Direct Marketing Magazine June 2017

12 In the Mail ❱

Celebrating the best of direct mail

30 Lawyers and legal battles ❱

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17

Contact Management

Why CASL’s next phase deserves your attention PM 4 0 0 5 0 8 0 3

vol. 30 • No. 6 • June 2017

The Authority on Data-Driven Engagement & Operations

Mass mail of Metroland shares her predictions for the future of flyers

Lisa Orpen is the vice president, national & multi-market Sales, for Metroland Media Group.

FULL SERVICE DATA DRIVEN EMAIL MARKETING inboxmarketer.com

Courtesy of Metroland

❱ 6 Lisa Orpen

// 3 Features

Customer Centricity

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Vol. 30 | No. 6 | June 2017 EDITOR Sarah O’Connor - sarah@dmn.ca

Five soft skills of every great marketing professional

Mass mail

PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca DESIGN / PRODUCTION Jennifer O’Neill - jennifer@dmn.ca

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Canada is now home to more seniors than children

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Five account-based marketing myths busted

Advertising Sales Mark Henry - mark@dmn.ca

Excellent Execution

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Doug Norris Venkat Chandra Lisa Orpen Tara Kelly Jessica Schaeffer Nicole Klemp Bryan Wade Andrew McNair Greg Zakowicz Emily Nielsen

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Lawyers and legal battles Why CASL’s next phase deserves your attention

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The future of flyers is digital… and print

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Customer experience: The uncomfortable truth

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Power-up your customer interactions Applying behavioural economics in contact centres for better business outcomes

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Postal Code Targeting Q&A

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Updates from the National Association of Major Mail Users (NAMMU)

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Creating a boutique experience at a big box store

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10 ways to master customer complaints on social media

Twitter: @DMNewsCanada

in the mail ❯❯12

Celebrating the best of direct mail June 2017

The consultant’s corner

❯❯11

GoodLife Fitness reveals its contact centre success secrets DMN.ca ❰

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Customer Centricity

Five soft skills of every great marketing professional A

lthough my undergraduate education was not in marketing, I’ve spent my entire career in the field and have learned that my liberal arts education and the soft skills it helped me acquire really equipped me for success in my marketing journey.

There are many hard skills you need in this day and age to be an effective marketer—basic knowledge of coding, SEO, SEM, social media tools, Google Analytics, survey design and analysis, the list goes on and on. But what will really set you apart from the crowd and make you truly excel at your job are these five soft skills.

Jessica Schaeffer is director of marketing & communications at LaSalle Network, a staffing, recruiting culture firm honoured with more than 70 culture and revenue-based awards. Schaeffer has been at LaSalle Network for six years and is on the board of directors for the American Marketing Association.

listening

Present

You have two ears and one month for a reason. Listen to your customers, your clients, your staff, your vendors. The best marketers are constantly seeking feedback and take the time to really understand it to make their products or services better. Today, the neat thing is listening isn’t just about hearing, it’s also about seeing and monitoring what’s being said about your brand online.

Great marketers are constantly looking at the world around them, observing how people do things, why they do what they do and looking at how other companies are marketing their brands, both in their industry and outside of it. They are copycats, looking for ideas and concepts they can apply to their business.

I recently heard Norm Brodsky speak and he said: “I’ve never had a novel idea. You don’t have to invent anything new. Just look at what people are doing around you and do it better.” The best marketers are constantly copying and improving on what they see.

Subjectivity As a marketer, you have to be open to hearing everyone’s perspective without bias. Oftentimes, the sales team may say one thing, customers may say another and your leadership will say something else. You need to be able to understand the situation holistically and consider all points of view to make the best decision for your organization.

Proactive

flexible To create a sticky idea or product, you have to be iterative. You have to be open to trying multiple ways of doing something to find the one that resonates with your audience. This could mean completely changing something you put a lot of work in to. Additionally, priorities can shift frequently and fast. You have to be willing to put aside one project in favour of another that will benefit the business more. The best marketers can pivot on a dime without being discouraged.

The best marketers are one step ahead. They anticipate the needs of the business and of their consumer or client. They stay up to date on trends and new technology and are some of the earliest adopters of new products or services.

If you don’t have these five soft skills, work on developing them each day. Being present can include taking notes during meetings or simply putting away your devices. Being proactive can mean allotting time in your schedule each week to research new products or to try new services. Small, simple changes can make a huge difference. ❱ DMN.ca

June 2017

Introducing Postal Code Targeting: an entirely new way to target and reach new customers Exclusively from Canada Post Connect with prospects in a whole new way. Now you can identify only those postal codes that match the profile of your ideal customers, then reach them with direct mail. Target using Canada Post audience insights, your own customer data, or combine them both for more refined targeting. You can even suppress existing customers within your selected postal codes, to keep your resources focused on acquisition.

Transform your acquisition marketing strategy with this powerful new solution from Canada Post Smartmail Marketing . canadapost.ca/pctargeting TM

™

Trademarks of Canada Post Corporation

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Mass Mail

The future of flyers is digital… and print

By Lisa Orpen

T

here aren’t many universal consumer truths today, but here’s one: consumers love getting a deal. It’s rational, for sure: more money in your pocket.

But there’s also a deep emotional connection to the feeling of getting great value. Almost nine in 10 Canadians report feeling proud about finding great value when they shop, according to research conducted by BrandSpark International. And more than 85% of shoppers in our country actively seek products that are on sale.

That’s why flyers and coupons are such a powerful marketing tool—75% of consumers say that what they’ve seen in a flyer has driven them into a store within a week.

It’s also why offers and deals have been part of a marketer’s arsenal for years. In fact, the first coupon was circulated almost 130 years ago when a businessman named Asa Candler decided to drive trial of his new product with hand-written tickets for a free glass of his new drink, called (you may have heard of it) Coca-Cola, which was then priced at five cents. By 1913, onein-nine Americans had received a free Coke—in total, 8.5 million free drinks were given away.

We’ve come a long way from Asa’s hand-written offers—in volume of communication to consumers, certainly, but also in the method of distribution. Although no longer hand-written (thank goodness!), millions of print flyers and coupons still make their way into the homes of consumers across Canada every week. At Metroland alone, we deliver 74 million flyers each week (that’s four billion flyers a year) to households in Ontario.

But we also connect more than 1.3 million consumers—a number that’s growing rapidly—with

❱ DMN.ca

digital flyers and coupons every month through our online flyers and coupon site Save.ca.

The growth of the digital channel has led to a lot of questions from many of our clients and customers about the role of print versus digital. Is digital gradually replacing print?

Are the only people reading print flyers older consumers? And are only young, urban dwellers using digital channels? The answers may surprise you.

Long live print!

Despite the growth of digital flyers and coupons, the print flyer is thriving in Canada.

In fact, our research shows that 81% of consumers are still using print flyers for local shopping information—most heavily for grocery shopping (83% of consumers read or browse a grocery flyer every week), followed by flyers from mass merchants, like Walmart (66%), and drug stores (59%).

Retailers continue to affirm the impact of print flyers: in a recent story on CBC News Network, Frederick Lecoq, the head of marketing for Golf Town, shared that dropping a print flyer drives a 20% to 30% sales increase for his business. And it’s not just older consumers driving those results—while older consumers are more active readers of print flyers, seven in 10 Millennials report using print flyers.

The reason for the continued strength of the medium, even in the face of strong digital growth?

Print flyers are complementary, not competitive, to digital flyers.

Primarily, print flyers offer consumers a tool for discovery, or inspiration around what products suit their needs for their upcoming shopping trips. This makes the

print flyer a powerful opportunity to build brand awareness and showcase product features or use-cases to engage readers in a physical environment. Ultimately, the tradition of sitting down once a week to read the flyers is alive and well in Canada, and it’s an experience that consumers aren’t eager to replace with digital.

quarter of Baby Boomers checked a digital flyer in advance of their last shopping trip. Thirty per cent of Millennials did the same thing.

This portability is leading to dramatic growth in digital flyer and coupon sites. At Save.ca, for example, we saw a 40% increase in online flyer views last year alone.

Fifty per cent of visitors checked

Ultimately, the tradition of sitting down once a week to read the flyers is alive and well in Canada, and it’s an experience that consumers aren’t eager to replace with digital.

Long live digital, too!

Instead, digital flyers play a much more tactical role in consumer’s lives. With smartphone in hand, consumers can use websites and apps like Save.ca to take their digital offers with them on-the-go, allowing them to check the weekly deals on the way to (or even while they’re standing in) the store. This is powerful tool near the bottom of the sales funnel as consumers look to snag the best price, or remind themselves of their favourite deals while at the point of purchase.

