Example: Customer Insight Delivering Personal Communication

Last night, I was on www.autotrader.co.uk to list my car for sale. As the V5 has not returned from DVLA yet since we moved (it has been 7days now DVLA...), I decided not to complete my advert until such time the revised address on the V5 returns.

Interestingly though, this morning on www.ebay.co.uk, I noticed a creative spot for Auto Trader - and inside the creative messaging was 'Complete your Ad'.

I talk day in, day out about getting Customer Insight into the hands of business folk who need to be able to do just this - reach the right person at the right time in the best way possible. One could argue that promoting an Auto Trader creative with messaging that may discourage me from advertising with eBay might not be in eBay's best interest, but nonetheless, it is an example of individual personalisation which has been gleaned from Customer Insight.

Although I didn't click on the creative, it did get me thinking... if Auto Trader and eBay are already working together to bring together a better experience to their visitors in the online world, why aren't more businesses wanting to do the same? Why the resistance? In most cases, the insight returned by such platforms pays x5 of the spend in ROI and payback to the business (if based on examples I have heard about are to be believed) is within the first 10months!

Just take a read of these additional stories below to learn the true value on gaining detailed customer insight:

10 x increase in revenue per email
(up to 500 x increase for high value items)

Customers who have previously been browsing high value items on the web site, were targeted with personalised emails during a 'SALE' campaign. The association of high value items, such as Bluray players/LED tv's/iPod's, which were relevant to the individual, saw the average return per email increase from $0.30 to $3 overnight.

$1.0m p.a. incremental revenue from hot online leads passed into the call centre

Where a prospect failed to complete car insurance online and also failed to call in to the call centre within 2 days after the failed online conversion, contact/product details were passed to a dedicated call centre whereby follow-up calls were made by insurance representatives. This resulted in 1/3 of every call being converted into a new customer - previously, that 1 in 3 was a lost online opportunity.

240% improvement in click-to-buy ratio

All products 'touched' by each online individual visitor are distributed to each individually subscribed 'customer' on a weekly basis. This has resulted in a 240% increase in click-to-buy ratio for one particular customer.

20% increase in online conversion rates

By better understanding the reasons behind 'Abandoned Baskets', the discovery was made that there was in fact an stock inventory problems whereby mid-value items were out of stock! By addressing the levels of stock, the number of abandoned baskets dropped and increase conversions occurred.

3% reduction in # catalogues shipped ($4m saving)

By simply being able to identify which home shoppers were receiving a catalogue but never quoting a catalogue reference number whilst online as well as never calling into the call centre, the decision to stop sending catalogues to identified residential dwellings resulted in a small decrease (but significant) saving in shipping and printing costs.

$1.2m p.a. saving due to online fraud detection

By identifying behaviours that were 'not-typical', such as entering 6 different credit card numbers incorrectly within a few minutes or by flagging up high risk addresses which where known fraudulent activity hot-spots, customers using Celebrus have benefitted from being able to identify fraudulent online activity taking place, in realtime, online. Now, they are stopping shipments at the tailgate, saving on the associated expense and improving customer satisfaction/loyalty.


Customer Level Insight platforms are an absolute must for businesses and organisations who want to get an advantage in an ever increasingly competitive landscape!

The Emergence Of Social Networks Has Not Just Changed How People Communicate And Share Information With One Another

The emergence of social networks has not just changed how people communicate and share information with one another. It has the power to fundamentally change business in ways that are just beginning to be discovered. The social network is no longer just an interesting technological showcase; it is a cultural phenomenon and the most disruptive technological force in society today.

Consider this, you are a representative for Sports personalities; you make money off the back of the success (or failures) of individuals through PR. The people or personalities you represent are high profile, always in the limelight and sometimes get things wrong, or very right!
Wouldn't you, as their representative, like to know the value (and risk) the individual holds in the Social Networks?

That is where you need individual 'customer' insight. This term 'Individual Customer' insight, is often associated with end-user web sites where personalised content can be promoted or served based around the ongoing profile being built around an individual, from the very first click! But, such technology now exists to analyse in microscopic detail the behaviours that are occurring on Facebook, for example.

Facebook is the world’s biggest self-updating data source, with over 750 million members, who willingly give up around 150 crucial bits of lifestyle information about themselves.

Consider the value of knowing a high profile personality has 250,000 fans - now consider the marketing opportunity you have to those 250,000 fans. Perhaps you can establish partnerships with leading brands such as Adidas or Nike, Cannondale or Scott, BMW or Mercedes and so on. Suddenly, 250,000 fans in the Social Networks have a seriously attractive financial attraction - increase the wealth of your Sports personality, keep their loyalty and increase your own wealth and portfolio by becoming increasingly more successful and popular.

You have the connections, technology exists to feed you with the valuable insight you are yearning for. What are you waiting for?

The Future Is Already Here, Businesses Are Just Not Aware

This morning my 5yr old boy asks me for a computer so he can go to the CBBC web site to play games. Now, imagine the CBBC web site profiling children over time - learning what games they play and the time/outcome of them playing it. Imagine the CBBC web site pushing the capabilities of a child playing a 'game', making something easier or harder for a child to help develop their learning skills.

With increasing pressures being applied by the UK Government to raise the bar on a child's development from a young age (the UK is not as strict as other countries within the EU), using fun methods that involve a child to interact on a site that self-learns seems too obvious to many. Couple that with electronic devices that are more and more becoming 'internet-capable' or enabled, and you have multiple channels open to young children today, whether at home or on the move.

It is nothing new to pick on how the gaming sector has shaped the lives of young people today. But perhaps instead of blaming the gaming sector, we should be embracing it (especially in young children).

The future of web site profiling, segmentation and personalisation is already here and the sooner businesses all over the world develop the appetite to perform Individual Visitor Insight on their own sites, the sooner they will be profiteering, performing and over-achieving beyond all targets ever imagined.

Now, if only we could do something similar with the Utilities sector...

Tags! Why All The Bother?

Tag it! That's what I always hear - put a tag in that page, on that button, in that search box (in fact, make it x25!).

I kid you not. I recently thought I'd check just how many 'tags' are on a retail focused web site who uses a traditional marketing analytics platform - on one page, I found x25 tags! I then proceeded to look at three other pages and guess what, found more tags! In total, across three pages, I counted 57 tags! Who do you think has to manage those? Deploy them? Report on and Analyse them? Developers/"Analysts"!.

I put Analysts in quotes above because invariably "Analysts" are hired to perform analysis on the insight collected from the online channel, yet increasingly it is in fact the Analysts that must build the "tagging doc" that the business will deploy to deliver the insight required for the latest Business case.
 
How much does that Developer/Analyst cost our business again? How much time are they spending not developing or analysing the insight collected but building tagging documents and configuring non-retrospective (providing insight from only today onwards) reports?

Using a single insert file, one which removes the need for 'Tags', will not only save the business significant benefits when it comes to Time to Data, free up the Analysts time to perform Analysis, but also remove the human factor when it comes to tags being deployed incorrectly or not at all. All of which stack up to a business not performing at its full potential and losing out to the competition.

Don't keep up with the 'Joneses', just because your nearest competitor is using a platform from 'X' vendor (and you believe them to be successful with using it - trust me, some have taken 18months+ to fully deploy, which is such a long time!!!).
Take the opportunity to get ahead and adopt a platform which will provide increased visibility of online successes (and opportunities) whilst at the same time freeing up your team of experts to do what they do best, providing Insight that will deliver business and commercial advantages and value!