Voices: the CMB Blog

Just as the news of Wegmans opening its first store in New England starts to settle, the excitement is ramping up all over again for a new “urban concept” store opening in Newton, MA. Since my husband first heard Wegmans was coming to MA he has been really looking forward to shopping there, I mean REALLY looking forward to shopping there. He even still has his shoppers club card from college (which was quite a few years ago I might add).  And John is not alone in his love for Wegmans. I don’t think I have ever seen so many people so passionate about a grocery store. You could almost compare it to the opening of an Apple store in the retail space. In fact, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald wrote about the supersized crowds who lined up at the crack of dawn to the new Northborough store. As a marketer, it’s the kind of customer passion we all dream about.

Of course I had to go see for myself; and I do think it’s one of those things you need to experience to “get it.” As simple as it seems, it is a very pleasant shopping experience. I find myself slowing down there and dare I say even enjoying my shopping experience. From the gas fire place in the food court to their extremely helpful and friendly employees; Wegmans has the secret sauce in making their experience different:

Three key ingredients to Wegmans Secret Sauce

2 Cups of Engaged Employees: When I shopped in the new Northborough store it was hard not to notice how outgoing and friendly the staff was. It was clear to me Wegmans must invest a lot in making their employees happy. A happy and engaged employee makes such a huge impression.  It was written on the smiles on their faces. When I was doing a little research for this post I was not surprised to find Wegmans has consistently won CNN/Money’s Best Places work.

1 Cup of Senior Staff: Maybe this was because I was new, but I also noticed the store had a lot of senior staff ready to help if anyone (more junior employees or customers) had a question. They led by example by also being extremely friendly and asking me about my shopping experience.

1 Cup of a Great Shopping Experience: All of this contributes to an all-around better and more pleasant shopping experience. I admit I thought the customers waiting in line on opening day were a bit crazy, but after shopping there I can see what the fuss is about. I don’t think I will be waiting in line at the opening of the Newton store, but I would drive out of my way to shop there.  For me it just feels better shopping there. The quality of their products, the cleanliness and brightness of the store and that food court of fresh prepared food is amazing, but above all I feel better shopping at a store where the employees enjoy working.

The funny thing is my Wegmans experience reminds me a lot of CMB. We know our clients have lots of choices of where to shop for their research and we truly appreciate when the choose us. Often after that experience it becomes clear that the experience of working with CMB makes us different.  I think we share the same recipe for the “Secret Sauce.”

For more on the power of the customer experience and  customer satisfaction, read T.J. Andre and Jeff McKenna's take on customer satisfaction in their article Not Very Satisfying in Quirks.

Posted by Kristen Garvey. Kristen is CMB's VP of Marketing, a mom of two and she will be heading to Wegmans to get her food and wine for the holidays. BTW if she’s not back by 5 you may find her by the gas fireplace enjoying a cup of coffee and a few minutes to decompress from the holiday rush.

On a recent 5-hour drive with my son Pete, his iPhone’s GPS-app suddenly started “cha-chinging” up points.  He didn’t know why the points were rolling in, nor did he have any idea how – or for what – or if he would ever redeem these points, but we both agreed:  “Points are good.”   

Nearly everyone, not just Pete and me, is hardwired to enjoy games.  "Gamification," the use of game mechanics in nongame settings, takes advantage of our psychological predisposition to enjoy games, and encourages people to engage in tasks that, but for the game, they might not feel compelled to do.  Traditional customer loyalty programs leverage game mechanics:  we earn points, achieve status/levels, display badges of honors and chase bonus points.  And, clearly, these mechanics help to increase consumers’ motivations and positively shape their behavior, leading to positive revenue impact for the associated brands.

Lately it seems that game concepts are cropping up in more – and some unexpected - places.  Part of the reason for the recent popularity is the growth in social media, a channel that was born to be gamified.  Twitter has been game-like from the beginning, with the main score being the number of followers.  Foursquare, with its hundreds of badges to win, is basically a game….it isn’t used, it’s played. 

But after reading about social loyalty programs, where members earn reward points for promoting brands on social networks, I’m wondering if marketers are taking things a bit too far.  Does rewarding customers for forwarding a brand-related tweet water down the strength of true loyalty?

If this term is new to you, let me tell you what I’ve been seeing:  Social loyalty programs are promoted as taking the concept of traditional loyalty programs to the next level by enabling companies to track and reward their fans, followers and customers for a wide variety of online and social activities -- from tweeting a message to checking in to a location or liking a post on Facebook.  Companies like CrowdTwist, a New York start-up (that recently received $6 million in venture funding) tracks and rewards customer behavior across social, mobile and online platforms. 

Maybe social loyalty programs are the future – but before building a social loyalty and/or changing your current loyalty program, I’d suggest you consider these questions: 

• Where’s the beef?  Traditional loyalty programs are built on the principle of rewarding customers for behavior of value.  The programs we work with can articulate the value of their members and of their program—the incremental sales, flights, stays, or bookings that they may not have generated otherwise.  What economic value will a social loyalty program provide to a brand?  What behaviors will you look to encourage?  Will a program encouraging social behaviors deliver desired outcomes?  The value of the activities must be calculated – in terms that the CFO will understand and believe. 

