Direct Marketing magazine Feb 2015

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Special Report: Creating the perfect DM package

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Dimensional Mail Contact Supplement Management

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Vol. 28 • No. 2 • february 2015

The Authority on Data-Driven Engagement & Operations

Ready…Fire!

Oh Canada, did we forget to Aim?

Jennifer o’Neill

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eTail Canada 2015 Media Partner Show Issue MAY 2015 To advertise in this issue contact Mark Henry, mark@dmn.ca

The single most important campaign decision you will ever make.

Lots of decisions are made when you design and execute a marketing campaign. However one decision stands out. All the studies prove the same thing: if you want better campaign results, get a better list. That’s because 60% of your campaign’s ultimate success is due to the accuracy of the list. Sure, the offer, timing, and creative are important too. But the list will have far more influence on your results than any other decision you make.

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Movers spend up to 8x more on just about everything. Get to them first, before your competition does.

Tired of the old and just plain wrong?

This is the B2B list you really want.

It’s what successful campaigns are built on.

Decide on the best. Decide on ResponseCanada.

For more information and to request pricing visit www.ResponseCanada.ca.

BETTER DATA

FROM CANADA’S LEADER IN CONTACT DATA SOLUTIONS

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The ResponseCanada family of prospect databases are built and maintained by Cleanlist.ca, an Interact Direct company.

cleanlist.ca 1-800-454-0223 sales@cleanlist.ca www.cleanlist.ca

// 3 Targeting & Acquisition Special Report: Creating the perfect DM package Vol. 28 | No. 2 | February 2015 EDITOR Amy Bostock - amy@dmn.ca

LLOYDMEDIA INC. HEAD OFFICE / SUBSCRIPTIONS / PRODUCTION: 302-137 Main Street North

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Get back to basics

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7 steps to best response direct mail

home@dmn.ca www.dmn.ca

Engagement & Analytics

EDITORIAL CONTACT: Direct Marketing is published monthly by Lloydmedia Inc. plus the annual DM Industry Source Book List of Lists.

Direct Marketing may be obtained through paid subscription. Rates: Canada 1 year (12 issues $48)

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Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. However unused manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied by sufficient postage. Occasionally Direct Marketing provides its subscriber mailing list to other companies whose product or service may be of value to readers. If you do not want to receive information this way simply send your subscriber mailing label with this notice to: Lloydmedia Inc. 302-137 Main Street North Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Canada.

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Twitter: @DMNewsCanada

February 2015

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Try it, you’ll like it

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Case study: Mitsubishi Canada & Proximity Canada

Contact management IssUe 1

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Cover story Ready…Fire! Oh Canada, did we forget Aim?

POSTMASTER: Please send all address changes and return all undeliverable copies to: Lloydmedia Inc. 302-137 Main Street North Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Canada

Case study: Stop the Drop & john st. Toronto

Case study: Canadian Tourism Commission & Rapp Toronto

Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Phone: 905.201.6600 Fax: 905.201.6601 Toll-free: 800.668.1838

Case study: Mid-Range & Torpedo Marketing Cover-All’s B2B campaign achieves tasty results

DESIGN / PRODUCTION Jennifer O'Neill - jennifer@dmn.ca

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Gordon Russell Mike Cowan Nick So Veronica Marsden Guillaume Seynhaeve Graeme McVie Dave Ward Jennifer Lee

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PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca

Advertising Sales Mark Henry - mark@dmn.ca Kevin Smith - kevin@dmn.ca

Dimensional Mail Supplement

Operations & Logistics ❯❯10

Ship to car?

A drive-thru solution brings a new angle to the intersection of physical and digital commerce

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Workplace wellness strategies for call centre employees

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Contact centres: the new face of enterprise business

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The power of outsourcing Part 2 in a series on challenges facing the Canadian contact centre industry DMN.ca ❰

SPECIAL REPORT CREATING THE PERFECT DM PACKAGE

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Want to create the perfect direct mail piece?

Go back to basics

By Gordon Russell

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he past 22 years have been an endless pursuit of the perfect direct mail piece. I only keep my sanity by going back to the basics.

It’s all about sending the right person the right offer at the right time with the right words and pictures. Wouldn’t it be magic if we could get all those moving parts right … just once!

Good basic direct mail will: 1. Be written and designed for the right person 2. Have a headline that states a clear benefit to the recipient 3. Make an offer 4. Back up your offer with a testimonial from a current user that has credibility with the recipient 5. Body copy that tells & sells 6. Give the recipient a way to respond to get more information or to BUY!!

7. Include a test. The pursuit of ❱ DMN.ca

perfection never ends Choosing the right people is getting easier with better CRM systems, better rental lists and the explosive amount of personal data people are revealing.

Even if it is somewhat overwhelming, having good data from the beginning is so important.

I sometimes get funny reactions from people when I start to talk to them about their lists. Mostly it’s embarrassment. They’ve heard and read all the hype from the industry about full colour, cross platform campaigns totally integrated with multi variable personalization and think they should be there with their first mailing.

What condition is your customer list in? Do you know every customer personally? Can you segment your list into like groups with similar interests and buying behaviour?

Can you identify their demographic information? If you can, give yourself a

pat on the back. You are one of the very few who can.

When it comes to lists, I’ve seen just about everything from recipe cards to data warehouses packed with enhanced data. Interestingly, it’s often the people with the recipe cards who are most effective at knowing and talking to their customers with the right message. I always tell my customers … crawl, walk, run. Direct mail is like a marathon, it takes some time to get in shape.

Remember, this is about your customer and you need to write headlines that speak to them.

Headlines should be customized based on what your audience wants to see, not what you want to show them.

Stuck for a headline? I always turn to the seven key copy drivers.* ❯❯ Fear – of missing out, of losing something, of being unprepared ❯❯ Greed – FREE gifts, more for your money, instant riches

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Guilt – be a better parent, lose weight, exercise more Anger – strike a nerve to provoke action Salvation – show the path to a better way Exclusivity – join the elite of a special group Flattery – make them feel younger, smarter, faster

The headline is really all about the offer. And the offer is not an afterthought! It’s going to be the key to the prospect taking action. The first step is to determine what your offer will do. Is the offer designed for lead generation, purchases, continuity, traffic building or fundraising?

If you are going to make an offer (and you are) put an expiry date on it and stick to it. Deadlines prompt action. When the deadline is up don’t extend it! Your customers need to know you are serious. Of course, you February 2015

SPECIAL REPORT CREATING THE PERFECT DM PACKAGE

have a new offer in hand for the late responders . . . “I’m sorry sir, the 20% discount offer has expired, but I can offer you free shipping.”

You’ve got the headline that pulls, the offer that prompts, now you need the testimonial that gives you credibility. Word of mouth is by far the best advertising that anybody February 2015

can ask for. Think of the testimonial as word of mouth in print. Nothing builds credibility faster than having a satisfied customer who is willing to talk about you in a positive way.

Include pictures of people your prospects can identify with. With today’s technology it’s simple to include different images on every piece

based on any variable you can imagine.

You need body copy that tells and sells. Go right back to the key copy drivers and start making compelling reasons why your product or service is the best for your prospect. Don’t forget to use the magic word YOU. Again, this is all about the customer and how you are going to solve a problem for them. Answer the question the prospect is asking; “What’s in it for me?

Once you have them hooked, they need to respond to you.

Times are changing. It used to be that you needed a mail in response card with a business reply envelope. While it’s still a good idea to include them (especially if you are asking for an order with payment), more and more people are turning to ways to respond immediately. 1-800 numbers and website addresses with personalized logins are now mandatory. I’m still waiting to see if barcodes will catch on.

Now that you have designed the perfect direct mail piece let’s see if you can do it better. The only way to find out is to test against the control.

I’m always amazed when people skip this step!

When you do include a test it’s really

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important that you do it right. You need to understand what it is you are testing. When my customers do finally understand that they need to test they often go overboard with multiple tests in one mailing. The matrices become so complicated that it’s either to hard to analyze or the samples are too small to be significant.

Start with a simple test with one variable and then use the information you gain to do better in the future.

I’ve included a couple of examples of people who are getting double digit response by following the basics. The Divas of Direct Mail at River Rock Casino in Richmond B.C., Colette Bennett and Amanda McGregor always keep my life interesting by coming up with promotions that pull!

John Barrett at Veseys Seeds in PEI is the master of testing and tweaks his packages to extract the maximum response.

Gordon Russell owns Honeycomb Direct Mail in Vancouver and a couple of other Direct Marketing companies across Canada. His idea of a good time is helping customers create and execute data driven, response generating direct mail campaigns. He’s also always up for a good gallop. * The 7 key copy drivers were defined by two direct mail experts, Swedish entrepreneur Axel Anderrson and Seattle direct marketing guru Bob Hacker, and are expanded upon in Secrets of Emotional, Hot-Button Copywriting by Denny Hatch.

