experiences for customers. A usercentric, channel-agnostic approach is the key to creative a cohesive customer experience across the organization that in turn will deliver an increase ROI. “If you remain the telephonecentric call centre, then your relevance is just going to diminish and eventually drop away and perhaps die. Analytics holds the key, has been voted as the number one factor that’s going to change the industry by our participants over the next five years. And, obviously, to get back to my earlier point, what that will create is more personalization and help drive more qualified channel
“The telephone capability is going to be crucial and, if anything, when the transaction reaches the telephone, it’s going to be more important than ever before.” strategies, which are based upon interaction value. In the short term, and the short term being over the next couple of years, we’re seeing that there will be an overall growth in head count within the industry, so the real opportunity. And, I think this is where we need to get away from thinking of the stereotypical call centre and actually view it as a customer management centre.”
contact management | 5
The CSR issue
Piece of cake A 6-step recipe for talent planning By Jen Lawrence
Y
our star employee has handed in her notice or your business has expanded, and you need to hire someone new. The impulse might be to hire someone as quickly as possible to minimize disruptions, but it’s much more effective to do some talent planning so your new hire reflects your current and future goals. Think of your business like a cake and your employees like the ingredients. You can’t just throw ingredients into a bowl and expect to bake a cake successfully. You need to follow a recipe such as the one below:
1. Understand the purpose of your cake First, you need to know what kind of cake you want to make. Are you making a cake for your grandma’s 90th birthday or for a raucous bachelor party? Is it a fancy cake for a sophisticated palate or a plain cake for fussy eaters? Are you feeding five people or 200? Your vision will drive the kind of recipe you need. Similarly, you should have a very clear vision for your company. Are you a healthy fast food chain that is hoping to expand geographically? Are you a software value-added reseller that is expanding into another vertical? Are you a hotel chain that is trying to rebrand? This will tell you what kind of talent plan you need. Just because vanilla layer cake has worked very well in the past does not mean that hazelnut crunch might not work better now.
2. Identify possible cakes Before you start baking, you need to think about who will be enjoying your cake? If you want to dazzle pre-school princesses, look is probably more important than taste. You are going to need a big fancy cake, preferably with a lot of glitter (subtle flourless chocolate cakes need not apply). Let’s say you run a chain of small hotels trying to rebrand and are in need of a new customer service director. Will your ideal customers travel for business or pleasure? Do they have a tight budget or do they expect a first class experience? Has your ideal customer profile changed since you last hired for this role? Thinking about how the job has changed will help you identify the type of person who could help you execute your vision.
3. Select your recipe Once you know that you need to make a fancy princess cake that is heavy on the glitter, you need to find some inspiration and a recipe. You can research “fancy princess cakes” on Pinterest and see what appeals. You might discard the cakes that require $200 worth of ingredients or a trip to a specialty store based on budget and time constraints. You might discard other possibilities because 6 | contact management
you have not mastered fondant icing. Eventually, you will find a recipe that suits. In your business, you need to figure out what kind of person would best at help you get to where you want to be, keeping resource constraints in mind. If you are trying to upgrade your level of service and redefine your hotel as a luxury brand, you might not want to hire the manager from a competing mid-price chain.
ingredient is someone with a luxury approach to customer service, you might be able to take a creative approach to hiring. Could you hire someone from a luxury retailer or a restaurant group and then train him in the specifics of the hotel world? The interview process will show you what ingredient might work best in your business.
4. Take stock of the ingredients
Once you have found the missing ingredient, you need to mix the ingredients together. In business, this is the onboarding stage and it’s good to give it some attention as you don’t want your cake to flop or burn. If you don’t have a good new employee orientation program in place, now is the time to create one. At a minimum, you should take the employee out for lunch, make her feel welcome, appoint someone who can answer her job-specific questions, get any company-specific training underway and make sure she has some projects to tackle. Before long, the new hire will be up to speed and contributing to your business.