• What other (non-economic) value can a socially loyal member provide? What benefit to your brand is more fans or higher klout?  Can your increased social-WOM, be connected to increased sales?  Or insulate your brand from negative reviews?  The CFO might have a harder time articulating the value of these activities – but they’re important to consider.

• Finally, to whom would a social loyalty program appeal?  Segmentation research we ran a few years ago found that in a traditional loyalty program, the portion of members whose primary motivation was to “play the game” (e.g., seek out bonus points, enter contests) represented a fairly small portion of members.  But these Game Players – or Social Loyalty members - may be a desired demographic with untapped potential for your brand.

So, before spinning the dial, understand your different customer groups and their associated motivations. Explore, for which segments, a social loyalty program would be beneficial in shaping customer behavior to yield positive business results. As with all things “social,” gamification and social loyalty are tools in the toolbox to build customer engagement. Understanding if, when, where and how they fit into your current loyalty programs and strategies is the most exciting part.

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

CMB at TMRE: We would love to see you at The Market Research Event. Be sure to stop by booth 406 to say hi and enter to win a New England Calmbake for two!

Last month, we released our 10 Quick Facts You Should Know About Consumer Behavior on Facebook, and there was a lot of great discussion about how different companies are using the mega-site. The sheer number of Facebook users, all over the world, means brands and companies know they need to engage and they want to know what fans like about their brand (and what they don’t like) and how it impacts their behavior.

But, what about that other social media giant—the place where everyone from hip techies to budding revolutionaries go to speak their minds in 140 characters or less? This week we released a new Consumer Pulse report highlighting 10 Quick Facts You Should Know About Consumer Behavior on Twitter. In collaboration with our friends at Constant Contact, we asked nearly 1,500 Americans over 18 about their Twitter habits, and the results are in. Here are a few of the facts that stood out:

Consumers follow brands on Twitter for exclusivity, promotions and to be “in the know” (tweet this)

While Facebook users are interested in showing off their brand loyalty, brand followers on Twitter like getting the latest news and promotions before anyone else. What is the lesson for brands? Don’t treat your Facebook content like your Twitter content, while the vast majority of Twitter users are also on Facebook, they don’t need warmed over content they’ve already seen, they want to hear about innovations and deals before everyone else.

One-third of brand followers are interacting with brands more this year than last (tweet this)

As Twitter grows, brands have a great, and growing, opportunity to listen to their promoters and detractors, and respond directly. While the majority of brand followers on Twitter do not engage in two-way conversation with brands—brand followers are engaged, the vast majority follow fewer than 10 brands.

75% of consumers have never “un-followed” a brand on Twitter (tweet this)

While “un-following” a brand is as simple as clicking a button, most brand followers are loyal to the brands they follow. This loyalty is no reason not to invest time in your tweets, 67% of brand followers expect unique content from the brands they follow.

Nearly half of consumers on Twitter have been tweeting less than one year (tweet this)

Twitter just celebrated its 5^th birthday but many users are just diving in now. Once, home primarily to early adopters and those in the tech industry, a significant percentage of Twitter users are very new to the platform. And it’s not just the very young. Twitter’s gaining new ground with older folks as well, a quarter of users over 50 reported tweeting less than once month.

In short, consumers expect brand presence on Twitter, and they expect more than just recycled Facebook posts. Twitter is a unique medium with its own rules, language, and etiquette, but the opportunity to listen and interact with consumers in your backyard and around the world is priceless.

Download the full report here.

Posted by Kristen Garvey. Kristen is CMB’s VP of marketing, a mom of two and is getting ready to hit Orlando for The Market Research Event. You can follow Kristen on Twitter @KristenGarvey

Last week, the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit occurred in Glendale Arizona. The Institute for International Research (IIR) hosted the event, and it featured three full days of presentations about measuring customer feedback, operationalizing it, and optimizing programs to maintain business success.  I was fortunate to chair the Action Planning track, so I enjoyed unique one-on-one discussions with the presenters in my track as I prepared to introduce and lead discussion for each of the presentations. 

One of the biggest topics at the conference was social media.  Whether it was the Social Media CRM symposium, which led off with a presentation on “Linking Social Media to Consumer Behavior” by Becky Carroll from Petra Consulting Group, the keynote speech by Jeanne Bliss from CustomerBliss, or the several presentations showing how companies have applied information captured through social media to make decisions, folks are still trying to wrap their arms around it.

My take on it: Most companies are dipping their toes in the “deep pool” of social media, and the continued interest reflects a need to assess their experience relative to other companies.  In the end, market research vendors and clients are looking to establish the process for integrating this new data and communications channel…

Two presentations from Maritz Research stood out in this regard.  Randy Brandt presented findings from recently completed research comparing Consumer Generated Media (CGM) guest ratings for a luxury hotel chain via TripAdvisor to guest ratings with ratings from a traditional direct brand solicitation for that same chain.  The results identified strong differences in data between the two channels.  It’s not a surprise, as the sample of guests providing their input via CGM is a small subset of guests (even smaller than the 15-20% who might typically respond to a brand solicitation) with a different set of motivations for sharing their opinions.  This unique apples-to-apple comparison truly demonstrates the challenges we face – as researchers - when we are asked to bring together two very different evaluation samples.