DMN.ca ❰

SPECIAL REPORT CREATING THE PERFECT DM PACKAGE

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7 steps to best response direct mail

By Nick So and Mike Cowan

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oday more than ever, your customers are constantly bombarded with marketing messages. In the constant battle for attention, you can no longer simply rely on good creative to stand out from your competitors. When your piece finally does get your customer’s attention, it better be relevant and engaging on all levels in order to get them to respond.

A recent direct mail campaign we at Kirk Marketing did with the University of British Columbia Development and Alumni Engagement department, themed around CHANGE, exemplifies successful execution in best-response direct mail.

Using this campaign as an example lets look at what they did to achieve successful response.

1. The objective Keep your objective simple and limit it to just a single one, so the entire campaign development team is dedicated to one goal. Better yet, quantify the objectives so there is something tangible for you all to strive for: e.g. ‘Achieve a 15% response rate for the CHANGE annual alumni appeal by communicating a clear message of need by X date.’

While other objectives such as “build brand image”, “showcase our latest products/services” may come up while developing the brief, it’s important to recognize that these should be supporting objectives that aid the single primary objective. If it does not directly support the primary ❱ DMN.ca

objective, it should not be included in the brief because you’ll add confusion, which will reduce response.

2. The list As much as cleaning your database may seem an unnecessary cost, approximately 15 to 20 percent of Canadian households change addresses each year. If you don’t clean your database, you could be wasting one-fifth of your potential responses even before you get started.

Alternatively, if you do clean your database before you mail, it just might be the easiest lift in ROI you might ever achieve.

3. The recipients If you profile and segment your prospects, you give your campaign development team insight and direction to decide the most relevant and engaging messages to increase

response. Even just basic demographics like gender and age can guide the messaging to get a better response. And, if you know more about your customers like their interests or purchasing history, then you’ll be able to write even more personalized messages that will get you even greater response.

With the UBC alumni appeal, the Development and Alumni Engagement department decided to segment their list based on the faculty the recipient graduated from – such as arts, or sciences, or business – so that they could write messages that spoke to each graduate. Doing this, they were able to create copy and creative that made the package truly memorable and relevant to the recipients.

4. The copy Copy in poor performing direct mail campaigns usually talk about a brand’s features or organization’s

benefits which, to be honest, most people aren’t interested in hearing about. What they really want is the classic WIIFM: “What’s in it for me?”

Also, poor performing direct mail campaign usually have too much copy, which usually occurs when the brief has more than one primary objective.

This will dilute the message, reduce the readability, and lessen response.

With effective segmentation as in step 3, you will be able to develop your message with copy that speaks more personally to the recipient, and answer their question: “What’s in it for me?”

The UBC alumni appeal featured variable copy that was highly personalized and targeted, by having the heads of each faculty and department contribute their own ‘CHANGE’ story. This allowed the copywriter to communicate the broad theme of ‘CHANGE,’ while leaving opportunity to showcase the many February 2015

SPECIAL REPORT CREATING THE PERFECT DM PACKAGE different personal stories from across faculties, resulting in a total of over thirty copy variations of the letter.

5. The design and imagery When Canadians get their mail and sort it, they glance at each piece an average of 7 seconds. In these 7 seconds, they are looking to find something that has meaning to them personally. Poor performing direct mail packages often include design and visual imagery that is relevant to the brand and not the customer or recipient.

The UBC alumni appeal not only featured variable copy, but also ‘old’ and ‘new’ photographs of specific faculty buildings, classes, professors, and students, that varied from segment to segment and further supported the CHANGE message. By doing this, they increase relevance and also response.

6. The physical The physicality of direct mail makes it more engaging than any other channel. However, this can only benefit you if you give it the same thought and attention as the rest of the piece you are developing.

Everything from the paper stock, ink, coverage, dimensions, and weight should be given some level of consideration. The reason for this is because not only do each of these elements reflect the quality of your brand, but also the credibility of your message.

The creative team at UBC certainly gave the physical elements of the package a lot of thought. The letter featured a complex die-cut ‘CHANGE’ text that allowed the variable imagery to show through when folded. This was presented through a unique envelope featuring a large showcase window that allowed the entire creative to be seen within the sealed envelope.

This means that if you too, like UBC, want to create a campaign that generates response, you will have to think about your envelope. Do you want an envelope with a window or without a window? If you do want a window, how much do you want to show? Will there be a message printed on the front? Will you use custom postage indicia?

The physical design should also be considered on a mail induction level as well. A fraction of a centimeter in size or thickness can make a large difference in your postage costs if it gets bumped up to the ‘oversize’ tier.

February 2015

However, would the extra postage cost be worth it to you if the piece stands out more to your customer by being larger than the rest of the mail?

With all these questions that you need to answer to create a campaign that gets response, it’s ironic that this is the step that often marketers pay the least attention to.

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Check us out online dmn.ca

7. Testing and repeat What worked today might not work tomorrow. Continually testing different, but still relevant campaigns, against campaigns you found to work in the past will ensure you are continually improving your responses.

You test what you are mailing and you mail prospects more than once. For example, if you went with a non-windowed envelope on the first mailing, perhaps try a windowed envelope on the next mailing. Or perhaps do an A/B test and send both versions to see the results. The variations and testing possibilities are endless, and each test will provide you with great insight to further strengthen the effectiveness of your direct mail program. What worked yesterday, with a few tweaks today, will be more successful for you tomorrow.

As an added bonus, you will capture responses from customers who may not have been ready to take action on the first mailing. If you only sent it to them once, they may forget about you or forget to take action at all when they are ready to do so. That’s why it’s important to mail more than once.

In conclusion, although logistically complex, the UBC alumni appeal campaign successfully achieved its key objective. It got great response because they followed steps above to get the direct mail response they were looking for. The campaign managed to solicit over 15,000 alumni over 32 departments and they achieved a 19% response rate, 4% above their initial target.

Vancouver-based Kirk Marketing provides

expert direct mail strategy, data management, database marketing, digital variable and offset printing, letter shop and fulfillment services. As Western Canada’s most respected direct marketing services provider for over 60 years, Kirk Marketing helps clients reach prospects, grow customers, and deliver measurable results.

For online advertising opportunities contact

Mark Henry, mark@dmn.ca For online editorial opportunities contact

Amy Bostock, amy@dmn.ca DMN.ca ❰

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Cover Story

Ready…

Fire!

Jennifer o’Neill

Oh Canada, did we forget Aim?

❱ DMN.ca

February 2015

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Cover Story

By Graeme McVie

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arget’s untimely demise in Canada is in stark contrast to its splashy, pop-up and teaser filled launch that had many shoppers giddy with anticipation.

Numerous perspectives have been offered on the retailer’s misfortunes and the root cause. Suffice it to say, most include some reference to the company’s inability to select the right product assortment and get it on shelves in sufficient volumes along with price discrepancies notwithstanding currency exchange rates.

Years before its launch in Canada (2011), Gregg Steinhafel, the then chairman, president and CEO of Target heralded what was to be ‘in-store’ for shoppers in Canada: [We’re] “excited to bring our broad assortment of unique, high-quality merchandise at exceptional values and our convenient shopping environment to Canadian guests coast to coast.”

Editorial, plentiful, and for the most part favourable in the early days, included reference to the positive impact of Target. With some stories suggesting Target’s arrival stood to have a positive impact on the entire retail sector as Canadians opted to shop locally, versus south of the border, thereby supporting the nearly 30,000 employees Target projected it would hire upon opening its doors.

Target is a hugely successful retailer in the US so they deserve the benefit of the doubt and we should assume they were clear on their strategy anchored in their assortment, value and shopping experience. So how did the retailer, known for its ability to wow Canadians south of the border, fail to gain their loyalty here?

Appreciating the irony, I would suggest that what Target in Canada failed to do was in fact target. They were so ready to make a splash, so ready to take the market by storm, it’s entirely possible that Target fell into the trap of assuming that what had worked for them in the past for their US-based customers and for their occasional hop-across-the-border Canadian customers would work when applied across Canada in its entirety.

So the question then becomes: how did this happen?

Big data is becoming a focus for many companies. Some are learning

February 2015

how to become effective at its application and Target is frequently held up as a great example of this approach in the US. The pre-existence of its REDCard should have given Target a strategic advantage when it came to better satisfying its Canadian customers and driving preference among the most lucrative of them. It was suggested by some that Target’s REDCard, which it started to issue a month before it began to open its stores in Canada, had the potential to shake up the loyalty market in Canada, in part because it offered a 5-per-cent discount on almost all purchases made with the chain’s credit or debit card (as compared with domestic cards estimated at 1 to 2 per cent of spending)1. Target also touted it as adding significant value in the minds of its customers. It also, stood to offer big value to the bottom line.

