fbpx

Category: Gamification

Customer Engagement: 10 Stats and Facts to Improve Your Strategy

Posted on by Neosperience Team

customer_engagement

You don’t need a crystal ball to envision the future of customer engagement: since digital and mobile have taken a major place in our daily life, one of the key elements when it comes to running a successful business is to engage your customers.

Easier said than done. To improve your loyalty strategy, you will need to think beyond old-fashioned CRM and embrace technology to speak the same language your customers speak.

Thanks to the Internet, the smartphone and all sorts of disruptive devices (smartwatch and virtual reality headsets, to name two), the world of business is rapidly shifting from brand-centric outbound marketing to customer-centric inbound marketing. While market logic and engagement dynamics evolve, too many companies still plan and execute their marketing strategies the old way. Missing the real point of digital transformation.

In the Age of the Customer, technology surely can support your efforts to understand your clients (collecting their data) and to connect with them across all touch points of the digital customer journey; this is just one step of the process, though. The only way to reach real engagement is to turn your organization upside down, assume the risk of digital evolution, and account the customer as the main reason you do business in the first place.

WHY WOULD YOU?

To overcome the challenge of evolution is never easy or immediate. It requires a deep change not just in the organizational philosophy but also in the business structure and the human capital (and we all know the importance of employee engagement to determine long term success). It can take time and can be difficult to accomplish.

Why would you do it, then? Pure and simple, because you have no choice. As costly it may be to take this long road, it will always cost you more to be stuck while all others are running. With 6 billions mobile subscribers in the world and 1.2 people accessing the web from their mobile devices, the creation of a strong lasting brand starts with the ability to attract empowered customers and engage them in innovative customer experiences.

In this mobile environment, a good customer engagement strategy will make it easier to:

  • Attract new visitors and prospects;

  • Convert them into leads;

  • Close the path to conversion;

  • Change customers into promoters;

  • Communicate and connect at a personal level;

  • Collect feedback and understand needs and behaviors;

  • Decrease churn and increase customer retention;

  • Create a sense of belonging (brand based on emotions);

  • Ultimately generate more revenues from repeat sales.

STATS AND FACTS

If you don’t believe in the power of loyalty, or maybe you still think that acquisition is more important than retention, here we share - and comment - 10 enlightening stats and facts about customer engagement that will make you think again. Whether you are a retailer, an E-Commerce firm, a financial institution or a fashion & luxury brand, the following numbers will help you shape your future marketing vision.

  1. Customers who are fully engaged represent 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth compared with the average customer (Gallup): sales pass, loyalty stays - potentially - forever.
  2. Only 14% of marketers say customer centricity is ranked high within their organization; only 11% percent say that their customers would say customer centricity is ranked high within their organization (CMO Council): clients know you more than you do. Deal with it!
  3. 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated (McKinsey): the experience is the key factor to differentiate yourself from competitors.
  4. A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10% (Emmet Murphy): loyalty is not just a fancy name, it is a matter of business.
  5. The revenue impact from a 10% improvement in a company’s customer experience score can translate into more than $1 billion (Forrester): customer experience is what will help you stay top of mind and be the first choice in the purchase moment.
  6. 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience, but only 1% of customers feel that vendors consistently meet their expectations (Forbes): a major rule to engage clients and reach satisfaction is to anticipate their needs and constantly exceed their expectations.
  7. In the retail banking industry, customers who are fully engaged bring 37% more annual revenue to their primary bank than do customers who are actively disengaged (Gallup): the experience has become critical for retail banking to attract new prospects and avoid capital outflow.
  8. 52% of companies say Facebook is the most effective social channel for customer engagement, service and support (Social Media Today): social media have a great impact in how you can manage customer relations and deliver personalized contents, mobile-first.
  9. 45% of buyers require person-to-person contact in the buying process (ITSMA/CFO): where technology touches all moments of our life, there comes the importance of increasing the human factor in business.
  10. Customer retention is 14% higher among companies applying big data and analytics to deal velocity (Aberdeen Customer Engagement Report 2014): the spread of mobile devices enables you to gather all sorts of data about customers. Use these numbers to improve customer experience.

Let's close up with a quote by Forbes, that sums up engagement in the mobile era: "Customers are in the driver’s seat now and many businesses that don’t have the technology and systems in place to support an omni-channel customer experience will be forced to take the backseat".

Want to learn how to improve the connection with empowered customers?

Learn The Rules of Engagement For the Mobile Era

If you want to ensure a strategic advantage to your organization, discover Neosperience Engage, the end-to-end mobile marketing solution to help brands engage with customers by delivering personalized experiences to customers close to, or inside the store.

Receive updates from Neosperience:
© 2023 Neosperience SpA | VAT IT02792030989

How Proximity Marketing Changes Retail Customer Experience

Posted on by Neosperience Team

proximity_marketing_customer_experience

Bluetooth, iBeacon and smartphones: what are they doing in the same place? They are disrupting the idea of brick and mortar, shaping the future of retail customer experience. Proximity marketing is the final connection between brands and customers; an effective tool to generate repeat sales, deliver your brand message and drive the (r)evolution of retailers.

