It's All About The ExperienceA blog about managing and improving customer experience and improving profits.https://rrassoicates.azurewebsites.net/Rons-BlogEight Digital Marketing Technologies That Can Improve Retentionhttps://rrassoicates.azurewebsites.net/Rons-Blog/PostId/30/eight-digital-marketing-technologies-that-can-improve-retentionConversion,Conversion Improvement,Customer Complaints,customer experience,Customer Relationship Management,Customer Service,Digital Marketing,New Product Development,Profit ImprovementRetention,Social MediaMon, 29 Jan 2024 15:34:48 GMT<p><meta name="uuid" content="uuidrMHno6Xr8OgI" /><meta charset="utf-8" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Over the past decade, a big part of our consulting practice has been helping companies determine how to improve customer retention.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">A recent series of requests for contributions to a marketing blog on LinkedIn led us&nbsp;to develop this article. Below are&nbsp;<strong>eight digital marketing technologies</strong>&nbsp;marketers can use to help improve customer retention and grow revenue.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><em>(Please note that while we provide vendor names, the list of software providers mentioned under each category is&nbsp;</em><strong><em>not</em></strong><em>&nbsp;exhaustive. New technology vendors emerge almost monthly, so please search for and compare competitors of the software vendors listed to find the right one for your company.)</em></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Email Marketing Software.</strong>&nbsp;Email marketing is first on our list of customer retention technologies. Why? With email, a business can regularly touch its customers by sending information and messaging that&#39;s relevant to customer interests. The critical adjective here is&nbsp;<strong><em>relevant</em></strong>! The most effective emails are personalized based on valid segmentation schemes. They are consistent in branding and well-timed. They are carefully tested. The test data should show that they will reliably resonate with your customers. Retention emails bring customers back by speaking with your brand voice and offering incentives, discounts, special offers, or unique experiences otherwise unavailable to noncustomers. Email is a powerful tool. But use your email list carefully. Please don&#39;t abuse it, or your list of receptive customers will quickly dwindle. Tools for email marketing include <strong>Vertical Response</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Mailchimp</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Constant Contact</strong>, and<strong>&nbsp;HubSpot</strong>. For more on this topic, check out our blog article with <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/31/8-innovative-ways-to-improve-customer-retention-using-email-or-notifications" target="_blank">eight examples of companies that do retention email well</a>.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Customer Relationship Management (CRM)</strong>: Marketers use CRMs to store customer data like email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, and communication preferences. They also use CRMs to track marketing interactions with current and potential customers. Leverage CRM data to discern customer behavior. Use it to understand individual preferences and track purchase history. If you sell shoes, for example, does this customer buy when shoes are on discount, or is their purchasing more fashion-conscious? Is it event-related (i.e., snow boots after a major snowstorm) or seasonal (summer, winter, fall, and spring collection purchases)?&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">With some imagination and elbow grease, CRM data can give us the information we need to reach these conclusions. It allows marketers to create personalized, high-converting marketing campaigns and ensures that customers who bought from us before keep buying. Integrate your CRM with Marketing Automation (see below) to improve your communication with customers and prospects. Use this integration to build repeat sales funnels with existing customers, driving repeat purchases and improving retention. CRM software providers include&nbsp;<strong>Salesforce</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Zoho CRM</strong>, and&nbsp;<strong>Microsoft Dynamics</strong>. For more on <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/8/customer-relationship-management-not-just-for-big-business" target="_blank">CRM and its uses</a>, see our blog article on how CRM can help improve conversion and retention.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Social Media Management Tools</strong>. Social media has become an integral part of any retention strategy. Use social media to provide brand updates and inform your customers of reasons to maintain a relationship with you.&nbsp;<strong>Hoot Suite</strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>Buffer</strong>&nbsp;are two examples of software enabling marketers to schedule social media updates and track social activity across platforms. Social media can increase customer engagement and maintain customers&#39; interest in your brand. See also our blog article on <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/24/28-examples-of-social-media-advertising-campaigns-small-businesses-can-use-to-build-their-brands" target="_blank">Social Media Marketing for 24&nbsp;examples </a>of ways you can use Social Media to increase sales, improve customer retention, and support your brand.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Marketing Automation Platforms.</strong>&nbsp;Marketing automation platforms provide tools for automatically triggering marketing execution, including email campaigns, social media posts, remarketing campaigns, and more. If properly configured, marketing automation can track and manage lead generation from all your customer touchpoints and automate follow-up throughout the customer life cycle. Marketing automation systems allow retention marketers to personalize emails for post-purchase follow-ups, upsells, and cross-sells. It can trigger social media posts, offer targeted promotions, and send follow-up requests to salespeople or customer service representatives. Think of these tools as brilliant conductors in your brand marketing symphony. Research and map your online marketing funnel activities to see what works now, then automate it! These tools can save e-marketers time and effort while ensuring consistent, branded customer retention follow-up and communications. Popular options include&nbsp;<strong>Keap</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Marketo</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Pardot</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Drip</strong>, and&nbsp;<strong>Eloqua.