Direct Marketing Magazine December 2015

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Customer CAMP loyalty award winners

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Contact Management: The technology issue

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The Authority on Data-Driven Engagement & Operations

A beacon of loyalty ❱ 8

Gary Tannyan

vol. 28 • No. 12 • December 2015

Michael Cohen, director, mobile, API & analytics innovation for LoyaltyOne’s AIR MILES Reward Program and Sandra Singer, vice president of research at the Canadian Marketing Association.

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Vol. 28 | No. 12 | December 2015 EDITOR Sarah O’Connor - sarah@dmn.ca PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca DESIGN / PRODUCTION Jennifer ss - jennifer@dmn.ca Advertising Sales Mark Henry - mark@dmn.ca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Sasha Krstic Mike Aoki Emily Nielsen John Boynton Michael Pawlak Craig Carothers Catherine Pearson Michael Cohen Russell Pelham Monique Duquette Sandra Singer Nadine Evans LLOYDMEDIA INC. HEAD OFFICE / SUBSCRIPTIONS / PRODUCTION:

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Targeting & Acquisition

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December 2015

Using digital solutions to enhance customer experience

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Building loyalty: CAA’s analytics reward both members and partners

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Gary Tannyan

Cover Story

Engagement & Analytics ❯❯5

Contact management IssUe 4

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Developing a thoughtful and realistic next-best-action strategy

Leveraging technology to improve sales results

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How Home Hardware is building customer loyalty, one customer at a time

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Making loyalty personal

Operations & Logistics ❯❯10

How analytics enhance operations

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Protecting customer data with DTMF masking solutions

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Tips for working with your IT department to become an omnichannel champion

Infographic: Data sharing: What are ❯❯9 customers thinking?

How cloud-based technology can ❯❯11 help your organization deliver CAMP award winners omnichannel service DMN.ca ❰

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Targeting & Acquisition

Building loyalty: CAA’s analytics reward both members and partners T

By Catherine Pearson

hink CAA and the image of a tow truck arriving to jump-start your car may come to mind. But the Canadian Automobile Association has come a long way from its roots in the early days of the automobile era.

Today’s CAA National operates more like a diversified corporation with four distinct lines of business: roadside, insurance, travel and rewards.

Through its nine regional CAA clubs nationwide, the organization serves 6.1 million members and over four million households. And CAA National plays a central role by energizing member engagement and bolstering brand recognition.

A key element in the club’s strategy to increase customer loyalty is its CAA Rewards program, which offers members discounts and special deals with popular travel brands and retailers. The program’s partners include some of the biggest names in the hotel, car rental, food and gas industries, including Hilton, Starwood, Hertz, Cara, Petro-Canada, Husky and Shop.ca. But while other loyalty programs earn commissions when members use partner services, CAA eschews fees. The potential for added income from these partnerships is not nearly as important to CAA as the membership benefits that the deals and discounts deliver. The group calculates that when members have three-plus touchpoints with partners, their already high renewal rate grows even higher.

“We believe in giving the value of our partnerships directly to our members,” explains Jeff Walker, vice president of public affairs and chief strategy officer of CAA National.

“Most members can list all the CAA benefits they receive, from hotel savings to gas to car rentals to restaurant offers, on just one family trip. And that’s not even counting the rest of the year. We believe that these partnerships are most valuable to reinforce the relationship between members and our organization.”

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The data difference Two years ago Walker turned to data analytics to develop and enhance those partner relationships.

Previously, CAA’s idea of a targeted promotion involved sending a direct marketing piece to members with a certain income level. But when one large travel partner asked for guidance on how to increase bookings for its tours of Europe and the U.S., Walker had a flash of inspiration. “Let’s dig deeper into our data,” he suggested.

CAA marketers began by analyzing the postal codes of that partner’s 25,000 customers using PRIZM5, the segmentation system from Environics Analytics that classifies Canadians according to 68 lifestyle types. They then overlaid key target segments identified from the PRIZM profile of

and prospects—liked intense outdoor experiences. “We learned that these weren’t beach people but travellers who liked to hike, golf and go to national parks,” recounts Walker.

“So what did we do? We structured a campaign around visiting the national parks in the U.S.” The email campaign proved wildly successful. Its hit rates, click-throughs and sales all increased four-fold over previous efforts. At CAA, officials were as happy with the open rate as the sales figures. “Even if our members didn’t buy, we were pleased with the open rate because it meant that we’d provided a relevant offer,” says Walker.

“The campaign was a win-win for our partner and for us.”

Since then, CAA has redoubled efforts to grow its partnerships, now

before about our customers.’ The data has helped us engage several partners who had few customer insights before they came to us.”

Less is more Walker, who’s been with CAA since 2010, is careful about not abusing the club’s member database, even with targeted offers. The organization remains privacy compliant by only analyzing postal codes of members— “We don’t want people’s names or addresses,” he says—and controlling the marketing campaigns directed to its members. For example, CAA limits the frequency of communications through its varied channels of email, direct mail and corporate magazine.

“We don’t believe in multiple communications with members like Groupon,” he notes. “We want to make sure that we send the right message to the right member at the right time.”

Another benefit of data-driven analysis and campaign design is that CAA can now measure the results and determine their return on investment. “We had a hell of a time doing ROI on a mass media campaign,” Walker said about previous efforts. The PRIZM-based analysis has also helped partners connect with sometimes difficult to reach cultural groups. “That was a surprise, that we were able to identify new customers for our partner,” he says.

As gratifying as it is to help CAA’s Rewards partners grow, Walker never forgets where his true loyalty lies.

Data-driven analytics has helped CAA strengthen member loyalty by providing more relevant product and services offers. “By using tools like PRIZM, our members get more of what they want from their engagement to our brand,” he says. “And that makes them renew with us.”

“We were getting off-the-chart indexes for segments in our database that we hadn’t targeted before.” the partner customers with CAA’s own database of 4.3 million member households. The analysis resulted in identifying 400,000 additional CAA households that shared the same segment-based lifestyles and, very likely, the same interests as the partner’s current customers.

“We were getting off-the-chart indexes for segments in our database that we hadn’t targeted before,” recalls Walker, who previously worked with PRIZM as senior vice president of Harris/Decima, one of Canada’s largest research and communications agencies. “They were twice as likely as our average member to buy this kind of service. The data made so much more sense than our educated guess of who we should be marketing to.”

CAA then crafted a targeted direct mail and email campaign using PRIZM-linked data from a PMB survey that showed these customers—

the most common way members interact with the group. And one of its chief selling points for potential partners is the ability to use segmentation data like PRIZM5 to identify prospective customers within CAA’s huge database. As Walker explains: “We know that ‘spray and pray’ marketing no longer works.

When using segmentation with our database, we no longer have to guess which segments of our members to target.”

Walker adds that the segmentation data even helps partners that may not have their own customer database to analyze. If company leaders believe their core customers are men between 35 and 54 years old, CAA analysts can approximate which PRIZM5 segments in that age demographic would fit the bill. “The response is usually positive,” observes Walker. “They say, ‘This is fantastic, way more depth than we had

Catherine Pearson is senior vice president

and practice leader, overseeing the financial, insurance, telecommunications and travel sectors at Environics Analytics.

December 2015

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Engagement & Analytics

Developing a thoughtful and realistic next-best-action strategy Why knowing your customer starts with analytics and a well articulated next-best-action strategy

By Monique Duquette

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n a world of increasingly high consumer expectations, customers want to be known as individuals with distinct preferences, not just a member of a segment. The digital world is challenging marketers to consistently understand and enhance the customer experience across all channels, making mastering the art and science of next-best action (NBA) a worthwhile endeavor.

Next best action is a customercentric marketing technique that considers the alternative actions during a customer interaction and recommends the best one.

Determining what the next best action is leverages an organization’s competitive assets—the data and analytical insights used to understand a customer in the moment of engagement—and serves that customer in a relevant and contextual manner whether it’s marketing or service related.

That competitive asset is an organization’s opportunity to be truly useful to its customers. It’s an opportunity to help, thrill and delight them from a state of apathy to a state of enthusiasm. But that competitive asset only truly becomes a differentiator if an organization is able to bridge the agility gaps between its data, its insight and its ability to put those into action at the moment of engagement with the customer.

Unfortunately, many organizations are falling short of achieving a true NBA strategy because they are missing key ingredients in the NBA recipe.

Data: This seems simple, but is actually quite challenging when you consider all the possible sources.

Your data strategy must include not just your customer information, but also the data that tells you who they are at their core. For retailers, this could be transactional data, online behavior data (not just click stream) and new technologies like social media and beaconing. For banks and insurers, it’s all of the above, plus data awareness of risk and fraud profiles.

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For telecommunication companies, it’s incorporating the network data into new opportunities to proactively service their customers.

Analytics: Take the data you have and determine if it’s merely interesting or if it’s significant enough to act upon it. Use that data to make analytical inferences or predictions to support hyper-personalized experiences.

Action: All the data and analytics in the world won’t deliver an impactful experience without the ability to put it into action with your customer in the moment of execution (proactive outbound) or in the moment of interaction (anticipated inbound).

In addition to embracing the three key pillars above, organizations must quickly: Determine relevance: What is relevant right now for my customers?

What are they eligible for?

Understand context: What is happening right now with this customer? What has been his or her recent experience?

Be agile: What can I anticipate and predict about this customer? How do I respond in the moment while I have his or her captive attention?