The value in doing so cannot be understated. Research by LoyaltyOne indicates that when retailers and CPG manufacturers take a customer-centric approach across pricing, promotions, assortment and marketing, we consistently see measurable improvements of a 1% to 4% increase in overall sales and a 4% to 7% increase in gross profits. For a $2 billion retailer this can equate to an additional $80 million in sales per year and an additional $30 million in gross profits. Customer-centricity not only offers one-time benefits. It helps create sustainable improvements in business performance year after year by consistently earning the loyalty of customers.

Target’s highly anticipated arrival and rapid descent offers invaluable lessons to retailers. As their very public failure showed us, brand equity alone is not the Holy Grail and cannot stave off failure. Retailers need to understand the needs of their customers at very granular and personal levels and then rapidly determine what actions need to be taken to best satisfy those needs in order to earn the loyalty of their customers. With Target rolling out to so many locations so quickly not only did this present significant supply chain challenges it also meant they had to rapidly learn about customer preferences in multiple, and

oftentimes very different, locations where existing competitors were fully entrenched.

Retail strategies that do not include at their core enterprise data management and analyses forgo the real upside which enables a retailer to build its business and tailor its value proposition with precision in a margin-squeezed and competitive marketplace. Many of us may have ventured into a Target store to see firsthand what the retailer had to offer and just why our friends and neighbours loved the US experience or perhaps were among those willing to line up for hours when its pop-up stores first launched in Canada; but the evidence appears to suggest that far fewer of us are sufficiently similar to their core US customer that they could directly transplant their wining US formula to Canada.

And while we may be focused on Target and the headlines they’ve generated, it’s fair to say it’s not the only retailer failing to use big data. Many retailers are sitting on a wealth of big data in the form of their customer purchase or loyalty data.

Already in a structured format, this data is readily available to retailers and lends itself to a number of analytical capabilities that are already battletested in the real world. Ironically, in far too many instances, the big data generated by loyalty programs and its massive value remains underutilized.

Leadership at the boardroom table might be interested to know that a 2014 survey by LoyaltyOne of US retailers/manufacturers and consumers found 80 percent (8 in 10) of customers feel that the customercentric benefits provided by retailers is not relevant to them, be it in-store (76%), direct (82%) or via the web (77%).

Of note, the same study found 83% of retail customers reported to shopping at the same primary store for more than three years, even while the general trend is that customers are splitting their purchases across more retail outlets. That means that Target, and any other retailer looking to gain share of wallet and drive sustainable growth, needs to be even better at consistently satisfying their best customers’ needs to ensure they earn

their loyalty across the retailer’s full value proposition.

The REDCard enabled Target a forum to engage and verify in the forum where it really counts – the store. This real time data gave them the capacity to adapt, deepen their offering in core areas and in others that failed to perform, drop them.

What’s more, Target has reported that customers paying with a REDcard spend an average of 50-per-cent more than non-card holders which in theory would have put pressure on other retailers keep their own best customers from switching especially given the hype. The questions that remain unanswered: so what in fact was the adoption rate here in Canada?

We know Target reported more than 30,000 Canadians had a card December 2012, prior to its arrival in Canada and that it was cited as being a rapidly growing program.

Did they not manage to gather and analyze data from the Red Card quickly enough? Were they too busy fixing their supply chain issues to take actions based upon the analytics? I’d guess it is some combination of all of the above.

As Target continues to wind down its Canadian operations and as new US and international retailers seek to expand here, we would be remiss in not stopping and taking stock of all the facets at play in this untimely ending. When entering a new market it is essential to learn about customer needs as rapidly as possible and then adapt and adjust before the honeymoon period is over – any always-on, dynamic analytic platform is an essential ingredient in achieving this objective. The marketplace will continue to shift, but what won’t change is the potential for retailers to tap big data so that they can effectively focus and recalibrate their offering in real time while they’re firing, and with dire consequences, missing the mark.

Graeme McVie is the Vice President of Business

Development for Precima, a leading retail analytics solution owned by LoyaltyOne: www.loyalty.com. Graeme can be reached at gmcvie@precima.com.

DMN.ca ❰

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Operations & Logistics

Ship to car?

A drive-thru solution brings a new angle to the intersection of physical and digital commerce

By Jennifer Lee

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onsumers have sparked dramatic changes in the Canadian retail landscape in recent years, and it’s not over yet. Omnichannel is quickly becoming table stakes as more and more retailers strive to deliver a seamless brand experience and the shopping flexibility that consumers demand. Now consumers want convenience, too. Suddenly, the ‘last mile’ is becoming a major competitive battleground—and innovators are already seizing the high ground.

In what seems like the blink of an eye, the Canadian consumer has changed profoundly. We watched the rise of the Connected Consumer, who demanded the ability to connect with brands when, where and how they wanted. Then, the Empowered Consumer emerged, overturning traditional assumptions about how people buy and following their own winding path to purchase. Now we are witnessing another consumer evolution: today, the Consumer-inChief demands choice, flexibility and personalized attention after the purchase is made.

The last mile a key factor in online sales growth Canadian online retail sales are growing rapidly—from $15.3 billion in 2010 to $20.6 billion in 2013.

Forrester predicts online sales will grow 10% annually and reach $33.8 billion by 2018, far outpacing total retail growth.1 It’s possible that online sales could grow even more, were it not for key last mile challenges. Shipping costs continue to plague Canadian retailers and consumers alike: Canada’s smaller population size and lack of density makes it challenging for retailers to provide free or expedited shipping options comparable to those offered by their U.S. counterparts. According to Deloitte analysis, 75-85% of shipping costs are associated with the ❱ DMN.ca

last mile to the customer. Forrester study showed that 59% of consumers cited shipping costs as their biggest consideration when buying online.2 Consumers’ reluctance to pay for additional shipping charges may cause some to hold off on their online purchases—thus inhibiting what is clearly retail’s growth engine.

How to improve the last mile: convenience Canada’s geographic characteristics present a logistical and shipping challenge for retailers. Retailers get economies in dense cities, but very little in non-urban locations. This creates costly last mile shipping and delivery challenges and retailers have now shifted their focus to winning the last mile. In addition, they are operating in a highly competitive retail environment with a highly savvy consumer. The answer?

Convenience. A recent study found that convenience—not price—is the leading reason consumers choose to shop in-person or online. Forty percent of consumers surveyed said convenience was the top reason they shopped in-store, and 43% said it was the top reason they shopped online. 3 For retailers, convenience comes down to delivering speed and ease throughout the shopping experience.

We’re already seeing convenience spur new thinking around diversification in terms of brick-and-mortar store formats and locations. Some of the most exciting innovations, however, involve the consumer experience post-purchase.

A number of retailers across Canada have introduced programs to make online purchases even more attractive, by making the postpurchase experience as easy—and convenient—as possible. Consumers are seeing a plethora of options – ‘click and collect’ in store, ship from store, return to store, return to distribution centre, now the other option is ‘click and deliver to car’. Who is the unlikely provider? A real estate developer, SmartCentres.

Penguin Pick-Up: A new take on click-and-collect and the last mile experience Click-and-collect is popular among Canadian shoppers: Deloitte’s recent Holiday retail outlook survey found that 68% of shoppers like the idea of being able to pick up their online purchases in person on their own terms. That same survey found that 61% of consumers aren’t so sure about picking up their purchases in secure delivery lockers outside of traditional stores—but a Canadian real estate developer and operator of unenclosed shopping centres may have a winning compromise.

SmartCentres recently announced the launch of Penguin Pick-Up, a network of free, convenient pick-up locations for online purchases. The network will start with piloting three locations in the Greater Toronto Area. Two of the locations will be in SmartCentres parking lots.

How does it work? When shopping online, consumers are given an additional delivery option to have their purchases delivered to the Penguin Pick-Up location of their choice. Once their purchase arrives, Penguin Pick-Up automatically notifies the customer by email, text or voice. Customers simply visit their chosen location and Penguin Pick-Up staff bring it out to their car and put it in the trunk. The new service is free to consumers.

It’s the first time such a concept has been introduced to Canada.

Similar click-and-collect services have already been introduced in Europe and elsewhere. A hypermarket chain in France built 352 drive-through pick-up locations for online sales.

In 2013, nearly one in five U.S. shoppers clicked-and-collected their

holiday purchases. It’s likely that once Canadian consumers have the opportunity to try a made-in-Canada solution, they too will eagerly embrace it. Have screaming kids in the backseat but need to pick up your eCommerce purchases? No problem – Penguin Pick-Up is now an option.

The introduction of this kind of solution illustrates how fast retail is changing and how the omnichannel ecosystem is not just tied to retailers.

Now all companies are touched by the Consumer-in-Chief – tech companies, suppliers, specifically manufacturers, consumer package goods companies, logistics, real estate companies and transportation companies are affected. All businesses are affected by this fundamental shift - not only in Canada, but around the world.

Retailers should congratulate themselves on their efforts to embrace an omnichannel approach, but they can’t rest on their laurels. To stay competitive, they need to turn their attention to improving the postpurchase experience – in particular, the last mile experience—and delivering the choice, flexibility and convenience today’s shoppers demand.

