Customer Insight Summer 2019

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019

BEERBODS ON CUSTOMERS AS CLUB MEMBERS ALSO INSIDE… Gousto on being customer led Kofax on onboarding potholes Andrew Davis on digital engagement Customer success Subscription models

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CUSTOMER

INSIGHT CONFERENCE WEDNESDAY 6 TH NOVEMBER 2019 etc Venues Westminster Bridge.

County Hall, Belvedere Road, London. SE1 7PB

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CHR DAF IS FY SPEA

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After another successful event in 2018, our Customer Insight Conference is back for 2019.

The full day event will be packed with engaging speakers covering the latest CX trends, customer insight and measuring loyalty. If you are responsible for measuring or managing the customer experience this day is a must. You’ll leave with real examples, case studies, and practical ideas to implement within your organisation.

Keynote Speaker: Chris Daffy World renowned customer service specialist Chris Daffy has been developing and delivering excellent customer service and loyalty plans for over 20 years.

He’s worked with some of the most successful businesses in the world, helping them to change the way they think about ‘the customer’.

GOOD INSPIRATION AND LOTS OF INFORMATION.

A GREAT DAY. VERY

INSIGHTFUL. PROVIDED FOOD

VERY INTERESTING AND

I LIKED THE ACTIONABILITY OF

FOR THOUGHT TO TAKE AWAY

GOOD POINTS TO TAKE

RESULTS AND FINDINGS.

AND PLAN OUR RESEARCH.

USEFUL DAY. PLENTY OF

BACK TO MY COMPANY.

GET IN TOUCH TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE AND TO FIND OUT ABOUT OUR AUGUST EARLY BIRD OFFER: richardcrowther@leadershipfactor.com

01484 467004

EDITORIAL

Foresight Hello, and thanks for opening the summer 2019

These new models often depend on fostering

issue of Customer Insight.

strong relationships with customers, and the

We didn’t really set out to create a special

ability to build a community of advocates. We

issue, but this edition is heavily focused on

invited the digital media expert Andrew Davis to

businesses which are thriving through the use of

introduce his approach (page 22), and we’re really

non-traditional business models. We dig into the

looking forward to hearing more from Andrew in

strengths and weaknesses of subscription and

future editions.

Stephen Hampshire

access models in a short article on page 11, but

Editor

it’s our case studies with BeerBods (page 6) and

thoughts naturally turn to holidays...but how

Gousto (page 16) that really show the potential

tempted were you to stay at home? Our TLF Panel

that these models offer for businesses that are able

research article on page 26 looks at some facts and

to connect to their customers and meet their needs

figures about how UK consumers plan to spend

in a unique way.

their holidays.

Customer Success is a fashionable term,

And finally, it being the summer issue, our

Enjoy the articles, and please drop us a line

originating in the subscription world of Software

if you’ve got an interesting story to share for a

as a Service. In our book review (page 32) we

future issue.

review ‘Customer Success’, and ask how much of the concept is genuinely new.

Getting technology in the right places is a key part of success, and we’ve got an interesting guest piece from Kofax (page 18) on using intelligent automation to make life easier for customers.

We’re very much in favour of technology that makes things easier for customers rather than focusing on efficiencies for the supplier!

EDITORIAL Editor Stephen Hampshire ADVERTISING Marketing Manager Richard Crowther

CONTACTS

DESIGN & PRODUCTION Creative Director Rob Ward Designers Becka Crozier Jordan Gillespie Rob Egan Production Editor Chris Newbold PRINTER AB Print Group Ltd

Customer Insight is the magazine for people who want to deliver results to employees, customers and any other stakeholders as part of a coherent strategy to create value for shareholders. We publish serious articles designed to inform, stimulate debate and sometimes to provoke.

We aim to be thought leaders in the field of managing relationships with all stakeholder groups. www.tlfresearch.com uk@leadershipfactor.com Customer Insight C/O TLF Research Taylor Hill Mill Huddersfield HD4 6JA

NB: Customer Insight does not accept responsibility for omissions or errors. The points of view expressed in the articles by contributing writers and/or in advertisements included in this magazine do not necessarily represent those of the publisher. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within this magazine, no legal responsibility will be accepted by the publishers for loss arising from use of information published.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrievable system or transmitted in any form

or by any means without prior written consent of the publisher. © CUSTOMER INSIGHT 2019

ISSN 1749-088X

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 3

C O N T E N T S

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CONTRIBUTORS

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More people drinking better beer BeerBods pioneered the beer subscription model, but what sets it apart is its club ethos. Founder Matt Lane shares his secrets.

A delicious twist Gousto founder Timo Boldt explains the secret sauce behind the company’s rapid growth: being customer-led.

New models, new opportunities, and the primacy of customer experience With more and more industries favouring service over product, what do you need to know to survive?

Nigel Hill

Stephen Hampshire

Tom Kiralfy

Chloe Dyson

Wine-lover, Munroist and customer satisfaction guru

Conference speaker, book-lover and occasional climber

Panel wrangler, banana lover and chinchilla owner

Writer, occasional spider whisperer, lover of food and cats.

4 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

CONTENTS

FEATURE BeerBods: More people drinking better beer

06

18

Fill onboarding ‘potholes’ to transform customer journeys

22

Simple, but not easy - using digital to engage

26

Staycation vs vacation Research from TLF Panel breaks down holiday trends by age

30

Inside TLF Customer Insight Acrostics

32

Book Review Customer Success

34

How hard can it be?

Self-service till rage

STRATEGY New models, new opportunities, and the primacy of customer experience 13

CASE STUDY Gousto: A delicious twist

16

GUEST FEATURE Fill onboarding ‘potholes’ to transform customer journeys

18

DIGITAL Simple, but not easy using digital to engage

22

RESEARCH Staycation Vs Vacation

26

INSIDE TLF CI Acrostics from Chloe

30

BOOK REVIEW Customer Success

32

HOW HARD CAN IT BE? Self-service till rage

34

Published by

Social media, content marketing and digital guru.

DESIGNERS

Andrew Davis

Becka Crozier

Jordan Gillespie

Rob Egan

Right brain mastermind, music enthusiast and have I told you I’m vegan?

Creative magus, genuine tyke and 20ft wave rider

Beer drinker, pixel pusher and dour Yorkshireman

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 5

F E AT U R E

Craft beer and subscription models are both huge trends right now, and they’re brought together in the beer subscription club BeerBods. We caught up with founder Matt Lane to talk about his approach to business, the strengths of the club model, and the company’s crowdfunding success.

The BeerBods story

and friendly…without ever straying into annoying lager-ad “top banter” territory.

The growth of the craft beer industry

Authenticity should be simple, but it can be

shows (thank goodness) no sign of slowing,

surprisingly hard for businesses to do well.

even if we don’t quite seem to be able to

One touch I really like is that each case

A natural, human, customer experience That one tiny element of the customer experience captures, I think, so much of

define what it is we mean by “craft” beer.

comes with a Top Trumps style card about

what makes BeerBods special. Matt trusts

If you ask the average person on the street

the person who packed it. It’s a good example

his people, he puts them front and centre in

they’ll probably say something about beards

of something that helps to build the story—

contact with customers, and he lets them get

and murky pints of orange liquid. Ask a

my last case was packed by Tom, not a

on with creating great customer experiences

beer geek and they’ll start going on about

faceless machine—and also serves a practical

by being themselves. It’s an approach that

ownership and hectolitres of production.

customer-focused purpose. If something goes

builds stronger relationships, and connects

Most beer drinkers would tell you that they

wrong then I have a name and email address

customers to the business. But will it

just want something that tastes good. Matt

so that I can easily get in touch with Tom, or

scale when BeerBods has more than 4,000

quotes Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery:

anyone else in the business, if I need to. Matt

subscribers?

“Craft beer is craft beer when you know the name of the person who made it.”

says, “For us it’s about three things. One is about

“If big business understood the importance of story, they could do everything better. It

accountability, if you’re packing a case of beer

doesn’t matter how big you are, if you pull out

businesses like BeerBods successful—

then that’s important. The second is about our

the person that matters relating to that product

definitions don’t matter, structures don’t

personality, and we’re always trying to get that

or service, and they really care about it, then you

matter much, but stories do. One of the

across in everything we do. The third thing is

can do what a small business does. If you can get

things I love about BeerBods (full disclosure:

making sure people have direct access. There’s no

people to be natural, if you get people in front of

I’m a customer and extremely minor

calling trees, if you want to speak to someone in

customers being themselves, you start to make

investor) is that they are not afraid to have

this business you’ve got their name, you’ve got

a connection. People find it refreshing, and it’s

a personality. Their voice is informal, direct,

their details.”

more honest.”