This sets the stage for a customercentric NBA strategy. But how do organizations actually achieve it?

Recognize Recognize and acknowledge the reality of your organization. Is your organization truly ready to be customer-centric? Can your culture adapt from a product-centred approach to a truly customer-centric approach? This is a shift in mindset from “I have an offer, what customers are eligible for it?” to “I have a customer, what’s right for them?”

Organizations should be cognizant that this shift has downstream impacts on employee compensation packages and how departments are measured. For example, call centre agents are often rewarded based on AHT (average handling time), which can lead to a culture of serving up the easiest offer as opposed to what’s right for the customer or a profitable offer for the organization. Conversely, many

financial organizations hold a leadbased metric as the gospel for success.

Understand Understand what the data and technology landscape looks like realistically within your organization.

Is real-time data a reality or a pipe dream? Do you have a number of disparate supporting technologies, like a campaign tool, an email tool, a decision or rules engine? Are there silos that exist that need to be addressed in order to move forward with a customer-centric strategy? In working with many organizations, the most common question is where to start. You start with the hindsight of the answers to the above questions, but you also need a vision of what capabilities or experience you’d like to enable. For each, weigh the possible value each could drive for the organization against the level of disruption enabling those capabilities would entail. For example, if you’re thinking of starting an NBA journey in the call centre, are there cultural considerations? Is there re-training needed? Do compensation packages have to be adjusted? Does the call center operational system have to be updated or adapted?

Listen What is your customer’s perspective?

What are their most common complaints and requests? What’s the competitive landscape in your industry? Are you looking for firstmover advantage, to keep pace or be on the bleeding edge? This is not a one-time exercise. It must be considered an operationalized, continuous improvement loop. For many organizations, incorporating “listening” into their process manifests itself in survey and net-promoter scores. However, the maturation of “listening” feeds this information into the decisioning process and advanced test-and-learn strategies.

Have a vision, make a plan The old adage of “fail to plan, plan to fail” is accurate. A plan without a longterm vision is just a plan without the

motivation or inspiration to maintain the momentum needed to endure.

NBA is a long-distance race that will be fraught with hurdles, challenges, twists in the road and some steep hills to climb. Organizations must rally key stakeholders across marketing, IT, customer experience, channels and customer service around a central vision that sets everyone facing forward in the same direction. Stakeholders must understand what the end game is and be the internal change agents to maintain momentum and lead.

NBA does not happen overnight.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to approach a true NBA strategy. The wrong way is a “big bang, boil the ocean” approach. For most organizations it’s too much organizational change at once. It works sequentially toward a far out “go-live” date that jeopardizes momentum and allocated budget, and places tremendous pressure on the individuals involved. The right way is an iterative, value-based approach with innovation waves across the work streams. This delivers incremental value to the organization and to the customer with each wave and further advances the capabilities and maturity without unnecessary pressure or crippling organizational change.

Leveraging a thoughtful, realistic NBA strategy can yield millions of dollars in additional revenue, drive up customer satisfaction and drive down unnecessary operational costs.

But with most organizations pursuing NBA, marketing has become a game of inches. The number of inches you get over the competition is up to you. Building and maximizing your competitive assets combined with a solid strategy is the means of differentiation.

Marketer turned marketing technologist and ‘customer fanatic,’ Monique Duquette has spent the last 18 years immersed in all things marketing. As national practice lead for SAS Customer Intelligence, Monique works with marketing and customer experience leaders across Canada to deliver analytically driven strategies and best practices that drive value and superior customer experience.

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Engagement & Analytics

How Home Hardware is building customer loyalty through relevancy, one customer at a time

By John Boynton

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n the quest to retain customers, many retailers across Canada have created their own or joined existing loyalty programs. Rewarding customers for their loyalty and leveraging the data that’s collected as part of these interactions as a means to build real relationships with customers has gained a lot of ground with brands— including Canadian retailer Home Hardware. But as most CMOs know, it’s much easier said than done.

Home Hardware, Canada’s largest dealer-owned hardware, lumber, building materials and furniture cooperative, prides itself on providing unique customer experiences across Canada. The guiding ethic of the retailer is that “community and common good is simply good business.”

This customer-centric approach coupled with ensuring qualified staff and services are unique to each location based on local market needs has been the ethos that has solidified the retailer’s nationwide success.

In order to offer further value to existing customers and incentivize a new customer base, Home Hardware joined as a partner in Aeroplan in 2007. Aeroplan now has more than 4.8 million members who can earn Aeroplan Miles with a growing network of over 75 world-class partners, representing more than 150 brands in the financial, retail and travel sectors. Given that approximately one in five Aeroplan members shops at Home Hardware, it was a natural fit.

Data that matters Coalition programs like Aeroplan, by nature, allow participating partners access to the benefits and the power of a larger loyalty program without carrying the burden of operating costs, lengthy set up times, complexity and talent challenges entirely on their own. It provides access to a large wealth of data, a sizeable advanced analytics resource, proven predictive model experience and proven as ❱ DMN.ca

well as repeatable lifecycle programs to drive many different KPIs for a participating brand. Coalitions encourage members to consolidate their spending at participating partners, in this case, helping to keep Home Hardware a top-of-mind DIY retailer. Home Hardware has seen a significant increase in total spend by Aeroplan members year on year since joining as well as increased basket size and frequency.

With the growth of customer data sets—from loyalty programs, third-party data sources, social media and transactional data—as tools in a brand’s marketing arsenal, Home Hardware was interested in leveraging Aeroplan member data to increase relevancy in member-targeted communications.

Many companies are becoming adept at recording and analyzing consumer data on several levels to inform their customer communications. Past-purchase data gives companies great insight into customers, given that buying often occurs in patterns. When data is used in aggregate, intelligence emerges and predictive models can be built.

If a company knows the likelihood of a customer wanting a specific product, that message can be served with specialized content rather than mass messaging. Additionally, this type of purchase behaviour data can also become the foundation for personalization campaigns that deliver meaningful content and offers.

Most recently, Aeroplan acquired new customers for Home Hardware by using these sorts of member data insights to direct those Aeroplan members with a higher propensity to shop at DIY retailers towards the newly revamped Home Hardware website.

As such, the number of Aeroplan members who shop at Home Hardware grew this year by five per cent.

Less is best Digital communications have become a very successful marketing tool for retailers but there are, of course,

sensitivities and limits around all of this. According to recently conducted research by Aimia, three out of every five Canadians say the volume of digital messages has increased during the past year. 71% of Canadians don’t want to be bombarded with offers and would prefer to be sent offers that are most relevant to them. Companies need to respect their customers’ preferences and provide them with tangible value to avoid harming the relationship. The same research noted that the majority of consumers don’t mind when marketers use lifestyle and shopping behaviour data to deliver more relevant offers. 74% of Canadians are most likely to notice emails with the “right” marketing offers that are relevant to them.

12.3% of Aeroplan members shopping at Home Hardware for the first time this year did so because of relevant and targeted marketing driving them to the retailer’s website. These new customers have proven to be of tremendous value to Home Hardware, having an average basket size closely aligned with higher value in-store purchases. The targeted marketing coupled with Home Hardware’s new omnichannel shopping experience has created an excellent opportunity for growth for the retailer. The online shopping cart also integrates Aeroplan Mile accumulation on purchases, allowing for a seamless customer experience.

New ways to connect Recently, Home Hardware looked at the direction of the marketing space—with the shifting headwinds of data and customization—and decided it was time to tweak the course of its marketing efforts; and that meant the retailer adopted a more focused approach.

In November 2015, a marketing program was created using Aeroplan’s rich data set, advanced analytics depth and proven execution experience to show the relevancy of Home Hardware communications and offers to targeted Aeroplan members.

Home Hardware’s goal was to increase sales by driving click-throughs to their website. A highly segmented email was created to showcase merchandise in categories that were particularly relevant to a number of Aeroplan member segments. For example, Home Hardware carries an exclusive premium line of home wares called Kuraidori that suits the lifestyles of many Aeroplan members.

By educating specific members on relevant categories and offering them incentives, the campaign drove an increase in average basket of 16% over the previous year. Through leveraging Aimia’s data analytics capabilities, the campaign put Kuraidori products in front of the right Aeroplan members, avoiding a mass campaign that would cause customer fatigue and irritation.

The ultimate goal is being able to communicate with the customer in a manner that demonstrates an understanding of their preferences.

A loyalty mechanism in conjunction with a robust data analytics strategy that rewards not only for desired behaviours but also recognizes those moments where there is risk to the foundations of the relationship should stretch across all customer interactions. This way, you really know your customer and can communicate with them in a meaningful way.

Home Hardware’s November 2015 targeted Aeroplan marketing campaign was not a one-off effort. The retailer understands that building that one-to-one relationship with each and every customer must be a steady and constant effort, continuously moving forward to better understand each customer and their behaviour. A coalition loyalty program like Aeroplan, coupled with proven advanced data analytics and increased digital relevance, allows Home Hardware to continuously make strides in engaging their customers.

John Boynton is Aimia’s chief marketing officer

for Canada.

December 2015

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Engagement & Analytics

Making loyalty personal

By Sasha Krstic

H

ow many times have you perused the same loyalty rewards catalogue online, weighing the option of this toaster, that bracelet, those golf clubs—only to tell yourself that if you wait just a little longer you’ll have more reward points and can choose from the next tier of rewards? Those days are quickly fading to memory as new loyalty and reward programs roll out for Canadians.