To make it even more complex, to win the consumer, retailers may have to create partnerships with unlikely suitors within the omnichannel ecosystem to succeed.

Jennifer Lee is a partner and the national omnichannel and digital leader at Deloitte.

She helps retailers build eCommerce and mobile strategies to drive revenue growth and operational efficiencies.

1 Forrester Research, Canadian Online Retail Forecast, 2013 to 2018.

2 Forrester Research, Customer Desires vs. Retailer Capabilities: Minding the Omni-Channel Commerce Gap, 2014.

3 Continuum Survey Design Report.

February 2015

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Case study:

Mid-Range & Torpedo Marketing It’s dimensional mail to the rescue with winning I.T. Superheroes campaign The challenge Mid-Range is a leading provider of hardware infrastructure, middleware software, Oracle JD Edwards software and services, disaster recovery, high availability solutions, managed services and hosting solutions to businesses across North America.

Their clients represent a cross-section of industries, from small and emerging organizations to large enterprises.

With IT now going in the direction of spending less capital on new hardware, software and staff to manage organizational IT ❱ DMN.ca

requirements; instead outsourcing (operating expense). Mid-Range provides an entire range of these services/solutions and wanted to be in the forefront of promoting this shift so the goal was to promote and sell their managed services and hosting offerings to their existing client base as well as prospects.

The solution The owners of Torpedo Marketing Inc have been in the direct marketing field since 1989, specializing in direct mail, variable print, design & consultation,

email marketing, online solutions & promotions.

“We are marketers with strong production backgrounds so can assist our clients with production friendly solutions and ideas, not only for DM but for all elements of a multi-channel campaign,” says Susan Robinson, President of Torpedo Marketing Inc. “We operate out of a 19,000 square foot production facility and can execute most jobs from beginning to end, in-house.”

Torpedo has been working with Mid-Range since 2011, initially

executing web-based initiatives.

“We started to mine their database to get additional sales out of their existing customer base,” says Robinson. “We did this mostly through multi-channel campaigns including emails, print and direct mail, driving recipients to a campaign specific microsite and with follow up telemarketing calls.”

Later projects included prospecting and acquisition campaigns, with lists provided by their manufacturing/ business partners.

The I.T. Superheroes campaign February 2015

Dimensional Mail

messaging was about Mid-Range coming to the rescue and helping out as needed. The “It’s your call!” tagline emphasized the fact that help was just a phone call away.

A dimensional mailer was sent to 100 recipients each month for 8 months with a follow up email sent within five days of receipt. A follow up phone call was made within two weeks of receipt of email.

The campaign targeted CFOs, CIOs & IT Management (key decision makers) based on a list provided by Mid-Range and their partner IBM. February 2015

Both the email and direct mail pieces directed recipients to a campaign microsite and included a YouTube video. The objective was to book a tour or meeting to discuss this shift and their service offering “All direct mail we do for this client is creative, compelling and interesting,” says Robinson. “It allows the recipient to get wowed by the material they’ve just received and play with it (based on what we’ve sent), review it and read it, on their own time.

It’s a tangible piece that will be in front of them until they have time to

// 13

read it. It doesn’t disappear out of sight so they don’t have to remember to go back to it. It also acts as a sales device so their sales team have a reason to call as a follow-up.”

The campaign had three key goals: ❯❯ generate net new business ❯❯ create awareness of offerings to existing client base and prospects ❯❯ provide Mid-Range’s sales team with compelling reason to call/ follow up

generated approximately $750,000 in net new business pipeline and approximately $500,000 in net new business to date. Based on the great results, Mid-Range plans to continue using dimensional mail to generate leads and win new business.

“We’ll keep developing campaigns that will provide the sales team with a reason to call and continue to distribute smaller, persuasive DM to the right audience and that’s manageable to follow up on.”

The results The I.T. Superheroes campaign DMN.ca ❰

Dimensional Mail

// 14

Campaign Wave 1

Cover-All’s B2B campaign achieves some tasty results W

ith the world’s ever increasing obsession with all things digital, it’s fair to say great DM campaigns are few and far between. However, Cover-All a company dedicated to promoting direct mail in modern integrated marketing programs, understandably realizes the vast benefits of DM. Direct mail still remains one of the B2B marketer’s most powerful communication tools and a key ingredient in any marketing mix.

Now we all know there are many elements that make up an effective direct marketing campaign… a

❱ DMN.ca

targeted list, succinct messaging, a compelling incentive and diligent follow-up can all play very vital roles.

However, an often-overlooked facet of a successful direct marketing campaign is the actual shape and structure of the mailer. By changing up HOW you send your message (ie. box, file folder, 9 x 12”, etc.) can help your piece break through the clutter and get past any gatekeepers (especially in the B2B world). If your budget can support a dimensional format, your response rates can soar upwards of 8.5%, versus the traditional 3.42% for flat mail, according to the DMA’s 2010 Annual

Response Rate Report.

To ensure the campaign was genuinely different and appealing to the target audiences, Cover-All chose to hire TCP Integrated Marketing because of their vast DM and integrated experience.

The audience The following industries were targeted through internal and external lists: ❯❯ ad agencies ❯❯ automotive manufacturers ❯❯ printers ❯❯ retailers ❯❯ fundraisers

The goals/objectives The goal of this 3-tiered, integrated DM campaign was to create new relationships and to rekindle old ones using the power of direct marketing as the catalyst.

The big idea To re-introduce direct marketing to the targets, many ideas were batted about, but the one that seemed to have the most oomph was the simplest, the B2B community needed to add DM to their marketing mix if they wanted to achieve outstanding results. Thus, the tag line “In the Mix” was agreed upon.

February 2015

Dimensional Mail To bring this idea to life, TCP wanted to give all the recipients a tempting recipe that they could all cook up at home. And, to truly make the dishes unique, TCP contacted one of Canada’s only spice manufacturers, Spice Works, and had them develop three special spice combinations. One was a hot and spicy Mexican rub, the next a tasty curry blend and the third was an Asian five-spice inspired concoction.

To further enhance the effectiveness of this project, a contest was also added into the mix giving recipients the opportunity to win a BBQ prize pack comprised of a brand new Weber BBQ, a Weber BBQ tool set and a Weber BBQ cover (prizes valued at over $1,000).

Implementation Inside the box was a personalized letter, customized with the recipient’s

name, their Cover-All representative’s name and unique ID for the contest micro-site. Also in the box was a contest card, recipe card (with attached spice) and a 24-page booklet on the power of DM. Wave one consisted of a small and sturdy box with a four-colour wrap.

Inside the box was a personalized letter (not only personalized to the recipient, but also their rep inside Cover-All), a contest card, the recipe card/holder for the spice mixture and a 24-page booklet on the power for direct mail.

For wave two, the typical envelope was utilized but with a twist – an envelope, in an envelope in an envelope. Other elements included a personalized letter, the recipe card/holder for the spice mixture and a fun and colourful ‘why DM’ infograph/poster.

The final wave was a common sight

Case study:

Stop the Drop Background Climate change, dredging and erosion are causing the Great Lakes to disappear before the eyes of the people who live beside them. In 2013, Lake Huron’s water levels hit a record low.

Idea Stop The Drop was created to provoke government action on the issue. Their first task was to galvanize the people who cared most about Lake Huron. The problem was that the lakeside community’s remote location and largely unplugged lifestyle made them hard to reach with traditional media.

So a cry for help from the lake itself was created. Thousands of letters were printed using clear ink that soaked all the way through the paper; normally an imperfect technique, it perfectly created the look of water trapped on the page. Then the letters were rolled and packed into glass bottles. These were then distributed along the shoreline of the lake.

Results The messages in the bottles generated over 20,000 petition signatures and gave a lake without a voice a way it could be heard.

// 15 in most offices, the file folder. Each file folder was personalized and inside each folder was the letter, contest card, recipe card (with spice mixture) four DM checklists covering everything from copywriting to production.

Each effort had it’s own micro-site, unique to the recipient, personalized emails were sent to all as a follow-up and reminder to enter the contest and calls were made by all the sales reps.

The results 10% of the companies that were targeted responded generating numerous conversations, meetings and at the time of publication, one brand new client has been signed which should more than cover

CLIENT: CONTACT: CAMPAIGN: AGENCY: DM TEAM:

.

the costs of this entire campaign.

As a Canada Post Expert Partner, Cover-All had access to, and wants to thank CPC for providing case and statistical information used in the campaign.

Cover-All has been a leader in the business

of processing data since 1966 and, 49 years later, Cover-All is still at the forefront of data manipulation, data mining, analytics and direct mail production.

Cover-All John Leonard B2B: Lead Generation TCP Integrated Marketing, Inc. Allison Taylor, TCP Neil Morris, TCP John Leonard, Cover-All Brad Coverdale, Cover-All Glenn Price, Cover-All Brad Long, Cover-All

Agency - john st., Toronto Insights Client - Stop The Drop This mailing nicely Product - Environmental Charity demonstrates that mail Title - Stop The Drop doesn’t necessarily have to be a letter in CREATIVE TEAM an envelope delivered Executive Creative Directors - Angus Tucker, to your door. It can Stephen Jurisic Art Director - Hannah Smit be a message in a Copywriter - Keri Zierler bottle left on a beach.

