Voices: the CMB Blog

As an everyday user of the criminally addictive social networking site Facebook, I rolled my eyes when I saw the new “Timeline” design. Why fix something if it’s not broken? Didn’t I just get used to the most recent interface?  While I sat absorbing all the new features, Facebook was busy launching a revelatory tool for marketers.

Previously, the popularity of a business’ Facebook page was driven by the number of “likes” and “comments.” Businesses could hide behind the “like” button.  Now, marketers are forced to tell a story about their brand (and if you know anything about CMB, we LOVE to tell a story). Customer engagement is now driven by a personal connection developed through captivating storytelling as opposed to an unimpassioned click of a button. Users can follow their favorite brands from conception to the present through the Timeline layout.

With the new layout, fans and visitors now see the same landing page. Everyone is privy to the same content, and it must be appealing enough to convert the “lurkers” into “likers.” Marketers need to achieve this through good storytelling, and Facebook has developed several new tools on the Timeline that allow users to make their stories unique.

New features like pinning and starring posts allow developers to anchor their most important posts at the top of their page for seven days. This ensures that the best stories don’t get lost in daily posts. Videos and pictures are now amplified on the pages, helping drive deeper engagement by existing fans, and piquing interest in potential ones. Milestones can now be defined by the business and posted publicly when they are achieved; allowing companies to share their successes with the people who helped get them there.

The most controversial of the new additions, is the ability to privately message people. This tool is being viewed as a way to individually engage with fans, and allow for quicker and more personal responses. However, companies should proceed with caution in using this feature. Bombarding their fans with an abundance of messages is a surefire way to turn off their support base. This tool should be used to help foster, and not strain, the relationships between businesses and their consumers.

A common driver of the old Facebook interface was quantity of content. The new Facebook Timeline pushes the focus to quality. Developers are encouraged to optimize the content they have in order to engage fans by telling their story during their fans’ “peak” usage periods and pinning popular posts. 

As professional story-tellers, we are excited here at CMB to launch our Timeline here

Posted by Keri Ibbitson. Keri is an Associate Researcher with the Travel and Entertainment team. When not writing about the complexities of Facebook, you can find her watching the Bruins, wrapped up in an Intervention marathon, or dreaming of going back to London.  

On Sunday, The New York Times Magazine published a piece: How Companies Learn Your Secrets, by Charles Duhigg, author of the forthcoming The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.  It’s an interesting article, especially for market researchers, and I recommend everyone take the time to read it.

Consumer "habits” are a big focus of the work we (market researchers) do as we seek to understand consumer behavior. From the perspective of the article, a large part of what we do is identify behavioral habits to help marketers find ways to insert their product or service into people's habit processes. 

In this blog, I want to focus on the insights the story shared about predictive analytics. Much of Duhigg's article looks at how Target conducts advanced analytics to identify data within their CRM system to predict whether a shopper is expecting a baby.  From a business process POV, and how we think about using predictive analytics, it’s important to point out a few relevant facts for market researchers:

1. It wasn’t a “fishing expedition”: The analysis started with a clear marketing benefit as the outcome – Target wanted to begin promoting itself to expectant mothers before the baby is born. As the article points out, by marketing to these families before the baby becomes public knowledge, Target can get beat the flood of marketers that begin pitching a range of products and services once the birth is entered into public record.  It was the marketing team that came to the analyst with a high-value opportunity.  The analyst did not create the winning marketing idea (“Hey! Let’s market to expectant mothers before the baby is born!”).  Instead, the analyst looked under every stone and in every corner of the data to find the key to unlock the opportunity.

2. The research didn’t stop with finding the key: The application of these insights required a lot more research to determine the best method of implementing the campaign.  For instance, Target ran several test campaigns to identify the best offers to send to the expectant mothers, and cycled through several messages to find just the right one in order to avoid revealing that Target was prying into the data.  Although the predictive analytics found the key, Target still relied on a comprehensive plan to make sure the findings were used in the best possible manner.

3. Don’t let this story increase your expectations: The Target approach has had a big impact on how the company markets to a highly valuable segment of shoppers.  It's a great success story, but it's also something that happened ten years ago.  While I’m sure the Guest Market Analytics team achieves many victories along the way, they also spent a lot of time reaching “dead-ends,” unable to find that magic key.  And most of the time, the predictive solution yields valuable but incremental gains, these high-profile stories are few and far between.