</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Remarketing Tools.&nbsp;</strong>Another favorite way of turning suspects into prospects and customers into return customers is&nbsp;<strong>remarketing</strong>. With remarketing, a website visit can trigger a series of personalized advertisements on platforms like&nbsp;<strong>Google</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Facebook</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>LinkedIn</strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>Twitter</strong>. Marketers can design experiences around the web content visited by linking a website product page to a particular advertisement on Google or a social media platform. These tools are especially useful in marketing luxury or high-involvement products or services because they direct advertising toward people who have already shown purchase intent. While generally reserved for new product sales, we have also seen this technology used successfully to grow revenue from service or parts upsell to customers who have visited company websites related to after-sale subjects. For more on this topic, check out our <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/11/small-company-big-data-huge-impact" target="_blank">blog article on Big Data</a>.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Customer Feedback Software.&nbsp;</strong>We all think we listen to our customers. But do you systematically keep track of their feedback and then take action to address their concerns? Those two final steps are crucial for improving customer retention.&nbsp;<strong>Verint,</strong>&nbsp;<strong>SurveyMonkey</strong>, and&nbsp;<strong>Qualtrics&nbsp;</strong>are software vendors that sell technologies that gather valuable customer insights and allow users to aggregate the information to identify actionable trends. Use that information to tease out customer service needs, gaps in your product and service offerings, complaint trends, and brand challenges. Use these technologies to develop systematic ways to leverage customer feedback and improve. See our <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/7/finding-increased-profits-through-better-complaints-management" target="_blank">blog article on customer complaints </a>for more on this topic.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Personalization.&nbsp;</strong>Personalization is another meaningful way of retaining customers, making them feel valued by the brand. Personalization tools such as&nbsp;<strong>Optimizely</strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>Adobe Target</strong>&nbsp;are software designed to permit marketers to create customized experiences. Design individualized experiences or offers for each customer persona based on their segment&#39;s preferences and behavior. Build customer experiences that make their lives easier. See <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/22/buying-and-delivery-preference-the-new-battleground">our article on buying preference</a> for more on this topic.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Loyalty Program Software.&nbsp;</strong>Ever since a coffee shop figured out how to offer punch cards to give loyal customers a tenth coffee free, loyalty programs have become a time-honored way to drive customer retention. Reward customers for their continued business. As with everything, software now exists to track and manage this activity. Loyalty program software vendors include&nbsp;<strong>Smile.io</strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>LoyaltyLion.&nbsp;</strong>Both can help create and manage new loyalty programs and make starting a program more manageable. Create incentives and rewards for customers, and design programs that encourage them to return. Then, watch retention numbers improve. See our <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/BlogPage/3" target="_blank">blog on Customer Lifetime Value</a> for more on how companies manage customer loyalty.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Integration and Reporting.&nbsp;</strong>Before pulling the trigger on any software purchase, carefully examine how well these systems integrate with your existing marketing infrastructure. Pay special attention to reporting, scalability, and customer support capabilities (and support cost). Many of the leading vendors in each category above offer capabilities in other categories. For example, many marketing automation providers also provide CRM capabilities.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Also, make sure that the reporting system for the software can exactly replicate what you are currently providing to senior management. Senior leaders want what they want, and if the new software can only provide a slightly different report from what leadership likes, you may spend the next couple of years downloading and formatting data to meet their needs.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">For more on integration and marketing, see our blog article about <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/15/integrate-or-die" target="_blank">integration as the modern marketing superpower</a>.</span></span></p> 30Small Company + Big Data = Huge Impacthttps://rrassoicates.azurewebsites.net/Rons-Blog/PostId/11/small-company-big-data-huge-impactConversion,Conversion Improvement,Customer Relationship Management,Nonprofit ManagementWed, 28 Aug 2019 17:23:49 GMT<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Using Big Data to Better Serve Customers, Donors and Prospects</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">You&#39;ve completed an analysis of your customers or donors. You know which customers are profitable.&nbsp;Or, if you are a nonprofit, you know which donors are most supportive of your cause.