That’s what makes PRODUCTION this idea so powerful.

Producer - Alisa Pellizzari It’s so evocative of Assistant Producer - Madison Papple all those old stories Videographers - Josh White, Nicole Dorsey of shipwrecks and Editor - Nicole Sison, School Editing castaways, when the Printing House - Flash Reproductions only hope of rescue was OTHER to write a note and set Account Supervisors - Ben Prout, Sarah Chan it afloat on the sea. It’s Account Coordinator - Sean Whelan not just relevant to the problem it’s trying to solve, it’s also beautifully apt. ~ courtesy Canada Post Corporation

DM works.

Get 2015 started with a bang!

Produce your 1st Addressed Admail campaign with us and get your 2nd campaign free* Canada Post Direct Marketing g Specialist

200 Wellington St West, Toronto, ON M5V 3C7 Contact Isaac at 416-560-7668 or isaac@themailinghouse.ca *Offer limited to first 50 respondents. Lettershop services only, maximum $500. Free offer must be equal to or less than value of first mailing.

February 2015

Canada Post Direct Marketing g Specialist

DMN.ca ❰

Dimensional Mail

// 16

“Try it, you’ll like it…”

By David Ward

Why do we sample?

I was skimming through an online article featuring famous advertising catch phrases and guess what was number one? That’s right, “Try it, you’ll like it”, one of the most famous phrases of all times and originally coined in an Alka-Seltzer commercial back in the 60’s.

Why has this phrase been so prevalent over the years? I think one of the reasons is that it exemplifies our convictions in what we are selling, be it the promotion of a product or even a mother trying to convince a child to try something new. As businesspeople, if we truly believe that our products and services are the best (or at least as good as anything else out there) why wouldn’t we want people to try them?

Hence, the reason many companies use different methods to put samples into people’s hands.

How do we sample?

There are many ways to distribute samples. These include in-store sampling, distribution through practitioners, door hangers, tossing them into crowds at events and last, but certainly not least, mailing them in personalized packages to consumers. Some ways are more engaging, fostering the development of relationships, whereas with others, such as door hangers or ❱ DMN.ca

crowd sampling, it’s simply a matter of creating or furthering brand awareness through an opportunity for consumers to try the product.

Sampling by mail While I agree that several methods allow consumers to at least try a product, using direct mail has some distinct benefits. While it can appear more expensive, historically, I think the benefits have far outweighed the costs. Here are some advantages of using direct mail: 1. You can be more engaging, transparently targeting your messages or supporting literature at specific groups, including those that are brand loyal or those using competitive brands.

2. You can create links to personalized URLs to gather relevant consumer data, which people are often willing to exchange for product samples.

3. People like getting things in the mail. When I was younger, you could send away a couple of “box tops” and get a “free” gift in the mail. As kids, we waited with bated breath and were bristling with anticipation when our little packages finally arrived. Maybe some adults don’t get quite as excited about receiving a sample analgesic, but it’s still a novelty to get something mailed to you – especially if it’s free.

Dimensional addressed admail and other mailing options In our experience, many people tend to correlate the mailing of samples with Dimensional Addressed Admail.

While many samples are mailed as Dimensional Addressed Admail, we still mail many by regular Addressed Admail, some by Lettermail and still others by Parcel. As you might expect, costs for these different products vary dramatically, but each has its benefits at one level or another.

For example, if you can keep the overall package thickness at 2 cm or less, you’ll save a fortune by using Oversize Addressed Admail as compared to Dimensional Addressed Admail. Actually, items such as thin bandage samples can often be mailed as Machineable Addressed Admail (with a thickness of 5 mm or less) for as little as $0.45.

Cautionary Note: We advise against using Machineable Addressed Admail to mail analgesics, samples or other items that may contain a white powder. The pressure imparted during the machining process can cause capsules etc. to break apart and, as we know, white powders can cause alarm.

Before finalizing any package design, I strongly suggest contacting the folks who will do your mail preparation. They should be able to advise you and help to ensure that you are mailing your samples in the most

cost-effective mail category. Working together with your agency, your mail service provider can help to stave off any nasty 11th hour surprises – or possible show stoppers (which we have seen before).

Changes to physical specifications for dimensional addressed admail While on the topic of specifications, it’s important to make note of some changes to the physical characteristics of Dimensional Addressed Admail in 2015. These changes could impact some of your current package design.

While the maximum length stays the same at 300 mm (11.8”), the maximum width has been decreased to 130 mm (5.1”) from 150 mm (5.9”).

This means that some boxes that we have used on different campaigns in 2014 would not qualify and we, like others, have had to modify certain designs.

Interestingly, the maximum thickness has been increased from 45 mm (1.8”) to 55 mm (2.2”), so we will not lose anything in overall volume due to the additional thickness.

As a quick comparison, the maximum volume of about 125 in3 (in 2014) has now increased to about 132 in3, so we will actually be able to mail pieces that are a bit larger, overall.

At the same time, the maximum weight has now been increased to 1.36 kg, which is significantly heavier than February 2015

Dimensional Mail the prior maximum weight of 500 grams. As a result, we can now mail much heavier items – some of which would have to have been mailed in the more expensive Parcel category in 2014. This will actually create some new opportunities, as discussed later in this article.

The impact of 2015 postage costs on dimensional addressed admail All we can say on this front is that there is some good news, some terrible news and perhaps some ways to offset some of the terrible news.

So what’s the terrible news? Based on standard pricing, the Dimensional Addressed Admail – Small piece that we mailed on January 9, 2015 at $0.88 now costs $1.46 (as of January 12, 2015). Will some people pay $0.58 more to mail the same item? Probably not. Further, some will look to other means, such as the door hangers, event sampling or in-store promotions that we looked at earlier.

I did mention that there are some ways to offset this, but first let me better explain why we are experiencing this monumental increase.

Why the huge increase?

In 2014, the Dimensional Addressed Admail product featured both Small and Large categories. As of January 12, 2015, these two categories were merged, resulting in a single Dimensional Addressed Admail product. Secondly, pricing used to be spread across 5 levels within each category, where higher geographic concentrations of mail resulted in lower average postage costs. On January 12, 2015, the tiered pricing was abandoned in favour of more uniform across-the-board pricing. If we average the Dimensional – Small and Dimensional – Large pricing (both at 50 grams) for 2014, we get $1.126.

The flat pricing (at 50 grams) as of January 15, 2015 is $1.46. As you can see, even when we compare the average rates from both the old Small and Large categories from 2014, there is still a considerable difference.

But – Let’s look at much heavier pieces Even though postage costs for sampling at lower weights and sizes saw an enormous increase, it’s not quite so bad for much heavier Dimensional items in 2015. Prior to the increases, postage for a Dimensional – Large item weighing 500 grams would have been around February 2015

// 17

Rates prior to January 12, 2015

Weight

Cost in Grams

Postage per Gram

Dimensional - Small at 50 grams

50

$0.8800

$0.0176

Dimensional - Small at 250 grams

250

$1.5600

$0.0062

Dimensional - Small at 500 grams

500

$2.4100

$0.0048

Dimensional - Large at 50 grams

50

$1.0100

$0.0202

Dimensional - Large at 250 grams

250

$1.6900

$0.0068

Dimensional - Large at 500 grams

500

$2.5400

$0.0051

Weight

Cost in Grams

Postage per Gram

Dimensional at 50 grams

50

$1.4600

$0.0292

Dimensional at 250 grams

250

$2.1200

$0.0085

Dimensional at 500 grams

500

$2.9450

$0.0059

Dimensional at 1 kg

1000

$4.9000

$0.0049

Dimensional at 1.36 kg

1360

$6.3040

$0.0046

Rates as of January 12, 2015

the $2.54 level. Today, postage for a Dimensional piece weighing 500 grams is coming in at $2.945.

Although this is an increase of around $0.41, the scenario does improve as the weight increases.

As mentioned earlier, the maximum weight for Dimensional Addressed Admail has been increased to 1.36 kg and the cost per piece at 1.36 kg is $6.304. Now, if we go on a cost per gram basis, the postage per gram actually drops from $0.0059 at 500 grams to $0.0046 at 1.36 kg. This is considerable and is actually less than the cost per gram at 500 grams for a Dimensional – Large piece back in 2014.

The table below compares key Dimensional Addressed Admail rates prior to and after January 12, 2015.

Note how the cost per gram drops at the heavier weights.

If there is a silver lining in all of this, it’s that those mailing larger samples or multiple samples with weights approaching 1.36 kg could actually be money ahead.