This fed nicely into the presentation by David Ensing (also from Maritz), who spoke about integrating data from multiple Voice of the Customer sources, including social media.  As David noted, research managers are now dealing with lots of information and trying to make sense of it all; and with research budgets constrained, researchers are looking at (relatively inexpensive) social media information and trying to figure out if it is useful and if so, how it is useful.  We are seeing a shift from solely one-off/ad hoc research studies to a combination of ad hoc with continuous listening, and this may strike researchers as a threat to their role.  However, it shouldn’t be that way.

David summed up his presentation with a clear opportunity for market researchers to take the lead: “We believe that the future of marketing research is not just in collecting customer feedback through surveys, but also in integrating multiple sources of company-controlled information both with each other and with new information streams, such as consumer-generated media.”

Personally, I believe the market researchers who have been successful at applying research outcomes to business decisions will find this skill to be vital in maintaining leadership and effectivenes in this new landscape.  Market researchers really need to think of themselves as people who inform internal clients who strive to make decisions to improve their business.

I find the current mass of data at everyone’s disposal can be daunting and confusing, in large part because the technologies that pull and deliver the data do a great job at just that – pulling and delivering.  Heck, most companies in the data delivery business would consider shock, awe, and confusion from massive data to be a “good thing."  To a point that's true, but they fail to translate and inform. 

This is where market researchers need to take a lead role.  As the stewards of applying research outcomes to business decisions, the skills that allow them to translate and inform will be vital in maintaining a lead role in this new landscape.  Market researchers really need to think of themselves as people who organize and give structure to all data – and then deliver information in a precise manner that informs internal clients who need the information to make business decisions. 

Posted by Jeff McKenna. Jeff is a senior consultant at CMB and a lover of the mid-west, beer, and customer satisfaction data.

You'll also find CMB'ers at The Market Research Event (TMRE). Are you planning on going to TMRE? CMB is an event sponsor and presenter at the conference. Feel free to use the code: TMRE11CMB when you register for a discounted price. We hope to see you there. Learn more about the conference here.

Did you attend the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit? What did you think?

I recently read Mike Albo’s piece in W Magazine about beauty hotlines where operators are standing by to answer questions and deal with “emergencies,” like accidentally using an antiperspirant cream as a hand lotion.  This got me wondering , in a 24/7 online world filled with IMs and chats, are most beauty companies still relying only on 1-800 numbers to answer their customers’ questions and concerns?Curious as to whether beauty companies offered a customer service chat option, I did an impromptu investigation of 10 product websites based on products I have in my bathroom.  Most products are from well-known, deep-pocket companies (e.g. Neutrogena and L'Oreal).  A few were organic-type products produced by smaller companies (like Earth Science Naturals). I was surprised to find none of the product websites I visited offered live chat with a representative.  Not one.  If chat was available, I couldn’t find it anywhere on the sites I looked at, and I searched.  Usually, all I could find were the 1-800 hotlines from the back of the product itself. 

As a marketer I acknowledge there are some definite pluses to beauty hotlines, they are great for building customer relationships. As a market researcher I see other benefits too: the calls are recorded, and companies get the pulse of the customer, potentially driving further research on hot topics.  It's essentially free qualitative research that comes to them.  But the world has changed from a decade ago, customers expect answers now and limiting feedback to phone calls could keep companies from getting the most accurate information. Also, there are a couple of problems with limiting interactions to 1-800 numbers.

• First, these hotlines are usually available during office hours: Monday to Friday 9-5. These are the prime hours counted against cell phone minutes (800 numbers still count as minutes used).  Plus they’re closed nights and weekends, the time that most cell plans offer free calling.  With fewer and fewer people owning landlines; companies must consider that their toll free numbers aren’t free for most.  And hey, people work too!

• Second, if you can’t, or don’t want to call during hotline hours, there’s usually an email option. The rise of IM can make even email feel like a pain in the neck. And sometimes an email answer generates more questions.  Sometimes you need a little back-and-forth to get to the root of your question.  People want reassurance: a real live person to answer questions and hash it out with you until you get the information you need. 

There’s a huge opportunity here folks. I’m talking to you, Bath and Beauty Products Industry.  With the implementation of website chat functionality, just think how much easier data collection could be.  Think how you could be getting more contact with a wider variety of people with a wider variety of questions. Think of the potential increase in customer satisfaction by offering another option for contact, and the chance to drive future strategy.  Think of the “Cool Technology” factor and who might be inclined to use it. 

As both a researcher and a consumer of beauty products, this seems like a no-brainer.  What do you think?

Posted by Jessica McClelland.  Jessica is a senior associate researcher at CMB who does her best thinking and magazine reading while exercising.