The renowned 4 P’s of McCarthy have long been the foundation of the business tool known as marketing mix. Product, Price, Promotion, Place: for decades retailers have responded to changes in market equilibrium relying on these levers of growth. In markets driven by mobile devices, however, the rhythm of innovation is so fast that four 'P's' are not enough. We need the fifth P of marketing, the most critical in the digital era, Proximity.

PROXIMITY WHAT?

Proximity marketing is defined as “the localized wireless distribution of advertising content associated with a particular place” (Wikipedia). Definitions, however, never tell the whole story. Proximity marketing, in fact, can't be reduced to mere advertising purposes (as it’s not confined to the retail industry).

Until recent years, a major marketing effort was aimed at reaching 'not well defined' consumers - broadly divided into target segments - with advertising, mostly one-fits-all content. The idea of a marketing strategy based on proximity was out of reach, due to technological limitations (unless you want to confuse proximity marketing with direct mail, in-store discount leaflets and door to door promotions).

But now you are able to offer personalized content when the customer is close or inside a store, right on his/her smartphone, to encourage specific behaviors, enhance the shopping experience and facilitate the purchase decision. The main objective of this new evolution, then, is to connect with empowered customers that mostly live in a digital world shaped by mobile devices. With this in mind, the idea of proximity - the physical location of a product with respect to the customer - linked to business strategies becomes a huge business opportunity.

PROXIMITY ENGAGEMENT

Proximity marketing is not just one tool; it is a set of technologies and devices that rebuild the way we interact with places and products. At the same time, not all retail innovations are related to proximity (Apple Pay and virtual reality, i.e.). But it’s undeniable that the crucial step into the future of retail customer experience will come from three major elements:

  • iBeacon (Geo-fencing);
  • Push notifications;
  • The Internet of Things.

Despite the fact that it usually takes the center stage in discussions, too many companies still don’t get one important implication of proximity marketing: digital customer experience management requires a change outside AND inside the organization. More often than not, however, internal divisions of retail brands work like they’re complete strangers: some operate the stores and some the digital properties.

Mattel_Neosperience

Few statistics, gathered by JiWire and published by Forbes, explain the value of Proximity Marketing:

  • 53% of customers are willing to share their current location to receive more relevant advertising.

  • 57% of customers are more likely to engage with location-based advertising.

  • 62% of customers share local deals with friends.

  • 63% of customers feel a coupon is the most valuable form of mobile marketing.

These numbers say that smartphones and all mobile devices (Apple Watch, anyone?) already play a huge role in engagement and loyalty programs. What’s not so clear, if anything, is whether the retail businesses are ready to understand the needs and wants of customers and adapt the very nature of the store to the digital environment.

MIND THE GAP

As of now, in fact, there is a deep gap between the omni-channel experience users live daily and the analog purchase experience they face when they enter the physical store. The future of retail customer experience lies in the necessity to close this gap with a mobile & digital bridge, and proximity marketing might be the answer to your prayers.

The 'iBeacon plus push notification' pair is one way to improve, not the remedy against all business problems. If you’re a traditional brick-and-mortar, you need to understand that technology is not an enemy; it’s your only chance to survive in the mobile ecosystem. There are at least four ways proximity marketing will drive retail marketing strategy:

  • Supporting the adoption of a true omni-channel marketing strategy: customers don’t live in just one channel anymore, why would you?;

  • Personalizing the shopping experience, with tailor-cut contents, context aware offers and game dynamics;

  • Improving engagement and customer retention, connecting online and offline into a new level of experience.

If you keep walking at slow pace, while customers and competitors run, you will fail to overcome in one fell swoop the challenge of globalization, E-commerce and digital transformation. Proximity Marketing has tremendous revenue potential, but that’s not all about money: if properly managed, it will allow you to deepen the connection with clients, boost loyalty and ultimately improve the customer experience.

As practical advice: if you want to connect with your customers 
in a whole new way discover Neosperience Engage, the end-to-end mobile marketing solution to turn on smartphones like magic and deliver personalized experiences to customers close to, or inside the store.

Receive updates from Neosperience:

The 7 Deadly Sins of a Bad Customer Experience

Posted on by Neosperience Team

unhappy

Easter is near. It’s time to review all you have done in the past months, to understand if you're close to your goals and what went wrong during the journey. We all know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We’re talking about digital customer experience, of course. Let’s get spiritual, then, and see the 7 deadly sins of a bad customer experience. Have you committed an unpardonable sin?

Deadly sins are not just like all other errors. Commit them and it will be dramatically hard to recover. Metaphors aside, customer experience management is a science governed by laws that you can only ignore at your peril. Do it and you will soon pay the price. One number says it all: 89% of customers have stopped doing business with a company after experiencing a poor experience (Salesforce).

This is even more true in the so-called Age of the Customer, where your brand image is shaped not just by the quality of what you produce or sell, but also - and above all - by the ability to build a compelling experience for your customers. Your digital marketing efforts, therefore, should aim at involving your clients across all channels of the journey map, taking advantage of new technologies to create a profitable connection between you and them.