Consider multiple sample mailings to really save Given the foregoing, companies manufacturing multiple consumer brands could really save on their Dimensional postage, should they decide to implement sampling programs that feature multiple brands. However, in many of these types of companies, brands are highly autonomous and often operate like individual businesses unto themselves. Therefore, in order to implement these types of programs and realize savings, they would require someone internally to champion this cause. However, there is a lot of money at stake here and initiatives in these areas could save hundreds of thousands in postage costs. That said, it could be prudent

to invest in someone to assume these responsibilities.

One final word on this topic: remember that there are other postage options which cost considerably less.

For example, if you want to sample analgesics and the thickness is greater than 5 mm but less than 2 cm, your postage should only be around $0.62 (provided your width and length do not exceed the maximums for Special Handling - Flexible or Special Handling - Rigid).

build and foster beneficial ongoing consumer relationships with the brand. That said, they are usually prepared to make significant investments. I often mention a campaign that we worked on where the all-in cost was $16 per item – but the campaign returned $12 in annual recurring revenue for every $1.47 spent. This truly demonstrates that it’s not always just the cost that we should be looking at, but also the associated return.

So, try it, you’ll like it If you have great products and are fortunate enough to be able to send out samples of a reasonable size, sampling programs could work well for you and help to generate a significant lift in sales. Of course, much of this depends upon the current extent of brand awareness and your current market share.

If your industry does not lend itself to sending out actual samples, and there are many that do not, sometimes branded items that correlate well with a given campaign can also leave meaningful and long-lasting impressions.

When you do put your samples into consumers’ hands, we hope that they will try them, like them and ultimately buy them. Not sampling today? Try it, you’ll like it.

It’s not as much the cost as the associated return Wise marketers usually have stated objectives, regardless of the type of campaign. It all comes down to what you want to accomplish and this usually correlates to what you might be willing to spend. Interestingly, we have seen different brand managers that were responsible for the same product at different times go with cheap and cheerful packaging on one campaign and very high end on another. So, to a certain extent, it’s also a matter of perspective.

In our experience, the primary objective of most brand managers that we have worked with has been to

Dave Ward is President of Highland Marketing and a proponent of intelligent direct marketing, which combines the practical elements of using the right mix of direct marketing services and Canada Post products together with options that serve to heighten engagement and improve overall ROI. Email dward@hiland. com, website: www.hiland.com

Helping you hit your target 25 Years of Targeted Marketing Solutions

• Direct Mail

• Database Management & Analytics

• Multi-Channel Marketing

• Digital Print • Promotional Products

• Marketing Consultation

• Online

• Print Finishing & Bindery

• Fulfillment & Distribution

www.torpedomarketing.ca info@torpedomarketing.ca Tel. 905.795.0930 | Fax. 905.795.0932 DMN.ca ❰

Dimensional Mail

Case study:

Canadian Tourism Commission

// 18

Case study:

Mitsubishi Canada

Background Conference and meeting organizers in the U.S. needed to know there was more to Canada than moose and Mounties and that it was a destination where their events would go off flawlessly. Because organizers have to be able to plan events down to the last detail, they like to feel they are in the know.

Background Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution is an iconic road-going rally car with handling that puts exotic supercars to shame. With only 700 available in Canada, the task was to remind owners that their new Mitsubishi would garner more attention from car fans than the average Porsche or Ferrari.

Idea Insider information can come only from an insider. Steve was positioned as a nice guy who could give the target audience the answers to anything and everything they wanted to know about Canada. The integrated campaign was launched with a teaser mailing designed to stand out from the usual direct mail pieces. It was a threedimensional crate containing “Steve” himself, along with “The Book of Steve,” a Bible on all things Canadian. The book was full of interesting information about Canada to give event planners a different perspective on their neighbouring country.

Idea To ready owners for the attention their new Evo would receive, they were mailed a special welcome pack to help protect their car from unwanted fingerprints.

Inside was a special Mitsubishi chamois and a pot of high-tech TurtleWax® car polish. The pack also contained a USB stick, loaded with their customer-care information as well as race-cam footage of Canadian rally star Andrew Comrie-Picard putting his own Lancer Evolution through its paces on the track.

Results Within a month of the mailing, website hits had increased by 35%, and overall traffic held at levels above those seen before the campaign launch.

The campaign received many comments, including this from one American planner: “As a marketing professional, this promotion is outstanding! Steve really grabbed my attention and ‘The Book of Steve’ is graphically well done and presents the information about your various Canadian locations in an excellent format.”

Insights It doesn’t take a lot to get real results. An overall increase of traffic to the website would undoubtedly have led to an overall increase in trips to Canada booked. Real money attaches itself to interesting ideas. All you have to do is set out to be a little bit different from everyone else in your market. Add a little bit of self-deprecating wit (Steve is almost ridiculously nice!), throw in some attention to detail and you have success on your hands. Why don’t more advertisers try it? ~ courtesy Canada Post Corporation

Results 700 happy owners of 700 shiny Evolutions. Mitsubishi remains the fastest growing brand in the Canadian car market even as the auto industry weathers tough times.

Insights It is a fact that people are most interested in your advertising when they have just bought your product. So, Evo drivers, receiving this unexpected pack through the mail only a couple of days after driving home in their new car, would have been appreciative. They may well have kept both the cleaning kit and the USB stick, so over their two, three years of ownership, those items would have been a constant reminder of what a great company Mitsubishi is. ~ courtesy Canada Post Corporation

Agency - Rapp Toronto Client - Canadian Tourism Commission Product- Business Tourism Title - Come to Canada. Ask for Steve.

Agency- Proximity Canada Client - Mitsubishi Canada Product - Mitsubishi Evo Title - Welcome Pack

CREATIVE TEAM VP, Creative Director -Shelley Sutherland Associate Creative Director - Mary Lynn Lalonde Senior Art Director - Italo Siciliano

CREATIVE TEAM Creative Director - Matt Shirtcliffe Copywriter - Ben Chandler Art Directors - Ron Kosan, Curtis Wolowich

PRODUCTION Director of Print & Graphics Services - Rose-Ella Morrisson

PRODUCTION Production Manager - Ellie Lee

OTHER Group Account Director - Elizabeth Marshall Account Executive - Leslie Smith

OTHER Account Supervisor - Rebecca Flaman Account Executive - Jake Allen

❱ DMN.ca

February 2015

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 • 2015

Contact centres: the new face of enterprise business Also in this issue: ❯❯ The power of outsourcing ❯❯ Workplace wellness strategies for call centre employees

Don’t leave your utilities customers in the dark.

Customers expect utilities to be always on and always there. Similarly, they expect their service experience to be seamless, reliable, and above all – informative.

With the all-in-one Customer Interaction Center™ (CIC) communications solution, you can take inbound interactions such as voice calls, email, web chats and fax – and be proactive about reaching out to customers to meet their needs.

Schedule appointments and reminders. Increase and automate outage notification with multichannel outbound dialing campaigns. Deliver timely notifications about scheduled maintenance, billing changes, education, and conservation programs. Offer self-service options. You can even pinpoint frustration and prevent potential lost business with real-time speech analytics.

It’s a solution that will help you enhance the customer experience to realize better customer retention.

www.inin.com Solutions for the Utilities Industry CONTACT CENTER • UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS • BUSINESS PROCESS AUTOMATION In the cloud or on-premises.

Workplace wellness

Strategies for call centre employees

By Veronica Marsden

W

orkplace wellness programs are sustainable interventions in the workplace that inform, involve and inspire your employees to adopt and maintain behaviours that reduce health risks, improve quality of life, enhance personal effectiveness, and benefit the organization’s bottom line.

According to Statistics Canada and the World Health Organization (WHO) 70 to 75 percent of health care costs are due to modifiable risk factors including smoking, poor nutrition, obesity and physical inactivity. With employees spending over 50 percent of their waking hours at work, employers have a significant opportunity to positively impact overall health including employee physical, emotional and social wellbeing.

Fostering a culture of health and wellness is seen as a key strategy for enhancing employee engagement. It makes business sense that healthy, happy employees take fewer sick days, have more energy and are more engaged at work. Whether you have 50 employees or 5,000 employees, wellness programs can have a long-term impact on driving a healthy workplace culture and business success.

There are unique challenges associated with developing a wellness strategy for call centre employees. Barriers such as inflexible work schedules and the inability to step away from call desks make it difficult to engage this group in wellness activities. The following steps are important to consider in developing an effective wellness strategy for call centre employees.

Engage the employees in establishing the focus and direction of the program. Ask them what they are interested in and how they would like to participate in a workplace wellness program. This will ensure that programs are aligned with their needs and work schedules while fostering a sense of employee ownership. Form a wellness committee including strong representation from the call centre team to plan the program and ensure it stays on track. These program ambassadors should be encouraged to continually look for ways to engage fellow employees.

Assessing employee health risks is also an important building block for success. Many Canadians do not get regular check-ups. Biometric screening is a valuable tool for getting a pulse on the health of your employees thereby helping to set program strategies. Also ensure that wellness interventions target employee health and organizational cost pressures.