This gets to the heart of what makes

6 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

F E AT U R E

Tom & Joe, BeerBods

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 7

F E AT U R E

web developer. Persistence pays off in hiring

difference between being flexible, trusting

in all of this? After all, we’re talking about

people with not just the right skills, but

your people’s judgement, and a complete

a business here, and all businesses need

passion and commitment to quality and the

free-for-all. Process and management are

process, albeit probably not as much as they

customer.

two different things; in fact I think there’s

So where do systems and processes fit

often believe. One of the benefits of starting a

“I really believe in hiring slow. Particularly

a good argument that they often work in

company, as Matt tells me, is that it gives you

when you’re this small, and you’ve got the culture

opposition. Process, at its worst, is what

the opportunity to examine everything about

we’ve got, you can’t afford to get it wrong.”

we create when we don’t trust managers to

how that business is going to work and ask “why do we do things like that?”

“All these things we just accept, and the customer doesn’t get anything out of it. It’s built around the business, and their processes,

The payoff is that Matt knows he has

“Ultimately all your business is, is its

that the business can afford to be relatively

employees and its customers. If you don’t let

light on process.

your employees shape the business through their

“I don’t think size is the issue. It’s about

and their departments…and that’s all madness

employing the right people, having the right

because we exist to serve our customers.”

culture, and trusting them. The best customer

Matt is extremely careful about recruiting

manage effectively.

people he can trust, and that in turn means

experience is always natural.”

the right people, even if it means pursuing

If that sounds utopian, I think it’s

them for two years as was the case for his

important to realise that there’s a huge

character and their ideas, it’s going to get pretty dull pretty quickly.”

Management includes quality checks such as dip-sampling customer service emails, looking for opportunities to improve, but it doesn’t mean putting a load of processes in place as a knee-jerk reaction every time someone makes a mistake.

“When something goes wrong, loads of systems and processes are usually put in place to deal with it, but all those systems and processes are built on that one little factor, and they always lose sight of all the knock-on effects.”

Matt gives an example from a previous business, where rules designed to deal with a handful of fraudulent customers ended up halving the number of new customers acquired. Those knock-on effects can only be avoided by involving a cross-section of people in the decision.

“One of the conditions of the culture of trusting people is that you accept things will go wrong, and then you fix them. What you do is look for trends, you don’t look for isolated incidents, and when you fix it, you look at how it’s going to affect other areas of the business.

Asking ‘What is it we’re really trying to fix?’ and having as many stakeholders in that decisionmaking process as possible so it can be addressed with a rounded approach.”

8 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

F E AT U R E

Matt Lane BeerBods Founder A sustainable business

acquisition and growth above all else, using

Funding any new business is tough. Matt

initial offers which are too good to resist…

started with a small amount of personal

but ultimately not sustainable unless you can

savings and a couple of credit cards. It was

Many customers start with a gift subscription,

keep hold of customers for at least a little

profitable from the start, but there is no

but 10% of those go on to become subscribers

while. That’s not what BeerBods is about.

escaping the fact that scaling up requires

The proof, ultimately, rests in the numbers.

in their own right, a figure so high that some

“We want to be in this for the long term, and

investors could hardly believe it. At the other

we want to build a long term sustainable business

end of the lifecycle, the churn rate is relatively

that our customers really value.”

low at 2% a month. Unlike some subscription

investment, and crowdfunding seemed a perfect fit.

“This way of involving your customers in your

It’s a fiercely competitive market, with 27

structure, and giving them a vested interest in

businesses, though, Matt prides himself on not

beer subscription services having launched

your business, I thought it was just wonderful. It’s

trying to keep customers hostage by making it

since BeerBods. Many of them have heavy

been really good to us.”

difficult to leave.

funding, and have pursued extremely

The business has raised over £400,000

“The point at which you make life difficult

aggressive, frankly unsustainable, growth. It

in two rounds of funding, almost all of

for someone, or trick them, that’s the end of that

has the potential to be a race to the bottom,

it coming in the form of relatively small

customer relationship. Why would you do that?”

and perhaps the only way to win such a race

investments from customers. The first round

is to opt out of it, as BeerBods has done, by

in 2014 saw BeerBods become the fastest

refusing to offer enormous discounts.

funded business in crowdfunding history.

He’s sees those tactics as being the inevitable result of strategies that prize

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 9

F E AT U R E

Strategy

• Learning. Many beer-drinkers are on a journey to find out more about beer.

So what to do with that investment?

Where next for BeerBods?

Subscription – the core model

• Community. The club, above all, is what defines

beer shared (at least in principle) by all

innovation born, as so many are, out of one person’s frustration. In simple terms, it’s a

the BeerBods experience.

service that lets you build a mixed case bit by

Understanding what matters to customers

bit, reserving your beers for a month or until

shapes strategy by making sure that all new ideas are tested on whether or not they will

The heart of BeerBods is the club—one

was doing. “Build a case” is the result, an

deliver against those needs.

“BeerBods had kind of evolved, and I’d

you fill an order of 12 and then pay for them.

“A real bugbear for me was, as much as I love beer, I was never in the market for 12 beers at any one time. But what I did do was see beers around,

subscribers at 9pm on Thursday. This sense

never stopped to reflect on what it is people

and think ‘I want that’. So the idea that I can

of community is unique to BeerBods, and it’s

really bought in to. Asking them, and learning

easily get somebody to put those aside for me and

the digital realisation of something that Matt

those things, was really valuable for us because

when the case is full go ‘you can come and buy

was doing as a student when he organised

everything new that we do now we make sure

them now’, that for me was a retail experience

small tastings with his friends.

it ticks those boxes of curation, stories, learning,

that was built around the customer…and when I

and community.”

say the customer, I mean me! It’s what I wanted

“Get a load of the same beer, give everybody

as a consumer of beer, and I thought other people

one, tell them the story behind it, give them a few tasting notes, and then we’d drink the beer.”

BeerBods Plus

subscription service, and I think this is what

would too.”

The customer-led view of how building a

He sees BeerBods as a club as much as a Extending the club principle is “BeerBods

mixed case should work is a good start, but

makes it feel different. Beer has always been

Plus”, limited to a much small number of

it’s not the really clever bit. As well as adding

a social drink. Like most experiences we get

subscribers who sign up for an extra beer

beers to your case on their site, you can link

more out of it if we can share it with other

once a fortnight, and share something a

up your social media accounts and add to your

people, and discuss how we feel with them.

little stronger, more expensive, or just plain

case simply by replying to Twitter or Instagram

Matt jokes,

weirder than the beers in the normal case.

“beer drops” which announce new arrivals in

It’s a more premium option for the beer geek

the warehouse. Ordering beer has never been

end of the customer base.

so easy: “3xA & 2xB, please. #buildacase”. It’s

“If people are drinking at home, in their pants on their own, how do we still make that a social

taking retail to the social media community,

experience?”

The club is the heart of BeerBods, and

Beer13

to explore what customers value. He asked

We don’t talk about Beer13.

Build a case

• Curation. In a crowded market “Having a

as a team find new beers and get excited about them, it’s where we do most of our research now.

• The beer. The quality of the product is obviously paramount.

“We’re trying to make this seamless. People are discovering beers on social, that’s how we

subscribers why they subscribe, and the answers boiled down to five things:

where discussions about beer are happening, rather than the other way round.

it was the perfect starting point for Matt

The obvious missing piece from the BeerBods online presence, until recently, was

So why should it then be difficult to go and buy that beer?”

trusted voice that tells you what to drink is

a retail offering. You could join the club, you

Referring back to the customer needs

really valuable.” It also, I’ve noticed, makes you

could order gift cases, but you couldn’t order

they’d identified, BeerBods is also working

more likely to try new things.

a mixed case of beers that you had selected

hard to build elements of Story and Curation

yourself.

into the new product, writing up each beer on

• Stories. Provenance is a big food trend, and

the site and using features such as “picked by

BeerBods makes a point of this. “People love

If BeerBods was going to move into

hearing about where the things they eat and

retail, they had to find a unique way to do

Matt” and trending beers to help customers

drink come from.”

it, something distinctive that no one else

navigate the choices.

10 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

F E AT U R E

“The reason this business exists is to get more people drinking better beer.

That’s our purpose, that’s our role in the world.”

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 11

F E AT U R E

“We want to be in this for the long term, and we want to build a long term sustainable business that our customers really value.”

BeerBods for Business

This might seem at odds with the craft ethos, but as Matt says,

Consumers are not the only customers.

“We want to help make sure that the ones who

“The reason this business exists is to get more people drinking better beer. That’s our purpose, that’s our role in the world.”