While the sins of a bad customer experience may not be as detrimental as the original deadly sins, they could be likewise costly. They can make you the first choice in customer’s mind and decide if you can still keep the pace with digital transformation. Engagement, loyalty and repeat sales: they all depend on whether you can avoid - or fix - the following deadly sins.

NO CUSTOMER-CENTRIC VISION

The digital disruption has caused an evolution from passive consumers to demanding and informed customers. In the Age of the Customer, the experience is considered at least as important as the product or the brand itself. “Everything starts with the customer”, to say it with the alleged words of Louis XIV.

The secret of a real customer-centric company lies in the ability to adopt a proactive approach and predict how clients' needs and desires will change as a result of technological innovation. Success only comes when customers become the core of your strategy.

NO OMNI-CHANNEL STRATEGY

Customers, involved in a mobile ecosystem, experience brands and products across different touch points, online and offline. In their purchase process they value the word-of-mouth but look for information on their devices (smartphone, tablet and soon smartwatch).

As a result, they don't live into one channel alone, and expect that you are able to engage them wherever they are, whenever they need it, whatever point of contact they are using. Thus, customer journey mapping becomes critical to understand in which ways people interact with brands and how to connect with them efficiently.

NO MOBILE-FIRST PRESENCE

Long gone are the days when mobile was 'just' a new way of communication, with no marketing purpose. The mobile disruption is rebooting the purchase process and - consequently - marketing and sales funnels. The smartphone is now the first reference for product and service information: if your brand is not mobile-savvy, more than likely it won't be considered among their top choices.

Not being mobile is like not being at all. Still, too many companies fail to evolve with the times, while costumers run towards the future to become more and more empowered. The digital transformation requires that a mobile-first (if not mobile-only) attitude is the standard: a modus operandi, not a goal.

NO EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT

According to recent studies, today companies spend over 720 million dollars each year on employee engagement programs. This figure is destined to rise to over $1.5 billion in the next few years (Bersin & Associates), yet actual engagement falls down to a mere 13% (Gallup).

Digital leaders understand the importance of involving employees into their strategies because “the entire service-profit chain begins with, and absolutely depends on, engaged employees” (Brian Solis). The real 'inner sin' occurs when: there are no shared vision and objectives; you still rely on a top down execution; you fail to deliver core values into an amazing customer experience.

NO PROACTIVE APPROACH

The emergence of powerful devices (virtual reality and iBeacon, to name two) forces all businesses to adopt different approaches to overcome the challenge of innovation. At the same time, brands can profit from the astonishing amount of data produced by technology and behaviors. Data about markets, competitors and - most of all - customers. A shapeless mass that they must learn to scan and transform into useful insights.

Once you know how to deal with the big data phenomenon, you will unlock the huge opportunities of a proactive approach to customer experience. Being proactive, you will be able to control the situation - acting rather than reacting -, to understand customers' needs, and to anticipate their questions and doubts before they even happen.

NO LOYALTY STRATEGY

Single sales by new clients or repeat sales by devoted customers: What do you value the most? Far from saying that acquisition is not important, statistics prove that customer retention is way more crucial to succeed in the long term. One for all: the probability of selling to an existing client lies between 60 and 70%, but the probability of selling to a new customer is no more than 20%.

If the acquisition costs on average 6 times more than retention, it's easy to see why more and more brands are investing time and budgets in loyalty-focused programs and gamification mechanics. When customers can choose from thousands suppliers from all over the world, you must conquer their heart and mind to an enduring success.

NO LISTENING METHOD

Last but not least, a method sin: too many companies still assume that their relationship with customers is a top-down one-way communication. They think that customer service is separated from all other business functions and that they are in charge of the brand image. This may have been true in the pre-Internet era, but today things are completely different.

Your top priority, on the contrary, should be to listen and understand what customers think and want. Remember: they know you better than you do. Social media and real-time messaging make the perfect tool to foster the necessary two-ways communication and inside-out dynamics.

And yes, probably there are more than just 7 deadly sins for digital customer experience, but we think these are the most harmful for your marketing strategy health. It’s not too late, though, to regret and make amend: abandon the wrong way and you will finally offer a better experience.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: 10 Reasons Why You Offer A Faulty Experience To Mobile Customers

The improvement of customer experience management is the reason why we crafted the DCX 7-Steps Checklist, a useful guide with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation. You can download the free paper here:

Get the DCX 7-Steps Checklist
Receive updates from Neosperience:

5 Ways To Use Social Media To Improve Customer Experience

Posted on by Neosperience Team

socialmediamarketing

Social Media, whether you like them or not, have become essential to build a competitive - and truly innovative - marketing strategy. A social media plan, thus, is no longer optional for brands wishing to grow their shares and compete for customers’ attention.

While it may still be quite hard to measure ROI on social media marketing, try to focus on what really matters in the digital world: the experience. The question, then, is how can you use social media to improve customer experience.