For a call centre program to be effective it is important to bring wellness to the employees in “baby steps” by focusing on one small habit at a time. For example spend time walking around the call centre catching employees between calls and encouraging them to take a mini stretch break at their desk.

Another approach is to promote a “Healthy Habit of the Month” initiative whereby employees are encouraged and supported to make small changes on a regular basis such as eating healthy snacks and drinking more water.

Distribute “desk drop” wellness flyers for employees who may have missed your visit so they still benefit from the information provided.

Install a wellness board in the call centre that features Issue 1 • 2015

a wellness tip of the week or month.

One week for example the tip might feature the sugar content in sweetened beverages and healthy alternatives. Make sure that the tip is topical, brief and colourful to capture people’s attention.

Highlight ways employees can “sneak” exercise into their daily routine. Organize lunch time group walks, promote use of stairs, encourage employees to stand during calls and provide on-site yoga classes.

Many organizations also support fitness by providing subsidized fitness memberships or negotiating group rates at a local gym. The most effective subsidies are ones that are flexible and allow employees to claim a variety of expenses such as dance lessons, home fitness equipment and community exercise classes.

Whether you have an on-site cafeteria service, a lunch room with fridge and microwave or vending machines, there are a number of ways to promote good eating habits at work.

For example we know that healthy eating starts with a good breakfast.

An inexpensive and fun way to support healthy breakfast habits is to have the wellness committee whip up breakfast smoothies for employees to sample before they take their first call. Frozen berries, natural yogurt, unsweetened fruit juice and a little protein powder will have employees “talking breakfast” for days to come.

Replace the weekly donut tradition with Fresh Fruit Fridays or designate a regular Healthy Snack Day where employees have the opportunity to sample healthy snacking alternatives such as trail mix, dried fruits and “good for you” bars. Offer healthy snacks at your next company meeting and change the way you celebrate special events and milestones at work. Substitute cake with a fruit and veggie tray.

Wellness challenges organized at strategic times throughout the year are effective in keeping employees on track with their health goals. A ‘Winning @ Losing’ weight loss challenge in the New Year or a Holiday Health Campaign in December are ways to keep your program top of mind. Award points each time an employee practices a

healthy behaviour and provide draw prizes for reaching preset goals.

Pedometer challenges are a popular way to encourage walking. To keep employees engaged and on track throughout the challenge hold weekly random prize draws for participants who are regularly documenting their progress.

There are various ways to promote work/life balance and relaxation at work. Consider designing unused space as a Quiet Room where employees can take a mini nap, practice their faith or meditate.

Encourage your employees to set realistic wellness goals and celebrate each small win. Share their success stories by posting them on your intranet site and the call centre bulletin board. Feature healthy role models in the company cafeteria. By catching employees doing something “well”, everyone wins!

To run your program cost effectively tap into resources that may be available free of charge from your external partners including benefit and EAP providers.

Creating a healthy workplace culture is more than a menu of programs and services. It is about creating spaces, norms and traditions in your organization that revolve around health and overall wellbeing. It is not something you push on people and it doesn’t happen overnight. Wellness has become “the right thing to do”, like providing benefits, even though you can’t always put a dollar figure to the Return on Investment, by keeping wellness program initiatives simple but ever present you send the message that “the company cares about you.”

Tri Fit is a well-established provider of workplace health and fitness solutions. Building on a proven “better health, better performance” business philosophy, we provide a broad range of services for forward-looking companies and organizations. Since 1978 we have teamed with clients to engage employees and improve productivity through enhanced personal and organizational health. Our goal is always to make a lasting and beneficial difference in their workplace culture. For more information visit www.trifit.com

contact management | 3

Contact centres: the new face of enterprise business

Do advances in technology spell doom for traditional agents?

Cover story

By Guillaume Seynhaeve

T

he eloquently named “cost center” is officially a thing of the past. In fact, with organizations squarely focusing all their attention on how to deliver an exceptional customer experience, contact centers are quickly becoming the new face of enterprise businesses.

Technologically enhanced. Analytically intelligent.

And in some cases, self-sufficient, today’s modern communication hubs have come a very long way from the age of the switchboard. But as advancements in technology continue to evolve to meet the increasing demands of today’s consumers, does it spell doom for the average contact center agent?

The trends By 2020, customer experience is expected to overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator with customers citing speed, first call resolution, transparency, and friendliness as crucial to any successful interaction.

And while such trends would suggest an increasing reliance on contact center agents to deliver all-the-above, many consumers are in fact turning to self-service to satisfy their needs and requirements. In fact, sixty-seven percent of consumers prefer self-service over speaking to a live representative and an astounding eighty-five percent are expected to single-handedly manage the relationship with an enterprise without the need for human interaction by the end of the decade. In short, the modern consumer is increasingly becoming self-sufficient. But although such data would suggest the gradual disappearance of contact center agents, a deeper dive will quickly suggest it’s not a matter of extinction but rather evolution that is at hand.

Consider the following: • 65% of self-service interactions currently escalate beyond the web to an agent.

• 40% of customers will contact a call center after they fail to address their needs via self-service channels.

• Despite the rapid growth of customer service tools, 79% of consumers would prefer to contact a customer service agent by phone.

• Live assistance has the highest customer satisfaction rating.

Self-service’s Achilles Heel While self-service is more efficient, convenient, and economical for both businesses and the consumers they serve, it is incapable of offering the most important element to a successful customer experience – a relationship. And with seventy percent of the buying experience contingent on how a customer feels they are being treated, the merits of maintaining a live Issue 1 • 2015

contact center workforce become quickly evident. In fact, while selfservice would appear to be well poised to overtake the role of the traditional contact center agent, the reality remains it lacks the technological ability to do so and consumers would likely dislike it. While there is certainly a time and place for do-yourself tools, the clear opportunity for competitive differentiation, as it relates to customer experience, lies in the instances where self-servicing platforms lack the ability to deliver.

And it is precisely those moments a consumer is likely to remember and base their future loyalties on.

Tomorrow’s agent As with any form of evolution, changes in the underlying environment are what dictate the future trends and characteristics needed to survive. In the specific case of contact centers and their respective agents, the increasing demands and expectations of today’s modern consumer emphasize the need for each representative to be far more informed, trained, technologically-savy, nimble, and personable. After all, while the growing adoption of self-service may have diminished the number of customer interactions a contact center may be exposed to, the complexity of the issues agents are expected to resolve have not. In fact, they have increased and represent the rare but crucial opportunities enterprises have to demonstrate to consumers that their business matters.

Of course, any agent success, especially in today’s digital age, is contingent on having the data and solutions needed to perform. Case in point, among the primary reasons contact center agents fail to meet customer expectations is the inability to gain access to relevant customer details when it matters most – at the time of the interaction. But assuming an agent is provided the

proper multichannel tools, customer data access, performance metrics, and training, the odds of success are favorable. In short, tomorrow’s agents will need to work smarter, not harder, and will very likely represent a smaller team of specialized customer experience advocates rather than the massive army of customer reps most still envision.

Summary The contact center agent is not due for extinction anytime soon.

Despite the advancements in selfservice tools, the importance of the customer experience has enhanced the value of individual agents, not diminished it. And while consumers may want to control the customer experience, the fact remains, any successful consumer relationship is predicated on the existence of the human component. The agent of tomorrow, as a result, is still very much alive although the demands of today’s consumer will require he or she to be more responsible and capable of addressing all the needs of the customer. In other words, a successful agent will need to be the support team, the account executive, the billing department, and much more with likely fewer team members to rely on. In short, the agent of tomorrow will likely exist in fewer numbers but will be far more valuable to the enterprise and far more useful to the consumer.

Guillaume Seynhaeve is the Marketing Director at 3CLogic with over 10 years experience in sales and customer service. 3CLogic is a leading provider of cloud-based contact center solutions.

Offering next-generation multichannel communications, business intelligence, dynamic scripting, as well as seamless third-party integrations, we built our products to meet today’s needs and tomorrow’s challenges. For more information visit www.3clogic.com SOURCES: Customers 2020 Report, Steven Van Belleghem: The Self-Service Economy, Zendesk

contact management | 5

Outsourcing

The power of outsourcing Part two of a series on challenges facing the Canadian contact centre industry

By Amy Bostock

T

here are three traditional reasons to outsource says Don Moffatt, Chief Executive Officer at Millennium1 Solutions.

“The first reason is to gain the ability to ramp up and ramp down, to manage variability in call volume in a cost effective manner. The second reason people typically outsource is to benchmark their own internal capabilities.

I previously managed large, in-house operations for banks and telcos, and always wanted to keep my own people honest – outsourcing for benchmarking is a way to do that.

The third reason – or benefit in this case - is that none of us have a monopoly on all the good ideas. An outsourcer is in a unique position to share best practices given they typically deal with multiple other clients, with learnings that add value across many industries. This unique ability to share insights and best practices can create a compelling use case for third-party outsourcers. As a third-party provider, if I’m truly adding value, I’m sharing.