Today Rogers customers can use the reward points they accrue on their Rogers Platinum MasterCard to pay their bill. Simple as that. It’s an easier way to use the rewards Canadians love and the Rogers program puts the power of the earning and redeeming right back into the hands of the cardholder. This is just one example of how, at MasterCard, we have been working with some of our largest partners to create customized programming that gives control back to consumers.

Today a successful loyalty program differentiates between customers and uses data to make daily life for a shopper faster, rewarding and seamless. Retailers and merchants need to design ever-changing, customizable experiences to engage consumers and generate loyalty to their brand. It’s what consumers expect and it’s the experience that keeps them coming back to a product or service.

Why does loyalty matter?

Loyal customers buy more, stay longer and refer valuable new customers.

According to a study this year by Yahoo, 90% of Canadians belong to at least one loyalty program, while most possess, on average, four loyalty cards in their wallets. Competition is fierce and fighting for that top-of-wallet space is a changing battle given the capabilities of technology and big data.

As more loyalty players enter the market it becomes increasingly important to stand out and also provide consumers with safe, secure and simple experiences. Privacy and December 2015

security remain a big concern and consumers want to understand how retailers are using their personal data.

MasterCard has provided loyalty solutions for 17 years and we’ve seen important changes in the landscape. In response we have developed innovative solutions to help merchants acquire new customers and expand their share of wallet. We’ve developed a strong understanding of the components of a best-in-class loyalty strategy.

Moving from ‘mass’ to ‘me’ One of the most important drivers of loyalty today is the shift from a generalized mass approach to a more personal, customizable one.

No two customers are the same so it’s important to cut through the noise with an individualized approach. Loyalty providers cannot approach every consumer as a sales target; instead it’s about forming individual relationships. Demographic assumptions about various age ranges or genders no longer apply.

The makeup of the Canadian family comes in many different forms, with changing life stages. The more individualized Canadian life becomes, the more Canadians expect the same to apply to their experiences.

Rewards in hand Fittingly, as the landscape shifts to one of more personalization, consumers expect to interact with programming on their time, from their devices.

Mobile use is at an all-time high with 24 million Canadians subscribing to smartphone device services and 23% of them using their smartphone to shop. It’s no surprise that the loyalty shift includes the need for mobile rewards. Canadians expect to collect and track rewards on their smartphones rather than add another card to their wallet.

Changing the channel on loyalty Innovation at MasterCard is not new.

We’ve been bringing next-generation solutions to market for nearly 50 years and with the increasing pace in which

the world is moving and demands of customers growing, innovation is an even greater priority for us to ensure we defend, secure and advance our role in the payments ecosystem.

In the loyalty space it’s our big data that’s changing the game for the financial institutions and merchants we work with. Billions upon billions of terabytes of anonymous transaction data powers new technology we provide to our customers to help them create leading loyalty solutions: ❯❯ Personalized offers are relevant to shoppers based on individual purchase behaviour ❯❯ Real-time engagement provides offers and incentives to consumers in the moment ❯❯ An omnichannel approach serves consumers in a seamless fashion across their channel of choice ❯❯ Desirable rewards move beyond merchandise catalogs and gift cards—where there are finite redemption choices—to a wider variety of options that include experiences, relationship rewards and more.

We have partnered with Canadian financial institutions to take a fresh, mobile-enabled and personalized approach to rewards.

Rogers and Pay With Rewards Our Pay with Rewards platform allows cardholders to use their rewards instantly at the point of sale for a purchase. No longer is a cardholder limited by catalogues or online redemption. Instead, cardholders can choose to use their rewards for everyday purchases and get real-time redemption alerts via the Pay with Rewards mobile app. Rewards are redeemed directly on the cardholder statement.

Rogers recently launched the Rogers™ Platinum MasterCard® using MasterCard’s Pay with Rewards technology—the first MasterCard issuer in North America to use it.

Accessed through the Platinum Rewards website or the smartphone app, with Pay with Rewards

cardholders can instantly redeem for cash back credits towards any Rogers or Fido purchase, in-store or online.

Customers can redeem their cash back credits as often as they want, without having to wait for an annual credit on their statement.

BMO and card-linked offers BMO Bank of Montreal launched the BMO Perks program which uses MasterCard’s card-linked offers technology platform. BMO Perks delivers exclusive offers directly to a BMO MasterCard cardholder’s inbox from national, regional and local retailers. Cardholders need only use their card to make an eligible purchase and the offer will be redeemed and credited directly to the card. Offers are selected for cardholders based on shopping history and are highly personal to the consumer.

A program using card-linked offers allows merchants and issuers to reach consumers beyond the traditional access points and interact with them outside of their walls where merchants don’t have visibility today. It offers a real-time aspect to engage cardholders at the moment of truth when they are transacting and provides marketing spend efficiency by providing highly targeted parameters.

The world of loyalty is changing— it’s becoming more personal. It’s up to merchants, financial institutions and the payment networks to harness the data consumers provide and put it to work for them, to make the consumer experience better, safer and faster.

After all, loyalty needs to be earned.

And it cannot be taken for granted.

Sasha Krstic is senior vice president and group head, global products & solutions for MasterCard Canada. In this role, she oversees the development of innovative products and services that benefit MasterCard Canada’s consumers, merchants, and business partners. Ms. Krstic is responsible for Canada’s Core Products, Emerging Payments, Marketing, Communications, Advisors, and PSI / Fraud Management teams.

DMN.ca ❰

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Gary Tannyan

Operations & Logistics

Using digital solutions to enhance the customer experience

By Michael Cohen and Sandra Singer

A

s digital touch points continue to expand in an ever-evolving omnichannel world, consumers have more access to information than ever before.

However, it is up to Canadian retailers to embrace these highly interactive solutions, including mobility and beacon technology, if they want to enhance the store-level customer experience, drive loyalty and spur revenue.

Retailers that can provide a truly omnichannel experience are delivering a consistent shopping experience and creating competitive leaders in the industry. But techsavvy consumers keep on raising the bar. As shoppers grow increasingly accustomed to an all-channel digital shopping experience, they expect to have those same tools at store level.

This requires retailers to continuously integrate emerging solutions that ❱ DMN.ca

leverage high volumes of incoming customer-specific information—the foundation that will help them relevantly engage target audiences.

Specific details about how retailers are achieving these engagement levels are highlighted in “Using Digital Solutions to Enhance the Customer Experience,” a report based on a study conducted by LoyaltyOne in partnership with the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA). For example, Canadian retailers are eager to use solutions that will enable them to regularly and effortlessly communicate with their loyal shoppers. A foundational piece in this strategy is the use of consumers’ personal mobile devices. Mobile devices are becoming so prevalent that of the 85% of shoppers that currently own a smart phone or tablet device, 62% have used their mobile device specifically to support their in-store

shopping experience.

Where mobility is primed to turn the tide for retailers however, is the ability for their brands to intimately interact with individual shoppers in real time. According to the report, mobile services are becoming such strong influencers on conversion rates and purchase decisions that 45% of in-store mobile users credit their devices for helping them make immediate in-store purchases.

Supporting mobility in the daily shopping scenario has evolved beyond encouraging shoppers to opt into accepting simple text messages or email blasts. Instead, consumers are demanding more customer-facing experiences—those that enable them to connect with their favourite brands, whether receiving personalized discounts or promotions, or earning incentives based on their personal shopping behavior—on their terms.

One strategy that can take this interaction to the next level is the integration of beacon-based programs.

Often compared to the functionality in a traditional global positioning system (GPS), beacons can streamline the delivery of targeted promotions and other guided selling tools that direct shoppers to specific aisles, merchandise and discounts.

Organically focused on individual personalized service, beacon technology keeps retailers abreast of where and when consumers are in the store, and how to connect with them as they navigate their shopping journey by banner, category, aisle and department.

Based on their demand for more relevant interaction with their favourite brands, consumers are sold on the technology. More specifically, 56% of consumers said they had used the technology and 60% said they are December 2015

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Operations & Logistics more likely to engage with a retailer’s location-based service app if they can set timing preferences on when notifications are sent.

Based on these statistics, Canadian retailers understand that taking a “wait-and-see” approach may jeopardize the opportunity to personally connect with their best shoppers. Taking a cue from these loyal, tech-savvy consumers, more Canadian brands are ready to use beacon and geo-location strategies to their advantage.

Specifically, almost one-third (29%) of companies have implemented shopper-tracking capabilities via beacons and geo-fencing; and just shy of one-in-five companies (19%) have added location-based marketing and communications, according to the “RIS Retail Tech Study,” from RIS News and Gartner, March/April 2015.

And they are approaching the opportunity from various angles.

From a marketing perspective, for instance, retailers finally have a seamless way to talk to customers at the right time, place and medium.

Beacons also give brands visibility into the promotional effectiveness

December 2015

and redemption levels of mobile offers. Consumer delivery is easier than ever before thanks to the utilization of a brand’s social or utility app and the consumer agreeing to share their location with the app as well as consenting to receive push notifications.

This increasing retailer and consumer adoption of beacons illustrates the value of digital interactive solutions. However, to uphold the concept of personalization, retailers must also remember that digital engagement is not a onesize-fits-all proposition. As a result, retailers must remain mindful when it comes to choosing new engagement programs and achieving anticipated benefits. Thus, retailers must evaluate business objectives to determine the best combination of digital technologies; how they will respond to customer needs; the value they will deliver throughout the entire customer journey, and a potential return on investment. This is the foundation of “test-and-learn” programs.