The 2015 F8 Facebook Developer Conference confirms that Mark Zuckerberg aims at transforming Facebook into a one-fits-all platform where companies and users can create a complete relationship, online and offline (with social conversations, social care and social shopping). The spread of mobile devices - enabling customers to be connected wherever they are - is only making the ‘social’ element of the customer experience more urgent.

Online communities - giants like Facebook and Twitter or small promising start-ups like Meerkat - are now integral part of how you conduct business: as the years pass by, the word-of-mouth stream is gaining more power, and it’s not by coincidence that even search engines are working to include social content in the result pages (Google+ posts in the organic SERP; Facebook contents in the Knowledge Graph).

Let’s get this one thing perfectly clear: today, a content marketing plan is not even conceivable without social networks. They allow you to gather customer information, understand their needs and desires, build engagement and retain loyalty. And, most important, to take full control of your brand identity and avoid bad experiences to your clients (we are all well-aware of the weight the experience has in the purchase decision process!).

“Your customers will be participating in social networks to engage in conversations about your company. Ignoring those conversations can be downright dangerous. Joining the conversations can provide a world of benefits” (Oracle).

For this very reason, all recent studies show that, from 2015 on, the majority of companies will increase spending on social media marketing despite the ROI dilemma. Social relations have become a critical touchpoint in the customer journey map. Instead of measuring returns by profits, you should use them to improve the overall experience.

Here are 5 ways you can use social media to improve customer experience.

ENGAGE WITH CUSTOMERS

Blogging platforms and social networks have been the main force that has brought the 'Internet for business' to the interactive 2.0 version. How? Supporting a two-ways communication between brands and users. Facebook, of course, right now is the biggest player in the arena: the perfect place to take note of what customers want, engage them in a conversation and make them feel like they’re part of the brand themselves. Focus your social presence on the networks your customers frequent the most and don't underestimate the power of the social long tail.

RESPOND IN REAL-TIME

Empowered customers use their smartphone (shortly their smartwatch) to search for all useful information to make the best purchase decision. They demand that brands are always able to respond to their doubts and questions in real-time, wherever they are and whenever they need it. Social media become crucial to deal with positive and negative feedback promptly. Twitter is the best choice for customer service, but we foresee the use of mobile messaging apps as alternative (Facebook is already considering Messenger a social care platform).

CONNECT AND PERSONALIZE

The rule with social media marketing is to stay always current, to evolve with customers' taste and look for new channels to connect with them. Not all social networks, though, fit for your specific business. Carefully select your communities to avoid wasting money and time on irrelevant sites. Whatever you choose, make sure you always offer consistent and relevant contents, discarding standard and ready-made solutions. In an era of personalized experience, you must train the capability to custom-cut contents for the medium and the audience.

STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

We know that the creation of a strong brand identity starts with the ability to attract more customers and retain their attention. This is the first step for any customer experience management. But how can you do it, in overcrowded communication environments? The two keywords: content and context. Social networks and mobile technologies highlight the importance of epic visual content. The raising of visuals in the feed stream is a good news for retail brands - specially those working in the fashion, luxury and beauty industries. Add the growing integration with E-commerce and you will understand the success of Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and Vine.

BOOST CUSTOMER RETENTION

Social networks are ideal to create engagement and promote loyalty, involving users into a compelling digital customer experience. This is critical in the Age of the Customer, a new paradigm where the customer - not the product - is the reason why you plan your marketing strategy. When customers can choose from a potentially infinite set of suppliers, loyalty becomes the most valuable asset. How can you improve customer retention using social? Visual contests, webinars, live-chat, trending hashtags, user generated contents, gamification dynamics: the only limit is your imagination (and core business).

One thing is for sure: if you ignore the potential of social networks, it doesn’t mean they won’t have an impact on your business. Social media won’t go away ... but maybe your customers will: the social experience has become crucial in shaping the future of brands. A good customer experience management, in fact, will result in improved retention and loyalty, a prelude for repeat sales.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Say Hi To Ello - 3 Marketing Lessons From The New Social Network

The adoption of a proper social strategy is one of the blocks of the DCX 7-Steps Checklist crafted by Neosperience, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation. You can download the free paper here:

Receive updates from Neosperience:

Stay Epic! How To Use Visual Content To Improve Customer Engagement

Posted on by Neosperience Team

visualcontentmarketing

The creation of a strong brand begins with the ability to attract more customers and involve them into innovative experiences. There are two key pillars for an amazing brand experience: technology and content.

Content marketing is not a new concept but it’s now more important than ever to improve customer engagement. And the most effective way to build a compelling brand story is to use visual content. Stay Epic, that’s the rule!

The prominence of content marketing in business strategies is changing the digital customer experience landscape, forcing companies to change their role and act as publishers. Within the framework of your content strategy, then, there is one particular element becoming more and more important: visual content.

Visual_sharing

WHY VISUAL CONTENT?

If you have noticed a significant increase in visual content across social media and blogs, it’s not a coincidence. It’s a fact that over the last months every major social network - including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn - have raised the value of visual content into their feed streams. Be it owned content or social advertising, images are now crucial for any company looking to connect with customers and drive deeper engagement.

why_visual_content

“90 percent of the information that enters the brain is visual”: it’s not just science, it’s business. Recent studies reveal that brands leveraging visual content are seeing significant increases in their traffic, conversion rates and inbound acquisition results.