Digital flyers are currently a source of local shopping information for 52% of consumers (still less than the comparable 81% for print, but growing). And while digital flyers certainly attract a younger demographic, the differences aren’t as dramatic as you may think. More than a

out more than 10 pages of flyers per visit, and 28% of views result in a product click. Digital and print flyers have this in common: they both drive results.

What does it mean for marketers?

It turns out that the big battle between print and digital is turning into more of a group hug than a knock-down fight. What does this mean for you, as marketers? As you build and review your marketing plans, ask yourself: ❯❯ How am I offering my consumers a sense of “found value”? As brands seek deeper connections with consumers, remember the emotional impact that getting a great deal can have on a consumer, and the impact this can have on your brand health. ❯❯ How am I tailoring my value offers June 2017

Mass Mail

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by medium? If print is a tool for rich discovery and digital is a tool for on-the-go price comparisons and more detailed product information, how do the design and functionality of your print and online offerings support these experiences? Keep in mind some of the unique strengths of each medium—for example, digital flyers grant marketers the flexibility to change content immediately to reflect timely purchasing factors such as the weather or competitive offers.

Digital channels also allow higher page counts without incurring additional print costs, making this a great place to include rich details or a greater assortment of products.

How do print and digital support each other? Think of print and digital flyers as your two children—it is possible to love them both equally. Now you need to figure out how to get them to share! How can print and digital support each other? Does your print flyer, for example, include information on where consumers can view the flyer online for more detailed information? Are you targeting your consumers in a way that ensures that you’re reaching the same shopper through both channels?

Ultimately, remember that collaboration—not competition, and synergy—not silos are the keys to a successful flyer strategy.

multi-market sales, for Metroland Media Group. Metroland distributes four billion print flyers annually to consumers across Ontario, and connects 1.3 million consumers every month with digital flyers and coupons on Save.ca, Canada’s leading website for digital coupons and flyers.

June 2017

Lisa Orpen is the vice president, national & multi-market sales, for Metroland Media Group.

Courtesy of Metroland

Lisa Orpen is the vice president, national &

DMN.ca ❰

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Mass Mail

Postal Code Targeting Q&A

Janet Brearton and Mike Badour share the story behind Canada Post’s first new mail delivery product in 30 years

Janet Brearton is general manager, commercial mail line of business at Canada Post.

Mike Badour is general manager, business development, Smartmail Marketing at Canada Post.

By Sarah O’Connor

Q

: Congratulations on the launch of Postal Code Targeting (PCT)! What was the impetus for PCT? How did you perceive the gap in the market and figure out what sort of new product might best fill that gap?

Badour: We found that customers were finding that the personalized mail, from an acquisition standpoint, was becoming a bit challenging on ROI. It was becoming a little bit challenged as well related to digital. We were seeing that becoming a bit of a hurdle in the marketplace for our customers to acquire new customers most effectively.

So what we were able to do thanks to a couple things—our technology, the fact that postal codes have been around forever and that people actually collect postal codes—was actually be able to simplify it for our customers.

A lot of what we’re trying to do is make things easier for our customers. ❱ DMN.ca

When you talk to customers— they target, they acquire at the postal code level. They are trying to get an analysis of where their customers are coming from. But we didn’t really have a direct way to use that information. Customers either had to jerry rig it to a letter carrier walk or get it down to the personal address level.

What we realized too was that if we want to help our customers acquire, we want to allow them the opportunity to take their own customers out of it. So we allow customers to suppress their current customers and be very targeted about the right markets they want to go after.

That was the genesis: Can we help our customers acquire new customers much more effectively and efficiently?

Q

: How much does mailing through PCT cost in comparison to Personalized Mail or Neighbourhood Mail?

Badour: It’s in between.

Neighbourhood Mail is around a $0.15 price point, Personalized Mail is $.045, $0.46, and PCT is around the $0.30 mark. They way we looked at it was, we wanted to make sure our customers had an ROI that was working. It’s a very targeted tool at a price point that allows that ROI to get richer.

Q

: Can you tell me a little bit about how the product evolved through the development stages? I know that there was a significant amount of consultation with industry experts—how did their feedback affect the final product?

Brearton: We actually engaged our customers as we worked through developing this product. We had this product out there in a smaller launch, in a beta launch, with customers that worked with us through the process of developing the product and learning more about how it helped their marketing objectives and what was

working for them.

That process was really valuable.

It was a process where the customers could test and learn and where we could get that feedback.

We’ve got a strong relationship with our customers. We are very focused as an organization on, how do we innovate? How do we continue to evolve and meet the needs of customers and marketers today? Part of that process is having a very strong relationship with the stakeholders and the marketing community at large.

We’ve been sharing best practices openly as an industry. It’s a new technology for the partner, so them having best practices and having forums where they can share with one another what’s working for them has been a big part of the beta and ensuring people are ready when they go to do their first PCT mailing.

Q

: What are the privacy considerations of PCT and how are potential privacy infringements circumvented?

June 2017

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Mass Mail Brearton: We ensure that we are amalgamating at the postal code level, at a level where it’s a group of houses. Anything about one particular individual would never be shared and the privacy of every given individual is respected.

An average postal code is in the range of around 20 homes. You know when you’re targeting a particular postal code that you can understand the demographics, the psychographics, all of the targeting richness that we can do is there, but it’s there at that amalgamated level that will respect the privacy of the individual. We wanted to ensure we were adhering to all industry best practices and that all privacy considerations were factored in.

become more cost effective in their acquisition. We know the power of catalogues. Our spec allowed for this mini catalogue, we just never communicated it.

A mini catalogue is just a smarter way to use our mail specs to actually get a catalogue in the mail for a lot less cost. I always tell our clients that a catalogue is an online portal sitting on your customer’s coffee table, waiting for them to transact when they are ready to transact.

: I’ve noticed references to mini catalogues in the marketing materials for PCT. Can you tell me more about the niche role you see mini catalogues filling?

Brearton: It drives them to retail, it drives them to web. Catalogues drive customers to take action.

They have a life in the home that can last for months and so the mini catalogue ensures that someone can get their products and put them in front of a consumer without having to go with a full blown catalogue. Or they can go with a mini catalogue on a more frequent basis and supplement their full blown catalogue.

Badour: We love them! It’s part of our intention to help customers

Badour: The intent was using the mini catalogue as an acquisition

Q

COMPLETE YOUR LISTING FOR THE

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tool, to get new customers. Then once they buy from you, you can invest in sending them the bigger book. That’s how we’re seeing customers use [mini catalogues], and they can actually travel in all three of our solutions— Personalized Mail, PCT or Neighbourhood Mail.

Q

: Now that PCT has been in market for a few months (since launching in February 2017), what has the reaction been like?

Badour: The market overall that we’re talking to is very excited about how this could play into their mix. The next step, following the excitement, is then you have to think differently about how to incorporate it in the mix and how to test it and figure it out.

We’re still in the early days of the launch and of our customers using it. What I get excited about is how customers are coming to us, trying to use it differently, using it for different applications. I think we’re just seeing the start of the

evolution of this and it’s going to take a bit for it to seed into the marketing plans of marketers going forward. We’re seeing some of the banks going back and fighting for some of the digital money they were spending to use on PCT and test it out. I think we’re in the early testing days of it, we’ve got some big customers using it and that’s great.

I’m proud of the fact that I can stand and talk to customers about PCT, and its pure intent is to help them get better at what they’re doing. It’s not about me going out there and pitching a new product in hopes of getting more mail.

Brearton: We’re excited that PCT is now part of the Smartmail suite of solutions and it all comes down to, what is the marketer looking to accomplish? What are their objectives that they need to hit and how does that suite of solutions that we bring to the table help them?

LISTING DEADLINE JUNE 30, 2017

IT STARTS WITH YOUR LISTING Visit www.dmn.ca to complete your listing today!

Or contact Mark Henry at mark@dmn.ca for more information.

June 2017

DMN.ca ❰

Mass Mail

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Updates from the National Association of Major Mail Users (NAMMU) NAMMU establishes new working groups with Canada Post NAMMU and Canada Post have established three ongoing working committees. The goal is to improve the competitiveness of the mail channel by focusing on product and process. Initially the committees will be focused on identifying friction points in the mail streams and developing solutions to eliminate them.

The three committees are: 1. Product & Electronic Shipping Tools (EST), lead by Julie Northrup of Lowe Martin 2. Order Acceptance & Surcharges, lead by Jennifer Davey, Bassett Direct 3. Data & Postal Code Targeting (PCT) lead by Melwyn Pinto, Transcontinental A kick-off meeting for all three groups took place at the Gateway plant on May 12. In that session the group defined the scope of work, the process and expected outcomes. Two of the groups have held additional sessions, identified issues and setting priorities.

Each group is scheduled to provide an update at the NAMMU Chapter meeting to be held at Canada Post’s South Central Plant as well as in future update meetings. To get involved in one of the committees or to provide input please contact admin@nammu.ca.

