Customer Life-Time Value
We give lip service to the importance of customers and clients. For businesses impacted negatively by COVID, whether we are B2B or B2C, maintaining, and indeed growing a solid base of loyal clients will be the difference between success and failure, there it is crucial to know the value of our most important asset.
The Chronic Complaining Colleague
We all have off days. Days where the sky seems metallic grey rather than vibrant blue and smiles have an edge of irritation. Sometimes, it can be healthy to complain; to vent as it allows us to bring things out into the open where there is a greater chance of them being dealt with constructively, rather than being suppressed and pushed away.
Centrality of Clients
In an environment still coming to terms with the impact of COVID, businesses in both B2B and B2C areas are asking themselves, if they can rely on the loyalty of customers they had prior to January 2020?
Customer’s priorities have been impacted by the uncertainty and fear they have felt and by losses they may have experienced. How B2B and B2C businesses pivot and adapt to changing customer experience will, in large measure, determine their ability to consolidate and grow.
While there is much talk about the importance of the customer or client, often there is a disparity between the talk and the practice of the business. A subtle, unconscious inertia can pull organisations into being company centric rather than customer centric, almost without them realising what is occurring. In an increasing digital age and with the impact of COVID, organisations have a window of opportunity to review their practices and build a culture and practice which places the client at the centre.
Organisations that are company centric, channel the customer through a linear series of interactions that allow the business to control both the process and the interactions. However, customers rarely follow stepped out journeys. Instead, they follow their impulses, urges, whims, and preferences often in unplanned moments of opportunity. This means organisations need to understand these unplanned moments and provide opportunities that allow clients to make decisions to achieve their original intent.
The customer-centric, purpose-led approach is even more important for B2B organisations because longer buying cycles means keeping clients engaged in longer journeys that have more interaction points. This means more people, each on their own journey with their own purposes depending on their role resulting in a multi-layered client journey which is more challenging than an interaction in a B2C environment.
How do we create a stronger customer-centric environment?
The first step is to shift our thinking from a transactional perspective which is simply a buy/sell dynamic to one where both organisation and client are viewed in a symbiotic relationship. A symbiotic relationship is one that is mutually beneficial. In other words, we change our perspective from seeing the client as a path to achieve a purchase to viewing our relationship with the client as a means to achieve their purpose.
One of the ways businesses do this is by focusing on moments that matter to clients. Accenture, in research found there are specific client interactions known as “moments that matter” that have an outsized influence on customer happiness and loyalty. There are three moment that are particularly relevant; when a customer pays a bill, upgrades or changes services or calls with a technical question or billing issue. In considering these three moments that matter, organisations can boost customer happiness and achieve brand advocacy & loyalty.
This information provides the second step. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that to “delight our customers”, a phrase used by Jeff Bezos businesses need to provide them with something new and different. In fact, what delights clients is the opportunity to deal with businesses, with less effort. Life for clients is complicated enough, where businesses can remove friction from the customer experience and provide smooth, efficient, and fast service, they provide delight.
Removing friction from the customer/client experience provides small and midsized B2C and B2B businesses with a window of advantage, for while larger organisations may have greater resources, there is often, as mentioned a cultural inertia to change that allows opportunities for more nimble companies to better align with customers’ purpose and forge new relationships that strengthen loyalty between them and their clients.
Becoming customer-centric takes commitment and a dedication and willingness to look at every aspect of our business. It takes work to work against the inertia that drives businesses back to being company-centric. Yet, if we want to stand out to customers and clients, we need to walk the path of finding out and meeting our clients’ purpose.
[1] Designing Customer Journeys for the Post-Pandemic World (hbr.org) [2] Designing Customer Journeys for the Post-Pandemic World (hbr.org) [3] ibid [4] Portrait Of The Customer-Centric Legal Function (forbes.com) [5] Designing Customer Journeys for the Post-Pandemic World (hbr.org) [6] Customer Experience Can Be Data Driven—Here’s How (forbes.com) [7] ibid [8] ibid [9] Portrait Of The Customer-Centric Legal Function (forbes.com) [10] ibid [11] ibid [12] Designing Customer Journeys for the Post-Pandemic World (hbr.org)- Published in marketing
Rule of 7
The rule of 7 states, it takes 7 interactions with your brand before a person will engage with it and become a client or customer.