The following graphics - gathered by Hubspot - perfectly show why today content marketing equals visual marketing. Images, infographics, logos, headers and photos are the most important tactic in optimizing social media posts:

Social-Optimization-Tactics

The popularity of visual coincides with a lower interest for traditional whitepapers as premium content marketing format. Textual content is still one of the most used tactis for B2B strategies, but research shows an evident decline in favor of more interactive, easily digestible formats - such as video or games:

 

contenttactics

IS YOUR VISUAL CONTENT EFFECTIVE?

This is the first - and crucial - question you should ask yourself before starting.

Just pubishing infographics on your blog or sharing a random picture on Facebook or Twitter won't help you build your community and strengthen engagement and customer loyalty. Whatever content your are putting online to enforce inbound marketing while telling your brand's story, you should acknowledge that you are a publisher, and act accordingly to manage and measure the effectiveness of your strategy.

visual_shares

Visual content for the sake of visual content means nothing to your customers. The purpose of content is to guide customers though the conversion process, from awareness to consideration to conversion.

You should always consider context before creating your content: Who will receive your communication? What touch point of the customer journey is it for? Is it really interesting and worth sharing?

Innovative content for the Age of the Customer should:

  • Be mobile-friendly and available everywhere;
  • Act as a vehicle of loyalty and customer retention;
  • Guide customers throught the conversion path;
  • Support engagement through gamification dynamics;
  • Be easily sharable on social media;
  • Be context-aware and personalized.

 

CREATE EPIC VISUAL CONTENT

We have see what you should do. Now let's close the full circle seeing how you can improve customer engagement using visual contents. We see at least 5 steps to shift to visual marketing, create a strong experience and gain attention:

  1. Focus on strong topics - choose the content that best fits the customer's buying journey, focusing on topics that really matter to attract the right people with the right content.
  2. Choose the best type - when we talk 'visuals', we refer to a wide range of specific types of content. Mind maps, static photos, infographics, interactive content, video and GIFs, yor choice!
  3. Don't exclude attractive design - what you see is what you get: don't forget that 'how you say it' is, at least, as important as 'what you communicate'.
  4. Blend visuals into marketing - visual is nothing without a broader vision of your content marketing. A proactive approach to customer management is mandatory to respond to wants, needs and desires.
  5. Find the right channel - visuals have a very specific grammar, and that includes where you share it. Social media and blogs, of course, are the main channels; but don't forget that any single network has its own rules and best practices.

And remember: regardless the type of content used, quality is the most important factor for increasing conversion rates. Attention is the main issue in hyper-crowded content markets, so try to be the best resource your customers will find in their purchase journey, wherever they are and whenever they need you. That's the secret for a successful digital customer experience.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Why Proactive Approach Is Key To Improve Digital Customer Experience

To help you ensure a strategic advantage to your organization, learn about the DCX 7-Steps Checklist crafted by Neosperience, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation.

Get the DCX 7-Steps Checklist
Receive updates from Neosperience:

Why Employee Engagement is Crucial For a Better Customer Experience

Posted on by Neosperience Team

employee_engagement

Is your employee crucial to deliver a better customer experience? Many companies still think that client satisfaction is a mere result of their outward-facing strategy. Sure, engaged and loyal customers are essential to ensure profitability, but if you forget inner areas of improvement, then you miss a piece of the puzzle. That piece is employee engagement, a key element to enhance the overall performance of your company, customer experience included.

In a recent article, Brian Solis proclaimed that you should stop focusing on the customer only, if you really want to deliver great customer experiences. Of course the customer is still the core of every marketing strategy, even more so in the Age of the Customer. That is a provocative statement, to point out that successful digital transformation is multifaceted and requires a deep change in all aspects of your organization. Back to the opening question: how much is employee engagement relevant to improve digital customer experience?

To say it with Solis, “the entire service-profit chain begins with, and absolutely depends on, engaged employees”. If employees aren’t truly engaged, that dissatisfaction impacts on the outcome, namely the customer experience. When that happens, no matter how much effort you put into your client engagement campaign and customer journey improvement, the whole experience is likely to be unsatisfying and inadequate.

One figure gives us an idea of how much this topic is considered crucial by managers and entrepreneurs. According to a report by Bersin & Associates, today companies spend over 720 million dollars each year on employee engagement programs, a total that’s projected to rise to over $1.5 billion in the next few years.

And yet, according to a second research by Gallup, actual engagement is now at record lows, falling down to a mere 13%. How is this mismatch possible? Even though digital leaders know that engaged employees would benefit their organizations, often than not they simply don’t know how to get their workforce to buy in and take part in the change. So, probably, they’re putting their money in the wrong places.

Truth is, sometimes there is no even agreement on what ‘employee engagement’ really means. We can define it as the approach designed to ensure that employees are fully committed to their company’s core values, and motivated to contribute to organizational success. In the digital era, your employee is your first customer: loyalty and engagement become priority for an holistic marketing strategy.