Unlike pilot programs that are launched as small-scale, short-term

experiments that help organizations explore how a large-scale project “might” work, test-and-learn concepts enable companies to experiment with specific ideas in a small number of locations or among a group of users to predict impact and components that speak to consumers. This practice is extremely effective across mobile strategies, especially those that support ongoing digital message deliveries.

While some consumers are pleased with receiving relevant messages up to three times a day, for example, this may be too infrequent—or worse, viewed as overkill, among other shoppers. Test-and-learn practices allow retailers to measure message effectiveness, delivery relevance and the impact of redemption. Armed with results based on actual consumer behavior, brands can reach specific data-driven conclusions, instead of making “gut-driven,” often inaccurate, decisions.

As the omnichannel business model expands, consumer intimacy is the key to success. Thanks to the power of personal mobile solutions, this task has never been easier. However, if

consumers are willing to enable their favorite brands to connect with them through this medium, retailers must deliver engaging, relevant messages that coincide with their shoppers’ needs.

By adopting emerging strategies such as mobility and beacon programs as well as test-and-learn practices, retailers are on course to learn how to create relevant messages that resonate with today’s fickle shoppers, and in turn, drive long-term loyalty that translates into revenue.

As director, mobile, API & analytics innovation

for LoyaltyOne’s AIR MILES Reward Program, Michael Cohen is responsible for setting the product roadmap and development for the Mobile, Analytics and API portfolios. Michael is a champion of agile development and manages a group of Product Owners to achieve the various product visions.

Sandra Singer is the vice president of research at Canadian Marketing Association where she leads the development of research assets in cooperation with industry partners along with the curation of marketing intel.

DMN.ca ❰

Operations & Logistics

// 10

Direct Marketing’s 2016 Editorial Calendar

JANUARY

Customer relationship management + Quebec/bilingual marketing

FEBRUARY:

Mobile marketing + Workforce Management

MARCH

Direct mail prospecting + Marketing automation

APRIL

Email marketing + Marketing apps

MAY

Data analytics + Mailing logistics

JUNE

Ethnic marketing + Flyers, coupons & inserts

JULY

Loyalty + Supply chain management

AUGUST

Fundraising + Workforce Management

SEPTEMBER

Social media marketing + Dimensional mail

OCTOBER

Data analytics + The list business

NOVEMBER E-commerce + Social media metrics

DECEMBER Loyalty + In-store/event marketing

Expert contributions welcome! If you are interested in writing for Direct Marketing, please contact Editor Sarah O’Connor at sarah@dmn.ca.

❱ DMN.ca

December 2015

// 11

It was our honour and privilege to present our first ever CAMP Marketing Awards this past October.

The Canadian Association of Marketing Professionals (CAMP) was formed with the goal to provide a community for all marketers—client-side marketers from large, medium and small companies, not-for-profit marketers, agencies, marketing consultants and students—to come together to share ideas and grow together. It was with this passion that we launched our CAMP Marketing Awards, an awards program that recognizes excellence from a variety of marketers, storytellers with ideas and innovations that pushed the envelope and truly elevated our profession.

When we first launched our awards as a new association (CAMP was launched in August of 2014), our goal was to create interest in the program and awareness into our vision as an organization. We engaged a small group of passionate members and volunteers to help spread the word. What resulted was incredible—marketers of all types—corporate, not for profit, entrepreneurs—with exceptional campaigns and projects that astounded our team.

The work demonstrated by our winners and nominees was a true testament to the brilliance in the field of marketing. We were humbled to honour the work of remarkable in-house marketing teams and agencies alike at our first ever Awards Gala. We warmly acknowledge the help from our sponsors, our partners, our judges, our Awards Committee team who worked tirelessly to launch our awards program and our many supporters (including our Board and our Advisors). We thank our partners— SharpSpring, Spectrum6, Direct Marketing magazine, Elite Email, Humber, Creative Circle, EZBZ, Cornerstone Insurance Brokers, The Great Waterway, The CoWorks, EasyPromos, Picatic and Kick Ass Media for making our awards a reality.

Our 2015 Marketing Awards were just the beginning for CAMP, as we welcome all marketers for our 2016 Awards, where we’ll be introducing new categories that continue to recognize truly great Canadian marketers.

Nadine Evans CEO, CAMP

Category: Brand Winner: Revolution Client: CIBC Run for the Cure

From left to right: Jon Mychajlyszyn, Marcus Wiseman and Caralyne Donnet of Revolution and Chris Burke, senior manager, event marketing, CIBC Run for the Cure.

December 2015

CIBC Run for the Cure tasked Revolution with improving and simplifying the user experience on their fundraising website and increasing the relevance and effectiveness of the organization’s e-communication strategy.

In response Revolution created The Fundraising Effect, which shifted the focus of the digital strategy squarely on the experiences of real people affected by breast cancer, including patients, survivors and doctors, and the difference the CIBC Run for the Cure makes in their lives. To support this uncluttered approach, the website interface was simplified and the e-communications calendar streamlined. In the first 30 days after launch, the organization saw double- and triple-digit increases in open rates, web sessions and sitewide page views.

“For me it was being able to connect those stories to the bigger picture—what the ordeal is that somebody goes through and what the benefits are that the charity brings to them,” says Partner & Creative Lead Jon Mychajlyszyn, when asked what aspect of this campaign he is most proud of. “We’re not decorating it or doing something fancy for the sake of being fancy. We’re trying to say that these are real people who are suffering with a real issue and we should all be doing something about it. It’s being just true and genuine and honest and that’s what I’m most proud of—we were able to relate those stories and connect them back to the cause.”

“My objective was to make sure my two sons would care as much about breast cancer as my wife would,” says Partner & Strategic Lead Marcus Wiseman. “I wanted to take the gender out of the disease.

It’s a people’s disease. What I’m most proud of is I think that The Fundraising Effect accomplished this.”

Other finalists in this category: Monolith Idea and Proximity Canada DMN.ca ❰

// 12 Category: Digital Winner: Vibrant Client: hydraSense When charged with enhancing awareness of hydraSense’s nasal saline solution, VIBRANT Marketing created the Breathe In Breathe Out Experience.

Targeting young urban parents with above average household incomes, the campaign sought to answer the question: What is the best way to make breathing a better daily occurrence?

Engaging The Dolphins Club, hydraSense’s online community of roughly 130,000 members, the campaign offered a relaxing escape from busy days featuring guided breathing exercises supplemented with key brand messaging. Every time a member took part in the exercise or spread the word by sharing it on their social media channels they received an entry for the grand prize—a $10,000 travel voucher to take their family anywhere in the world.

In total, over four months 9,824 users engaged with the Breathe In Breathe Out Experience and 7,286 users entered the contest. On average each experience lasted one minute 39 seconds (over three times the ask) and the experience was engaged with an average of 20.5 times per participant.

Other finalists in this category: Memory Tree, Tendril and Twisted Frame William Vargas. associate brand manager, cold & sinus, Bayer (left) and Bill Rusnak, associate director – client services, VIBRANT.

Category: Experiential Winner: Songbird Marketing Communications Client: PremiumNearBeer.com

Songbird Principal and Founder Candace Huntly and her business partner Trevor Shorte.

Songbird Marketing Communications developed a two-part experiential strategy that was designed to target niche audiences in a short time period. An exclusive mixology event, food truck pairing and product trails were organized to educate customers on this relatively new company and engage with influencers. Working with a limited budget, Songbird was able to deliver a truly memorable experience to a large crowd of target consumers.

“Budget was definitely a challenge, and that really forces you to get creative with how you’re reaching out and who you’re reaching out to. I would say that was the biggest hurdle,” says Candace Huntly, principal and founder of Songbird.

When asked which aspect of this campaign she was most proud of, Huntly replied that she believes in viewing campaigns as wholes, rather than the sum of independent parts.

“A successful campaign is always something to be proud of,” she muses. “As a whole I am definitely proud of the campaign, just because it allowed me to get a little creative.”

Being acknowledged with the Experiential award is major validation for her young agency and Huntly appreciates the platform that CAMP has offered her.

“What [CAMP founder] Nadine [Evans] has really done is given an opportunity for smaller agencies to be recognized,” says Huntly. “I don’t know if this was her goal, but I really see [CAMP] as being a platform for smaller agencies to be able to grow and grow with CAMP.” Other finalists in this category: Art & Science and Rogers/Fido

Category: Winner:

From left to right: Humber College graduates Connor Graham, Richard Le and Alex Rudnicki.

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Student Lighthouse Group

As part of their capstone project for the brand new Advertising and Marketing Communications program at Humber College’s School of Media Studies, Connor Graham, Richard Le and Alex Rudnicki, under the moniker of Lighthouse Group, prepared a marcom strategy including public relations, digital promotions and awards design.

“Winning the award was definitely a proud moment for my whole group including myself,” said Rudnicki. “The recognition felt amazing, the whole team worked day and night to complete our media plan and it was a thrill to have the hard work get noticed by peers in our industry.

“I believe that awards like this, especially for up and comers in the marketing industry, gives the next generation of marketers [such as my group] a sense of pride and confidence that can lead to successful future endeavors.”

The recent graduates are now all working in the industry, and look forward to earning their next CAMP award!