Canada Post Annual Report: Pivotal year for the Canadian mailing industry On May 2, Canada Post released its 2016 Annual Report, reporting a profit of $55 million and, with the labour uncertainty last summer, it was somewhat of a surprising result. The report estimated that labour uncertainty reduced profit by $110 million. Lettermail volume declined by 7.8%, or a $256 million impact, while direct marketing declined by 5.2% after it grew slightly in 2015. Many mailers cancelled mailings planned for last summer.

Canada Post reported that Transformational Initiatives delivered $440 million in value in 2016. Transformational Initiatives are those that were outlined in the five-point plan, which included Community Mail Boxes installed before the moratorium was imposed by the new Liberal Government in the fall of 2015. Deepak Chopra, president & CEO, states that Canada Post has transformed itself from a letter-centric business to an e-commerce powerhouse, becoming the number one parcel company in Canada. Despite the strides in parcels, it represents only 28% of Canada Post revenue with a contribution of 29% versus Mailing Products with 68% of revenue and contribution of 46%.

❱ DMN.ca

Postal Code Targeting: New prospecting product Members of NAMMU continue to work closely with Canada Post on the stabilization of Postal Code Targeting (PCT). PCT is the first new mail delivery product to be introduced by Canada Post in over 30 years. The product allows marketers to target customers down the postal code level which is on average 20 addresses. NAMMU is working with Canada Post to improve the product and process while developing best practices and new tools to simplify the process and reduce risk of failure.

Some customers are taking advantage of targeting provided

by Canada Post’s data team. One of our members is having great success using a customer’s current customer list. They identify postal codes of their best customers. They then work with Canada Post to identify other addresses in these postal codes, remove current customers and then mail the other addresses.

Our member suggested that customers begin with smaller mailings in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 pieces. Customers are experiencing a good response with this approach.

Uncertainties on the horizon As we look forward, there are a series of uncertainties facing the mailing industry and Canada Post. We are still awaiting the Federal Government’s response to the Canada Post Review which was due the Spring of 2016. The Government commissioned a Postal Review Task Force and a Parliamentary Committee to deliver reports. Their Task Force report confirmed the business model challenges faced by Canada Post and identified a number of opportunities to address the challenges. The greatest opportunities lay on the cost side with the continuation of the Community Mail Box program being the most significant opportunity. The Parliamentary Committee report was less certain about the financial challenges facing Canada Post and called for the continuation of the moratorium on CMBs. It is uncertain which direction the Government will take. When the Government does set the mandate for Canada Post, it will be a busy time for the industry and NAMMU as we identify the impact on the industry.

The other significant challenge facing the industry is all Canada Post labour agreements are expiring in the next seven months with CUPW expiring in January 2018. Canada Post is still looking for labour concessions to align its costs more closely with its competitors. All stakeholders must find a way to reach an early conclusion to these negotiations to minimize the uncertainty in the industry. With labour uncertainty in 2016, lettermail’s decline accelerated while direct marketing declined by over five per cent after being flat in 2015.

June 2017

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// 12

In the mail This column is sponsored by

To learn more about Canada Post’s integrated direct marketing solutions, please visit canadapost.ca/smartmailmarketing.

Celebrating the best in direct mail

E

ven in this digital age, some of the most successful and persuasive marketing messages are anchored by direct mail (DM). The reasons are simple: Fused with digital messaging, DM has a unique ability to convince and convert. It can magnify your marketing mix by engaging your customer’s sense of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Integrated into an omnichannel strategy, it offers an unparalleled depth of communication. So what makes a truly great, modern DM campaign?

It’s both art and science—success requires compelling creative driven by meaningful data—and as part of the annual Canadian Marketing Awards, the INCITE award recognizes campaigns that strike the balance.

According to Scott Pinkney, senior judge of the INCITE award, “best-in-class DM always has to drive business results.” There’s no shortage of excellence to celebrate. “Agencies are showing the strength and the power of what DM can do in the right hands,” says Pinkney.

2016 award winners

The WOW Guide

The WOW Guide bridged the gap between digital and physical To let Canadians know about its growing selection of products, Canadian Tire took a new approach to the catalogue format. The WOW Guide integrates a downloadable app with its catalogue, allowing shoppers to hover their smartphone cameras over a product and access digital content. Customers could buy with the swipe on a screen. In addition to product photos and information, the digital integration offered dynamic pricing, reviews, product videos and more.

The WOW campaign launched with a bang, using targeted television ads and sending the catalogue to 12 million households. Canadian Tire’s online weekly sales doubled. The company saw doubledigit sales increases across all stock keeping units (SKUs). A bonus was the category halo impact due to the positive customer bias created as shoppers experienced the catalogue physically and digitally. ❱ DMN.ca

Product: Canadian Tire Client: Canadian Tire Corporation Agency: Rogers Media Custom Content Credits: Assistant vice-president, marketing: Bobby SinghRandhawa Senior vice-president, marketing: T.J. Flood Vice-president, marketing: Jason Blanchette Rogers Media, creative: Noam Lamdan Director, Rogers: Christopher Loudon Group content manager, Rogers: Mike Cortiula Client manager, Rogers: Beth Fraser

June 2017

// 13 A two-pronged approach for an account that paid interest twice Scotiabank used a multi-channel approach to announce an account that gave interest twice. Across both direct mail and email, piggy bank imagery conveyed saving and copy highlighted the dual-interest benefit. For the mailing, an interactive “Break-a-lope” opened by pulling each side of the envelope, revealing a second piggy bank. Email featured side-by-side piggy banks. Easy online, phone and in-branch options for opening accounts helped drive response.

The result? More than 32,000 new accounts opened. The $1.3 billion deposited into the new accounts was three times the campaign’s target. More good news was that 71% of the customers deposited a portion of their balances from outside sources.

Momentum Savings Account acquisition Product: Momentum Savings Account Client: Scotiabank Agency: Track DDB Credits: Director, direct marketing: Larysa Rodrigues Senior manager, direct marketing: Fiona Tan Manager, direct marketing: Rhea Leitao Executive creative director: Barb Williams Senior art director: Adrian Bertumen Senior copywriter: Tim Bickert Vice-president, managing director: Paul Tedesco Account director: Adam Fraser

Mastercard Priceless Cities taps into cardholders’ travel dreams Mastercard wanted to generate awareness of its Priceless Cities program, convincing existing cardholders to opt-in for emails and acquiring new converts to the program. Partnering with issuing banks, Mastercard identified affluent cardholders who liked to travel. Data combined with an interactive format to engage customers with relevant travel offers and experiences. The multilayered “peel and reveal” format physically engaged cardholders as they consumed the content.

The data segmentation and compelling creative resulted in higher than estimated opt-in and engagement rates. Email opt-ins were through the roof—73% of the cardholders who entered also signed up for future emails. And the CPA was just $22.01, well below the industry standard of $25.

Mastercard Priceless Cities DM Product: Mastercard Priceless Cities Client: Mastercard Agency: McCann Canada Credits: Chief executive officer: Darren Clarke Creative director: Mike Lee Creative director: Chris Munnik Art director: Steffi Raike Copy writer: Wayne Tindal Vice-president, director of client service: Ryan Timms Account director: Emily Maclaurin-King Account supervisor: Dan Renaud

Applications are now open for the 2017 Canada Post INCITE Award

Whether a campaign integrates direct mail effectively with other channels or is a standalone, unique, targeted creative campaign, the INCITE award recognizes the most outstanding execution of the year.

Any campaign deployed in the past 18 months and that included direct mail is eligible. Submit your application, including a sample of your DM piece, by July 6, 2017. Visit cmaawards.ca/#incite for full application details.

The awards take place November 24, 2017, in Toronto.

June 2017

DMN.ca ❰

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Feature

Canada is now home to more seniors than children

By Dr. Doug Norris

T

he second wave of data from the 2016 Census covered the age-sex distribution of Canada’s population, dwelling types and the makeup of those living in group housing.

Age-sex structure Canada’s population continues to grow older and older. In 2016, half the population was over the age of 40. Furthermore, for the first time there were more seniors (65 and older) than children (0 to 14 years old). The percentage of seniors has risen continually during the last 50 years while the percentage of children has gradually declined.

In 2016, 16.6% of the population was under the age of 15, up slightly from 16.4% in 2011 but down from a high of 34% in 1961, the peak of the baby boom. At the other extreme, 16.9% of the population was age 65 or older in 2016, up from 14.4% in 2011 and more than twice the percentage in 1961 (7.6%), the nadir of Canada’s senior

population.

And as if those figures aren’t enough to make younger generations cringe, the census also reported that there were 771,000 people over the age of 85 in 2016, up nearly 20% from 2011. There were even 8,230 centenarians, up from 5,200 in 2011. Obviously, Canadians are living longer and are healthier in their advancing years.