The article shares many interesting ideas and insights; the story about the re-positioning of Febreze highlights another great research success. I'm looking forward to reading Duhigg's book, and if it covers more of these thought provoking business cases, I expect we will be seeing Charles Duhigg’s name popping up in other discussions on market research.

Did you read the article? What do you think?

Did you miss our latest Webinar? Learn how Aflac Unleashed the Power of Discrete Choice, Positioning their Brand for the Future 

Posted by Jeff McKenna, Jeff is a Senior Consultant at CMB, and the creator and host of our Tools and Techniques Webinar Series.

Last week I blogged about the positive intentions of consumers who take the time to participate in customer feedback surveys.  One of the more disappointing findings is that most companies fail to respond when customers give poor scores or negative feedback.  On this point, we asked respondents to recall the last time they provided negative feedback or a complaint in a customer satisfaction interview, and whether a company provided a response.  A majority say they did not receive any response—just 35% recall any type of response from the company.

This was quite a surprise.  Companies are investing tens of thousands of dollars in their customer feedback programs, but many are missing the point.  When customers complain it’s because they feel disappointed or disrespected, treating them like an anonymous statistic is another kind of service failure. How do you teach a company or brand to mind their P’s and Q’s? Maybe we need an Emily Post for corporations!

When you think about it, customers who take the time to respond to a customer satisfaction interview have given time and effort to provide information that should be valuable to the company.  Those who’ve had a bad experience could easily turn and walk away.  Instead they respond to a request for feedback.  Whether it’s a complaint about a service failure, a suggestion, or even a review of a positive experience, companies need to let customers know they’re being heard.

And yet the majority of companies are turning their back on these people!

The thing is, technology makes it easy to manage and respond to feedback; and most people don’t expect much.  In fact, confirmation and a commitment to improve will go a long way to show appreciation.  And of course, a simple “thank you” can’t hurt.

Download the full report: Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Open the Door to Customer Engagement

Posted by Jeff McKenna, Jeff is a Senior Consultant at CMB, and the creator and host of our Tools and Techniques Webinar Series.

As CMB has grown and expanded our customer satisfaction measurement practice, we’ve invested considerable time and resources into conducting research on research, to make better decisions about managing these programs.  In addition to direct feedback from clients, we conducted a study among managers at medium and large businesses who rely directly on customer satisfaction measurement for decision-making.  The findings point to many opportunities to improve the overall usefulness of these programs.

Our next step has been to look at customer satisfaction research from the consumers’ point of view – i.e. the respondents who complete the surveys at the bottom of their receipts or that come into their inbox. What we found might surprise you…

We’re gaining deeper insights about the nature of people who respond, their frequency, and the reasons for responding to the requests. For instance, most people respond to share details of both positive and negative experiences; just 8 percent say they respond only when they have had a bad experience.  What this tells us is that people voicing their opinion in customer satisfaction are NOT more inclined to be negative.  In fact, most people respond with good intentions to help the company improve or maintain good service/products. 

Here are a few other facts worth sharing:

Many customers give feedback as part of their “job” as customers—50% say they give feedback to improve the company. Tweet this

57% of customer satisfaction survey takers say they do it to give positive feedback. Tweet this

Only 28% of customer satisfaction survey takers do it to win a prize or get a reward. Tweet this

Download the full report here. 

Next week we’ll talk about why and how companies need to respond to the feedback.

Posted by Jeff McKenna, Jeff is a Senior Consultant at CMB, and the creator and host of our Tools and Techniques Webinar Series.

I started my career in sales.  In sales, you very quickly learn that it is much easier to sell to an existing - rather than a new - customer.  The fact that existing customers are valuable isn’t a tough concept to grasp. Customer loyalty researchers report that, on average, companies lose about 50% of their customers each year, that it costs 20x more to do business with a new than existing customer, and a minimal reduction in customer defection rates can significantly boost profits. 