Other finalists in this category: Guelph – Students Offering Support; Hockey Stock; George Brown Marketing Students

December 2015

// 13 Category: Traditional + People’s Choice Award Winner: UM Client: Shock Top

From left to right: Rick Kusch and Ian Millar of UM and Mieko Nagao and Julie Grant of Labatt Breweries.

The craft beer marketing has been booming and Shock Top approached UM to orchestrate a relaunch that would capture people’s attention. UM responded with an integrated campaign that leveraged tradition out-of-home media in creative ways. By incorporating audio, UM was able to spark memorable conversations between potential customers and Wedgehead, Shock Top’s mascot.

“We took a look at various channels and one of the things we came up with was a large-scale mural with an animatronic moving mouth,” says Ian Miller, strategist, connection planning. “Some days we had our comedian who voices Wedgehead there to interact with people in real time, but for the most part it was recorded lines that would be triggered when people walk by a sensor.” These murals were in Beer Store parking lots, engaging people right before they were about to make a purchase.

“We had static restobar and restaurant washroom posters that would talk to you when you walked up to either the sink, mirror, urinal, anything like that. We also had a couple transit shelters that, when you pressed a button, it would talk to you as well. So we used various ways to get some impact in traditional out-of-home.”

Their objective was to disrupt and they definitely managed to surprise and delight people when they least expected it. The campaign led to an 88% increase in brand awareness and a 180% increase in Shock Top’s status as a top three favourite brand.

Other finalists in this category: ClearMotive Marketing Group and Johnson Insurance

Category: Integration Winner: Proximity Canada Client: Shomi Digital When Proximity launched shomi into the Canadian landscape, they had quite a challenge to stand out from the behemoth of the pre-established subscription video-on-demand service that is Netflix.

Proximity’s first objective was to obtain X amount of subscribers within the first three months of launch. While shomi isn’t allowed to divulge what their subscriber goal was, they advised that Proximity helped them double their initial objective for new subscribers.

The second objective was to obtain 40% brand awareness by the end of the first three months, and together they surpassed that goal by 58% within the three month timeframe.

Today shomi has exceeded that original goal by 80%.

Other finalists in this category: BeNovel, Blade Creative Branding Inc. and TVO

Proximity Canada Art Director Kate Laudrum and Copywriter Jaime King.

Category: Marketer of the Year – Not for Profit/Government Winner: The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation

Laura Syron and Elspeth Baird of The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation

December 2015

As the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation’s (PMCF) first-ever socially driven digital fundraiser event, the #NoHairSelfie campaign set a new standard in cancer fundraising. The social media campaign invited “hair-ticipants” to show solidarity with cancer patients by shaving their heads either actually or virtually via the #NoHairSelfie app.

“The challenge was: can we get people involved in something fun, because digital’s got to be fun, but that takes it seriously enough, because obviously cancer is a serious cause,” explains Laura Syron, vicepresident, community programs. “Can we find a new program in the digital space that’s fun and engaging but acknowledges that cancer patients go through something pretty terrible and allows people to honour that and provide a way to show their support through donations?”

Organizers were hoping to raise approximately $600,000 in the first year but the initiative exceeded all expectations, bringing in $1.8 million.

“The simplicity of it really resonates with people,” notes Barbara Lockhart, senior advisor at the PMCF. “Almost everyone we spoke to got it, understood it and wanted to participate. We really thought long and hard and controlled the narrative, which is about showing solidarity with cancer survivors.

“The intangible piece that I’m most proud about is the impact that it had on people’s lives, how rewarding it was to participate. We as an organization do many other things—we ride, we walk, we play road hockey, we golf—and somehow this just was a little bit different for people. It allowed them to tell their story and their ‘why,’ and why people do things is a big part of our strategy here.”

“We’ve all been touched by cancer, and when you can go home at night and think, I just helped create something that brought almost two million dollars to the scientists at the cancer centre, you feel good about that,’ says Syron.

Other finalists in this category: TVO and Tennis Canada DMN.ca ❰

// 14 Category: Marketer of the Year – Small to Mid-Size Enterprise Winner: Rangle.io Inc.

Amanda Connon-Unda of Rangle.io.

Rangle.io was founded in May 2013 by Nick Van Weedenburg based on his vision to create a positive social impact by radically improving how software is defined, built and used.

“Having a very simple focus means that you can be better at it,” observes Van Weedenburg. “So we were fundamentally a modern java script only company, and we were relentless about that. We were doing really well on the sales front when we brought in qualified leads, and so my hope was that by driving more marketing the incoming leads that were brand-driven would keep converting. That was our approach.”

Amanda Connon-Unda joined Rangle.io in February 2014, bringing with her a strong communications, journalism, social media and PR background working in Toronto’s tech industry. By focusing on brand building to drive client growth and talent attraction, Amanda helped grow Rangle.io from six to 35 employees in 2014, and in 2015 built a marketing team of four that continued to grow Rangle.io from 35 to 78 team members.

“We started by doing little workshops and branding exercises with the seven people who were there initially—all developers, Nick and the CTO,” recalls Connon-Unda. “I was learning about the company and what the technologies were and we were trying to shape our messaging around that. We’ve done that a few times and we’re actually going to need to do it again because the company keeps evolving and the messaging becomes different over time as our focus evolves as well.”

When asked about her reaction to being named marketer of the year in this category, Connon-Unda replied: “I was very happy. I’m really happy for the team and super proud of everyone. We did so much in the last year; it was remarkable to be a part of that.”

Other finalists in this category: Branding for Good and Ignite Digital

Category: Marketer of the Year – Entrepreneur Winner: Green Lotus

Catherine McGillivray and Bassem Ghali of Green Lotus.

Green Lotus was founded by Bassem Ghali and has grown to become one of Canada’s top search engine marketing agencies. Ghali’s innovative approach to making SEO accessible for marketers, small business owners and students has driven the development of several exciting recent product launches, with much more on the horizon.

This year Green Lotus launched Canada’s first SEO Tools for entrepreneurs to help small business owners and startups get a handle on their SEO activities. The subscription service is competitively priced at as little as $20/month and has attracted nearly 1,000 users in the first nine months.

“The immediate plan is that we have translated the Tools into five languages – Russian, French, Chinese and Spanish, plus English,” says Ghali, when asked what’s next for his award-winning company.

“We are going to go global next year, taking over those regions. We have a lot of advantages because we’re charging very little and we’re charging Canadian dollars. So we have a huge price advantage in those markets. The other thing is that we are targeting entrepreneurs across Canada and the U.S. now.

Now we’re around 1,000 and we are working on growing our base to around 50,000 users. Within five years I think that will be a reasonable number.

“Finally, we are in development for Canada’s first hands-on SEO training. We already tested the course at Ryerson and the whole idea is how to bring SEO to marketing students. The need and the demand for SEO is huge but no one is teaching it.”

Other finalists in this category: Candybox Marketing and PATIO Interactive

Category: Corporate Marketer of the Year Winner: Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment

Matt Coyle and Michael Gelfand of MLSE.

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Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s (MLSE) marketing and communications department was recognized as corporate marketer of the year following a banner year with campaigns and events that garnered headlines internationally for the company’s teams, brands and venues including the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC, Toronto Marlies and Air Canada Centre.

“We were thrilled and honoured, obviously, particularly because the award was a team award for MLSE,” says Shannon Hosford, vice-president, marketing & communications for MLSE. “There are so many people who were involved in earning us this award. Definitely my team are the ones that deserve all the accolades as it relates to our marketing efforts.

“As the hockey club says, it’s not about who’s on the back of the jersey that matters, it’s who’s on the front.

We have a lot of people that are involved in making this a success.”

MLSE’s highlights from the past year include: the Raptor’s rebrand as We the North, including new uniforms, a new look and feel and a new court; Our Legends Grow, celebrating superstars from throughout MLSE’s 100-year history; and the NBA All-Star game that is coming up in February 2016.

When asked what’s next for this leading organization, Hosford replied: “In terms of the marketing industry overall, I’d say the move toward business intelligence and being smarter as it relates to connecting and engaging with your fans or consumers is the future. We are figuring out how that engagement translates to better brand experiences. I think it’s a huge opportunity and in the end it’s going to be something that helps us provide better experiences for our fans.”

Other finalists in this category: D&A Group/Stratovate and Mercedes-Benz December 2015

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE ISSUE 4 • 2015

The Technology Issue Software and solutions to improve contact centre performance Also in this issue: ❯❯ Leveraging technology to improve sales results

❯❯ Tips for working with your IT department

❯❯ How analytics enhance operations

❯❯ Using cloud-based technology to deliver omnichannel service

❯❯ Masking solutions for protecting customer data

The Technology Issue

Leveraging technology to improve sales results

By Mike Aoki

W

ho am I talking to? What do I say? What do I offer as a sale? Those are some of the questions I asked when I was a new inbound contact centre agent many years ago. Back then, there were no automated systems producing screen pop ups or suggested scripting. Instead, agents manually reviewed the caller’s account. They have to search to find clues regarding which product to offer, while simultaneously trying to solve the customer’s initial inquiry. It was manual labour: time consuming and inefficient.

Now, contact centres make use of technology to produce better, faster sales results. The following list does not focus on a particular vendor’s products. Rather, it shows the most commonly used software features for improving sales.

1

Automated call routing Customers buy from people they like and trust.