In a saturated market—with a dizzying

BeerBods is working with businesses who

do it properly are the ones that succeed. Advising

want to help their staff drink better beer,

the right corners of big beer about how they can do

choice of beers, breweries, and ways to buy—

including a market research agency in London

it better has been really interesting, and work I’m

BeerBods succeeds by building strong, honest,

whose boss has apparently bought everyone

quite proud of when I see the output of it.”

relationships of trust with its customers, its people, and with other stakeholders such as

in the organisation a gift subscription.

Purpose BeerBods Intelligence

breweries. It’s a business that knows exactly what it’s doing, and why, and that’s why I

Purpose is a much abused word, but I

believe it will thrive. Can those principles of

think it’s the secret that makes BeerBods

purpose, trust, and storytelling be applied to

a consultancy offering that takes advantage

special. Mark Ritson, in a recent Marketing

big business too? I don’t see why not. In fact,

of BeerBods’ excellent access to quantitative

Week piece, commented

I think they have to be.

More importantly, BeerBods intelligence is

and qualitative insight about how customers

“Time and again companies have proved

perceive beer. It’s aimed at retailers or

unwilling to stick to their lofty purpose statements

brewers who want to get more people

when it costs them money. For purpose to have any

drinking better beer, since few people in

meaning, corporations need to put it before profit.”

those businesses really understand craft beer

This is exactly right. Purpose, in business,

and know how to sell it. Clients include one

is defined by being more important to you

of the big breweries who is setting up a craft

than profit, and BeerBods has a very clear

beer arm, but wants to do it in an honest way.

sense of purpose.

12 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

Stephen Hampshire Client Manager TLF Research stephenhampshire@leadershipfactor.com

S T R AT E G Y

New Models, New Opportunities, and the Primacy of Customer Experience

new business models are the inevitable

and renting or leasing alongside buying

switch from product to service for a long

consequence. It’s a challenge and an

is a crucial part of managing that without

time. Even in the late 90s the most admired

opportunity for almost all of us.

running into a cashflow nightmare.

Access over ownership

have that dynamic, with notable exceptions

It feels like we’ve been reading about the

Business to consumer markets less often

business leaders were saying things like “We’re not in the X business, we’re in the

being the big ticket items of housing and

service business” while everyone nodded along. Which makes you wonder—is there

There has been a clear trend towards

cars, but there is evidence that the increased

anything significantly new about the sudden

access over ownership, particularly in

flexibility offered by access models over

explosion of subscription models? Yes and no.

business to business relationships, for a

ownership is starting to take hold for

long time. This trend is driven partly by

consumers as well. Kevin Kelly describes it

of a trend. It’s the logical endpoint of the

customer demand (if I can lease instead of

like this, in his book ‘Inevitable’:

realisation that, to quote Theodore Levitt,

buying outright it makes my upfront costs

“Customers don’t want quarter-inch drills.

lower and makes me more flexible, whether

nothing as he wends his way through the

They want quarter-inch holes.” Your product

we’re talking about a photocopier or a van),

complexities of nature, conjuring up a tool just in

is a means, not an end, and customers don’t

and also by the desire of suppliers to resist

time for its use and then leaving it behind as he

necessarily want to own it.

the pressure of commoditisation by building

moves on.”

In some ways this is just the continuation

If you put together an increasing focus on making things easy for customers, the

stronger relationships with customers.

The importance of financial flexibility

“I feel like a hunter-gatherer who owns

The logic of accessing services at need, rather than buying them, is pretty inescapable

geographic and social reach that the internet

is obvious in many business to business

if suppliers can find a way to make it easy

allows even quite small businesses, and

situations. If I’m a logistics company and I

and cheap enough. Let’s take a couple of

the increasing difficulty of differentiating

lose (or win) a big contract then I need to

examples, one that is well under way, and

on product alone, then I think these

be able to change my fleet size very quickly,

one that is likely in the near future.

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 13

S T R AT E G Y

Software as a Service

As Harvard Business Review points out,

The challenge for you

moving to a subscription model means that Software as a Service is a trend towards

churn and engagement become much more

What does it mean for you? It depends,

software being sold on the basis of an

important metrics than acquisition –

for now, what business you’re in, but these

ongoing monthly fee rather than a one-off

“how long they stay is more critical than how

trends will affect almost everyone in the end.

upfront cost. Take Adobe, whose high-end

many walk through the front door.”

Here are some questions you need to address:

creative software used to cost hundreds or

Running a successful subscription business

thousands to buy outright. Their product is

is about much more than moving to a

now only sold through monthly subscriptions

monthly fee, it’s a total shift in mindset to

that vary from £10-£50 a month. That makes

put customer experience before anything else.

it much easier to try, but also much easier

It’s a model built around the customer-first,

to leave. The barriers to entry are lowered,

loyalty strategy, view of business success

but so are the switching barriers. On balance

that Customer Insight has always believed in.

I think that must be good for customers.

BeerBods provides a great example of how

Microsoft has gone a similar route with Office

powerful that can be.

365, and it’s a trend that we can expect to spread to pretty much all software.

Mobility as a Service Your car, as you’ve probably noticed, spends most of its life gathering rust in a car park while it depreciates in value. Cars are expensive to own, expensive to run, and catastrophic for the environment and public health. So why do we put up with them? Because they’re convenient, whereas public transport doesn’t get us to and from exactly the right place or at quite the right time.

Mobility as a Service describes a range of ways in which the sweet spot between private and public transport might be met through autonomous vehicles, ridesharing, journey-planning and other technologies.

Subscription models and the customer Where subscription models really seem to have taken hold for consumers is in small, regularly purchased, highmargin items such as razor blades (Harry’s, Dollar Shave Club), coffee (Pact, Blue Coffee Box), beer (BeerBods, Beer52).

These businesses rely on finding the right combination of convenience, price, and trust to sustain long-term relationships with customers.

14 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

• What is the key customer need that we address?

• What technology trends might change the way that need is served?

• How could that need be addressed under a subscription/access model?

• If we operated under a subscription/access model, how would we differentiate ourselves?

W NE

W NE

UNDERSTAND & EXPLORE

PLAN & ACT

HALF DAY BRIEFING

HALF DAY BRIEFING

New for 2019, this half day briefing focuses on using qualitative research tools to understand customers better, so that you can use the “lens of the customer” for future research and to improve the customer experience.

New for 2019, this half day briefing looks at what happens after the survey. Many great pieces of research are wasted because their findings are not acted upon. In this briefing we’ll look at some tried and tested methods to turn insight into action, and combine research with internal workshops to deliver change.

We’d recommend delegates also attend the second in this series; ‘Plan & Act’. These briefings have been designed to complement each other and will give you an overview of an effective customer research approach.

We’d recommend delegates also attend the first in this series; ‘Understand & Explore’. These briefings have been designed to complement each other and will give you a complete overview of an effective customer research approach.

DATES:

DATES:

9th October 2019

London

9th October 2019

09:15-12:30

13:15-16:30

£160 (ex VAT)

£160 (ex VAT)

London

W

NE

STORYTELLING WITH DATA

CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING

FULL DAY DAY BRIEFING

FULL DAY BRIEFING

As organisations gather ever more data, researchers and analysts need storytelling skills to complement their analytical ones, to make sure their insight will cut through, be remembered, and drive change.

Customer journey mapping is a crucial meeting ground for customer experience research, service design, management and communications.

In this workshop we’ll work through a series of exercises to help you craft your own data story. Along the way we’ll discuss the theories that support effective storytelling and data visualisation.

We’ll break down what it is that makes something a story, and showcase a range of techniques and examples you can use.

DATES:

£300 (ex VAT)

This full day workshop outlines the steps you must follow, and the sources of information and insight you need in place, to effectively map the customer journey.

DATES:

19th September 2019 09:15-16:30

Mapping the customer journey is an essential part of gaining control over the customer experience, and it is also a great way to help staff understand customers and how they may be feeling.

Manchester

17th October 2019

London

09:15-16:30

£300(ex VAT)

Book online at tlfresearch.com or call 01484 467004

CASE STUDY

Gousto is a subscription recipe box

Technology plays a key role in this, with

are making will transform their experience”.

company, aiming to “deliver inspiration to

AI powering a customised recipe offering to

It doesn’t stop at launch—once an idea is

every home-cook”. Founded in 2012, it has

ensure that customers see a tailored selection

implemented, ongoing feedback is used to

grown from four to over 500 employees,

of the best recipes for their family. So what’s

make continuous improvements. Boldt quotes

and has secured £75 million in investment.

next for Gousto? They are investing heavily in

one example:

It has ambitious plans for the future,

their Tech and AI capabilities, not for the sake

too—delivering almost 2 million meals

of it, but to further improve the customer

wanted even more family-friendly recipes, so

every month, Gousto is on track to help UK

experience and make it as personalised as

we conducted research into the UK’s best-loved

families serve up 400 million meals by 2025.

possible.

family dishes and identified an opportunity

Customer Insight caught up with Founder and CEO Timo Boldt and found out that the secret of their success is customer-led innovation.