So, can someone please explain why so many companies are making headlines for initiating new fees or penalties that seem designed to aggravate their customers?  I’m sure at least some of these stories caught your eye…

• In July, Netflix unbundled their DVD rental and streaming plan, effectively forcing customers to pay $6 more for the combo plan they had grown accustomed to. Then, in September, Netflix CEO announced that DVD rentals and streaming would become two totally separate services. The streaming service would retain the name "Netflix," while the DVD branch would be called "Qwikster." Reactions were predictably negative, and on October 10, before Qwikster had even launched, Netflix ended the failed experiment.

• Throughout the year, one after another of the major airlines (with the exception of Southwest and JetBlue) raised fees on checked baggage.  Fliers hate baggage fees and the long lines at airport security screening are made worse by passengers carrying on more bags.  The TSA estimates that the number of carry-on bags has increased by 87 million since 2009.

• On December 30th, after a customer ‘uproar,’ Verizon Wireless decided it will not institute a $2 convenience fee for online or telephone single payments, 24 hours after it was announced.

Even my favorite hotel company recently hit me with a $50 change fee for a mistake I made on the dates of a business trip.  I was coming to the hotel for goodness sake – just not on those dates!!! Ugh. 

I understand that companies need to make money; and changing regulations and technology can affect a corporation’s ability to deliver profit.  But in the spirit of the Occupy movement, someone needs to be watching out for the customer!

From a recent CMB Consumer Pulse – 44% of respondents report feelings of loyalty to 10 or more companies they do business with – another third to 5-9 companies.  In addition, we learned that two-thirds enjoy it when a company thanks them for their loyalty… and one-in three expects a company to thank them….boy they must be disappointed when instead of a thank you, they get hit with new fees and charges!

CMO.com recently listed the 10 things CEOs need from their CMOs  …drumroll please… #3 on the list is A Customer Whisperer…someone who can tell them what customers in the future, will want.  And #9 is A Customer Advocate… someone who can be the voice of the customer in the executive suite. Someone, who, in the face of pressure from finance or legal, will fight to ensure sufficient consideration is paid to the needs and interests of customers.  Marketers should seek to uphold our own version of the Hippocratic oath:  "first, do no harm to our customers."

So, what’s a brand manager or CMO to do? 

The problem probably isn’t that you don’t have enough data-the problem, instead, may be that you have too much information!  Or maybe the information isn’t being delivered to you in a way that makes it easy to find insights or support for your decisions.  If you work for a company like most, a significant portion of your research budget is dedicated to a customer feedback, performance, or satisfaction program. Are you getting the return (in insight) you are making for the investment you’re making?  Maybe it’s time to revitalize the program to enhance your role as customer whisperer and advocate! 

Here’s what we believe you should be getting from your program:   

• Direction for product/service investment decisions:  If you had $20 million to spend, where should you invest?  Where would you get the biggest bang for the buck?  Upgrading something customers see as a “table-stake”…. Or enhancing a service that is a “customer delighter?”  

• Identification of deal-breakers:  What interactions/events/problems cause customers to run away to your competitors? 

• Insight into the needs of key segments:  How loyal are key segments (Next Gen customers, Gen X/Gen Y, repeat customers) to you?  What percent of their wallet are you attracting? 

• Direction for operations improvements:  How well are you performing on the key drivers?  How does that compare to what guests get from competitors?  Which locations are excelling – and what is it that they are doing?  Which locations are lagging – and what can they do better?

• Brand-operation alignment: How well does the customer experience match what you promise?  (remember the ‘fly the friendly skies’ ad of a major carrier?)  What’s causing disconnects?  

• Competitive intelligence:  Who/Where are you leading?  Where are you lagging? 

• The voice of the customer:  Verbatim comments about what it’s like to buy from you. 

While an effective CSM program won’t answer all the questions the organization might throw your way, our clients find themselves better prepared to advocate for their customers, support investment decisions of brand or line managers, focus on areas of importance to key customers-to provide insight to reduce risk around your business decisions.  Customer performance measurement is a tool that you should have in your kit to help you engage and retain your customers.  Maybe it’s time to "sharpen the tool!"

For more on getting the most from customer feedback, download our Consumer Pulse on Customer Satisfaction Programs

Posted by Judy Melanson. Judy leads the Travel & Entertainment practice and loves collaborating with clients on driving customer loyalty.  She's the mom of two teens and the wife of an oyster farmer. Follow Judy on Twitter at @Judy_LC