- Published in marketing, Psychology
Daring to be different
Fear creates uncertainty. Uncertainty creates a sense of dis-equilibrium within us that we try to correct, so we can feel balanced and in equilibrium again.
- Published in marketing, Psychology
Clickbait and the damage done
Clickbait is the tactic of teasing users with intriguing ads or posts of your content to entice them to click-through and read.
- Published in marketing, Psychology
Adapting to Change
One of the quotes ascribed to Charles Darwin is, “it isn’t the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, it is the one that is most adaptable to change”.
- Published in Workplace
Building an online presence for Not-For-Profits
For the majority of Not-For-Profit (NFP) organisations, one of the consequences of COVID was the impact on service delivery. A 2020 research project reported 54% of nfp’s had to significantly change the way they provided services, while 17% of nfp’s had to suspend services completely[1]. Only 3% of nfp’s did not have to change their method of service delivery.[2]
In adapting to these changes, the technological environment in which nfp’s operate has become more important. Technology within organisations has an internal and external aspect. With the sudden shift due to COVID, the internal aspects of technology such as enabling staff to work remotely, ensuring data security and continuity of service delivery have taken priority for the majority of nfp’s. However, it is important not to forget the external, or outward facing aspects of the nfp such as websites, social media, and digital marketing. It is this external aspect that assists nfp’s to build a presence and engage more effectively with clients, the community and importantly potential sponsors or donors.
With the shift away from face-to-face interactions and large crowd functions which have been traditional sources of fundraising, nfp’s need to think through, the opportunities for fundraising and engaging with sponsors and donors through online mediums. Currently 43% of nfp’s collect donations online[3]. It is likely more nfps’ will look for ways to fund raise online in the future. This is where the effectiveness of the organisations social media and digital presence is so important because it is the first point of contact for potential donors and sponsors.
The good news is that 90% of nfp’s are using at least one social media platform, with Facebook being the most popular.[4] Of the 90% of nfp’s 79% acknowledge social media as being effective and important for the organisation.[5]
The good news is that 90% of nfp’s are using at least one social media platform, with Facebook being the most popular.[4] Of the 90% of nfp’s, 79% acknowledge social media as being effective and important for the organisation.[5]
While it is positive many nfp’s are engaging with at least one social media platform when looking at the effectiveness of nfp’s use of social media, there is still much to be done to improve and build an organisations online profile and engagement.
One simple effective way a nfp can improve their digital presence is to use the benefits of the Google for Non-Profit program. Only 20% of nfp’s are making use of this program, which provides $10,000 USD of free advertising for eligible organisations[6]. Equally, less than half of nfp organisations track and report on the results of their digital marketing activities. Consequently, with no review of the effectiveness of the activities and whether they are reaching the targeted audience, Boards and Senior Management do not see the value of the money being spent on digital marketing. If Boards do not understand the value of digital marketing and building a social media presence, it is unlikely the organisation will have a consistent, clear strategy to consolidate its online brand and this ongoing spend.
While organisations generally have a greater appetite to embrace new technology and more modern ways of working as a consequence of COVID, keeping up to date with technological changes and identifying where to invest in social media to obtain the best results remain a challenge particularly for smaller to medium size nfp’s. Having the assistance of an external provider that can provide external, expert advice on how to build brand awareness for nfp’s specifically can save money and in the long term assist in building the donor and sponsorship base.
1.Dgital Technology in the Not-for-Profit Sector 2020 Report
2. ibid
3. ibid
4. ibid
5. ibid
- Published in Not-For-Profit
Communication in an age of misinformation
We need to check our biases and assumptions and know our market, so our messaging has the best chance of cutting through.
- Published in Psychology, Workplace
Changing the culture, changing the story
Cultures within organisations are often maintained by the accepted practices within the workplace as well as the dominant story of the organisation.
- Published in Not-For-Profit, Workplace