Once you know what recipe you are making, you need to gather the ingredients. First take a look in the pantry; in the consulting world, we call this a talent audit. Whenever you are replacing or hiring a key member of staff, it’s a good idea to take inventory of your other people too. What skills do you have? What skills do you still need? Who can you train? Who should you hire? Perhaps you already have all the ingredients you need. Perhaps there is a more junior person in your organization who is now ready to take on an expanded role. Perhaps someone can make a lateral move to broaden his experience.
5. Source new ingredients Let’s say you’ve taken inventory and need vanilla extract. What type of vanilla extract do you need? Do you need the organic, hand-blended variety in the fancy glass bottle or is the generic label variety fine? This is the stage where you need to draw up a list of specific skill requirements for the new job. In the case of a replacement, it’s tempting to simply use the existing job description but if you want to maximize this hiring opportunity you should determine what skills you need today and in the future. Review your existing talent pool. If your hotel chain is a well staffed and your only missing
6. Mix the ingredients together
Talent planning can seem complex but if you follow the recipe above, it’s really a piece of cake. Jen Lawrence has been helping organizations improve performance and navigate change since 1994. Prior to joining Process Design Consultants, Lawrence was the executive director of a children’s museum, a director within the investment banking arm of a major Canadian bank, and a consultant for one of the “big four” consulting firms. She also ran the training and development department for the Canadian subsidiary of a Fortune 500 manufacturing company.
Issue 3 • 2015
Contact Management
Improving employee retention with smart software
You can’t afford not to invest in improving UX for your customer service representatives 8 | contact management
Issue 3 • 2015
The CSR issue
By Guillaume Seynhaeve
B
y 2020, customer experience is expected to exceed both price and product as the primary basis upon which consumers base their purchasing decisions and brand loyalty—in fact, one might argue that may already be the case. Regardless, while many businesses have turned to technology to help meet the challenge of offering the elusive ‘perfect customer experience,’ many in turn have done so at the expense of perhaps their most important asset—their employees. In fact, one has but to consider the following call centre statistics to quickly grasp the extent of the issue: • Average customer service representative (CSR) attrition for contact centres in growing enterprises is approximately 25%. • Annual CSR turnover rates average 35% across all call centres but can exceed 60% for those who specialize in outbound campaigns. • The average turnover rate for call centres with 500 or more employees ranges between 31% and 50%.
stored within disparate systems and platforms during each customer contact. In fact, 60% of low first call resolution (FCR) rates can be attributed to the inability of a CSR to gain quick access to a consumer’s information when it matters most—at the time of the interaction. However, by consolidating and integrating the various systems and platforms (CRM, SM, etc.) an enterprise may prescribe to, the ability to streamline and simplify a CSR’s access to timely and relevant customer
The typical culprits? • Frustration with cumbersome and manual processes despite the existence of advanced software and solutions. • Mismatches between agent skills and assigned customer issues. • Lack of consistent coaching (not to be confused with training). • Inflexible work environments.
information can quickly enhance both the customer’s experience as well as the CSR’s experience. In fact, according to SQM Group, for every one per cent in FCR improvement, contact centres will see a one to five per cent improvement in employee satisfaction.
The potential cost A 1,000-seat contact centre with a 60% CSR turnover rate will easily spend millions in attrition costs. A typical calculation would be (training time / average tenure) times annual fully loaded cost. So if training is two weeks, average tenure is 24 weeks and annual cost (fully loaded) is $37,856 ($13 hourly plus overhead), the cost to the 1,000 seat centre will be 1,000 times $3,154 or $3.1 million. Factor in the additional affect on employee morale, the ongoing loss in intellectual property and the long-term effect on customer service and the cost significantly grows beyond the immediate operational expenses. In fact, the damage can be permanent in today’s hyper-sensitive customer service environment.