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">But you still have an incomplete picture of those individuals as people. Where do they live? Where do they shop? Where do they work? Who are their friends? How do they spend their free time? With what organizations are they affiliated? What other, perhaps related products do they buy? In short, you still need an understanding of their demographics and behavioral traits. How else can you go out and find more of these profitable customers? It is on these occasions that Big Data becomes the marketer&rsquo;s friend.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Go Fish?</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Here&#39;s how the process works. Take email addresses, phone numbers, names, social security numbers, or other identifying information. With permission, of course, use this information, you&nbsp;<em>do</em>&nbsp;know to reference more data in a data vendor&#39;s warehouse about what you&nbsp;<em>don&#39;t&nbsp;</em>know. Tap the database to find information about essential attributes like age, income, mailing address, location, driving record, credit, or assets. Select the variable based on what is useful to your business intelligence needs. Analyze and summarize&nbsp;<em>those attributes</em>&nbsp;to inform your marketing strategy and boost marketing performance.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">By enabling this kind of analysis, Big Data allows marketers to understand customers deeply. Even better, with predictive modeling, marketers can even predict how likely customers or users are to buy or donate in the future. The Gartner Group surveyed its Gartner Research Circle members worldwide. The technology research firm found that most (73%) of those surveyed in its customer base planned to use Big Data in the future.[i] The bottom line? Smaller organizations are going to have to develop similar information to compete.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>A Toe In The Water --- Social Media Custom Audiences</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Facebook and LinkedIn provide small business advertisers alternatives to buying data about customers. Instead, Facebook advertisers can upload CSV files with email addresses of customers. If the emails uploaded match those of their members, Facebook will place advertisements in the members&#39; timelines. Similarly, LinkedIn allows users to provide lists of company names. Marketers can advertise to LinkedIn, its members who work for those companies. See information on LinkedIn&rsquo;s Service&nbsp;<a href="https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/marketing-solutions/a/targeting/matched-audiences/pdfs/Account-Targeting-Checklist-v01.07.pdf" target="_blank"><u>here</u></a>.)</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">It gets better. With the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/a/custom-audiences" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>Facebook</u></a>&nbsp;<em>custom audience tool,</em>&nbsp;marketers develop ads for&nbsp;<u><a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/a/lookalike-audiences" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">&ldquo;lookalike&rdquo; audiences</a></u>. These audiences have similar demographics to those of existing customers. So, identify a list of profitable customers, donors, or B2B companies you currently serve. Upload them to the appropriate social media platform. Then, let&nbsp;<em>their</em>&nbsp;data scientists take care of the rest. Cool right?</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Facebook Partners</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The behind-the-scenes magic that has allowed social media marketing to work so well for Facebook has been a database of&nbsp;<a href="https://wapo.st/2bz22Cb?tid=ss_mail&amp;utm_term=.0e8310059f20" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>98 attributes.</u>&nbsp;</a>Facebook worked with its data partners, companies like Experian, Epsilon, and Oracle Data Cloud. They helped Facebook complete its detailed knowledge of us. We members give Facebook our age, gender, location, education, relationship status, and employment. We do this to improve our connections with former classmates, colleagues, and friends. Our likes tell Facebook how we feel about many topics. Yes, Facebook knows our politics, our hobbies, our true loves, our family, and even our musical tastes.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">To this, Facebook&rsquo;s Data Partners program concatenated information from large data providers. How many credit cards do we have? What kinds of restaurants do we frequent? How likely are we to move? Are we likely to buy a new car?</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The Facebook data and target market interface gave even the smallest businesses the targeting power of big companies. For small businesses, gaining affordable, easy access to this kind of data was revolutionary. It democratized Big Data. A small restaurant or hotel had access to the same information as so its national chain competitors across the road.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">That was true until recently. The controversy over the&nbsp;<u><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-fallout.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Cambridge Analytica Affair</a></u>&nbsp;dragged social media executives before Congress. Other challenges included the new Privacy Rules in the European Union (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>GDPR</u></a>). Facebook announced it was phasing out access to its Data Partners this year. (See Facebook&rsquo;s short Partner Categories Article&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/298717656925097" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>here</u></a>.)</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Despite the change in policy, we think Facebook will continue to be an excellent advertising resource for small businesses targeting consumers.&nbsp;LinkedIn remains the most effective way to target B2B customers by industry and position affordably.&nbsp;&nbsp;Both platforms will allow small companies to pinpoint critical segments in their customer base&nbsp;<em>affordably</em>.