Although Canada is aging, it is still younger than other G7 countries, with the exception of the United States. While 16.9% of Canadians were aged 65 or over, that age group represented 14.5% of the U.S. population. However, other G7 countries were older, with those aged 65 or over ranging from 17.3% in the United Kingdom to 25.1% in Japan.

In 2016, females outnumbered males in Canada, making up 50.9% of the population. And while younger aged females were a slight minority, the percentage of women increased at older ages: women accounted for 55% of those over 65 and 65% of those 85 and over. An

eye-popping 84% of centenarians were female.

Although Canada’s population grew by five per cent between 2011 and 2016, growth varied by age group, as shown in the chart below.

Three age groups, those 15 to 19, 40 to 44 and 45 to 49, actually declined in size over the period 2011-2016. On the other hand, the biggest growth occurred among those at older ages, as increasing numbers of Baby Boomers—those born between 1946 and 1965—reach their senior years and medical advances help swell the number of nonagenarians.

In general, there is a negative correlation between population growth and the age of a population.

In other words, areas growing more slowly or declining are typically home to an older population compared to areas that are growing more rapidly. For example, in the six largest urban areas that were among Canada’s fastest growing, those 65 and older represented only 12.1% of the population. In contrast, in rural areas of Canada

outside the North that recorded little growth, or actually declined, more than 20% of the population were 65 or over.

Regionally, the Atlantic provinces were Canada’s oldest, with close to 20% of their population 65 or older. At the other extreme, the provinces with the lowest percentage of senior citizens included Alberta (12.3% aged 65+), Saskatchewan (15.5%) and Manitoba (15.6%). In addition, the three northern territories— Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon—were also found to be very young: their populations aged 65 and older accounted for just 3.8%, 7.7% and 11.9% of the populace, respectively, in part due to their young Aboriginal population.

The fastest-growing Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) were also among the youngest. In Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina, less than 14% of their populations were over 65. The next fastest-growing CMAs were concentrated in the Greater Golden

CensusSource: Statistics Canada, 2016 ❱ DMN.ca

June 2017

// 15

feature

Source: Statistics Canada, Medium projection

Horseshoe—Barrie, KitchenerCambridge-Waterloo, Toronto and Oshawa—and in each one, those aged 65 and older accounted for 14% to 15% of the population. By contrast, the oldest CMAs were Trois-Rivières, Peterborough, St. Catherines-Niagara, Kelowna and Victoria, all with over 21% aged 65 and older.

Among medium-sized urban areas, two stand out for their senior populations: Parksville (BC) with 44% who are 65 or older and Elliot Lake (ON) with 38%.

Other areas with more than 30% of their populations 65 and older were Wasaga Beach (33.4%) and Cobourg (31.4%), areas attracting an increasing number of retirees.

Historically, in the largest metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, the central cities were home to an older population than the suburbs.

However, the 2016 Census shows that the gap between central city and suburbs has virtually closed and in fact has been reversed in Montreal and Vancouver, where the suburbs were home to a slightly higher percentage of seniors compared to the central city. The age gap has closed due to more rapidly aging suburban neighbourhoods, many of which were established over 25 years ago. In Toronto, the suburban senior population increased by June 2017

31%, compared to 13% for the city; in Montreal, the difference was 23% versus nine per cent, and in Vancouver, 25% versus 19%.

Living arrangements of seniors The 2016 Census reported nearly six million seniors over 65. And nearly 93% of those seniors lived in private residences with most of the remainder living in group residences for senior citizens or other health care facilities.

The incidence of living in a health-related facility increased with age and was higher for females. Approximately three per cent of those in their seventies lived in a heath-related facility.

At ages 80 to 84, nine per cent of males and 14% of females were in a health-related facility, while for ages 85 and over the numbers increased to 23% for males and 36% for females Households In 2016, there were 14 million private households in Canada, up from 13.3 million in 2011. The average household size was 2.4 persons, down from 2.5 in 2011.

One-person households made up 28% of all households, 34% were two-person households, 15% were three-person households, 14% were four-person households and eight per cent were households of five or more people.

Type of dwelling Most of the data on dwellings will be reported in later census releases.

However, this release includes the structural type of these dwellings. Just over half (54%) were single-family dwellings, 10% were apartments of five or more stories and the remaining 36% were row, semi-detached or other types of dwellings. Although single-detached dwellings make up the majority of structures, growth over the 2011-2016 period was highest for apartments of five or more floors (13%) compared to three per cent growth for singlefamily dwellings and eight per cent growth for other types of dwellings. The high growth rate for apartments was mainly due to the increasing popularity of condos and seniors downsizing to apartments.

Implications for marketers Canada’s population continues to grow older, and now there are more seniors than children under age 15. The older population will continue to show high growth as Baby Boomers move into their 60s and 70s. And though incomes and expenditures are lower at older ages, the large and rapidly growing number of seniors offers potential for businesses and industries offering products and services designed for seniors,

including especially the health care, travel and financial services industries. There may be increased interest among seniors to remain living in their local communities rather than move to much more expensive health care facilities and this trend likely would result in a greater need for home care services. With decreased mobility and many seniors living alone, municipalities will also face a need for better public transportation.

And businesses offering home delivery of products targeted to seniors are likely to become even more popular.

As Boomers approach their mid-seventies, they’ll likely begin downsizing their living situation, resulting in an increased interest in apartment living—including both condos and rental apartments.

Assisted living residences for seniors will also likely attract increased attention as health problems become more common among aging Canadians and their ability to live independently wanes.

One of Canada’s leading experts on the Census, Doug Norris, Ph.D., is a senior vice president and chief demographer at Environics Analytics. He joined EA in 2006 after nearly 30 years with Statistics Canada, where he served as director general of social and demographic statistics.

DMN.ca ❰

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Feature

Five account-based marketing myths busted

By Bryan Wade

A

ccount-based marketing (ABM) is a buzzword. Admit it. But are real companies thinking as much about their ABM strategy as the thought leaders, social influencers and vendors who are making all the noise?

Absolutely.

ABM provides a strategy for B2B companies who want to grow revenue by focusing on the best-fit prospects. The key metric shifts from the traditional lead generation to real revenue. And, it takes into account that most B2B buying decisions aren’t made by a single person, but rather a collective group within a company. If you’re only looking at one person, you’re totally missing half the picture.

Not to mention, ABM helps get your sales and marketing on the same page, which staves off lost productivity and lost opportunities, according to MarketingProfs.

They found organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing functions experience 36% higher customer retention rates and 38% higher sales win rates.

Around 90% of marketers see the value in ABM, according to a study from Sirius Decisions, but only 20% of companies have a full ABM program in place. The gap is mostly due to a lack of knowledge and total misunderstandings.

Here are five misunderstandings and total myths about your ABM strategy blown out of the water: Myth one: Account-based marketing is totally new In its purest form, ABM has been around forever. History’s most predominate agencies, like Ogilvy & Mather, Leo Burnett and Young & Rubicam, have depended on an ABM strategy to close their whales for decades.

Today, advertising has given way to marketing, but it’s the same old game. While it’s easier than ever to attract and close one-off clients, our whale accounts are still our lifeblood. And so we make sure they feel special using targeted ❱ DMN.ca

content, tailored campaigns and focused outreach.

To paraphrase our friend Matt Heinz, ABM is shifting from fishing with nets to fishing with spears. We’re doing what we were already doing, but more efficiently.

ABM is tagging the prospects you want to do business with and marketing very precisely and narrowly to them, directly.

“I think we have a renewed interest in ABM now, because there’s an advancement in tools and technology that make it a little easier to execute,” Matt said. “But the idea of doing target account selling and target account marketing is not new.”

Myth two: I can’t focus on an inbound and ABM strategy The modern B2B marketing-sphere makes it almost impossible to not take an account-based mindset.

But what hurts marketers most is this antiquated philosophy of inbound versus outbound and the idea that somehow ABM is only an outbound strategy to go “fishing with spears.”

And yeah, the outbound piece is a huge aspect of ABM, but if we ignore inbound marketing, we were missing at least half the value of our ABM strategy.

It’s not an “either/or” situation.

Most inbound marketing tactics will likewise apply to your ABM strategy. That means they can run in tandem (and they should).

While ABM tends to be highly personalized and targeted several of the same content or offers will also attract potential customers to come to you.

Try reverse-engineering your content. Create pieces based on what your accounts are saying to your sales team on the phone.

What you hear in the ABM strategy guides your content and inbound strategy. And then, that will reinforce and tighten the circle for reps to pursue their targeted accounts. The two strategies tend to work together holistically.

Myth three: ABM is too hard Any effective lead generation strategy faces challenges when a company grows. ABM is no different. It’s hard! But marketing is hard.