The secret sauce Gousto is on a mission to become the best way for families to eat dinner by offering the most “variety, adventure and convenience” to UK households. Gousto customers subscribe to a service that delivers precise ingredients and easy-to-follow recipe cards to their door, making home-cooking simple. Gousto claim to offer the most choice with up to 40 recipes per week, the most flexibility with free delivery 7 days a week and a three day

“We use data to understand what our customers like and dislike so we can provide them with meaningful choice and an experience that is tailored to their family.”

Customer-led

menu with a delicious Gousto twist! So, now our reliably delicious ‘Everyday Favourites’ range is available every week, as part of our choice of 40 recipes.”

The aim of ongoing service innovation is to improve an already great experience for customers. It’s a simple test—without a customer-focused reason to do something, it doesn’t happen. Gousto is focused on three things which they are always looking to develop and improve: choice, customisation, and convenience.

As well as involving their customers in innovation, Gousto engages with them through social media and email, including a and engaging blog content. As Boldt says: “At Gousto, our customers are at the heart of

Some key trends in the category are healthy eating, convenience, choice, and

to develop these and add them to our weekly

monthly newsletter full of business updates

turnaround, and the lowest price point from £2.98 per meal.

“We recently discovered that our customers

Gousto believes that customers are at the

what we do. We are always looking to improve,

sustainability; and Gousto is well positioned

core of what it does, constantly reviewing

to make their experience as joyfully simple as

against all of these. They see their main

customer feedback and using this insight to

possible. We are constantly asking questions so

competition as the supermarkets, aiming to

identify opportunities to offer a better service.

that we can understand the challenges that our

take them on directly as “the best way to eat

New ideas are developed and tested with

customers face and ensure that we are the best

dinner”, and to inspire home cooking.

customers “to ensure that the decisions we

way for them to create delicious dinners!”

16 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

CASE STUDY

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 17

G U E S T F E AT U R E

FILL ONBOARDING ‘POTHOLES’ TO TRANSFORM CUSTOMER JOURNEYS Pothole #1: Where time is wasted No one likes unnecessary extra work – or

In an age of “click and get it done,” customers are conditioned to expect business interactions to be simple, speedy and convenient. Applying for a credit card, for example, should be as seamless as snapping and sharing a photo from a smartphone. But if a business asks you to send documents by fax, email or mail/post? That’s very frustrating. Proving identity shouldn’t be so tedious.

These moments of customer interaction and engagement are crucial, and yet it’s in these moments that potholes often lurk.

Unnecessarily cumbersome, slow and inefficient interactions threaten to exasperate the consumer or even disable the entire journey. The key to avoiding these potholes is to rethink customer journeys with an eye toward simplifying informationrich interactions and using intelligent automation to avoid those potholes and accelerate the journey to a positive outcome for everyone involved.

has the time for it. So it’s understandable that customers hit the brakes when asked to re-enter information. Consider, for example, the journey of a customer who needs to submit an insurance claim. They haven’t travelled far into the process before they hit a pothole: a lengthy form asking for personal details – most of which they know their insurance firm already has.

For the customer, especially one facing a potential loss, this is understandably frustrating. With high expectations for their insurance provider, they don’t appreciate being knocked to the side of the road this early in the claims process. It’s not great for the insurance providers either, as an uneven experience puts customer satisfaction and loyalty at risk. And it’s even more of a challenge when scale is considered. It isn’t unusual for insurance providers to handle hundreds of claims.

For example, Safe-Guard, which offers motor vehicle protection products to consumers, processes more than 2 million

By Dermot McCauley, Vice President, Solutions Product Marketing, Kofax

contracts and thousands of claims. And yet, to avoid damaging the customer

Dermot McCauley is Vice President of Platform Product Marketing at Kofax. He is responsible for bringing the Kofax intelligent automation software platform to market, helping organisations transform information-intensive business processes.

Kofax provides an Intelligent Automation software platform to help organisations transform information-intensive business processes, reduce manual work and errors, minimise costs, and improve customer engagement. The company delivers solutions in more than 60 countries across the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific.

Kofax can be contacted via https://www.kofax.com/contact-us

18 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

relationship or losing their business, the company must respond promptly to claims.

Balancing speed with volume is difficult when operations are handled manually. But the company recognised that intelligent automation would be a game-changer.

It began by automating the capture of email, paper and fax documents, scanning them directly to a document management

G U E S T F E AT U R E

solution without manual intervention and producing a single, central

Pothole #2: Where revenue vanishes

the loan application process. Spotcap now automatically extracts data from a wealth of sources, including customers’

information store. Regardless of how a document enters the system—by

Every business wants new customers

accounting software, company

mail, fax or email—it is identified

and the revenue that comes with them,

registers, tax authority records, credit

by document type and sent to a work

so allowing prospective customers to fall

databases, e-commerce websites and

queue that matches it to an existing

into a pothole when they attempt to open

more. The software then integrates and

claim or contract. Next, each document

a new account is just crazy – intelligent

transforms the data in real-time so it

goes through an extraction process that

automation can avoid those potholes

can be readily used by the company’s

identifies and stores any pertinent data.

and help make that revenue materialise.

credit assessment algorithm.

Then, to deliver a further boost to

A common problem is that application

“What this means is that while a customer

efficiency, Safe-Guard used analytics

forms are too long, and businesses fail to

is online, we can process their application

to track each step in the contract

recognise the opportunity to automate.

and get back to them with a decision in

and claims handling process to

For instance, one bank’s new account

just a few minutes,” Sponholz says.

identify areas for improvement. By

form originally had 45 fields, which it

establishing key metrics, such as how

winnowed to 35. Yet they could have

Financeira experienced similar results

long each step took, who touched each

improved on that, says consultancy

when launching a new card service. It

document and how many times, the

firm McKinsey, if they had “reduced

wanted its application process to be quick

number of documents classified in

the fields to 15 and pre-populated 10 of

and easy for customers and to do so at

each batch, and more, the company

them from external data sources.”

a lower cost. By automating document

was able to pinpoint inefficiencies

Simplifying this process for consumers

Likewise, financial firm Caruana

capture and processing, the financial

reduces the risk they’ll quit midway

services provider was able to put new

through. According to the Digital

credit cards into customers’ hands in as

the company’s document capture

Banking Report, “When onboarding takes

little as 10 minutes, at an estimated 80%

process alone would take up to

too long, your customers will seek other

lower cost than a manual approach.

two hours a day. With intelligent

solutions. In fact, at some banks, customers

automation, however, the entire

abandon up to 90% of new account

applications has been a complex and lengthy

process was shaved to 10 - 15

applications prior to their completion.”

task,” Daniel Médici Lourenson at Caruana

and take steps to improve them.

Before implementing automation,

minutes and the number of times

However, with intelligent automation,

“Traditionally, processing credit card

Financeira said. “Customers filled in a paper

an employee needed to handle each

businesses are more likely to keep

form and submitted supporting materials

document dropped by 80 percent.

new revenue. One telecommunications

such as identification documents, proof of

company increased customer satisfaction

address and bank statements. Our teams took

customer. The time it takes for Safe-

by 20% and reduced costs by 30% after

all this documentation, performed credit

Guard to adjudicate a claim dropped

it implemented a faster mobile-phone

scoring and anti-fraud checks, then decided

by 75%, which means customers

sign-up process, according to McKinsey.

whether or not to approve an application.

But perhaps the best news is for the

have their claims reviewed and cheques issued within a day or two.

One challenge to a smoother process,

When a customer was approved, we got a

especially in loan applications, is

third-party provider to print and emboss

complexity. Spotcap, which provides

the card, then mailed it to the customer.

short-term loans to small businesses

From start to finish, the entire process

online, must analyse thousands of data

took an average of three weeks, incurring

points with every application to decide

considerable cost and effort.” What’s

whether to offer or withhold a loan.

more, these highly manual, paper-based

Cutting-edge technology helps it turn

processes introduced a degree of risk.

around loan offers quickly and efficiently.