Nothing ruins trust faster than failing to resolve a client’s initial problem. It is vital to match an agent’s skill set with the customer’s inquiry. Automated call routing uses the customer’s IVR input and matches them with an agent who is equipped to help. That increases the odds of answering the customer’s initial inquiry and earning the right to up-sell.

2

Web-to-lead capture How do you convert website inquiries into sales?

One of the most obvious tactics is to call people who fill out the “For more information” or “Contact us” form on your website. To increase the likelihood of a sale, webto-lead capture software identifies which pages a prospect viewed before they filled out the “Contact us” form. That gives the agent a better understanding of the product(s) the customer viewed. For example, if a prospect stopped at the “Shipping and handling” page, then perhaps the shipping and handling fee or the delivery timeline, caused the prospect not to buy online. The agent can then focus upon those issues to close the sale over the phone.

3

Suggested product screen pop This feature analyzes the customer’s account and produces a pop up screen with suggested products to up-sell. A good system not only suggests the product but also shows HOW the customer would benefit. For example, “Based upon the past three month’s usage, the customer could save $20 a month by upgrading to the Unlimited Issue 4 • 2015

Canadian Long Distance Plan.”

4

Real-time chat coaching Team managers can have a text-based live chat with their agent during a call. Imagine a team manager listening to an agent’s call. They notice something on the customer’s account that was missed by the agent. So, they send a text to their agent, alerting them to look at that key piece of information to help them close the sale.

One important tip: ensure team managers are properly trained to use this function. That goes beyond knowing how to use the technology. It means knowing how to phrase their writing to avoid overwhelming their agent with information.

5

Automated post-call email Some software packages enable agents to send post-call emails to customers. For instance, if the customer asked for written details of an offer, an agent can automatically email it to the customer. Think of the work involved to do that task manually: looking up and copying the customer’s email address into Outlook, creating the email text and searching a hard drive/ shared drive for the right brochure to attach. Now imagine pressing one button to bring up the customer’s email address in your CRM system, with pre-written phrases and the proper attachment already in place.

That’s a huge time savings.

6

Sales tracking If you ever had to manually track a contact centre sales campaign, you know the headaches involved in dealing with too much raw information. Good sales tracking software, integrated into your CRM system, allows you save time and

coach to key sales metrics. For example, it shows if an agent has a high number of cancellations.

As a result, you can coach them to set realistic expectations with the customer. Sales tracking software also makes it much easier to run a sales spiff (reward) campaign by identifying top performers by product, region and shift.

These six technologies can help both new hires and veteran agents.

For new hires, be sure to include these features as part of your initial training. New agents need to practice incorporating screen pop ups and suggestive scripting as part of their call. They also need coaching after graduation to become “smooth” at using these tools.

One last piece of advice: all the technology in the world is useless if your agents lack the soft skills training to use these tools effectively.

Invest in the proper sales and customer service workshops so your inbound agents can resolve their caller’s initial request and leverage the resulting goodwill to up-sell the appropriate product.

This combination of technology and people skills will boost your team’s sales results and net promoter scores.

Mike Aoki is the president of Reflective Keynotes Inc. (www.reflectivekeynotes. com ), a Canadian training company that helps contact centres improve their sales, customer service and management results. A call centre expert, Mike has been interviewed by the Customer Experience Show and the Globe and Mail. He also serves on the Advisory Council of GTACC (www. gtacc.ca) and was Master of Ceremonies for their 2012, 2013 and 2014 Annual Conferences.

contact management | 3

The Technology Issue

How analytics enhance operations

By Michael Pawlak and Craig Carothers

T

he customer’s demands upon and expectations of contact centres are changing, but not as quickly as a company’s ability to efficiently respond to the impact of these changes within its operations.

Contact centres typically provide service to customers during both the sales and service phases of the relationship. These operations are tasked with helping customers resolve questions or issues with their products, services, billing and other activities. This model is often a reactive one and is designed to minimize service costs while maintaining a certain level of customer satisfaction; however, these often can be opposing strategies.

Service is emerging as a more consistent differentiator.

Organizations that typically competed on product features and functions are now edging ahead of competitors with premium offerings and other value-added services. The difference between a good contact centre operation and a great one typically lies in a company’s ability to efficiently monitor and respond to key activities within its operations, predict future demand and optimize service elements to achieve the best outcomes. Small improvements will have material impact on costs, as well as revenue.

In the context of that overarching environment, analytics technology can drive value by optimizing a variety of business process, from better staffing management to more efficient contact distribution to more effective upselling. And it can provide insight into questions that other technologies cannot.

Today’s challenges In today’s highly competitive business environment, where a company’s reputation can be dramatically affected by a few keystrokes anywhere in the world, recognizing the value of providing superior customer service is critical to a company’s profitability and long-term viability. Adding to these challenges, contact centre operations rely on a multitude of transactional systems, each generating large volumes of disparate data, usually stored independently.

We’re collecting more and more information every day about our customers, both personally and in aggregate.

Analytics offers the ability to perform behavioural analysis of customers based on that data. Consider a mobile phone carrier: There’s a wealth of data to draw from: billing information, applications, patterns of use, etc. When do our customers primarily use SMS? When do they use social media? When do they use their phones as phones?

Analytics provide insights in near-real-time that can help solve the problems of proper staffing, queuing and contact distribution by helping understand why a customer is making contact.

At the same time customers are demanding new channels for support, including social media, short messaging service and email. The contact centre 4 | contact management

operations rate of investment in information technology (IT) to drive operational efficiencies and effectiveness are much lower than demand growth rates, so managing the volume of customer contact is a challenge.

This is where integrated contact centre analytics can offer high value to contact centre operations. To ensure the customer experience is positive, leading organizations are moving from a reactive contact centre operation to one that is proactive, transitioning from a simple receiveand-respond mindset to one designed to monitor, alert, predict and optimize customer interactions. Topperforming contact centres typically have more satisfied customers, lower operating costs and higher revenue per customer.

queuing and contact distribution processes can also add to the time to resolution and, in a contact centre environment, time literally is money.

Analytics offers a more granular approach to the volume of data collected and in near-real-time.

Transaction-based, spreadsheetdriven tools can’t manage the same levels of granularity—the specificity of queries. More granular analysis means better demand prediction, which in turn leads to more efficient staffing decisions.

Accurately predicting service volume provides contact centre executives and managers with the critical information needed to effectively support strategic and tactical planning activities. One of the most elusive targets in any contact centre operation is the ability

Contact centre operations need a powerful forecasting engine combined with robust optimization technology Strategically, analytics can offer value in three areas: demand planning and resource optimization, performance assessment and enriching the customer experience.

Demand planning and resource optimization The most pressing challenge for contact centre management today—and the one with the highest potential savings—is staffing and resource management. Most staffing management technology is spreadsheet based—a valuable technology, but one that isn’t predictive. Thus, we often end up with contact centre staff that are idle, expensive (for obvious reasons) or swamped, with delays to resolution that frustrate customers. Complex

to accurately predict demand. With the erratic nature of consumer demand and the ever-growing list of internal and external influencers, it is a daily struggle for contact centre operations to accurately identify the service in order to schedule staffing.

Another elusive target for contact centres is the ability to identify the right amount of staffing needed to meet predicted demand.

A combination of limitations in forecasting accuracy, disparate data sources, antiquated methodologies and cumbersome manual processes result in inefficient, inaccurate staffing decisions being made.

Poor staffing decisions have a direct impact on operational costs (whether by overscheduling or under scheduling) and an indirect impact Issue 4 • 2015

The Technology Issue on customer satisfaction. With staff costs being the largest operations expense in any organization, it is critical to optimize staff supply to meet service volume demand.

Ultimately, contact centre leaders want to be able to see where they are headed and then contemplate various scenarios of what could happen in order to determine the best course of action to take. They will have to make decisions that will impact the business which require fact-based information, not hunches or guesswork. Contact centre operations need a powerful forecasting engine combined with robust optimization technology that moves far beyond current Erlang-C-driven models. This enables organizations to harness impacts of changes in customer demand to ensure the right mix of skilled resources that are needed at the lowest cost all while exceeding service level expectations.

These technologies enable contact centre operations to significantly improve strategic and tactical planning, dramatically reduce or eliminate manual data gathering processes, lower operational costs and improve operational efficiency.

Also, using analytics to measure the impact of variances enables contact centre management to estimate the impact on operations instantaneously, increasing the speed- to- value with significantly less effort. Analysts and planners can finally shift from spending 80% of their time on data gathering and manipulation to spending 80% of their time on adding value to the business.

Performance assessment Performance assessment has two major areas of focus: root cause analysis and impact evaluation.

Root cause analysis Why do support contacts fluctuate? What events lead to spikes in contact volume? Analytics platforms—especially visual analytics platforms with an interface aimed at the business user rather than the IT department—allow management to explore the relationships among these variables and, again, improve the ability to predict demand Improved staff planning from the insights of root cause analysis reduces overtime and over-staffing—as well as understaffing, which leads to longer handling times.

Consider that a poorly planned staffing environment can have a variance of 200% full-time equivalents (FTEs) at an average of $50,000 in wages, benefits and overhead. The impact is material.