The more contacts you accrue, the harder it becomes to focus on targeting the right leads or even figuring out who they are to begin with. At first, it’s completely realistic to manually keep tabs on a small pool of contacts. And the information you don’t know about them can, in large part, be gleaned by scouring the web.

But have you ever tried Facebook stalking a mid-market business’ entire database?

In the past, there have been two things that have kept ABM from catching on. First, the widelyaccepted notion that ABM is only something you do for really big accounts, where you have plenty of resources to work with. Treating each account as a completely custom go-to-market activity is expensive and it’s hard to scale.

The second thing that makes people think ABM is too hard is that the technologies and systems marketers are using haven’t supported it. Marketers have been dealing with this infrastructure problem that made it too hard to align platforms.

But over the last few years, technology has improved to the point where some of those limitations have been eliminated.

People are realizing there are different approaches to ABM that apply more broadly and can serve several companies and use cases.

Myth 4: ABM is the end-all be-all and it’ll solve all our marketing woes It’s marketing, not magic.

ABM does have the potential to magnify pretty much any strategic issues your company faces. And 97% of marketers say ABM proves a higher ROI than any other marketing activity, according to the Alterra Group. But it’s not the

only solution.

Let your ABM strategy work as a bridge with your inbound and outbound tactics. ABM is not interruption marketing. It uses the principles of inbound—offering something of value and creating an incentive to buy—but focuses them through outbound methods tailored to individual accounts.

Your success in ABM is more controlled than inbound marketing, because it’s so highly targeted. Because of the intense focus, you’re not going to see the “out-of-the-blue” wins that you’d get with inbound. Instead, your success is entirely dependent on how well you researched, tracked, connected and engaged with a very specific target.

Myth 5: ABM only applies to your marketing department ABM is so smart, but the thing I hate about it is that it’s accountbased marketing. It gives off the illusion that it’s for marketing, when, in reality, it requires the alignment of marketing and sales.

By excluding sales, there’s a danger that they, and other departments, may be out of sight, out of mind.

Interdepartmental alignment is crucial to the success of an account-based strategy. The term “account-based everything” has gained some traction to stifle the one-sided marketing vantage.

But not enough to surpass the buzzworthy status of ABM (ABE just doesn’t have the same kind of ring to it, does it?). Even still, the idea of account-based everything—marketing, sales, customer success, product and the like—offers a practical lens on the needs for an effective ABM strategy. The goal is to establish priorities for leaders who are allocating resources and designing account-based workflows.

Bryan Wade is CEO of Sigstr, a SaaS application

to simplify employee email signature marketing. He can be reached on Twitter @bryan_wade.

June 2017

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE ISSUE 2 • 2017

The

Operations Issue ❯❯ Customer experience: The uncomfortable truth

❯❯ Creating a boutique experience at a big box store

❯❯ Power-up your customer interactions

❯❯ 10 ways to master customer complaints on social media

❯❯ Applying behavioural economics in contact centres

❯❯ GoodLife Fitness reveals its contact centre success secrets

The Operations Issue

Customer experience: The uncomfortable truth

By Andrew McNair

T

he world has formed a digital skin.

Business models and services have changed forever.

Customer expectations have matured in kind.

A tipping point is fast approaching as emerging customer experience (CX) robotics further enable a new reality. Digital transformation dominates most change agendas and virtual assistants (chat bots) have been voted the top channel growth focus for 2017. At the same time, IoT deployments are set to double.

A powerful wave is advancing. Demand for digital capability as standard is being forced by service consumers, but new research indicates that organizations are strategically challenged to keep pace with adaptive customer behaviors.

Digital crisis or redemption The digital dilemma is deepening and organizations urgently need to choose a path between digital crisis or redemption. The CX landscape demands a new approach, yet organizations around the world are failing to develop their CX strategies. In fact, just one in 10 organizations (9.5%) considers their digital business strategy to be optimized and it’s increasingly leading to disjointed CX solutions.

Under nine per cent can provide connected customer journeys that span across available contact channels.

This, alongside poorly designed solutions that lack the required functionality, means that digital is not displacing traditional phone interactions—or reducing cost obstacles—at 2 | contact management

Issue 2 • 2017

The Operations Issue the speed companies anticipated, as digital and automated channels fail to meet user needs. In fact, despite a plethora of channel choice, first contact resolution rates are worse in 2017 than they were two decades ago.

That’s all according to the latest research from Dimension Data’s 2017 Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report – Digital crisis or redemption: the uncomfortable truth.

The report, now in its 20th anniversary edition, addresses all aspects of the CX spectrum—from organizations’ strategies to operations to technologies and more. This year, a record-breaking 1,351 organizations across industries and in 80 countries spanning the Americas, Asia Pacific, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe participated in the research.

Disruptive innovators The results show that traditionally shaped organizations are witnessing disruptive innovators entering the market and reimagining ways of doing business. These digitally based challengers surf the wave of the digital opportunity, change the industry, drive customer expectations and reshape established behaviors.

Digital capabilities provide organizations with the opportunity to provide greater choice, ease and productivity. Yet, it’s clear from organizations’ responses to 2017’s research that there are leaders and laggards. Just 41% of organizations polled state their strategy for digital business is delivering and under a quarter of that believe it to be optimized. Fiftyone per cent do not have a digital strategy in place at all.

Results reveal an uncomfortable truth on the design and delivery of CX. Despite some 81% of organizations citing CX as a competitive differentiator and 71% listing it their top strategic performance measure there’s significant evidence of CX being more talk than action. The reality is that just 13% of organizations self-rate their CX delivery a nine out of 10 or better, and one in three organizations (36%) don’t have a manager appointed who is responsible for all customer experiences.

A connected customer journey Disparate systems are a challenge and disparate management is a threat. Omnichannel solutions are deemed critical, yet most organizations struggle to optimize their strategy for digital, if it even exists. It’s causing CX to become disjointed. CX transformation needs a strategy.

Connected CX journeys need design. Robotics is a reality and the speed of change means future proofing your technology and your approach on the human touch.

The challenge that most organizations are faced with is that they are not organizationally structured to manage CX holistically. Often customer interactions are owned or delivered across different functions and departments that are not aligned or which simply work differently.

Issue 2 • 2017

The CX operating strategy should entail clear guiding principles and cross-functional working groups or a representative CX governing body— supported by strong metrics and organization-wide calibrated data.

CX delivery is also being damaged by a lack of process

management, particularly across the expanding choice of digital pathways. Personalization, intelligent automation and the ability to connect customer journeys powered by intelligence from analytics will do Continued on page CM 10

contact management | 3

The Operations Issue

Power-up your customer interactions Applying behavioral economics in contact centres for better business outcomes

By Venkat Chandra

C

ontact centres are critical components of business strategy for sales, customer retention and care for many organizations. The quality and effectiveness of customer interactions is therefore a vital driver of value as the behavior of consumers has profound impact on business outcomes in a competitive landscape.

Needless to say, approaches that nudge consumer perceptions positively toward the brand will have significant economic benefits. Traditionally, companies have used standard call flow and scripts to guide the agent’s customer interaction. These call flows and scripts embedded common-sense techniques designed based on experience to drive consistent customer experience.

However, with the competitive landscape becoming increasingly crowded, companies have far greater stake to make each customer interaction count.

Today, many companies are seeking more innovative approaches to engineer customer experience. Behavioural economics (BE) presents a great alternative for contact centres to more effectively impact customer perceptions, leading to better business outcomes and higher customer satisfaction.

Behavioral economics (BE) 101 Behavioural economics is the scientific study and understanding of why people act and behave in a certain way and how they can be nudged toward a particular direction. BE combines economics and psychology to provide frameworks for interpreting and anticipating human behaviour and consumer decisions. The following are some of the key principles underlying BE: • Behind all customer decisions, there is there is a gut feeling, intuition or rule of thumb.

• People’s decision making is not always rational and affected by range of cognitive biases.

• Decisions are heavily influenced by context and how information (and choices) are presented.

Relevance of BE in contact centres Contact centre executives are increasingly under pressure given the fierce competitive landscape to deliver better customer experience at a lower cost while driving desired business outcomes. BE provides powerful new tools/ techniques to enable improved ROI: • Driving greater value from the interaction; • Building competitive advantage by differentiating 4 | contact management

customer experience; and • Creating loyal customers.

Applying BE—practical examples The accompanying chart presents samples of BE concepts that have wide applicability in contact centres, including examples of how they can be applied to drive better customer experience and improved business outcomes. This will provide a good framework to better appreciate the role BE can play in positively impacting the contact centre outcomes (see chart).

Critical success factors To successfully embed principles of BE in contact centres, the following are critical success factors that contact centre executives need to consider: • Be watchful of ethical boundaries: BE principles are focused on nudging consumers toward making decisions that are in company’s interests; however, its important to differentiate activities that might be manipulative as it walks a very fine line (e.g. ensure its used by properly trained agents).