Using intelligent automation

That all changed when Caruana Financeira deployed automation and

capabilities, the lender has built and

launched the new card service in branches

deployed hundreds of robots to manage

in Mauá - São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 19

G U E S T F E AT U R E

Fortaleza—conveniently located in the major bus terminals. In the branches, customers’ details are captured from their ID card, known as Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas (CPF). The data is linked to an electronic application form, which the customer completes on a computer in the branch. Behind the scenes, the automation platform works to perform fraud credit analysis checks using the information extracted from the CPF. An agent then scans other identification documents, as well as the customer’s proof of address and income statements. Once again, key information is automatically extracted from the document images, validated and entered into a case

and technology services providers, the

it on the spot against a national

management workflow, where further

customer onboarding process was largely

identification number database. The

fraud analysis and credit analysis checks

manual. Headquartered in Istanbul,

system then uses this information

are performed. If an exception arises, the

Turkey, the company serves more

to populate a digital contract.

application is sent to the company’s credit

than 50 million subscribers and offers

desk, where it is reviewed and additional

a range of mobile, fixed, web TV and

contract details, they sign the document

information can be requested as required.

over-the-top (OTT) content services.

using a signing pad or tablet screen.

Upon approval, Caruana Financeira can

“Previously, when customers applied for a

Once the customer has reviewed the

The signature is captured automatically,

print and emboss their card on the spot,

new contract they had to fill out paper forms

along with biometric signals such as

dramatically reducing the turnaround

at our points of sale and provide supporting

handwriting speed and acceleration. Then,

time from weeks to mere minutes, which

proof of identity, in the form of their

it’s digitally sealed and integrated into the

means revenue is captured instantly.

national ID card,” İnanç Çakıroğlu, CRM

contract, ensuring that it can’t be copied

The customer experience isn’t just

& BIS Capabilities Director at Turkcell,

or used elsewhere. For highest evidential

about faster service, though. It’s also

says. “Sales people created copies of the

weight of captured signature data and

about building relationships. From

documents and sent them via courier to our

contracts signed, Turkcell customers sign

the start, customers expect businesses

central services center, where they were

with special active styluses on a tablet

to know who they are and to deliver

scanned and submitted for processing.”

which also allows the solution to capture

personalised service. Fail at that, and

This labor-intensive process

different levels of writing pressure.

prepare to watch customer loyalty – and

made it difficult to offer responsive,

If a signature is in doubt, forensic

the resulting lifetime revenue – evaporate.

personalised services that meet and

handwriting experts have a maximum

exceed customer expectations.

of meaningful data for inspection.

At Turkcell, one of the world’s largest integrated communications

That changed, however, when the

The digital contract, application

company deployed intelligent automation

form and customer ID documents are

capabilities. Today, when a customer

all uploaded to a central electronic

comes into a store to apply for a new

content repository, which is

contract, the sales team helps them

integrated with Turkcell’s customer

complete a digital application form using

relationship management (CRM)

a tablet device or desktop computer.

system. From here, back-office

They also capture an electronic copy

employees process the applications

of the customer’s ID card and validate

and activate new customer accounts.

20 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

G U E S T F E AT U R E

Pothole #3 – Where silence is not golden

A smoother journey with intelligent automation

The current labour market is tight, and

When customers and employees get

companies are fiercely competing for talent.

stuck in potholes, companies risk losing

You may not give the employee onboarding

them, their goodwill and the revenue and

process much thought – after all, the

other value they bring. But companies that

candidate may have accepted the job already

work like tomorrow know that leveraging

– but often a great employee onboarding

people, processes and the right intelligent

journey is needlessly hampered by potholes.

automation technology is what’s needed

In fact, 76% of HR executives say their

to fill the potholes in onboarding

organisations aren’t effectively onboarding

processes. Turning information-intensive

new hires, according to a survey conducted

interactions into great moments of

by Kronos Inc. and Human Capital Institute.

engagement creates a great experience

Starting a new job is exciting.

The employee wants to have a clear

and an efficient journey, and sets the organisation apart from its competition.

understanding of what they need to do and the organisation needs to coordinate all the cross-functional people and systems that will get that new employee onboard smoothly. Silence from the company worries prospective new employees – did they make the right choice? Great onboarding means keeping that employee informed, while If customers wish to view their contract

filling out paperwork, gaining access to

documents, they can do so through a

relevant systems and resources and perhaps

customer portal on the Turkcell website.

scheduling and completing induction and

Customers can also request a copy of

training. Intelligent automation handles

the electronic contract via email.

these tasks even before the new hire steps

The result is that by using intelligent

foot in the office. HR staff and hiring

automation, Turkcell was able to turn

managers then have more time to engage

customer onboarding into a highly

personally with the recruit and ensure they

automated, near-paperless, and much more

feel like a valued member of the team. In

secure, process. Most importantly, now that

tight labour market or high-volume hiring

onboarding is fully digital, sales people have

environments, this approach makes it less

more time to spend on service, ultimately

likely new hires will jump to competitors.

transforming the customer experience.

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 21

SIMPLE, BUT NOT EASY – USING DIGITAL TO ENGAGE Andrew Davis Digital Consultant & Workshop Leader andrew@twks.co.uk www.thinkingoutsidetheblog.com

Organisations in every sector are scrambling to figure out how to use digital tools to raise their profile, win new business, and engage with existing customers. There’s a profusion of tools and approaches and a never-ending supply of “gurus” and “thought leaders” purporting to tell you how to do it best. It can all be a little overwhelming, and many of us suspect that we’re not getting it quite right. We decided to get a genuine expert on board to help us out, so we turned to Andrew Davis.

Andrew was a digital media native long

22 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

before the likes of Twitter and Facebook were even on the radar, starting as a chatroom moderator for the ITV show Pop Idol and Friends Reunited (we’ll wait while you Google those if you’re under 30). He now helps organisations get the most out of digital, social media, and in particular using content effectively to engage customers.

In this article we asked Andrew to outline his approach to digital media, and we’re pleased to say that he has agreed to return in future editions of Customer Insight to comment on the latest trends.

R ED SE IG AIRTCAH L

A lot of people struggle with digital

Digital Roadmap

marketing. I like to say that this stuff is simple, but not easy. It’s a world where kids can become millionaires, because they’re getting results on platforms that brands are struggling to master.

proposition

action

convert

influence

Engaging with customers To get control of your digital engagement,

traffic

you need a framework to understand it

nurture

escalate

properly. It’s not just about doing the right things, it’s about doing them at the right time. This is my digital roadmap, with seven stages that capture every step you need

Nurture

to think about in developing your online relationship with customers. Let’s look at

This is where you develop your

example, that if we send 10 messages out

each step in turn, and we’ll unpack the most

relationship with customers and it’s where,

then 2 of them will be sales, and 8 will be

important one in detail.

as a brand, you should spend most of your

value added. I like to use a boxing analogy

time. You should aim to build a community

and call it the jab-jab-jab-cross method

where you can have influence, though not

(coined by Gary Vaynerchuk). A boxer

control, over what people see. That might be

uses jabs to set their opponent up, and a

an email list, a Facebook or LinkedIn group,

power punch to finish them. Sales is the

or your Twitter or Instagram network.

same—the jabs are added value content,

Proposition Your proposition, whether it’s your product, brand, or a specific campaign, is what will get the customer’s attention.

Traffic One of the first things you need to do is get prospects from A to B, whether that’s from Facebook to your website or from YouTube to your email list.

Action Once they’re there, you need to get them

Doing this well is about understanding

businesses are throwing power punches the

have short attention spans, and combining

whole time, which means they are always

that with a clear sense of your own brand

selling something to someone. Historically

personality. How is it you want to be seen?

the content with the least engagement is

Serious? A thought leader? Funny?

usually when you are asking people to buy

The strength of the roadmap is in

will see brands’ ‘salesy’ content not

something is as important as what you say.

performing well due to lack of engagement

Some of the things you can say at the nurture

and therefore decrease the reach, which

stage would be wrong to say at earlier stages,

means less people see it. That’s why people

and that can frustrate a lot of traditional sales

find selling in the social space quite difficult.

people, because they can’t be bothered to go

often it’s something much lighter at the

through the slow burn of social selling.

for your emails.

something. In today’s world, the platforms

understanding that choosing when to say

to take action. That might be a sale, but more beginning of a relationship, like signing up

and the power punch is the sell. Most

customer behaviour, for example that they

To get this right you need to understand what your contact strategy is. Knowing, for

On the other hand, if you use too many jabs then you can get people so used to value that it comes as a shock when you do try to sell. It’s about getting the balance right.

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 23

D I G I TA L

During quiet periods, like December and

Customer behaviour

January, you might be throwing more jabs, then in campaign mode it might go up to

A lot of organisations focus on vanity

50:50. The important thing to realise is that

metrics—how many subscribers do we

most people don’t mind that you’re selling

have, how many people sign up to our email

more for a reaction than

if you’ve gained trust by offering them

lists, etc. Your real focus for understanding

a like) then they’ll open

value first. Even people who don’t become

customers should be engagement metrics.

up your reach. They might

customers can become valuable contributors,

You need to understand which platforms your

start by showing your content

for example by telling others about your

customers are using, what your customer

to 10% of your subscribers, then if it does

product or service.

engagement is like relative to your industry,

well open it up to 30%, then 50%, and then

what people are talking about, and how your

if it’s really popular potentially to people

share of voice compares to competitors.

beyond your immediate network.