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Large Data Purchase - 100 Attributes for Under $1.00</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Plan B is to buy your own demographic or propensity data. And there is lots of it available out there. A typical database vendor such as Acxiom, LexisNexis, Choice Point, or Trans Union has hundreds of pieces of information for sale. This information is gathered from many providers and sources, then cross-indexed and cross-referenced. Here is a link to one provider, USADATA (also branded as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usadata.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>MyAcxiomPartner.com</u></a>). USA DATA has a self-serve data mart targeting small and medium-sized businesses. We expect more small business-focused offerings from other large data providers in the future. Make no mistake.&nbsp;The market will find a way to fill the void left by Facebook&rsquo;s policy changes.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Big Data - A Fundraiser&#39;s Life Blood?</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Big Data is also crucial in the nonprofit fundraising sector. CRM vendors to nonprofits offer a series of services using Big Data. These services include data cleaning through the US Postal service relocation database. They also provide wealth indexing, and Social Security sweeps for recent deaths.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">An example is Blackbaud Group&#39;s Raiser&#39;s Edge product.[ii] The Blackbaud Group integrates the Raiser&#39;s Edge Product and ResearchPoint databases. This integration allows fundraisers to access information about prospective donors, such as net worth.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Want more? They can access even more granular information, as well. What securities do they own? What real estate properties do they own? What are some of their other sources of wealth?[iii] The Research Point integrated data service also provides data about a prospect&#39;s past giving. It also can provide information on prospective donors&#39; Board Relationships. The software even identifies people who live near the prospect who might be donors as well. For fundraisers seeking high net worth donors, these kinds of tools can be invaluable.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Computer, &quot;Go find this customer&rsquo;s VIN, please.&quot;</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Insurers, banks, and other financial services institutions also use Big Data. Big Data allows them to make quick decisions about selling us insurance or lending us money. Insurance companies can buy underwriting data about prospective customers and can use that data, so the customer doesn&#39;t have to remember it or enter it themselves. Here&rsquo;s an example of how consumer database information was applied to improve customer experience.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">A client in the auto insurance industry was having difficulty keeping customers engaged. Customers had to fill out 100-question application forms to purchase auto insurance. Users couldn&#39;t for the life of them remember one piece of information needed to quote the risk accurately. Who do you know who can remember their vehicle identification number (VIN)? (The VIN is a 17-digit alphanumeric number appearing on the left of corner of the windshield.) Our client studied the drop-off of users. Many who were requested to provide their vehicle identification numbers departed, never to return.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">It was clear. The client could increase the number of completed applications. How? Get the VIN from data warehouse vendors. Don&#39;t force the customer to provide the information she doesn&#39;t have easily accessible. Instead, pull the data out of the cloud. Then ask customers to confirm a picture of their make and model. Large insurers are learning that the best way to pull customers through the online sequence is to purchase as much data as they can. Recent competition among auto insurance sellers to have the shortest quote time is an example of this trend.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Here are two more examples from a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/kevin-kelleher/how-small-businesses-can-mine-big-data.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>recent article</u></a>&nbsp;in Inc. Magazine. Carvana, a mid-sized and entrepreneurial used car dealership, employs five data scientists. They held an online Kaggle competition to solve a complex analytical problem. Carvana asked the data science community for help in developing a better way to predict whether cars purchased at auction were lemons. The data model allowed Carvana to buy higher-quality cars &quot;for $500 below what similar cars would sell for.&quot; The same article shared how a zoo in Tacoma, Washington, was able to save money on staffing. Zoo management correlated local climate data with attendance peaks and valleys. The resulting analysis allowed them to build a better staffing model, saving the organization thousands. The zoo later improved membership by 13 percent by upping its marketing spend in the zip codes of its most frequent guests.[iv]&nbsp;All of the preceding was thanks to the application of Big Data to small/medium-sized business problems.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Why Math Is Our Friend</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">So how do the professional data &#39;wranglers&#39; do this? Does your company have large amounts of data about its customers? Can you afford to purchase more data about them? If so, here are some examples of techniques from a favorite article by two FICO data scientists in&nbsp;<a href="http://analytics-magazine.org/consumer-insight-driving-profitability-with-retail-analytics/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Analytics Magazine</a>. Even if you aren&#39;t the one doing the analytics, you can benefit from understanding how these analytical techniques apply to your marketing. We summarize the methods in the below infographic; then explain them in more detail in the body of the article.