Not proprietary information, but industry best practices to help each client that has bought my services succeed.”

In terms of the landscape in Canada, Moffatt says that it’s crowded with many players in the space with the 6 | contact management

dollar being a significant factor in outsourcing decisions.

“There has been some contraction in the space over the last number of years. Some of it driven by the dollar, in that some U.S. business flowed into Canada when we had a 60-cent to 70-cent dollar. There were tangible labour benefits in coming here that dissipated as the dollar approached parity resulting in some repatriation. Some choose offshoring as an alternative, but there are risks and sensitivities around experiential delivery and local nuances that can be more challenging to guarantee offshore warranting careful consideration and needs assessment.”

The age of the talent paradox A recent report by HfS Research identified a paradox when it comes to

the contact centre’s approach to talent.

“Even as outsourcing moves from the back office to the middle and front offices, where value creation is paramount, and even though governance executives declare they want to achieve more than just cost reduction, they are not making the investments at the key leverage points in value creation—the people,” cites the report titled “Is Good Enough Really Good Enough? The Great Talent Paradox in Outsourcing” The report is based on 282 surveys of major enterprises who are engaged in outsourcing, as well as conversations with buyers and providers. The report concludes that governance leaders need to ‘shift their focus toward the development of their own staff and ensure they are engaging on an equal basis with Issue 1 • 2015

Outsourcing the capable talent presented by their outsourcing service providers. Moreover, providers must raise their game in talent development to meet their clients’ expectations’.

“This report is the first piece of tangible evidence I’ve seen in some time related to the valuable talent available via outsourcing and those companies that truly differentiate via their talent,” says Mike Morrison, VP Sales for Millennium1 Solutions.

It delves into why today’s leading enterprises are stuck in this ‘talent paradox’ where they are simultaneously affirming the importance of people, but failing to provide the support and resources needed to use talent as a competitive advantage.

A realization, says Morrison, which helped Millennium1 Solutions build their positioning in the Canadian market.

“This becomes especially important given that we have a large domestic presence and often compete against companies proposing offshore servicing options or service locations where we don’t have facilities. The study provided a glimpse into the key challenges in the outsourcing space while also underscoring talent and insights as differentiators.”

Managing the disconnect “One interesting observation is around the time and effort some outsourcing clients spend vetting the talent that answers the phone,” says Morrison. “Often buyers are highly engaged in the hiring process and they appreciate the significant rigor applied to training and induction programs. We’re jointly focused on ensuring our hires meet the needs of our clients. In addition, many buyers

have contractual agreements around addressing non-performing agents.

For me, this is one key disconnect in terms of the study findings, as this focus around the very talent charged with managing the business is not always the case for some outsourcing customers. Frontline talent is an important opportunity area for outsourcers, in terms of both differentiating and performing, yet in some cases, there is a tendency to spend a disproportionate amount of time vetting providers for their frontline teams versus the value of their leadership, expertise, and governance.”

So why the disconnect? Are buying organizations assuming that those frontline people, the contact centre agents, are the ones that are most worthy of their examination?

According to Morrison, there are a couple of reasons for the disconnect.

“I do think that clients believe that these are the frontline people that touch their customers, so they’re prioritizing this vetting to ensure their brands are protected. The direct connection to the customer drives some of this behaviour.

“Secondly, generally the people that buy outsourcing services (in many cases operators and procurement teams) often understand tactical call centre operations and focus there given it is the function being outsourced. Proper distribution between vetting focus on frontline agents along with the strategic leadership and governance plans the provider offers can make a large difference to the resulting delivery of services.”

Selling the right product to the right person In some cases when it comes to selling outsourcing services, Morrison says, the value of insights delivery can vary depending on the buyer’s level in their own organization.

“Buyers don’t always have their CEO or other executives sitting on the other side of the table when making outsourcing decisions, which can lead to operationally-focused discussions and decisions rather than strategic or value-added enhancements.

Outsourcers need to ensure they are positioning leadership strength in

2 Great       

Issue 1 • 2015

contact management | 7

Outsourcing business well, look for efficiencies and improvements in my operation, but ultimately, I want your expertise and insights to help my business run better. Even if that means moving to an entirely different way of running my business’.

“The challenge for outsourcing companies operating domestically is to find those top-tier buyers. It’s important to recognize that you may have a more challenging time competing with the first two buyer types because, at least to some extent, they’re buying on price (and some process improvements).

Outsourcers can really differentiate themselves with the buyer group that is looking for something more.”

So where do most Canadian organizations sit in the buying tier?

Morrison feels that there is a large percentage that still fall under the cost buyer umbrella.

“The work that has gone offshore has a clear cost implication in the decision-making process. Nobody went offshore and said I don’t care about the cost; I’m going offshore for a better customer experience.

Balance is key for decision makers as governance, improvements, and strategic insights are worthy of consideration in the overall cost assessment.”

Presented by: Fasten your seatbelts. Roll up your It comes back to shirtsleeves. And prepare yourself for and understanding your buyer an information packed day. and their organizational Exclusive Sponsor: goals.

“Engaging the C-level executives in this decision Bring Y Team our making can make a large Includ !

Work es FREE b o o difference to the direction k of Tips, T & Secactics rets chosen. They’re involved in the decision about whether or not to outsource, but continuing to engage them through the partner How to Make the Mobile Future Work for You selection can lead to a different focus and outcome April 2, 2015 related to the ultimate Twenty Toronto Street partner selection.”

Conference Centre What is going to have to happen in the Canadian landscape to encourage In a world of rapidly changing retail channels, more buyers to move fragmenting technologies, new payments systems, into that coveted top tier, ecommerce developments, the rise of consumer recognizing that there will acceptance of emerging systems, and the power of always be customers that social media, how do you ensure that your organization will never get there? is driven by facts rather than gut feel in regards to “There will always be mobile payments? How do you leverage mobility in work-types that have a general, to improve your business results? natural and appropriate fit in the lower tiers. LowFind out more or sign up at www.paymentsbusiness.ca complexity work types and basic call types may

addition to call centre operations strength, and sharing their depth of capabilities with the most senior levels of the buyer’s organization to truly differentiate. Encouraging a focus on the strategic components of an outsourced partnership can be a game changer in the sales process.”

Generally we see three types of buyers, says Morrison.

The first type is a cost buyer who will simply buy on price.

According to the HfS Research report, the question for cost buyers is ‘can I save money without having any kind of a major brand disaster?’

“This buyer is typically less focused on improving experience, they’re more focused on can I do this cheaper without terrible results?”

The next buyer type is looking for balance. These midtier buyers are looking to save money but also want to see process improvement.

“These are the buyers who are looking at our industry and recognizing the experience of operating call centres for 50 or 60 different clients has value, so there must be best practices and learnings that can gain from partnering with third party providers.”

These are buyers who are going to dig in and seek strategic insights that they can use to either improve a process, improve the way that a customer is managed or deploy a new piece of technology. These are not necessarily the “execution-in-the-trenches” people, but rather, as the study describes, the people that are charged with overall relationship governance.

The third buyer type, or top-tier, is the buyer that requires strategic insights as an expectation of the outsourcing engagement, says Morrison. ‘Manage my

Mobile Payments Workshop

8 | contact management

not be suited for more strategic selling approaches. As Canadian outsourcers, we have to take a look at how we assess the needs of our customers and identify which tier they are best suited for. I think it’s an open conversation that we have with the customer; if you just want seats, and you’re looking for the best price you can possibly get, there are probably 50 companies that can take care of you. So, let’s park that for a minute. Let’s assume that we can deliver that as well, but let’s shift the discussion and start talking about where we can add value beyond simply servicing your calls. That is where we help our marketplace evolve because we’re not differentiated until we get to that conversation.”

That’s when, he says, you start to talk about business insights and analytics, and how to drive improvements through data and learning.

“It’s thinking beyond what they’re asking for, and using the experience that we have in this business to drive evolution. I think there is a tremendous opportunity for the BPO space to start to take on that kind of a model.”

Back to the disconnect in the study related to hiring; “You can’t always go out and hire top of market talent based on the way contracts are structured,” he says, “you try to hire what your pricing and service delivery models can afford bearing in mind your client has budget constraints as well. If you hire the people you really want, then you will likely have to charge clients at a price they don’t want to pay. This is where gain-share models really come in to play. In these models, if I know I’m incented for delivering additional business improvements beyond the baseline services, then it’s on me to deliver and there’s a recognition and reward for those efforts. This is our approach and we’ve actively invested in building around our insights and analytics team, knowing that, if we can deliver that incremental value to our customers, we’re going to share that cost savings and both parties will benefit and grow.”

Coming in May - in the next instalment in our series on challenges facing the Canadian contact centre market we look at the changing role of technology and the rise of the multi-channel agent.

Issue 1 • 2015

// 28

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