Getting customers to engage with you is not about being the best or the cleverest, it’s about being the brand that they understand

The data about what people are doing

Reaction time is an increasingly important

the best. Keep it simple, and make sure

and talking about can be used to fuel

metric. How quickly can you respond if

people understand what you do. Trying to be

creativity. Ask what people are doing, and

somebody asks a question? In the future

very clever can actually put people off.

what their behavioural habits are. You

WhatsApp is aiming to be the customer

need to understand what’s going on in the

service tool for businesses. They’ll charge you

world right now, what you could call “trend

to get back to customers if you don’t respond

marketing”. Every day is a day of something,

within 24 hours, and I can see that deadline

and that means that people (including

is going to reduce bit by bit. It’s a clever

get your sales, at which point customers

influencers) are talking about it. How can you

move by them, to incentivise customers to

will either fall back into the nurture

connect that to a business objective?

use WhatsApp as their preferred channel, and

Convert Get your balance right and you will

phase (hopefully with an even stronger relationship), or potentially step up to…

Escalate

A good example is the mattress company

that suits businesses who would rather have

who, rather than focusing on how good their

complaints in their inbox than out in public

mattress is, decided to focus their messages

on platforms such as Twitter.

on what people do in the morning, because that really depends on whether you’ve had

Knowing where you are

Happy customers should be primed to

a good night’s sleep. They listened to what

buy more from you, so cross-selling and

customers were saying, and found a way to

upselling are good indicators that they are

connect that to their product, rather than the

strategy is being clear on who you want to be,

truly engaged.

other way round.

and then using data to find ways to engage

So the data can be used to understand

Influence

they’re doing and talking about. Selling is

see how it makes sense for your organisation.

part of it, but you need to establish trust and get your timing right or you risk putting

Technology

of this highly engaged group.

Using data effectively

customers off and damaging your standing in the eyes of the algorithms. The digital

might also want to consider referral schemes and influencer programmes to make the most

with people using messages that reflect what

what’s there, but the key is interpreting it to

Best of all, very happy customers will tell people about you or defend you to others. You

The key to an effective digital engagement

You need to get used to using data

roadmap is a tool you can use to plan your

to properly understand your digital

digital strategy, and to make sure you say the

performance. Algorithms have no soul, all

right things at the right time.

they see is “are people engaging with this piece of content?”, in other words is it getting

Data and analytics go hand in hand

likes, shares, and reactions. Most platforms

with your digital strategy. Using data well

generally use some sort of points system, so

is crucial to understanding two things:

if you reach a certain number of points in a

customer behaviour, and technology.

certain amount of time (and you often get

24 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

Andrew will be back in the Autumn issue with an update on the latest developments in digital.

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If you’re reading this and you like podcasts, you should definitely check out the TLF Gems podcast. Each episode Stephen and Greg talk about a different topic related to Customer Experience research and insight.

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RESEARCH

With holiday season well and truly upon us, we decided to see if the

Why are you not likely to take any holidays in 2019?

warm spells we’ve been having across the UK (this year we had the hottest Easter Monday on record) have influenced people’s decisions

The main reason why this 20% won’t be taking any holidays this year,

as to how they’ll be spending their time away this year from how

with 64% of the response, is that they can’t afford to. This increases to

often they’ll be going away, to how they’ll be booking their holiday,

86% of 18 to 24 year olds but decreases to 39% of those aged 65 and over.

from where they’ll be going, to what they’ll be doing and everything in between…keep reading to learn more.

One surprising statistic is that 23% of people aren’t even interested in going on holiday, with men less interested, at 29% compared to women’s 19%, and those over 65 less interested at 36% compared to

How many holidays (for a week or more) are you likely to take in 2019?

only 9.5% of 18 to 24 year olds.

It must be frustrating for Millennials - 91% of them are interested in going on holiday, but only 14% can afford to!

What is your favourite type of holiday?

5.0% 5.0% 19.0%

= 200

11.6%

29.2%

Beach holiday

Rural holiday

Adventure or activity holiday

Road trip holiday

Cities and sightseeing

Other

30.3%

People’s favourite type of holiday, with a whopping 39% of the vote is - unsurprising when you consider the weather we have - the good old beach holiday.

This is followed by city breaks, with 23% of the vote, then rural holidays, with 15% (the Lakes, the Peaks and the Highlands are hugely = None

= Two

= Four

popular), then activity holidays in fourth, with 13% – which are much

= One

= Three

= Five or more

more popular with 18 to 24 year olds at 18.9% but not so much with those 65 and over, with only 3%.

60% of people are likely to take 1 or 2 holidays this year, with the

Going on a road trip is fifth, with 6% and any ‘other’ type is last,

average per person at 1.7. However, nearly a fifth of us don’t plan to

with 5% (these included things like coach trips, Disney holidays and

take any holidays at all this year.

cruises).

26 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

RESEARCH

67% are spending the same or more this year

How many hours do you spend researching a holiday before you book it?

When it comes to how much people will be spending when booking their holidays this year it’s a real mixed bag. Overall, it’s good news for travel operators, with 42% spending the same as last year and

30%

= Overall = 18-24

25%

= 65+

25% spending more, but delving into these figures helps paint a more granular picture:

20%

36% of 18 to 24 year olds will spend more, compared to 27% of those aged 65 and over, but remember, only 14.3% of Millennials can actually afford to go away – perhaps this is why!

55% of those aged 65 and over will spend the same as last year, compared to 36% of 18 to 24 year olds, and 38% of women will spend

15%

10%

5%

the same, compared to 48% of men - women are actually more likely than men to spend less this year, with 27% saying so, compared to

0%

0

only 16% of men.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Young men are the demographic most likely to spend more this year compared to 2018, so discovering what holidays they’re interested in could really help the tourism sector.

10

10+ Don’t know

The average time a person spends researching a holiday before booking it is 4.8 hours. Those over 65 are likely to spend a bit longer, at 4.9 hours, and Millennials are likely to spend less, at 3.8 hours.

Less traditional holiday choices

Nearly 20% of people though, spend over 10 hours researching a holiday before booking – perhaps this is explained by the results of our following question about whether people use travel agents or

60%

= 18-24 50%

not…

= 65+

Do you use a travel agent, either on the high street or online, to book your holidays?

40%

30%

20 years ago, if you wanted to book a holiday you had to go to your local travel agent. But since the rise of the internet, the number

20%

of people choosing to use them has been in decline and, as of 2019, only 45% of people still choose to use a travel agent (either in store or

10%

online).

0%

Eco holiday

Solo travel

Holiday swap

Experience holidays

(environmentally aware travel)

(visiting somewhere on your own)

(swap homes with someone for a week)

(orgagnised for special experiences e.g. northern lights or a culinary tour)

None of the above

The less-traditional holiday types, including: eco holidays, solo

What, if anything, would encourage you to book your holidays through a travel agent, either online or on the high street?

Of the 46% who said they do not use a travel agent to book their

travel, holiday swaps and experience holidays, still have a way to

holidays, 39% said there was nothing travel agents could do to entice

go before they can compete with the likes of the beach holiday or

them to use one. Women are less likely to completely rule out using

city break, with 34% of people saying they wouldn’t be interested in

a travel agent, with 37% saying there’s nothing that would encourage

any of them. Although, encouragingly, only 17% of 18 - 24 year olds

them to use one, compared to 43% of men.

said this, compared to 54% of those aged 65 and over. Perhaps you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? [OR the future is promising for the modern holiday.]

50%

40%

The most popular ‘new-age’ holiday type is the experience holiday, with 40% opting for it as one they would consider.

30%

Eco-holidays are more popular with 18 - 24 year olds, with 28% saying they would consider it, compared to only 6% of over 65s.

20%

Solo travel is also more popular with 18 - 24 year olds, with 34% considering it, compared to only 18% of over 65s.

10%

0%

Female

Male

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 27

RESEARCH

Another factor that influences whether a non-travel agent user

47% of people are likely to take 1 or 2 weekends away this year,

would consider using one is age; only 29% of 18 to 24 year olds would

with the average per person being 2. However, 22% of people don’t

never consider one, compared to 53% of over 65s.

plan on taking any weekends away this year.