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><img data-li-src="https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C4E12AQG_CzlsXVkvRw/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0?e=1572480000&amp;v=beta&amp;t=1IrdnidBCGgpojH3HEXg72bcylzF3nHE8BUM3iQEuOM" data-media-urn="" src="https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C4E12AQG_CzlsXVkvRw/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0?e=1572480000&amp;v=beta&amp;t=1IrdnidBCGgpojH3HEXg72bcylzF3nHE8BUM3iQEuOM" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Clustering Algorithms</strong>&nbsp;offer the opportunity to create broad behavioral segments. Examples are animal lovers, people who enjoy traveling by RV, or people who buy only local farmer produce. These clusters bring together large numbers of customers who may be different in other ways, but who may have similar beliefs or tastes. Quite often, retail stores will use this kind of segment information to create decors. Marketers can also use it for product groupings, or in-store departments targeting this segment. They use this technique for cross-selling products. For nonprofits, this kind of segmentation offers obvious opportunities to identify like-minded individuals. These individuals may believe in the non-profit&#39;s mission. But they may not have had the chance to learn about the organization. Here&#39;s another use: translate these segments into keywords. Then, use the keywords to improve online advertising yields and organic search.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Propensity models</strong>&nbsp;are predictive models. These models bring together an extensive line of attributes that are predictive of buying or giving behaviors. For example, Scottish Terrier owners who live in urban environments may be more likely to donate to specific animal-related causes. Sometimes wacky, these predictive models have become a keystone analytic of direct-mail organizations. More recently, online marketers study clickstream data to try to identify when people are ready to engage in a valuable activity. For example, they may be prepared to make a significant purchase or, perhaps, donation. In a world where constant marketing noise is the norm and in which client acquisition costs are soaring, these models can move the numbers. They do this by predicting who will buy or donate so that we can give them a nudge at that golden moment.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Collaborative Filtering</strong>&nbsp;is a way of taking data about existing customers and applying the data to prospective ones. Often called a &quot;look-alike model,&quot; companies can use these models on the Internet to find new customers. Facebook does this with its lookalike audience feature discussed above. Amazon applies this technique with the &quot;customers who bought this item also bought.&quot;[v] The method is also used by entertainment media companies. TiVo Suggestions. Netflix, Yahoo!, and Apple&#39;s Genius also reportedly use it to make their decisions.[vi]</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">A data scientist named Jonathan Goldman, a physics Ph.D. by training, joined LinkedIn in 2006. Legend has it he developed a module that allowed users to see the names of people to whom they were, &quot;Not connected but were likely to know.&quot;<a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_edn7" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[vii]</a>&nbsp;The technique was an immediate success. The discovery reportedly threw LinkedIn into hyper-growth.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Flunked Stats in College?&nbsp;Here&#39;s Technical Help for English Majors!</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Software as a service solutions (SaaS) offerings is emerging that incorporate many of these analytical capabilities. A Canadian company named&nbsp;<a href="https://canopylabs.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>Canopy Labs</u></a>, for example, provides an online tool-set for marketers. The tools are designed to allow customers to consolidate consumer data and analyze the &ldquo;customer journey.&rdquo; The software includes different kinds of statistical analyses.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Another company, called&nbsp;<u><a href="https://www.retentionscience.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Retention Science</a>,</u>&nbsp;provides a similar online platform. Retention Science claims data cleaning, analysis, and marketing automation on its platform. The software boasts behavioral and transactional profiling. It also offers customer life cycle analysis, and analytics to measure campaign performance.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.insightsquared.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>Insight Squared</u></a>&nbsp;has a product that integrates with QuickBooks, Google Analytics, or Zendesk. Even the mighty IBM&rsquo;s talking artificial intelligence avatar, &ldquo;Watson&rdquo; has gotten into the act. An&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ibm.com/watson-analytics/pricing" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>analytics package</u></a>&nbsp;that starts free and grows with your knowledge and the value created is available under the Watson brand. Thanks to IBM&#39;s big Watson branding advertising push, senior management understands what you are trying to achieve!</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Solutions like these greatly simplify the analysis. Other solution providers are emerging daily, so shop around.&nbsp;They usually provide engagement teams with human beings who you can call and ask questions about what the data is telling you.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Professional Advisors &ndash; Ask them to focus on &lsquo;Keeping It Real.&rsquo;</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Like everything else, there is the opportunity for a great deal of puffery in the analysis and interpretation of data. If a service provider overwhelms you with a long concatenation of buzzwords and hard-to-understand terms, find someone else. A plain-spoken expert can do the same work! Our recommendation is to keep it simple, go one step at a time, and get analytical help as you can. Quite often, a local university statistics professor or graduate student would be glad to help. They love a real-life problem on which to test their latest models. If your company&#39;s a little bigger and can afford to hire a data wrangling consultancy, don&#39;t be shy about hiring the right talent. Look for someone with a strong track record with clients like you. Make sure they provide references. Have them include Ph.D.