First contact resolution rate has a huge impact on the bottom line. Considering the cost of each customer contact (for example, in many contact centres, this ranges between five and six dollars per contact), contact centres strive to achieve a 70% to 75% FCR rate. Analytics can provide rich data insight that helps to automate the routing of a customer contact to the resource most likely to provide that resolution. By better aligning resources to customer needs, significant improvements in FCR rate can be achieved. It can also provide an analysis of where training for specific customer needs is required. Analytics can also help strip the complexity out of queuing system design by predicting the likely paths of IVR contacts.

For an enterprise contact centre, an average reduction of one second in handle time over the volume it receives in a year could save tens of millions of dollars. Having a backend analytical platform that has a context to map contact routing more efficiently can reduce time on virtually every contact, saving millions of dollars.

Issue 4 • 2015

Analytics in any customer contact situation… is about delivering the right offer to the right customer at the right time.

Impact evaluation Analytics can be applied to isolate the impact of changes to the contact handling process, discovering what works and what doesn’t for the customer. Impact evaluation can improve contact centre performance in a number of ways: • Improving self-serve capabilities; • Assessing the drivers of net promoter scoring, customer churn and upselling opportunities; • Improving next best action recommendation by customer segment; and • Isolating efficiencies, incremental revenue opportunities and cost saving opportunities.

Enriching customer experience The contact centre is a component within a customer experience ecosystem, and analytics can help solidify an organization’s ability to enrich the customer experience.

The vast volumes of customer, transaction and unstructured data can help an enterprise better understand demand and leverage the contact centre to execute more effectively.

Analytics in any customer contact situation, whether it’s point of sale, online shopping or in a contact centre environment, is about delivering the right offer to the right customer at the right time. In a contact centre, that’s also about directing the contact to the right resource who has the right information. Analytics can match the client to the right resource. And since, as we noted above, the data can predict the need for certain resources, we can plan training to make sure we have the right mix of expertise.

This enriched customer service environment can encourage clients to cross-sell or upsell themselves.

By delivering a next best offer to the contact centre agent, the agent has a better opportunity to drive incremental revenue and improve

customer retention. Next best offer takes into account multiple factors and predicts the basis for interaction, based on customer interests, behaviour, previous interactions and product holdings.

Final thoughts Analytics’ role in staff planning, performance assessment and enriching the customer experience staffing and execution compound: one plus one plus one equals five, not three: • Reduction in cost of service; • Increased revenue; • Service level improvements; • Planning processes improvement; and • Staff performance improvement.

Most importantly, analytics can help enrich the customer experience and increase long-term customer value by driving efficiencies and enhancing strategy to have an impact on the bottom line.

Michael Pawlak has over 25 years of customer interaction management experience across multiple industries. As a service operations domain principal specializing in the art of leveraging analytic technology to improve human interaction experiences, Michael works with SAS customers addressing challenges in harnessing vast amounts of disparate operational data to gain business insights and transform service operations.

Craig Carothers is the principal of forecasting, planning and optimization for SAS Canada with a cross-industry focus. He has over 25 years of diversified experience integrating systems and analytical applications to optimize performance by translating data related to product usage, customer interactions, operations and cost into actionable insights to drive efficiencies, increase customer value, enhance strategy, enrich the customer experience and have a direct impact on the bottom line.

contact management | 5

The Technology Issue

Protecting customer data with DTMF masking solutions

By Russell Pelham

C

riminals around the globe are on the hunt for consumers’ personal information and they know where to find it—stored within the processing environments of merchants everywhere.

They are also good at getting to it, as evidenced by a group of cyber thieves who posed as members of the internal IT staff and convinced call centre agents at Cox Communications in Washington D.C. to enter their username and password into a fake website they had created. Armed with the stolen credentials, the group of teenagers accessed 61 accounts and caused general mischief including changing passwords and posting personal information on social media. For this event Cox Communications was fined $595,000 by the Federal Communications Commission, which equates to an average of $10,000 per compromised account.

But the fines levied after a breach are just one part of the equation. Don’t forget the claims made by issuing banks if the event results in fraudulent transactions against their cardholders, and then there are the technical and trainingrelated costs to fix the inherent security flaws.

Of course, the impact of a breach goes far beyond the penalties and remediation costs mentioned above—it also comes with a loss of customer confidence that can hurt brand ratings and future revenue. So far, the court of public opinion has been clearly unsympathetic. In the weeks following the announcement that retailing giant Target experienced a data breach, their market cap dropped by $2 billion.

Add in the sizable investment in advertising and corporate communications to restore a positive image and rebuild confidence after an event and then you will begin to realize the true cost of exposing your consumer’s data.

To protect their own financial interests, the payment brands (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB and Discover) have created a long list of requirements that merchants must follow to ensure that customer information is kept safe. These requirements make up the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Merchants that do not meet these standards face higher processing costs, penalties from the issuing banks and increased liability in case of a breach.

What are the options available to merchants?

Although PCI DSS compliance sets a standard for security controls, it is not a solution to the systemic issue of having sensitive information processed through your environment.

In other words, you could be PCI DSS compliant but still be at risk of insider/employee fraud or a security breach that could result in customer data being stolen.

It’s not easy to secure contact centres—they are generally complex, systems-rich environments with large numbers of employees and high staff turnover.

Often merchants strive to enact a “clean-room” environment—which means that agents cannot have access to personal cell phones, paper/pens, email and internet connectivity or even wear jewellery (there have 6 | contact management

been documented examples of agents wearing earrings that had hidden transmitters to aid in the capture of the cardholder data). You can imagine the impact on employee morale when you enforce these draconian measures.

Transferring customers to an Interactive Voice Response system to complete the payment process removes the agent and desktop from the PCI scope, but results in lower consumer satisfaction and higher abandonment rates. Not something you want after working so hard to get the order.

If the merchant records the calls for any reason, these problems are intensified. Efforts to avoid the accidental capture of card details by recording equipment are not always successful; the practice of pausing the call recording during the exchange of cardholder data is not best practice and is subject to error. Encrypting or redacting the payment within the call recording is just another Band-Aid solution with its own inherent costs and issues.

So what should you do to address these issues? The smart strategy is to plan for the event. Instead of wondering what will happen if you have a breach, you should consider planning for when it happens. What will the thieves find when they get in?

Protecting the contact centre the right way One innovative method of securing voice payments has reached maturity. In this process, customers are instructed by the agent to enter their credit card details via their telephone keypad, instead of reading them out loud to the agent. A dedicated security device intercepts the incoming tones (known as DTMF signals) at the front edge of the network and replaces the variable tones with flat tones that all sound the same.

The captured card data is sent securely to the merchant’s payment processor/tokenization vendor in real time and the result of the transaction

(minus the sensitive information) is provided back to the agent’s user interface and the backend CRM system to allow the order process to continue as normal.

The agent and the customer are in constant contact during the payment process, eliminating the increase in abandonment rates associated with IVR systems. Of course, pausing the call recording and creating a call centre clean-room environment is no longer necessary.

Since the cardholder data is no longer propagated in its original format, all the components that support the agent-customer interaction are immediately removed from the scope of PCI compliance, including the internal network, the agent and desktop, the call routing systems (PBX & ACD), the CRM and the call recording media.

More importantly, the customer’s payment information no longer enters the merchant’s processing environment—if the thieves do get in, there is nothing to steal.

This solution can be applied to any numeric data, including social insurance numbers.

Protect your brand image You can’t underestimate the impact of a data breach from your processing environment that results in stolen credit card info or the impact that a rogue employee can have with access to cardholder data. The cost to remediate and recover from these events can be astronomical.

Eliminating the repository of sensitive data will keep your image from being tarnished and should be your first line of defence.

Russell Pelham is a pre-sales engineer at Semafone (www.semafone.com), a PADSS (PCI) certified payment application and the recognized global leader in delivering DTMF masking solutions, allowing merchants to reduce the scope of the PCI audit and creating a more secure call centre environment. To speak with Russell, you can email him at Russell.Pelham@semafone.com.

Issue 4 • 2015

The Technology Issue

Tips for working with your IT department to become an omnichannel champion

By Emily Nielsen

A

chieving great customer experience for any organization is a team effort, meaning everyone has to play their part in assisting the contact centre in achieving its objectives, and IT departments can help you achieve your goals!

Many contact centres have an “us and them” mindset between themselves and the IT department. This mindset can negatively impact an organization’s customer experience. Management commonly complains about how the technology does not support the needs of the contact centre. On the other hand, IT complains about the lack of direction provided by management regarding the call centre.

What can be done when the gap between both groups seems so wide?

Come together—like the Beetles’ song suggests, organizations and their people must come together to succeed in this extremely competitive world. For a variety of reasons, most organizations have structured themselves into silos, which prevents collaboration. However, and more than ever, in order to provide the experience customers expect there must be more collaboration from inside the organization.

Organizations have to think and act differently as call centres evolve into multichannel or omnichannel environments. This means marketing, contact centre, operations and IT staff need to come together as one to provide the customer with an experience that is effortless, pleasant and supporting of the organization’s brand.

Roll out the welcome mat For many business units, contacting the IT department is usually done when things aren’t working. As a result, Issue 4 • 2015

the relationship between IT and rest of the business is reactive rather than proactive and lacking in collaboration.

Also, IT departments are frequently left out of the business planning cycle and usually are only brought into the discussion at the end of the decision making process. Not including them early in the planning stage often creates a level of resentment which causes the business units to believe that IT departments are not responsive to their needs.