• Leverage expertise: Application of BE requires domain expertise and ability to perform experimentation to validate results. Its important to leverage appropriate expertise for successful roll-out.

• Involve key stakeholders: BE initiatives require involvement of various stakeholders (agents, managers, etc.) from the beginning. It’s critical they feel part of the process and their feedback be constantly used to refine as appropriate.

• Performance management: For benefits to be sustainable, robust KPIs need to be established to measure/monitor success (including embedding it in agents’ and managers’ performance scorecards).

• Start small and follow a structured approach: Embedding BE requires a structured approach and it is important to start small.

The following summarizes typical steps to roll-out: • Define strategic goals; • Identify hypotheses and prioritize; • Select pilot and prove value/business case; • Develop pragmatic roadmap; and • Implement initiatives (based on priority sequentially).

Conclusion BE offers fresh tools and techniques to enable organizations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of contact centres by driving greater value from customer interactions.

In a consumer-driven economy where “perception is reality” and organizations are working within a fierce competitive landscape, BE can offer tools to build distinct competitive advantage.

Venkat Chandra is CEO of Stratscient, a startup focused on delivering innovative strategic consulting solutions leveraging a renewed man-machinemethod ecosystem re-imagined to meet the complex client needs of the “New Economy.” Chandra has ~15 years of exceptional client service track record across North America working with top global consulting firms.

Issue 2 • 2017

The Operations Issue

BE Concept

Description

Application

Loss aversion

People value losing something more than gaining.

This concept has wide application across queues (particularly sales and retention) where, by articulating the loss potential, consumers may be nudged towards a better outcome.

Anchoring effect

Anchoring is a type of cognitive bias where consumers tend to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (“anchor”) when making decisions

Agents can use this by providing a less-desirable option for consumers that will create a mental anchor first. Then they provide an alternative that will be more desirable for them (thereby increasing the probability of the consumer picking it).

Social norm bias

This refers to the “peer pressure” effect. This is a tendency where if other people think something is good, people assume it may be good for them too.

Agents can enable consumer decisions in favour of an option by providing some peerrelated statistics around that particular choice (e.g. # of people in the same location making a particular choice).

Default effect

Consumers tend to select the option that will minimize cognitive effort. Because of which the nature of the default option impacts what they opt for.

An agent could present choices by stating/setting a default (that is optimal for the company) if no active choice is made by the consumer (e.g. “Most of our new customers start our services with bundle X. Do you want to subscribe to it or do you want me to provide details about other bundles?”).

Reframing

Decoy effect

Issue 2 • 2017

Avoiding negativity and framing these topics positively (e.g. “can’t,” “won’t” or “that’s not policy”).

Also called ‘asymmetrically dominated choice,’ refers to how preference for one option over another changes as a result of adding a third similar but less attractive option.

Agents can reframe the way they position their statements by consciously avoiding negativity. For example, saying “…let me walk you through the steps that may enable you to expedite your appointment” instead of “…cannot expedite your appointment unless you do…”

This can be very useful, particularly in sales queues where customers often have choices to make. For example, a sales agent of a telecom company may present three bundle options to buy with the third option (which is less attractive than the first two) added to nudge them toward one of the first two.

Do you make decisions about your marketing operations?

Are you responsible for customer acquisition, retention or loyalty?

Is your department in charge of fulfilling orders or customer service?

Sign up NOW for a free subscription to Contact Management magazine.

Visit our website at www.contactmanagement.ca and learn more about the magazine

Contact Management is a Lloydmedia, Inc publication.

Lloydmedia also publishes Financial Operations magazine, Canadian Treasurer magazine, Canadian Equipment Finance magazine, Payments Business magazine and Direct Marketing magazine and Contact Management magazine.

contact management | 5

The Operations Issue

Creating a boutique experience at a big box store

By Tara Kelly

W

hy do we love boutiques? Hip, independent stores with a beautiful, eclectic assortment of merchandise appeal to our sense of individuality. At a boutique, we can find something truly different, an item (clothes, jewelry, furniture, art— anything, really) that makes a statement about our own sense of style.

Another thing that makes shopping at boutiques so 6 | contact management

special is the personalized attention we receive in a small store, where the owner and assistants tend to know customers’ names and understand their taste. Can a big box store replicate that experience at scale?

Some say no, pointing out that size, automation and technology form barriers to intimacy. But with the

right strategy, the opposite can be true.

Digital isn’t the problem—it’s the solution Big box stores do more of their business online today than ever before, and critics cite an increasingly digital approach as a factor in the Issue 2 • 2017

The Operations Issue

With a digital strategy that captures and links data and delivers data-driven messages at the right points on the customer journey, retailers can generate higher sales. impersonal feel of a megastore visit. But that’s only true if the big box retailer fails to “think outside the big box” on customer outreach. With the right digital strategy, one that creates an exceptional customer experience, digital can be the gateway to a boutique feel in a big box setting.

The first step in creating the right digital strategy is to understand that you need data, and, just as crucially, that you must use it effectively. From the customer’s perspective, this strategy will only work if they feel that you know them as individuals and are offering genuine value. If you get that component right, customers are more than willing to interact on digital platforms and the relationship can grow.

Human-digital interactions are becoming more common and accepted—just ask Siri or Alexa! The thing to keep in mind is that multiple platforms are involved in creating the customer experience, including text, social media and automated voice interactions. Retailers who embrace all platforms and deliver a consistently excellent customer experience can gain a huge competitive edge.

The customer journey is the key Customers come to your store in search of a diverse array of items, but most have three simple requirements in common: convenience, minimal friction and one-on-one attention. Their interactions with your brand at every point along the customer journey will be evaluated by these standards and, if you deliver, you can increase sales and build loyalty.

To create a boutique-quality experience, start with mapping out the customer journey to account for every touchpoint between the customer and your brand. You’ll need to know where customer interactions take place (online, on the phone, in the store, on social media, etc.) and what happened as a result of each. It’s crucial to capture and link personalized data—and to make sure that you never get it wrong.

Think of this process as customers inviting your brand into their lives—consider it an affirmative RSVP when customers share personal data, indicate preferences for contact methods, join a loyalty program, respond to an offer, check in during an in-store visit or attend an event.

Just as you wouldn’t insult guests in your home by calling them the wrong name, ensure that you can apply customer data accurately every time.

Issue 2 • 2017

What does a connected customer journey look like?

So, what does a connected customer journey look like? It fulfills all three requirements that customers are looking for in an interaction with your brand: it is convenient; it entails minimal friction and it features oneon-one attention. For a big box store looking to replicate the boutique feel, the connected customer journey can involve communication that is automated, data-driven and channel aware.

This might take the form of voice or SMS notifications that invite customers to special store events, notify them about a delivery or let them know an item ordered online is available for pickup in the store. The messages must be data-driven so that they accurately reflect the customer’s information and preferences (calls, texts, emails, etc.) as well as store inventory levels and other relevant operational data.

Retailers who want to communicate across multiple channels should ensure the data they have on customers is relevant and complete (e.g. mobile numbers versus landlines), secure customer permission for contact and obtain information on which channels the customer prefers. Loyalty programs and in-store check-ins (for example, via a tablet) are great ways to generate and update this information.

Cross-channel consistency is also critically important. In-store signage should match its digital counterparts.

Personalized messages sent at scale to customers should be consistent with communication they receive in the store, on social media or through

other channels. Not only must you know who your customer is, your customer should know who you are as well and consistency makes that possible.

Boutique in a big box Part of the appeal of boutique shopping is the unique and inspired merchandising, so retailers who are hoping to replicate the boutique experience will also want to pay close attention to displays, foot traffic flow, etc. They’ll need to motivate employees to deliver personalized service and build relationships, and loyalty program opt-ins managed via digital devices can be a critical part of that process.

Retailers have so much to gain by creating a connected journey and consistently delivering an outstanding customer experience.

Today, more people than ever do research online and then visit brickand-mortar locations, where they’re much more likely to buy. With a digital strategy that captures and links data and delivers data-driven messages at the right points on the customer journey, retailers can generate higher sales.

But a well-designed digital strategy can do more than boost sales numbers: when done correctly, it can connect customers and retailers on a human level, even in a big box setting.

Instead of placing distance between the retailer and the customer, technology and digital tools can bring them closer together. And what could be more human and personal than that?

A serial innovator, published author and founder, president and CEO of SPLICE Software, Tara Kelly (@tktechnow) is passionate about technology’s potential to change lives for the better. She has consistently channeled that belief into developing technologies that enhance operations, enable better service delivery and improve the customer experience. This has led to the creation of three customer experience companies and turning an innovative idea into a patented, proprietary technology (US Patent Number 9348812) that harnesses data streams to create personalized, automated messages.

contact management | 7

The Operations Issue

10 ways to master customer complaints on social media

By Nicole Klemp

C

ustomer service today is customer-driven and omnichannel. When someone is reaching out to your brand on social media, you need to be listening and ready to respond.