60%

Interestingly, more people are likely to book a holiday for a week

= Nothing would encourage me to use a travel agent

or more than they are to go on a weekend away, with 81% going on at least 1 holiday compared to 78% going away for at least 1 weekend.

50%

Last year we had a fantastically hot English Summer.

If the same weather was guaranteed this summer how likely or unlikely would you be to book a UK holiday?

40%

30%

20%

The glorious weather last year certainly helped give the UK tourism industry a boost, and it looks like the sector may reap the same

10%

rewards if we have another good spell this year, with 62% of people saying they would be either ‘likely’ or ‘extremely likely’ to book a

0%

18-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55-64

65+

Of those non-travel agent users that would at least consider using a travel agent, the top 3 things that would encourage them to do so

holiday in the UK if the weather was the same.

But, people still like to leave home when they’re on holiday, as only 44% would be ‘likely’ or ‘extremely likely’ to stay at home instead of going on holiday if the weather was as good.

A small blow to international tourism, only 48% would be ‘likely’

are: • Exclusive agency deals, 30%

or ‘extremely likely’ to book a holiday abroad if the weather was as

• A more personal service, 18%

good this year.

• Greater transparency with agency fees, 16%.

There’s very little travel agents can do to entice people that have already made their minds up, but for those that are open to using one, the key things they can do are:

If you were staying at home for a holiday, what activities are you likely to enjoy at home? Select all that apply.

• Offer exclusive agency deals, particularly to the 18 to 24 year old bracket • Provide a more personalised service

= 200

• Be more transparent with how fees are calculated A further selling point would be to provide more physical brochures to browse/take away, again aiming at the 18 - 24 year old market.

How many weekends away are you likely to take in 2019?

17.6%

If people were to stay at home for a holiday, the top 3 activities they’re likely to enjoy are: • Day trips out – 56% 29.7%

• Going out for walks – 52% • Cooking and eating out – 45%

= None

= Two

= Four

= One

= Three

= Five or more

28 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

As a nation, we like being out and about…and eating. Well, I suppose we have to fuel those days out somehow!

Other

Day trips

Seeing friends and family

Watching TV and films

Going out for walks

13.9%

Cooking and eating out

Reading

DIY

22.1%

8.3%

Gardening

8.3%

RESEARCH

Interestingly, but maybe not surprisingly, there are several

The most surprising result was playing bingo…only 5% of over

activities where interest in them differs greatly between genders

65s enjoy this as an activity, compared to 15% of 18 - 24 year

and ages:

olds. Perhaps bingo’s reputation as a favourite of the elderly needs

• 22% of men enjoy doing a bit of DIY, but only 17% of women do

reassessing, or maybe it’s just ‘unlucky for some’.

• Women prefer a good read, with 48% enjoying picking up a book, compared to 36% of men • 49% of women enjoy cooking and eating out, compared to 38% of men

Typically how many times do you take part in activities like these?

• 59% of women enjoy a good day trip, compared to 50% of men…perhaps 900

they’re busy inside with the DIY?

800

When it comes to age, only 20% of 18 - 24 year olds enjoy

700

gardening, but green fingers seem to develop over time, with 52% of over 65s enjoying pottering in the garden. What Millennials do enjoy more than older generations is watching TV and films, with 51% enjoying the latest boxset, compared to 30% of over 65s. Perhaps this

600 500 400

too is because the younger generations have less money to spend on

300

activities and days out.

200 100

Which of the following activities or day trips are you likely to do at any point in 2019?

0 More Once a Once a Once a Once 4 times than once week fortnight month every two a year a week months

Twice a year

Less often

Never

= 500

Overall, 59% of people partake in activities like these at least once a month, but this does change generationally, with 67% of 18 - 24 year olds enjoying activities at least once a month, compared to 51% of over 65s. In fact, 20% of over 65s enjoy activities twice a year or less.

Don’t know/none of the above

Going to a sporting event

Going to a festival

Going to the races

Visiting an amusement park

Visiting a park

Eating out

Visiting an exhibition/concert

Visiting a National Trust property

Playing bingo

Visiting a museum

Going to a gig/live music

Going to the theatre

Going to the cinema

Maybe that’s why they have more money to go on holiday with!

When it comes to activities and day trips that people are likely to do at any point this year, the top 3 activities are: • Eating out – 64% • Visiting a park – 49% • Going to the cinema – 48% So it’s good to see we still like being out and about, regardless of if we’re on holiday…and we also like eating out, a lot!

Again, when looking at the findings by gender and age we get some interesting, and this time surprising, results: • Women are a lot more sociable than men; with 34% enjoying the theatre, compared to 28% of men; 33% enjoy going to gigs/live music, compared to 28% of men and 24% enjoy going to amusements parks, compared to just 18% of men

Tom Kiralfy Panel Manager TLF Panel tom@tlfpanel.com

• Where men DO enjoy going out is to any kind of sporting event, with 27% enjoying this, compared to only 11% of women.

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 29

INSIDE TLF

“What’s it like to work at a customer research agency?”

We’d be lying if we said we were asked that a lot, but in case anyone was wondering we’ve decided to open up the doors and reveal what life is like inside TLF in a new occasional series of articles. Wipe your feet on the way in.

You might think the researchers at TLF Research are pretty “left brain”, and they’re certainly comfortable with the numbers, but Chloe likes to stretch her right brain muscles with creative writing and is Vice President of the Huddersfield Author’s Circle. We asked her to come up with something for Customer Insight, and she sent us these acrostics, a form of poetry in which the first letter of each line spells a word.

D A T A

aring in its simplicity -

ttention is demanded.

otal confidence in figures -

ctions change.

Chloe Dyson Research Analyst TLF Research chloedyson@leadershipfactor.com

R E S E A R C H E R

elations with numbers is complex -

xternal clients requesting -

earching -

xamining.

nalysis -

eaching into numbers -

ombining data -

oning in to -

nsure that -

esults are achieved.

30 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

I N S I G H T

n time we seek the answers and how often they seem so close eeding data wizards, research rockers, magic managers to turn tressful scenarios, stuffy boardrooms nto information busting, productive spaces. athering from numbers, profiles, views, ratings, sketches ow, what, where, when, why? easing out, turning figures, into meaning.

Consumer Insight The data for the Staycation versus Vacation article came from TLF’s panel.

The TLF Panel offers you an easy way to access the views and opinions of UK consumers. It’s a flexible research solution with a range of uses, including: Insight into consumer behaviour, attitudes and usage Facts and figures for compelling content and PR stories Brand awareness and competitor surveys Testing advertising and product concepts Recruitment for focus groups and interviews

60,000 UK consumers

Fast turnaround 2,000 responses within 48hrs

Range of question types Including open comment and media

Targeted surveys We can find the people you need

In depth reporting and analysis Demographic splits as standard

Want to try us out?

We’ll give you 2 free questions (worth £375) – email tom@tlfpanel.com for details Visit tlfpanel.com

BOOK REVIEW

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

By Nick Mehta, Dan Steinman, & Lincoln Murphy “Customer success” is a bit of a buzzword,

shifting power of customers in many markets

but it can be quite hard to pin down exactly

is something that Harvard Business School

what it means and how it differs from

was discussing in the late 90s. It’s the reason

existing concepts like customer satisfaction,

customer lifetime value is such an important

customer service, or customer focus. How

concept, and it’s the foundation of the loyalty

should we define it, and does it have anything

strategy which Customer Insight believes is

new to bring to the party?

the best way to build sustainable businesses.

This book claims to be the first to

What we’re seeing now is that some key

introduce customer success to business

technology and social trends are converging

leaders. Just like the concept of customer

to make it more important than ever to

success itself, its roots are firmly in the world

focus on customers first. The growth of the

of software as a service (or SaaS). From there

cloud and the trend toward access rather

it has spread to subscription models more

than ownership make it easier than ever for

generally, and is beginning to gain traction in

disruptors to turn markets on their head.

businesses of all sorts.

Businesses, understandably, are getting

What is it that makes customer success different? The authors argue that the defining feature is that it is geared around helping

nervous…and that’s no bad thing from a customer point of view.

Customer success means orienting

customers to succeed, making it easy for

businesses to anticipate customer needs, meet

them to get what they need, and anticipating

them as easily as possible, and work from the

those needs as much as possible rather than

basis that helping customers get things done

just reacting to them.

is what defines quality and efficiency rather

This is driven in SaaS models by the

than any internal measure. That’s certainly

understanding that the power balance has

distinct from an old-fashioned, reactive, view

shifted compared to traditional software

of customer service; but I think it is treading

models. Where customers had been used to

ground that is already well served by design

high upfront costs and relatively low ongoing

thinking. In reality, customer success is all

costs, meaning that switching is difficult and

about design, specifically designing products

expensive, the steady ongoing cost of SaaS

and experiences that work well enough that

makes it much easier for customers to switch

customers have no reason to consider an

if they think someone else can meet their

alternative.

needs more effectively.