&rsquo;s as well as a few liberal arts-trained executives. Make sure they have led to real value-added for clients like you.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Do you know everything you should about your profitable customers? If not, it&rsquo;s time to find out!</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Notes:</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[i]</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2848718" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2848718</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[ii]</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.blackbaud.com/fundraising-and-relationship-management/raisers-edge" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.blackbaud.com/fundraising-and-relationship-management/raisers-edge</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref3" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[iii]</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nRFAGB8DHE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nRFAGB8DHE</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[iv]</a>&nbsp;Kelleher, K. (2017). What 3 Small Businesses Learned from Big Data. Retrieved from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/kevin-kelleher/how-small-businesses-can-mine-big-data.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/kevin-kelleher/how-small-businesses-can-mine-big-data.html</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref5" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[v]</a>&nbsp;New Advances in Intelligent Decision Technologies: Results of the First KES International Symposium IDT&#39;09 (Google eBook) Kazumi Nakamatsu, Gloria Phillips-Wren, Lakshmi. Jain, Robert J. Howlett Springer Science &amp; Business Media, Apr 28, 2009 - Computers - page 103.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref6" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[vi]</a><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/%20http:/sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-prediction-loverrs-handbook/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">&nbsp;http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-prediction-loverrs-handbook/</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref7" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[vii]</a>&nbsp;Davenport, Thomas H., and D. J. Patil. &quot;Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century.&quot; Harvard Business Review 90, no. 10 (October 2012): 70&ndash;76. See&nbsp;<a href="https://hbr.org/2012/10/data-scientist-the-sexiest-job-of-the-21st-century/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://hbr.org/2012/10/data-scientist-the-sexiest-job-of-the-21st-century/</a></p> <hr />11CRM - Not Just for Big Businesshttps://rrassoicates.azurewebsites.net/Rons-Blog/PostId/8/customer-relationship-management-not-just-for-big-businesscustomer experience,Customer Relationship Management,Customer ServiceWed, 28 Feb 2018 02:44:27 GMT<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Can Five Elements&nbsp;of Data Increase Revenue by 20 percent?</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Several years ago, I tired of receiving emails on Halloween, Christmas, and Easter regarding filters that we use for our heating ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC).&nbsp; &nbsp;The company sending me emails had a great business concept.&nbsp; The Company sold just about any filter known to man through its website and had an excellent&nbsp;indexing system for finding filters on their site.&nbsp; But there was a problem with our customer-vendor relationship.&nbsp; Every six months or so, I needed to replace the filter (usually not on the holidays when they sent their emails). I would have to go through the process of finding the website, searching for the exact filter I needed, and ordering that filter online. I always ordered the filter too late in the filter&#39;s life cycle and spent far too much time re-finding the correct filter. &nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">After receiving my second or third &quot;It&#39;s Halloween/Christmas/Easter/4<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;of July, time to change your filter!&quot; email, I stopped. It occurred to me that this company -- let&#39;s call them EZFilter (not the company&#39;s real name) -- had five vital pieces of information. These tidbits could be very easily combined to provide a computer application which would significantly improve the company&#39;s profitability and&nbsp;<em>my</em>&nbsp;customer experience:</span></p> <ol> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">My email address;&nbsp;</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Credit card number;&nbsp;</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Filter Model Number I needed;</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Purchase Date of the Filter;&nbsp;</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">From the Manufacturer, the Expected Useful Life of that Filter.</span></li> </ol> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br /> <span style="font-size:larger;">I wrote an email to EZFilter customer service pointing out, by way of customer feedback, that the combination of these five data points created an enormous opportunity for the company. With this information, the company could use the useful life of the HVAC filter to send me an email telling me it was time to change the filter. &nbsp;Ideally, the email would contain the date of my last purchase (a fact I can never remember). It would provide a URL link to the product (there are thousands of filters out there). It could allow me to quickly log in and use the credit card information on file to purchase the replacement filter. The application could further use my name and address information to save me typing that into the forms once again. A <span>win-win</span> for them and me!</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>&nbsp;</strong></span><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Stealing Defeat from the Jaws of Victory</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">The head of marketing at EZFilter responded to my email with enthusiasm. However, I learned later that EZFilter was a partnership. The head of IT nixed my suggestion on the basis that the database work would be too costly and inconvenient at that time.