While we find that most companies want to include social as an integral part of their customer experience, many feel like they don’t have a good plan or strategy in place to address comments or inquiries. Regardless of where your social media effort stands, it’s always smart to evaluate your social response strategy. Based on discussions with our partners (of all shapes and sizes), we came up with 10 basic rules to follow when it comes to social response.

1. Always respond as fast as possible Quoted in a recent Forbes article, social media expert Jay Baer shares: “A lack of response is actually a response. It’s a response that says, ‘we don’t care about you very much.’”

It may seem like an obvious practice, but many organizations don’t respond to every comment or inquiry— good or bad.

There are always underlying factors that prevent companies from responding on their social media channels, like corporate bureaucracy. Companies operating in highlyregulated industries may be less inclined to respond on social, for fear of saying something that could “get them into trouble” (see rule number two). For those situations, it’s important to have approved responses on hand.

2. Make a plan, follow the plan and have official statements ready Whether it’s a critical issue that needs to be addressed by a service agent or a customer commenting “I really love your products”—in which case a simple “thank you!” will do—every interaction deserves attention. Employees need to be enabled to respond quickly to these comments and questions without the need to run everything past a PR or legal department first.

That’s where official responses and blanket templates come into play. Those statements are important for addressing complex issues or 8 | contact management

complaints from customers. Consider a car company doing a major recall that affects millions of vehicles, or a power company dealing with outages after an ice storm. In those cases, a number of customers are going to take to social media to ask questions, complain, or alert the company of issues. It’s important to, at the very least, let these customers know their concerns have been heard and direct them to more information if possible.

Responses prepared for frequent customer inquiries can also cut down on response time, which is important, as 42% of customers expect a response within 60 minutes and 32% expect a response in just 30 minutes.

3. Empower customer teams to respond consistently It’s important for every customer representative to be on the same page when it comes to social response. If customers are getting different answers to questions or different levels of service depending on who they talk to, it can be harmful to your reputation.

This is where tracking responses (rule number four) and having some responses prepared ahead of time (rule number two) can save a lot of time and prevent customer service headaches.

4. Track, track, track Tracking social activity can help you better serve customers. Since you’re treating every social interaction the same way you would treat a customer email or phone call, it should be noted in the customer record whenever possible. Being able to measure and take action on your customer data is an integral part of delivering a great customer experience. And keeping track of social activities and the appropriate responses can be useful for employee reference and training later on.

5. Be a real person It’s no surprise that people like to talk to other people—not robots. The more human you can make these digital interactions, the better. Companies like Zappos are nailing customer service by making interactions more personal and personable.

6. Align core messages with executives and company representatives on social Most organizations have official corporate social handles, but many also employ executives or other thought leaders who are active on public social channels. A corporate guide of social media dos and don’ts should be available to your employees.

If you have an individual who decides to go rogue and post inappropriate things on their social media accounts, it may be a good idea to ask them to dissociate those Issue 2 • 2017

The Operations Issue accounts from the business or set them to private.

It’s great to have individuals who act as a mouthpiece for your brand, as long as they are only tweeting/ posting/sharing things that align with your company values and messaging.

7. Know what folks are saying about you Other companies have a tendency to treat social media like the “comment box” at a restaurant.

If someone puts a card in the comment box, the staff will read it and respond to it if necessary. But instead of waiting for someone to put a card in the box, employees should be walking around the dining room listening to what guests are saying about the food, service, etc. The same logic applies to social media: Always be monitoring what people are saying about your company, products, services and industry. If you aren’t sure how to do this, there are listening tools available to help—like Social Studio on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

8. Learn from competitor chatter In order to stay competitive, it’s just as important to listen to what people are saying about your competitors. Maybe people can’t say enough great things about Competitor X and their products, or maybe they’re getting berated with complaints—either way, knowing what customers and prospects like and don’t like is extremely valuable.

This tactic is also helpful for inserting yourself into a conversation. Say, for instance, that a competitor’s product lacks a feature that your product has and a customer is complaining about not having it on social media. A wellcrafted response could bring you a new customer.

the appropriate messages and responses.

10. Measure how effective your engagements are Social media engagements are important to map on the customer journey and, just like you may measure email activity or online shopping habits, knowing how your customers interact with your brand on social is just as important when it comes to providing a good customer experience. Are your social interactions with customers leading to more sales? Are customers less satisfied after interacting with you on social media? These are important marketing metrics to track. Surveys can be a great tool for collecting meaningful feedback and gauging customer satisfaction.

Whether you’re an organization of 10 people or 10,000, responding to your customers, prospects and fans on social media is worth the time and investment. Not responding to a customer question on social media is like not answering the phone in a call centre—not good for business.

And on the flipside, executing great social response can drive loyalty and wow customers. As Baer said: “If you’re willing to invest in customer service and customer experience at a level your competitors aren’t, that is a differentiator. That is the defining factor that will set you apart.”

Nicole Klemp is a staff writer at Appirio, a global cloud services company that helps customers create next-generation worker and customer experiences using the latest cloud technologies. Nicole has worked in digital marketing for nearly a decade, studied marketing at Indiana State University and has an MBA with a focus on management and leadership.

Continued from page CM 11

outside where it matters most: in the field, first as a general manager and then as a divisional manager of operations, working with the associates and members, understanding their needs.

This supplement—in the form of deeply understanding customer and staff needs combined with empathy—gives Julie rare insight into how exactly the contact centre, with all its bells and whistles, can better serve associates and members.

Now my question to you is: Are you supplementing your contact centre with a deep understanding of who you’re actually trying to help?

Well that’s a wrap for your very first contact centre Total Body Workout and insider look into how the world’s fourth largest fitness chain runs a successful contact centre.

To get your contact centre firing on all cylinders, use GoodLife’s FIT FIX 20 Minute Total Body Workout approach. Spend 20 minutes, three times a week working these success secrets into practice. That means determining how you can begin implementing these ideas—in practical ways—within your contact centre.

Emily Nielsen launched Nielsen IT Consulting, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations achieve breakthrough results using contact centre and unified communication technologies, in 1999. If you’d like such rewarding results you’re encouraged to contact Emily at enielsen@ nielsenitconsulting.com or by calling 519-473-5373.

For breaking news and in-depth features, visit our website at www.contactmanagement.ca

9. Be where the customers are Do your research and find out what social channels people are using to interact with or talk about your business. Your customers are unique and people tend to use different platforms depending on the industry. For example, a clothing retailer might get a lot of activity on Facebook, while a B2B services company might interact with customers more often on LinkedIn. No two companies are exactly alike, so it’s up to you to know your audiences and meet them where they are—and cater to them with Issue 2 • 2017

contact management | 9

The Operations Issue Continued from page CM 3

most to reshape CX capabilities in the next five years. CX has to adapt by committing to the opportunity created by the digital revolution.

Digital transformation Successful digital transformation will only be delivered by a strategy that re-engineers how processes, people, technology and the organization can be mobilized in an aggressive customer-orientated and change-orientated manner. One of the key focuses of a successful digital strategy must be the displacement of legacy methods of working and the associated costs.

This means not only changing the CX with a new application or with improved customer service but re-arranging the entire organization to become more agile and responsive to customer needs. Innovation is key and organizations need to build an internal competency that enables them to continuously adapt and thrive through explorative innovation and prototyping. The development of this competency starts with strong leadership and an innovative culture, which in turn best serves customer needs.

CX is core to digital transformation and digitally relevant businesses are focusing on aligning system user experiences, both internally and externally, to drive positive disruption. There’s an overwhelming appreciation from organizations on the importance of CX. Establishing trust is the leading driver of CX, followed by the matching of service experiences to brand values. It drives revenues, is proven to reduce costs and even adds to employee engagement levels.

The cornerstone of a CX strategy is to realize that knowledge is power considering data sources that are ever growing. Informed proactive integrated customer management will win versus reactive silos of customer experience. Customer journey mapping and underpinning processes will translate these capabilities to long-term customer acquisition and repeat business.

Leaders embrace CX The uncomfortable truth is that high performing companies that have committed to the opportunity created by the digital revolution are outpacing established market leaders. The benchmark research highlights that top quartile organizations are performing up to 10 times better than the typical standard.

We’ve seen that digital transformation both accelerates opportunities and causes disruption.

Pioneers of the digital age have reimagined business models and processes that have changed customer behavior forever. The height of the bar has been set by blue sky thinkers within green field organizations, where the competitive benefits of legacy and incumbency have a rapidly shortening runway.

The choices you make in your CX and digital strategies will define the future success of your 10 | contact management

organization.

The call to action is apparent: the time to act is now.

