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
50
LY
N O
VA T)
(E X
£2
CUSTOMER
INSIGHT CONFERENCE WEDNESDAY 6 TH NOVEMBER 2019 etc Venues Westminster Bridge. County Hall, Belvedere Road, London. SE1 7PB
KEYN
OTE
CHR DAF IS FY SPEA
KER
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
06
CONTRIBUTORS
13
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S U M M E R
2 0 1 9
16
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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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