How to reach this goal, that’s the question. It’s clear that relying just on a traditional surveys is not the answer. Here are few suggestions on how to build an integrated approach, capable to measure real-time and give you insights to drive high levels of commitment.

  • Share brand purpose - a recent survey found out that only 40% of workforce knows their company's goals, tactics and strategies. Employees will never be engaged if they don’t know what they’re working for. Start by discovering your true why, find your archetype, include people into your brand identity and narrate your company storytelling internally.
  • Empower your people - 75% of people voluntarily leaving jobs don't quit their jobs, they quit their bosses. Traditional engagement must be replaced with a new approach, aimed at empowering employees. Be sure that you are always able to inspire and support them, enable them to learn and constantly grow, and offer the opportunity to develop their strengths.
  • Adopt new tools: a new approach means new tools to support your strategy. Surveys are not going away anytime soon, but they are being slowly replaced by techniques that measure commitment and satisfaction in real time. An analytics dashboard can guide you through this amount of data to shape a powerful daily engagement routine.
  • Use Gamification: 70% of Forbes Global 2000 companies already use gamification to boost engagement, retention and revenues. The importance of games to improve customer loyalty is now undeniable, but game dynamics can be also used internally to motivate employees, inspire right behaviors and reward success. B2B gamification, of course, must be tailored to your specific business and supported by a platform to analyze all information gathered.

Involvement, commitment, productivity: these are the key takeaways of a well-designed employee engagement approach. Ultimately you must understand that employees are the essence of the products and services you sell, and they develop and deliver your customer experience every day.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: All Play And No Work Makes Jack a Zippy Boy

To help you ensure a strategic advantage to your organization, learn about the DCX 7-Steps Checklist crafted by Neosperience, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation.

Get the DCX 7-Steps Checklist
Receive updates from Neosperience:

10 Reasons Why You Offer A Faulty Experience to Mobile Customers

Posted on by Neosperience Team

mobile_customers

In a world of constant connectivity, customers expect that you are able to give them what they need when they need it, especially when they are on the go. The term ‘mobile’ perfectly describes how technology has changed the customer experience; going mobile becomes mandatory for every innovative business strategy. If your company is not optimized for the mobile experience, you’re putting at risk your sales and damaging the perception of the brand itself. And clients will ultimately abandon you.

As a consequence of the evolution known as mobile mind shift, if you want to connect with clients of the Age of the Customer, you need to think and act digital first. Of course, going mobile for mobile’s sake is not the right answer to clients’ needs; you must get mobile right. Without a proper strategy and internally shared intents, you won’t be able to maintain focus in markets in which clients not only research and buy products on mobile devices, but also ask for compelling digital customer experience.

By 2017, around 69.4% of world's population is expected to use smartphones. By 2018, it is estimated that the wearables market will be worth some 12.6 billion dollars. People use mobile devices to listen to their favorite music, to watch videos, to search for information, to buy products and look for deals. Mobile is not just an option anymore.

Statistics say that mobile-friendly companies easily turn users into customers, and without a mobile awareness you’ll be driving users to your competitors. It’s a fact: frustrated users are highly likely to abandon you for competitors when they don’t get a satisfying experience across all touch points.

You can’t ignore these numbers, even more so if you are a retailer. There are at least 10 reasons why mobile customers will abandon you in the end:

  1. You don’t have a mobile presence: this is level zero. You don't have an app, your website is not responsive or adaptive, you never update your social pages. An analog residual in a digital environment.
  2. You site is not responsive: you have a website, yet it's all but mobile-friendly. It was made to work on a desktop computer, and it fails to deliver a fulfilling experience to users in mobility.
  3. You have a faulty app: they might be a necessary part of your digital strategy, but faulty - or not working at all - apps could only do harm to your brand perception. Find the right partner and develop a huge app experience.
  4. You don’t offer unique content: companies are now able to locate and target individuals who are significantly qualified, to create content marketing customized with context. If your strategy is not
    location-savvy, then you're missing a piece.
  5. You give a lousy User Experience: the user experience involves practical and emotional aspects of the interaction between the user and your digital product. A bad-designed UX will prevent you from building engagement.
  6. You don't optimize landing pages: if you're investing time and budget in inbound marketing tactics and online advertising, make sure you optimize your landing pages. They're the first place users land on, the first contact they have with your brand.
  7. You don't offer payment options: the conversion path will always be incomplete and inefficient if your payment process is slow, unclear and time-costly. Your customer journey must offer different solutions to pay in a seamless, easy and secure way.
  8. You don’t personalize offers: personalization is the key to success in the digital era. You can rely on big data to understand customers and markets: use those numbers to offer unique experiences and personal deals.
  9. You don’t think omni-channel: you are not judged for what you sell, but for the whole journey you create to connect products and clients. An omni-channel experience is a reflection of how our life has evolved in the mobile era, a foundational element of digital customer engagement .
  10. You don't play with customers: from 2015 on, more and more companies will focus on gamification mechanics to enhance loyalty. Games are everywhere, and you need to learn the rules of gamification to engage customers playing with them.