The solution: 3 steps toward improving CSR retention
Platform consolidation Per a recent Aberdeen Study, CSRs can spend up to 26% of their time searching for relevant data and information Issue 3 • 2015
Workplace flexibility As the workforce demographic for CSRs continues to transition from Generation X to Millennials and technology continues to evolve, the demand for flexible work environments is on the rise. In fact, 89% of today’s Millennials would prefer to choose when and where to work rather than being subject to traditional nine-to-five protocols. Perhaps even more interesting, 45% value workplace flexibility more than salary benefits. Thankfully, due to
For every 1% in FCR improvement, contact centres will see a 1–5% improvement in employee satisfaction.
Active CSR coaching According to recent studies, 41% of employees expect to leave organizations with “poor” training as opposed to just 12% for those rated as “good.” But while many organizations follow traditional training practices, in which much of the guidance is provided at the beginning of any new employment, many fail to maintain a consistent level of coaching and mentorship to foster continued growth and education. And yet, for those institutions that have implemented active coaching programs, workforce optimization (WFO) platforms, e-learning tools and more, many have seen improvements in customer satisfaction (5.8% YoY increase), employee productivity (7.9% YoY increase) and CSR retention.
recent advancements in technology, notably cloud call centre software and other SaaS solutions, contact centres can now grant CSRs the ability to work from whichever location they choose, while maintaining the same, if not enhanced, levels of security, reporting and supervision. The benefit? Turnover is generally 35–50% lower for at-home representatives versus in-house ones.
Conclusion Despite the advancements in technology and the ongoing desire of consumers to be self-sufficient, the fact remains true competitive differentiation for enterprises will still heavily rely on the expertise and proficiency of the CSRs manning the front lines. Not just a wise investment, but rather a necessary one. Guillaume Seynhaeve is the director of marketing and business development at 3CLogic (www.3clogic.com).
contact management | 9
News
Women in Leadership Presented by GTACC June 2015
Sangetta Bhatnagar, chair of the GTACC, welcomes guests.
By Sarah O’Connor
T
his past June, the Greater Toronto Contact Centre Association (GTACC) hosted a morning of inspiration and thought leadership in celebration of influential women leaders within the local contact centre industry. The keynote address was delivered by Franca Gucciardi, CEO of the Loran Scholars Foundation. Gucciardi previously served as the founding director of the Millennium Excellence Awards program of the Millennium Scholarship Foundation. She is also a committed public servant, currently serving on the boards of College Montrose Children’s Place and the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. Gucciardi’s keynote was followed by a panel discussion including Afshan Kinder, partner, SwitchGear Consulting; Helga Iliadis, assistant deputy minister, customer care division, Service Ontario; Miriam Pearlman, consultant, MBPG Education & Organization Services; and Kim Whyte, superintendent, Peel Region Police. 10 | contact management
Keynote speaker Franca Gucciardi, CEO of Loren Scholars Foundation.
Issue 3 • 2015
News
Panellists from left to right: Afshan Kinder, partner, SwitchGear Consulting; Helga Iliadis, assistant deputy minister, customer care division, Service Ontario; Miriam Pearlman, consultant, MBPG Education & Organization Services; and Kim Whyte, superintendent, Peel Region Police.
The event was generously sponsored by LoyaltyOne, Scotiabank and InfiniteKM. All proceeds from ticket sales were donated to Room to Read, which partners with local communities throughout the developing world to establish libraries and
create local language children’s literature, and Pathways to Education, which helps youth in low-income communities graduate from high school and successfully transition into post-secondary education. The GTACC is a non-for-profit
organization whose mission is to benefit the local contact centre industry by positively engaging in knowledge exchange, networking and marketing initiatives. The GTACC’s annual conference will take place November 5, 2015.
Is Your Contact Centre Mature Enough for Today’s Customer? During this interactive working session, together we will look at understanding your contact centre’s current state and begin to chart your path to the desired future state, strategic value and unique dynamics of your contact centre that match the customers’ expectation.
Direct Marketing invites you to a Free Breakfast Briefing Oct 15, 2015 • 7:30-10am
Twenty Toronto Street Conference Centre, 20 Toronto Street, Toronto Issue 3 • 2015
Presented by
You must be registered in advance to attend. Free to register www.dmn.ca
contact management | 11
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