Andrew McNair is the editor of Dimension Data’s Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report, and holds overall responsibility—from

research and publishing to the design. He possesses exceptional industry insight, and a wealth of strategic vision which he applies operationally in his combined role as head of solutions. Andrew has over 20 years of consulting and practitioner experience in the CX industry.

Issue 2 • 2017

The Consultant’s Corner

GoodLife Fitness reveals the secrets behind its contact centre success If you’re looking for ways to improve your contact centre’s performance then here’s a behind-the-scenes look into how GoodLife Fitness does it (and how you can too)

By Emily Nielsen ecently, I had the special opportunity to take an insider’s peek into GoodLife’s contact centre located in London, Ontario.

At a closed-door meeting with Julie Pontes, director of member experience, I was let in on a wealth of incredible insights. In this no holds-barred interview Julie, with much excitement and enthusiasm, revealed some of her best-kept contact centre success secrets.

While taking notes, there were times when I could not believe what I was hearing and neither will you. Why? Because just one of Julie’s ideas alone could transform your contact centre. If you think I sound like I’m full of beans, then consider this: Julie is running the contact centre behind the world’s fourth largest fitness chain, with some 375 fitness clubs, 13,300 employees and 1.3 million members scattered across 10 provinces and four time zones! That’s an immense challenge. Yet she’s managed to make it work and work very, very well.

So, how do Julie and her team do it? What’s her secret to success? Well, much like with your personal health and fitness, despite what everyone wants to believe there is no “magic bullet.” However, there is hope because there are a combination of things you can do to improve the results of your contact centre’s performance.

Before I reveal some of Julie’s advice and what you can do to improve your contact centre, there are two things you should know about GoodLife first: 1. When you join a GoodLife gym one of the first things a GoodLife trainer will do with you is help you determine your desired fitness outcomes.

2. GoodLife clubs have something called a 20 Minute FIT FIX Total Body Workout. This is a circuit consisting of nine workout machines which would take you around 20 minutes to complete.

Want agents who can more easily handle your customers’ problems and questions?

Now, having said that and in the spirit of GoodLife and its 20-minute circuit, consider the following tips, tricks and secrets a form of a Total Body Workout for your contact centre led by your very own, very passionate personal contact centre trainer Julie Pontes.

Laid out before you now are the desired outcomes you may be striving for and the “exercises” you can do to achieve them. Now then, let’s begin your very first contact centre Total Body Workout.

If so, the exercise for this is to bring your call centre and marketing department together. This means bringing the contact centre “out of the basement” and placing it right into the heart of your business. By doing this Julie has started to provide the marketing team with the insight and exact changes they need to continually optimize self-service

R

Issue 2 • 2017

The exercise? There are a number of things Julie would recommend; however, the single most impactful thing you can do is this: hire from within your organization. Why? Because when you do your agents come with the customer experience, knowledge and company culture required to assist customers with more ease.

Want to empower front-line staff with customer-helping superpowers?

Many organizations leave frontline staff to fend for themselves when customers approach them with questions or problems. Often customers are left feeling unsatisfied with the answers received. Not at GoodLife. At GoodLife, Julie has empowered front-line staff (known as associates) with the power of superhuman customer-helping intelligence.

The secret? By running an internal chat line between the contact centre and associates, front-line staff can immediately tap into the knowledge needed to better help members.

Are your agents overwhelmed by inbound calls for basic information?

tools—the website and app—based on immediate customer feedback coming up from the contact centre agents.

Want to dramatically reduce agent turnover rates?

Here’s what Julie would do: Stop promoting the belief that the contact centre is just an entry-level position. Rather than allowing anyone with just a lick of contact centre experience in, try limiting the position to people within your organization. Start promoting a walk-in policy which encourages your current employees to check it out, get a feel for it and to see if they’d like to work in it or not.

The catch? Making this work will depend on your ability to elevate how your contact centre is perceived. At GoodLife, the contact centre was purposely placed alongside other key departments in the head office which is equipped with fitness equipment (obviously!), meditation rooms, pingpong tables and so much more. The result? People actually want to work here.

If there was a “magic bullet” this would be it!

If the previous four ideas are considered exercises then consider this last one a supplement. A magic bullet of sorts to boost your overall contact centre performance.

So here it is: Julie is an outsider.

Despite working at GoodLife for 17+ years, most of those years weren’t spent in the contact centre tinkering with technology or trying to decipher the cold facts and faceless figures contained in contact centre reports.

Rather, they were spent on the Continued on page CM 9

contact management | 11

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Excellent Execution

Lawyers and legal battles Why CASL’s next phase deserves your attention

By Greg Zakowicz

D

espite being introduced in 2010 and going into effect July 1, 2014, there’s still a lot of concern about Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), especially from digital marketers worried that they might run afoul of CASL’s strict regulations.

For those of you that may need a bit of a refresher, CASL places regulations on every Commercial Electronic Message (CEM) (email, SMS, etc.) sent by a company and requires that they get permission from recipients prior to sending any CEM.

Greg Zakowicz is a senior commerce marketing analyst at Oracle’s Bronto Software, which provides a cloud-based commerce marketing automation platform to mid-market and enterprise organizations.

Power to the people So, why worry about a law that’s already in effect? CASL provided a three-year grace period to help companies meet the new regulations. Unfortunately, that threeyear grace period is nearly over and the “private right of action” provision of the law activates on July 1.

Once that date arrives, Canadians can take legal action against any business, organization or individual alleged to have violated CASL rules, including those that send CEMs without permission. It’s also worth noting that, currently, there is no insurance product available in Canada that protects against CASL violations.

Until now, the government has been the only entity allowed to act against CASL violators—and there have already been penalties as high as $1 million handed out. Starting July 1 that changes. In addition to government action, violators will be subject to classaction litigation from private individuals.

Did you hear that sound? That’s the sound of litigation-hungry lawyers chomping at the bit—and they’ve had three years to build up an appetite.

Risky business practices Breaches of law? Class-action litigation? Lawyers? Each sound more terrifying than the next. But rather than risk operating outside the rules, it’s crucial for Canadian marketers to make serious efforts to protect themselves and comply with CASL regulations, or risk incurring serious penalties from profit-driven plaintiffs.

That means getting the necessary permission prior to sending any CEMs. Thankfully, CASL defines what proper permission looks like.

Learn the rules There are essentially two types of permission that marketers can obtain. Implied permission and explicit permission. The former constitutes having some form of business relationship. i.e. completing a purchase, entering into a contract, signing up for a membership, asking for more information, etc.

The latter is, naturally, more straightforward. It constitutes someone who explicitly and knowingly requested emails from you; someone who directly gave you permission to send them marketing emails by entering their email address into a web form clearly marked as an email newsletter signup box or by checking a box agreeing to receive marketing messages.

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While attaining either forms of consent will satisfy CASL requirements, it’s explicit permission that savvy marketers will want to obtain. That’s because implied permission was left intentionally vague by CASL lawmakers. While it’s assumed to mean an “ongoing business relationship,” CASL never defines it in clear terms.

Now, implied permission could mean a pre-checked signup box at checkout. Some even argue opening and clicking an email constitutes an on-going business relationship but again, because it hasn’t been defined, it exposes business to potential litigation.

To keep things simple and safe, and to avoid any potential legal issues, you’re better off getting explicit permission to send CEMs, rather than dealing with the deadlines, red-tape and headaches associated with implied permission.

The burden of proof That brings us to another important aspect of CASL and why July 1 is so important. In all of this back and forth, the burden of proof is squarely on you. If called upon, you must have records of where and how people signed up and provided their consent. And if you’re collecting via phone calls, conferences, hotel check-in desks, etc., you’ll still need the data to back it all up.

There are several other important rules you’ll want to follow as well. For example, CASL requires that you provide a working unsubscribe mechanism and an unsubscribe link for each email that works for at least 60 days from the send date.

CASL also governs transaction emails. These too must have an unsubscribe or preference page link from which recipients can unsubscribe from your promotional emails. And if your transactional email contains any marketing or promotional content, then that transactional email becomes a marketing message and falls under CASL regulation.

Play it safe Simply put, if you’re sending CEMs to a person in Canada, sending from Canada or even if your CEMs pass through Canada, the law applies to you and you’ll want to be sure that you’re following all the rules.

While CASL regulates CEMs sent by a business, organization or individual, it also regulates applications on mobile devices that automatically update software and transfer data. That could potentially require a larger discussion with various stakeholders as it relates to your marketing efforts. It’s something you’ll want to be aware of and account for moving forward.

The new Canadian law will pose challenges to marketers for collecting explicit permissions and recording them but, by doing so, you’ll reap the benefits of having engaged subscribers and avoid any issues with CASL compliance.

This article is for general informational purposes and not intended to serve as legal advice.

June 2017

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