Engaging IT early in the planning discussions ensures that they include your project as part of their own planning cycle and they are able to adequately allocate the right resources with the right skill set to assist with your project. Depending on their own challenges they may need to outsource third-party support or hire additional staff in order to provide the expected level of support to the entire organization.

Moving to the cloud With the introduction of cloud services some organizations view this as an opportunity to get services delivered faster and without the need to consult with their own in-house IT department. When considering

an upgrade to your contact centre, especially to a cloud-managed solution, IT can play a significant role in assisting in scrutinizing features, functionality, and interoperability to other business systems. They are also subject experts in identifying the hidden cost of operating technology platforms which can include complex licensing agreements, differentiate between tier one and two support models, server requirements, etc.

Contact centre technology upgrades should always follow the same stringent procurement process similar to other investments.

Cloud contact agent services for the Canadian market are relatively new, therefore it is impossible to 100% validate core functionality and support when so few clients are actually using the technology. It will be difficult to check references considering the life cycle of the offering is in its earliest stage. It’s the obligation of the IT department that the business unit chooses wisely and does not get caught up in the sales hype. Choosing poorly hurts the entire corporation.

Don’t blame the technology As more new omnichannel Continued on page CM 10

contact management | 7

The Technology Issue

How cloud-based technology can help your organization deliver omnichannel service

By Andrew McNair

A

s customer experience demands evolve, today’s consumers have progressed from first resisting technology-based service offerings to accepting them and they now frequently embrace digitally based solutions as their preferred communication channel.

Findings from the latest Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report by Dimension Data highlight a dramatic evolution in the industry as digital interaction fuelled by mobility continues an explosive growth as a contact method. In some areas, digital interactions are starting to exceed voice contacts, and the Report forecasts it to emerge as the dominant interaction channel as early as the end of 2017. The consumer is leading a digital revolution and it is forcing service providers to adapt or die.

Ready for the digital future?

The frictionless switching between channels that defines what has been described as the omnichannel experience can provide a crucial competitive differentiator. It provides connected services across a variety of mediums, as customers hop between devices and technologies to progress inquiries and new business opportunities. And while it’s being demanded by consumers, the industry is still slow to catch up.

Worryingly, up to 88% of operations point out that their current, often telephone-centric systems won’t meet their future needs, and many are already failing against current requirements. Add new digital channels to the mix and a backdrop of consistent drops in customer experience scores and the picture could get much worse.

The omnichannel solution is the hot ticket in the market today: everybody wants one, everybody needs one, but few have been able to obtain it. It is forcing vendors and consumers alike to explore new buying options and design innovative technology frameworks.

Strategy, not technology The requirement for integrated technologies across multiple channels is causing organizations to review their strategic roadmap, accepting the increasing urgency to introduce digital channels. Servicing everyone at anytime, anywhere, in any medium is an ambitious vision.

8 | contact management

The biggest blockages to an organization’s advancement of their contact centres’ technology capabilities revolve around flexibility, the ability to integrate and the costs linked to creating the required architecture. In many cases, the capital expenditure associated with the early replacement of legacy hardware has been prohibitive.

There needs to be a balance between maximizing past investments and getting access to the new required technologies. This is forcing vendors and consumers alike to explore new buying options and design innovative technology frameworks. The emergence of cloud technology platforms offers new choices to contact centre providers.

We’re starting to notice significant changes in how organizations are both provisioning and maintaining their technology systems.

Into the cloud The contact centre has software at its core, so it’s no longer about infrastructure, it’s about architecture. Cloud-based, or as-aservice, technology offerings are presenting organizations with an opportunity to reassess how they provision outcomes-based solutions from the perspective of business, commercial, technical and operating architectures.

The opportunity to leverage flexible commercial models, combined with the ability to outsource increasingly specialized capability, is a growing interest.

Cloud solutions can offer seamless integration with current applications, instant scale and easier regulatory compliance. However, the risks of migrating from an owned and/ or rented model to a completely hosted/cloud solution has been a task too large and risky for many organizations.

Hybrid solutions, as a mixture of legacy infrastructure and cloud, can be the catalyst that will help organizations to leverage existing infrastructure better and accelerate change.

The industry is starting to notice.

In the last 12 months, contact centres choosing pure ownership models have reduced by 22.6%. Of contact centres that aren’t using hosted/cloud solutions yet, 34.2% are considering a hosted technology model in the near future. Add this to the existing user base, and it is apparent that hybrid solutions blending cloud architectures with legacy technologies are gaining popularity across the industry, particularly as case study evidence validates the significant benefits enabled by cloud solutions.

Current users of hosted/cloud technologies are reporting a powerful impact on their businesses. Of users with an opinion, 88.8% agree that they have reduced costs, which are partially linked to the 85.7% saying it allows them to pay for only what they use. As many as 90.8% confirm that it offers improved flexibility, while 84.2% report that it increases agility and speed-to-market. The Issue 4 • 2015

The Technology Issue most common challenges for hosted cloud solutions are reliability and technology uptime, but concerns and negative experiences fall far short of positive feedback.

Of all users, just 4.5% have decided that pay-as-you-use services aren’t for them.

Don’t get left behind The speed at which the digital revolution is affecting contact centres can no longer be ignored. Complexity levels are intensifying as contact centres evolve into channel resolution hubs. Customer experience levels are cited as key, yet satisfaction levels are dropping year on year.

The combination of technology that is creating an omnichannel environment and the ability to analyze and act in real time provides powerful resources to create a productive, digital customer engagement model.

Big data and analytics tools are predicted to be the strongest trend to shape the contact centre industry over the next five years. Understanding the intricacies of individual transactions as well as the context of customer behavior over multiple contacts and channels is paramount. It will help the organization address customers’ issues, shape their experiences and enrich the engagement, creating greater value for both parties.

Tighter management controls, improved analytics and more active marketing of the digital capability to customers will quickly have positive results. The growth in digital has fallen below targets to date, but is set for significant acceleration. The cloud will enable the speed of transition.

Customers take centre stage Better analytics will create an ability to design channel management strategies that align every customer experience to the value it has for the organization. It will guarantee success for those whose competitive strategy is differentiation through service. Just as crucial is understanding how customers’ experience is shaped by their interactions across sales, marketing and service engagements.

So, should you explore a cloud strategy for your contact centre? Yes, but each organization must understand why it is investigating a cloud solution and ensure that there is a strategy in place. Cloud isn’t an all-or-nothing decision.

Companies need to know where, when, how and why to fully leverage its benefits.

The ability to source and manage information, to create insights and knowledge for experts or applications, is central to an effective strategy, particularly in today’s hypercompetitive markets. The isolated, traditional, telephone-based contact centre has run its course strategically. There will be some teething issues as organizations catch up, but the technology is there and accessible. The future is bright, for consumers and providers alike. Equally the future will not stand still, so neither must the contact centre.

Andrew McNair has been with Dimension Data for 14 years and has held the position of head of global benchmarking since 2010. With 18 years’ senior customer management experience across the UK, Europe, Australia, North America and South Africa, he possesses exceptional industry insight and a wealth of strategic vision. Andrew’s role encompasses responsibilities as head of solutions, allowing for continued practitioner involvement on the evolution of the industry.

10 | contact management

Continued from page CM 7

applications are deployed, often contact centres are the first to blame the technology when outcomes are not fully realized. In most incidents the disappointing results of any new application more often is the result of inadequate training and lack of attention to changing processes.

Often business units see the technology as a way of solving a problem, but they too have to understand that in today’s world of omnichannel delivery modes, people and processes are critical to success. Often call centres try to anticipate these changes but their staff may not be the best resources to identify the right skills required. When this happens it is a good time to bring in outside help to assist in your journey.

Customer journey mapping provides an honest perspective—too often organizations think they have a complete understanding of their customer needs, but sometimes they are too close to the situation. Customer journey mapping is perfect for providing your business with a reality check on what your customers feel about your organization. The primary point of this exercise is to identify the customer effort required to obtain products or services from your organization. If the effort is too high, then it is safe to assume that the level of customer satisfaction is low. Journey mapping of your customer touch points will identify areas of frustration and inefficiencies that could be caused from a combination of factors from all three areas of technology, people and process.

Demand the time As call centres evolve into multimedia or omnichannel environments, they become more complex with the increasing number of new applications. The increase in the number of applications and the complexity has a significant impact on both the time to install and adequately test the new services. IT needs a reasonable window in order to properly execute the project. In the meantime, new processes have to be developed, tested and adapted. Don’t be pushed by the fiscal year-end deadline; be armed to defend your expanded project timelines.

Companies which lead in outstanding customer experience have taken years in getting it right. An example is Telus Corporation, who started their journey six years ago and now have outpaced both Bell and Rogers in providing outstanding customer experience.

Demanding the time to properly scope out all of the related dependences of this changing environment will produce a better outcome.

If organizations want to embrace an outward facing omnichannel experience for their customers, they first must look inwardly to remove the walls that have built over time. Contact centre leaders need to work closely with their IT counterparts in order to ensure a successful omnichannel experience for both your clients and staff.

Having a team approach will increase your ability to achieving a highly effective customer experience which in turns contributes positivity to the organization’s brand.

Emily Nielsen is one of Canada’s leading communications strategists. As a business owner and entrepreneur, clients benefit from her strong business acumen and her ability to align technology projects to business needs that produce superior results. Her firm specializes in Contact Centre and Unified Communications (UC) strategies whose primary focus is on customer experience and business adoption.

Issue 4 • 2015

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