How to Wave Goodbye to Survey Fatigue: A Guide to Boosting Response Rates
How many times this week have you been invited to provide feedback by a company from which you’ve recently purchased? There have been a few, haven’t there? I’ve had one about buying shoes. Another about why I didn’t buy tickets to an event. And one that was so badly rendered on my mobile that I honestly don’t know what it was about. Survey fatigue is a nightmare for Market Researchers and Customer Insights professionals alike. And it’s a Catch-22. We need feedback to make better business decisions – but the more we ask, the less we get. What can you do? Well, first things first – do you really need to send a survey? You hold most customer data than you think, so see if you can glean the insights you need without resorting to another survey. If you definitely need to send another questionnaire out into the world, here…
Guiding The Customer Journey: The Influence of Preferences, Curation and Relevance
My husband and I are very different shoppers. Whether in a big box store or looking at new cars, he wants his phone to be his digital assistant while I’m scanning for an available salesperson. He avoids ‘the approach’ of a human, preferring to compare products or check prices on the brand’s mobile site or app. He studies up on what he needs in the physical location. He wants to be left alone, until he doesn’t want to be left alone … and then he wants help right away. I’m the opposite. I prefer to be greeted up front. I like it when someone is there at The Home Depot entrance asking what I need help with today and directing me to the right aisle. If an associate is not available, I’m the customer dialing the toll-free number before menu-hopping across the mobile website to look for store FAQs which may or may not…
Mastering Data Management for Better Personalization
If you’re pursuing personalization as part of your marketing strategy, you’ll know how important data is to the end result. After all, it’s hard to give each customer a tailored experience if you don’t know who they are, how they shop or what they’re trying to achieve. But knowing that data matters is only the first step on the path to personalized CX. It’s how you manage that data that determines whether you find success. So how do you make sure you’re managing data in the right way? It comes down to having the right data and being able to use it at any touchpoint. Sound simple? Actually, it is – so long as you have the right strategy and the right technology behind it. Planning For Personalization Before you do anything else, define what a personalized customer experience should look like in the context of your business. You probably…
Increasing Sales With Personalized Marketing
In today’s “show me you know me” marketing world, it’s imperative that brands understand and engage their shoppers on a personal level with personalized marketing. Obviously, that’s easier said than done. Dads still get emails about lipstick. Moms still get offers for men’s shaving cream. These are examples of marketing plans from companies that ignore the diversity of their client base and the behaviors behind purchases. One-size-fits-all marketing is, unfortunately, all too common. Through careful data analysis and the use of a personalized marketing platform, companies can unearth consumers who are passionate brand advocates and weed out those who only respond to the discounts. More importantly, personalized marketing platforms help brands integrate data across a retailer’s systems by matching social media profiles to the point-of-sale system (POS) and e-commerce sites. Integrating these data points help companies develop granular insight that improves marketing efforts by personalizing communications. Research shows that 80% of…
Using the Science of Habits to Create a Successful Loyalty Program
There are many theories as to why some loyalty programs succeed while others either fail or exist on autopilot without generating ongoing customer engagement. The science behind habitual consumer behavior offers insights that loyalty marketers should leverage when designing and implementing loyalty programs. Successful Loyalty Programs Drive Habit Formation Creating a successful loyalty program isn’t just about offering members cool perks and rewards. It’s about tapping into the behavioral cues, routines, and rewards that will create a habit to drive repeat purchases over and over again. Amazon Prime is a notable example. With two-day shipping and free returns, Amazon is daring shoppers to make their purchases elsewhere. A habit has been formed to check Amazon first and, as a result, businesses across industries are searching for ways to compete with shoppers who price-compare in-store. How did this habit form? To start, we must understand that humans are innately lazy and our brains…
The Value of Loyalty for Telecoms Brands
The Loyalty Challenge Customer retention is a challenge for all industries, but churn rates are particularly high in the telecommunications industry, averaging between 10 and 67% annually. For example, it is estimated that 75% of the 17 to 20 million subscribers signing up with a new wireless carrier every year are coming from another wireless provider. Loyalty is extremely difficult for telecommunications brands to attain, especially due to the lack of differentiation in the product and service offerings. We spoke with Chris Sullivan, who has experience managing telecommunications clients at Lenati, a marketing and sales strategy consulting firm, about why this is the case and he told us, “In recent years, there’s been a massive shift in the telecommunications industry. With T-Mobile’s “Uncarrier” moves, it removed long term contracts that led to dependable, recurring income for the major providers (amongst other changes.)” Successful loyalty programs provide telecommunications brands with the ability to differentiate from…
Three Mistakes Programs Make Using Bonus Points (And, How To Fix Them)
Bonus Points: Three Common Program Mistakes Loyalty strategists know that bonus point opportunities can be a great way to drive traffic, lift frequency, improve basket size, or celebrate key relationship-building milestones. As Brierley + Partners evaluates loyalty programs or consults with prospective clients, we see loyalty programs tend to make one of three common mistakes in their eagerness to deliver value for their Members and ‘move the needle’ on sales for their companies. The three mistakes or misuses of bonus point events are: Misaligned Goals to Structure, Messaging Missed Opportunities, and Overuse. So, let’s break down each of these mistakes and talk about remedies. Misaligned Goals To Structure The first misstep Brierley sees most often with loyalty programs is the misalignment of goals to how the bonus offer is ‘structured.’ Let me give you an example: Company X decided to run a 2X Points Bonus for Members during a traditionally…