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">EZFilter</span><span style="font-size:larger;"> illustrates an all too familiar problem in many companies, which we will explore in later blog pieces.&nbsp; Change requires consensus, leadership, and vision, a combination that is often missing in the companies that need it most.&nbsp; As a result, both the consumer experience and company profitability suffer.&nbsp; My need to change an HVAC filter doesn&#39;t necessarily coincide with EZFilter&#39;s holiday marketing messages, making them annoying spam. Worse, every time I go online and search for filters is a new opportunity for this provider to lose me as a customer. I use search engines to find them (as many customers will). In doing so, I increase the risk that EZFilter loses a customer to someone with a similar offer. The search also adds to their acquisition cost because I click on a pay-per-click advertisement from their search engine providers. In sum, by ignoring my suggestion, the partnership managed to lower my customer lifetime value and that of the rest of EZFilter customer base by a&nbsp;significant measure.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong style="font-size: larger;">Enter Stage Left Amazon.com</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">To make matters worse for EZFilter, Amazon.com has entered the sale of HVAC and refrigerator water filters. Amazon has raised the stakes considerably by turning a routine repurchase into an automatic one. &nbsp;How?&nbsp; Amazon has added a subscription purchase button to the product. This button allows the purchaser to receive electronic, twice-yearly shipments of filters to the address on file and billed to the customer&#39;s credit card. &nbsp;In so doing, Amazon has turned a routine purchase into a subscription service. The exact&nbsp;filters that the customer needs are shipped automatically to the customer exactly when replacement is needed. &nbsp;Amazon quite intelligently recognizes that it has little or no acquisition cost for the repeat purchase. This customer is engaging in a subscription arrangement and will have a much higher customer lifetime value. Amazon, therefore, passes along part of this value to the customer by providing a 15% discount.&nbsp; Amazon may gradually eat EZFilter&#39;s lunch. It will gain market share while at the same time, leverage the customer lifetime value equation to squeeze the margins in the filter company&#39;s business. And all this will happen because Amazon knows how to manage CRM, build databases, and increase customer lifetime value. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong style="font-size: larger;">Examples - Small Companies With CRM&nbsp;Wins</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Moving to&nbsp;more positive models, here are some instances where small and medium-sized organizations have used CRM successfully:</span></p> <ol> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">A dental practice could increase revenue by many tens of thousands of dollars a year by &quot;saving&quot; one or two no-shows a day.<sup>1</sup>&nbsp;With this knowledge, a dentist uses data about her customers and her schedule to send out text messages confirming appointments<a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftn1"><sup>2</sup></a>. The texts go out a week&nbsp;before the appointment and then again the day of the meeting. These messages allow the patient to reschedule by calling the number on the text message or clicking a link. These automatic messages relieve the dentists&#39; administrative assistant from making lots of outbound calls and focusing on other tasks in the office. The number of missed appointments is down dramatically, as well. This automation increases revenue to the practice and makes the dental group more profitable. Customers like me are happier too!<a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftn2"><sup>3</sup></a></span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">A dry cleaner uses an industry-specific CRM system to log clothing dropped off for cleaning by customers. The system tracks new customers and old customers alike in their use of the dry cleaners.&nbsp; And the system is smart enough to notice if a customer fails to come back in with additional dry-cleaning in 60 days. It sends an automatic email from customer service, noting that the customer has not returned, and asking what the customer thought of the job the dry cleaner did.&nbsp; A follow-up email allows the dry cleaner to watch defecting customers and address any problems that have arisen in its services.<a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftn3"><sup>4</sup></a></span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">An equine veterinarian&#39;s multi-office practice needed a system that can communicate with clients from where their patients are -- barns located across a multi-county region. The system had to take and store patient notes, track payments, share medical histories, and monitor accounts receivable.&nbsp; The practice moved to a cloud-based CRM system specially designed for veterinarians and outfitted its trucks with Internet hot spots.&nbsp; The veterinarians and clients alike have commented on the simple, easy-to-understand layout of invoices/medical records. The user is saving significant postage and labor costs by sending all communications electronically<a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftn4"><sup>5</sup></a>!</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">The Jane Goodall Institute, an International Institute for the study and protection of wildlife, had increasing challenges raising money online with web-based appeals due to an old website.&nbsp; The problems included slow time to go live for online content, little or no reporting, and minimal budget for coordination of all the organization&#39;s needs. The system licensed a website (Drupal(R)) and a CRM system (CiviCRM(R)) specifically designed for nonprofits.&nbsp; The reported results were growth in their email list by 300 percent, a decrease in opt-outs by 70 percent, and online revenue/donation increase that delivered an overall ROI of 500%.