As practical advice: if you want to connect with your customers in a whole new way discover Neosperience Engage, the end-to-end mobile marketing solution to turn on smartphones like magic and deliver personalized experiences to customers close to, or inside the store.

Receive updates from Neosperience:

How To Use Virtual Reality To Augment Customer Experience

Posted on by Neosperience Team

microsoft_hololens

Now that Microsoft has unveiled the brand new Windows 10, there’s a huge buzz surrounding the operating system and, above all, its futuristic feature called Holographic. Of all the announcements Microsoft made during the event, in fact, the company's new virtual reality headset called HoloLens immediately dominated the news. Redmond's giant has officially entered the VR arena, and wants to redefine how companies augment customer experience.

Sci-fi dreamers and futuristic designers have always craved the ability to enter a new reality using technological appendices. These devices, acting as an extension and optimization for human limbs and senses, submerge the user into a parallel world in a 3D personal perspective. All you need to create an amazing experience is an head-mounted headset that blends head tracking and positional tracking using high resolution displays and speed wireless connection.

The Oculus Rift, developed by Oculus VR through Kickstarter crowdfunding, has become the main player in this race to virtual reality. Small and big competitors, though, have promptly entered the game. Samsung is pushing with firm belief - and big budgets - the Gear VR and Google is developing the secret Magic Leap project - a mix between the Rift, Google Glass and the Added Reality Interface (well known to videogame players).

Holographic and HoloLens have all the qualities needed to become the promising Microsoft products that was expected for years. They bring a pretty neat concept, and from day one are already showing a big potential. Via a wire-free headset and virtually implemented environment, users should be able to do all sorts of things, from playing an augmented version of Minecraft in the living room to visiting Mars (thanks to the collaboration between Microsoft and the NASA).

You can easily foresee the consequences of this evolution on digital customer experience. Augmented reality is already playing a vital role in how companies are changing their marketing and engagement strategies. Together with Big Data and the Internet of Things, virtual reality can be the real deal for innovative companies investing in technology. Creating an immersive new level of reality could be the next step in a path full of opportunities.

There are at least three innovative ways to take advantage of virtual reality in DCX, from supporting the customer journey to changing the expected interactions with physical environment.

  • Support the Purchase: be it physical products or digital ones, virtual reality - together with wearables and mobile payments - might shape a major revolutions in purchasing. Disruptive technologies change retail customer experience, and the way we buy won't be the same again. Personalized experiences will be more and more relevant, even more in if you are a retail, fashion or luxury business.
  • Engage Customers: combining branded physical and digital assets, organizations will be able to engage with customers online and at the point of sale more effectively. Virtual reality headsets are perfect to implement gamification mechanics in your content marketing strategy. Loyalty runs hand-in-hand with innovative experiences memorable for your customer (it's not by coincidence that Microsoft is already adapting HoloLens to work with Minecraft).
  • Enhance Experience: stats say that the experience is considered more important than price and product when it comes to the purchase decision. VR is the perfect match for proximity marketing tactics and in-store augmentation. Offering an immersive 3D visual experience is a necessary part of the store improvement, a process that involves the merging of digital and physical environments.

Microsoft HoloLens, just like the Oculus Rift, can be already considered one of the most exciting devices around. Both are enticing; both offer sensational experiences; and both need to overcome new challanges when it comes to thinking through exactly how to use them for your marketing and strategic purposes. But the promise is great: controlling multiple screens and objects, like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, is much closer than you think.

In the Age of the Customer, if you aim at relevance, you need to involve your clients into an omni-channel sensory experience, and VR is just another an ingredient that catalyses the engagement of your customer. To build a strategic advantage to your organization, download the DCX 7-Steps Checklist crafted by Neosperience, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation.

Receive updates from Neosperience:

3 Good Ideas For Your 2015 Digital Customer Experience Strategies

Posted on by Neosperience Team

dcx_ideas

“What should I do to improve my customer experience?” The rules of marketing have dramatically changed in the last decade. Developing a unique competitive advantage is still crucial for business success, but you can’t rely on tactics and tools that were useful only a few years ago. If you're still trying to figure out how to break away from competitors and attract customers, here are 3 good ideas to improve your overall digital customer experience strategies in 2015.

Too many entrepreneurs still believe that their company’s success relies solely on offering a superior product or service. Simply investing big budgets in R&D, advertising and ineffective marketing activities won't help you in an hyper-connected ecosystem. In the Age of the Customer, the key to success is not product-based: it is concealed in the connection between your brand and the empowered customer. A connection shaped by mobile technology.

The client - not the product - is the most valuable asset you have. One lesson we have learned in the digital era is that sales pass but loyalty stays (potentially) forever. What do customers want? People consider a well designed customer journey more important than price when it comes to make purchases. Thus, delivering enthralling personalized contents into an omni-channel strategy is crucial to build engagement and foster loyalty.