It’s hardly a new concept. The relationship

The perspective that it brings, and the case that this book seems to be making, is

between attitudinal and behavioural loyalty,

that customer experience needs to be seen

the fragility of switching barriers, and the

as a hard metric, not a soft one. It’s not

32 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

BOOK REVIEW

something you do alongside your product, to fix things when they go wrong, it is your product. You can’t rely on personal relationships to keep customers loyal, you’ve got to make your experience inherently sticky.

The importance of this message for businesses not yet in the subscription model world is as a warning. Disruption comes, sooner or later, to all industries. If you’re relying on inertia or switching barriers to keep customers, then you have a shock coming. What that means, in simple terms, is that attitudinal loyalty (whether customers like you) is more important than behavioural loyalty (whether they keep buying from you), not less.

Would we recommend this book?

Perhaps, if you’re under pressure to adopt customer success as a philosophy, or if you want a quick grounding in the concept.

From a customer strategy point of view, frankly, we found it to be a little “smokeand-mirrors”. There’s nothing new here if you’re familiar with the ideas of customer lifetime value and design thinking, and there are better books that cover those subjects with much more depth and much less business speak.

The jacket blurb promises “Customer Success is the first-of-its-kind resource for business leaders who need best-in-class guidance for developing a recurring revenue business.” If you like the sound of that, then this is definitely the book for you.

www.tlfresearch.com | Summer 2019 Customer Insight 33

HOW HARD CAN IT BE?

SELF-SERVICE TILL RAGE Is it the new road rage? I’m sure if I logged

towards the suppliers that offer the best trade-

rage episodes per hour self-service till rage would

off between total benefits and total costs. These

out-distance road rage by some margin. Just last

suppliers gain market share whilst companies

week I was in the M&S on Sheffield station getting

offering an inferior cost-benefit trade-off lose

myself some food for the train. Until recently there

share. Price is often the main factor on the cost

were 3 normal checkouts, with 2 of them usually

axis but don’t under-estimate the importance of

manned, and 3 self-service checkouts. Now there is

convenience.

1 normal checkout, seemingly un-manned unless a

For a recent article in Grocer Magazine about

customer demands it, and 6 self-service checkouts.

self-service till rage, an M&S spokesman denied

As I approached the totally staff-free check-out

the tills had been a cause of checkout rage and

area I could see an elderly lady standing staring at

said the self-service units have been welcomed

a self-service till. As you know, in the land of the

by customers. “Our customers currently make over

blind, the one-eyed man is king, so I explained

600,000 transactions a week using these tills,” he said.

to the lady how to scan her 1 item, went through

“Wherever there are self-service tills present, customers

the payment process as though I’d been doing it

always have the option of using a manned till point.”

all my life and felt quite good about myself. Until,

Not at Sheffield station in my experience!

that is, I came to scan my 2 items. Needless to say,

As a catalyst of self-service till rage, there is

the second one wouldn’t scan. After gesticulating

something even stronger than bar codes that don’t

furiously for some time a rare breed, M&S probably

scan – supplier hypocrisy. The company PR about

call them “colleagues” these days, came and made

self-service tills is always that they are installed to

it scan, after several attempts.

benefit customers, never to reduce the cost base of

All of this took me, the customer, much more

the retailer. Even worse are the growing numbers

time than it used to when queueing a little before

of cameras. Sainsbury’s customers have apparently

being served very swiftly at a manned till. Plus the

been complaining on social media about “creepy”

irritation factor. Previously none; now, sometimes,

CCTV screens being placed above self-service

quite a lot. Back in 1994, Bradley T Gale

checkouts at hundreds of the company’s stores. The

wrote ‘Managing Customer Value’.

screens show people a live feed of themselves as

We wrote about his concept of relative

they pay for their produce. After asking Sainsbury’s

perceived value in February 2010. You can find the article here: https://www.tlfresearch.com/

about the cameras, one customer was told they were to help “facilitate a better customer journey”, adding “The safety of our customers and colleagues

co-creation-part-2-value-

is really important to us so we have invested in a

through-choice

range of measures to keep everyone safe, and this is

I think his value map idea is probably the best analytical technique not to have been widely adopted by the customer insight

essentially an example of that,” she said.

When asked how the move would benefit customer safety, Sainsbury’s said it could “not go into specifics”. I bet they couldn’t!

industry, but it took customer journey mapping about 30 years to gain traction so there’s still time yet! In a very small nutshell, Gale plots all the benefits of doing business with a given supplier versus

Nigel Hill

all the costs. As well as the price I paid

Chairman

for the goods, my costs in M&S included

TLF Research

time, convenience and stress. Gale’s very perceptive thesis is that customers gravitate

34 Customer Insight Summer 2019 | www.tlfresearch.com

Customer Insight Magazine is created and published in house by TLF Research.

The magazine is our way of sharing features and latest thinking on creating an outstanding customer experience. We hope you enjoy reading the magazine as much as we enjoy creating it.

If you’ve got an interesting customer experience story to tell and would like to feature in the magazine, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact our editor Stephen Hampshire for more information.

Email Stephen at stephenhampshire@leadershipfactor.com or give him a call on 01484 467014

ABOUT TLF RESEARCH We are a full service customer research agency. Specialists in customer insight, we help our clients understand and improve their customer experience.

Get in touch to find out more about what we do.

Visit us online at tlfresearch.com or call 01484 517575

WEBINARS All webinars are free Please book online at least 4 hours before the webinar is due to start All webinars are 30 minutes including questions and answers

BEST PRACTICE PANEL RESEARCH

SEMIOTICS & CX 10th July 2019 11.00am – 11.30am

Semiotics is a technique that helps you to make sense of the way meaning is created. We believe that taking a semiotic view of the customer experience can be enormously valuable, and considering whether the whole customer experience is aligned can open up new ways to differentiate your business from competitors. In this webinar we give a quick introduction to the field of semiotics, and then explain how it can be used to make sense of details in the customer experience. Thinking about all the messages we’re sending to customers and how they may be received, will make a big impact to how customers feel and how well the journey works for them.

RELATIONSHIP & EVENT DRIVEN RESEARCH

11th July 2019 11.00am – 11.30am

7th August 2019 - 11:00-11:30am

Panel research can be an effective way to access the views and opinions of consumers. Used correctly, it’s a flexible research solution with a range of uses.

Whether you’re looking for fast facts and figures or regularly tracking consumer behaviour, usage and attitudes (U&A), panel research could be the perfect option.

In this webinar we discuss best practice, the potential pitfalls and a range of approaches for getting the most out of panel research.

Relationship and event driven surveys are both vital tools in customer research.

Organisations often make the mistake of committing to one or the other, or attempt the bad compromise of doing both in a single survey. A well designed research programme, including a mix of both survey types, gives more actionability at an event level and richer behavioural insights at a relationship level. In this webinar we look at the pros and cons of each survey type, when to use them, and how to blend them together into an effective customer insight programme.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT MEASUREMENT

TRENDS IN CX

17th September 2019 - 11:00-11:30am

17th September 2019 - 11:00-11:30am

Happy and engaged employees care about their work and your company; they have an emotional commitment to your business and your goals. In order to build engagement and happiness you need to understand how employees feel and why. Well-designed employee engagement research can generate the insight required for building a better culture and productive working environment. In this webinar we discuss planning and running an engagement survey, from questionnaire design to sharing the findings and taking action. We aim to give an overview of the process from start to finish, pointing out the pitfalls on the way to ensure you make the most of the process. As well as managing the survey we will also provide advice on how to manage confidentiality to protect employees and encourage honest feedback.

Customer experience is always evolving and this webinar puts the spotlight on the trends in customer experience we can expect to see more of. Stephen Hampshire looks back on 2019 so far and ahead to what 2020 has in store for the world of CX. He’ll discuss a range of trends, including increasing customer expectations, organisational structures reflecting customer journeys, the digitalisation of experiences and the role of human interaction. The webinar will also touch upon an organisations’ desire to collect and use more data in designing customer experiences, and how an organisation’s approach to data management and transparency may become a service differentiator.

GUIDE TO A SUCCESSFUL SURVEY

SIGN UP TODAY

27th September 2019 - 11:00-11:30am

Rachel Allen will share her 11 years’ experience of running CSat projects across all sectors to provide a clear guide of what to avoid and what to have in place for running a successful survey. From how to sense check your sample to tips for creating impact with results. Don’t kick off your customer project without listening.

All webinars are free www.tlfresearch.com

Book online at tlfresearch.com