&nbsp; The back-end CRM system served (CiviCRM(R)) to focus efforts on increasing donations and marketing, not web maintenance<a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftn5"><sup>6</sup></a>.</span></li> </ol> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">&nbsp;<br /> Each of the examples above shows the use of a customer relationship management (CRM) system in a small business or nonprofit setting to improve customer experience and profitability or outreach.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <strong>Keep It Simple at First&nbsp;- The Most Important Thing is to&nbsp;<em>Get Started</em></strong><br /> <br /> &nbsp;Why should we bother with this exercise, you ask?&nbsp;&nbsp; Wharton Marketing Professor Peter Fader makes the critical distinction between companies that are &quot;customer-centric&quot; and &quot;product-centric.&quot; Dr. Fader starts his course with a playful discussion of which companies are Customer-Centric.&nbsp; In his book,&nbsp;<em>Customer Centricity</em>, he argues that genuinely&nbsp;customer-centric companies are those who know enough about their customers to differentiate their approach. The companies offer to target and serve those customers who are&nbsp;<em>profitable to them</em>. At the center of this &quot;customer-centric&quot; model are customer relationship management and customer lifetime value:</span><br /> &nbsp;</p> <blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>The first step of CRM is to keep it simple. Start with simple data and then add simple queries that you want to make on that data, keeping the operational parts around it simple. Then you can build up and add complexity as the company has a genuine need for it. CRM has gotten kind of a bad reputation. I think it&#39;s undeserved. I don&#39;t think it is the fault of CRM or the vendors that sell CRM systems; the companies that are bringing it in are biting off more than they can chew in many cases.</em><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftn6"><em><sup>7</sup></em></a></span></blockquote> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br /> <span style="font-size:larger;">&nbsp;<br /> Dr. Fader&#39;s cautionary remarks regarding CRM Systems are on target. System vendors have incentives, financial and otherwise, to sell users as many modules as possible.&nbsp;For a <span>small</span>&nbsp;business, any CRM or big data solution must work on a standalone basis.&nbsp; &nbsp;Don&#39;t be afraid to begin creating a database in Excel or Access. &nbsp;When you do step up to a more sophisticated CRM, systems vendors provide complete company enterprise solutions. Examine them. But, be careful not to try to do too much too soon.&nbsp; It is wise to start with the basics. Make sure you have clean data. Focus on understanding a few basic questions. Who are your customers? Why do they buy from you? What do they want to buy again? How can you attract more people like them? Start with simple, practical opportunities to understand your customers and key customer segments. Then, drive internal efficiencies in managing your customer relationships. Finally, move onto improving experience,&nbsp;reducing costs, and increasing sales.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <strong>Find A Vendor Who Knows Your Industry</strong><br /> <br /> The above examples also bring us to a critical point about CRM. Just about every industry these days has some CRM offering tailored to the unique needs of the business or nonprofit. The case study provided by the software dental practice cited above is just one example. If you are a member of an extensive but somewhat specialized vertical, be sure to search out CRM systems specifically designed for your industry. These systems are typically cloud-based and will provide a great deal of functionality that will save your organization time and money.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> Further, those CRM systems with high penetration in the marketplace, for example, salesforce.com (SFDC), have vast numbers of applications to which they have already integrated, everything from email providers, to analytics programs, to data providers.&nbsp; Often, using a program like SFDC, your organization can develop its customer or member scenarios, addressing unmet needs, and building differentiation in the marketplace.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <strong>Summary - Start Small, Think Big</strong><br /> <br /> Your company can leverage even a small amount of customer or donor information in creative ways to improve revenue and increase repeat sales.&nbsp; Creating a Customer Relationship Management system does not have to be expensive or technically challenging.&nbsp; It can start as a simple customer list in Excel or Access. S</span><span style="font-size:larger;">tarting</span><span style="font-size:larger;"> your CRM journey can be as simple as adding a request for email and phone numbers to every new customer interaction.&nbsp; Getting started is the hardest part, but once started, it is an essential step in growing both the amount of revenue and frequency of income in your organization&#39;s relationships.&nbsp; We&#39;ll explore how we&#39;ve used CRM&#39;s to improve client profitability in upcoming blog posts.<br /> <br /> &nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br /> &nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftnref1"><sup>2</sup></a>&nbsp;http://www.solutionreach.com/</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftnref2"><sup>3</sup></a>&nbsp;Laura Cox and Sarah Walker&#39;s award-winning dental practice in Knoxville, Tennessee using smile dental messaging solution: http://www.solutionreach.com/DENTAL</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftnref3"><sup>4</sup></a>&nbsp;My friend Don <span>Holocek</span> at Crown Cleaners in Knoxville uses a similar system.&nbsp; http://www.geelus.com/</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftnref4"><sup>5</sup></a>&nbsp;http://www.capterra.com/veterinary-software/spotlight/95349/VetBlue%20Clinic/VetBlue</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftnref5"><sup>6</sup></a>&nbsp;http://www.gingerfeet.com/case-study-1-jane-goodall-institute</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/CRMs_4_small_companies.docx#_ftnref6"><sup>7</sup></a>&nbsp;http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/peter-fader-on-customer-centricity-and-why-it-matters/</span></p> 8