A new world brings challenging questions and new solutions to old problems. To hit the ground running, and achieve a competitive advantage with an amazing digital customer experience, get ready to:

  • Listen - Even with all the data companies collect about customers, marketers often fail to understand what they really want. To turn your statistics into opportunities for meaningful connections, you need to wear your customer’s hat and look at your customer journey from a different point of view. Despite the fact that we are in an age where everything seems to be automated, customers demand a more human relation with your brand.
  • Learn - In an ever-changing scenario, where disruptive technologies constantly shift the limits of the possible, to live is to learn. You need to remain watchful and learn from the environment to adapt your strategies for new markets, devices and customers. The bridge between people and brands is built by technology and evolves with it. When you plan your customer journey map, don’t forget to include social media, wearables, virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, widgets and games.
  • Automate - Internet connects people, Internet will connect things. In 2015 the interconnection between devices will start delivering special experiences. The automation made possible by the Internet of Things will change the way people relate with brands and products digitally and at the point of sale. The secret is to let machines do the job, taking advantage of new technologies - push notifications, iBeacons - to create an amazing experience across all touch points, relying on data mining and analytics to improve efficiency. The ‘mobile-everything’ involves all stages of the marketing funnel, from awareness to post-conversion, but the challenge won’t change: become more relevant in the physical and in the digital world.

The road to digital transformation is paved with good intentions: only if you are able to make that further step from useful insights and ideas to the implementation of high-quality customer experience, then you will gain a competitive edge and retain loyalty.

To help you provide a strategic advantage to your organization, Neosperience has crafted the first DCX 7-Steps Checklist, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation.

 

Receive updates from Neosperience:

Top 10 Digital Customer Experience Predictions For 2015

Posted on by Neosperience Team

dcx_predictions

Two days to the New Year: analysts agree that 2014 was the year customer experience began a priority on the desk of entrepreneurs and marketing professionals. Overwhelmed by the mobile revolution, companies are still trying to figure out how to break away from competitors and attract empowered customers. What will happen next? Here are 10 digital customer experience predictions for 2015.

Empowered customers, submerged in a digital ecosystem, demand compelling connections and personalized content, and this will be the main priority for the next years. Innovative companies are already integrating this essential asset into their business strategies, and Gartner predicts that "50 percent of consumer product investments will be redirected to customer experience innovations by 2017". As you start shaping your plans for 2015 and beyond, here are 10 key trends that will drive customer experience for years to come.

  1. Retailers will go digital: the only way to survive the mobile shift, for retail brands, will be to embrace the digital transformation, reinventing brick-and-mortar and adapting technologies to their needs (i.e. proximity marketing through iBeacons and push notifications).

  2. Brands will think mobile-first: when you need to connect with clients of the Age of the Customer, mobile is not just an option anymore. It is necessary to build real engagement and enhance loyalty strategies. Mobile is not just an app, it’s a state of mind, a way of thinking and acting.

  3. The journey will be omni-channel: digital customer journey mapping is already the first step for every marketing strategy. Traditional funnels won’t work in the mobile era: companies need to adopt a more complex and multi-touchpoints view, and act across different channels simultaneously and seamlessly.

  4. Location will be the key: brands already exist outside concrete walls, but that doesn’t mean the store won’t be crucial in the next years. Delivering the right message to the right person will still be the ultimate goal, and technologies - just think of Apple's iBeacon - will make that possible in real time.

  5. Content will be tailored right-time: the need to offer a personalized content and experience is the result of the passage from passive consumers to empowered customers. You will need to reach them at the right time in the right place and give them what they want, when they want it, their own way, easy and fast.

  6. Internet will connect Things : the interconnection of different devices and the automation in all fields is destined to change the way customers interact with products and brands. As customers’ expectations grow, business models will need to change, and you can’t ignore the opportunity given by the Internet of Things to deliver amazing digital experiences.

  7. Mobile payment will be the rule: everybody loves the smell of money but, in the near future, we are destined to forget how cash looks like. The launch of Apple Pay has given new lifeblood to NFC and mobile payments. Smartwatches and wearables will show the way: one-touch payments will be the future of purchasing.

  8. China will drive innovation: we know China for its factories, but things are already changing. Fueled by its massive population and well-funded digital giants, China is set to become the world's largest digital market by 2015, with market gains of $315.3 billion just in online sales. You must adapt your customer experience to the rising tiger.

  9. Data will be mandatory: as companies increase investments in customer experience, they will focus their efforts on new metrics to learn more about markets and clients, and to measure ROI and business results. Big Data will become a priority, and analytics dashboards a necessary back-up.

  10. Data protection will be priority: included by Gartner in the top 10 technology trends for 2015, security is crucial for brands of the digital era. People feel uncomfortable when they realize they are being tracked and localized, and even social networks are trying to answer to this demand. Balancing data mining and privacy concerns will become top priority.

One thing is for sure: technology is not going to stop. The wind of digital transformation is already changing priorities, even for traditional industries and brick-and-mortar retailers. Disruptive technologies rewrite the rules of engagement, and competing solely on price or features is more and more risky: to gain a competitive edge and retain loyalty, brands must evolve to offer an innovative and high-quality customer experience.

To help you provide a strategic advantage to your organization, Neosperience has crafted the first DCX 7-Steps Checklist, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation.

Receive updates from Neosperience: