Direct Marketing Magazine June 2016

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The evolution Chinese and of ethnic South Asian marketing families get the ROYALE treatment

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The Authority on Data-Driven Engagement & Operations

When do culture and ethnicity matter? ❱ 8 Check us out online

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When do culture and ethnicity matter in marketing?

Vol. 29 | No. 6 | June 2016 EDITOR Sarah O’Connor - sarah@dmn.ca PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca DESIGN / PRODUCTION Jennifer O’Neill - jennifer@dmn.ca Advertising Sales Mark Henry - mark@dmn.ca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Gautam Nath Mike Aoki Emily Neilsen Cynthia Hill Rupen Seoni Armen Matosyan Timothy Yip Andrew McNair

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Ethnic Marketing

Phone: 905.201.6600 Fax: 905.201.6601 Toll-free: 800.668.1838 home@dmn.ca www.dmn.ca EDITORIAL CONTACT: Direct Marketing is published monthly by Lloydmedia Inc. plus the annual DM Industry Source Book and List of Lists.

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The evolution of ethnic marketing

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Top trends for 2016: It’s all about customer experience

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Chinese and South Asian families get the ROYALE treatment

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Industry News Flyers, coupons & inserts

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Fast food receipt surveys: Who completes them and why?

June 2016

Contact Management

10 tips to engage remote agents

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When should you hire an outside expert?

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GTACC’s third annual Women in Leadership event

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Turn your customer service agents into advisors DMN.ca ❰

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Ethnic Marketing

The evolution of ethnic marketing

Q&A with Sharifa Khan, president & CEO of Balmoral Multicultural Marketing

By Gautam Nath

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harifa Khan has more than 28 years of experience in multicultural marketing in Canada. She is a recipient of 2013 RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award and recipient of both the Gold and Diamond Jubilee Awards. She co-founded the Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival and was instrumental in the success and popularity of this multicultural event in Canada.

Khan has sat on the board of Canada Post, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, The Canadian Club and The United Way. Sharifa is currently on the board of Ontario Media Development Corporation, vice-chair of OCAD University, Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto and the board of governors, Mount Sinai Hospital.

At Balmoral Marketing, Khan leads a team of ethnic marketing professionals who have, over the years, serviced national and international corporations including Bank of Canada, American Express, McCains, BMO Financial Group, Ontario Government, BlackBerry, Rogers, Campbell’s and Canadian National.

Q: A:

How long has ethnic marketing been practiced in Canada?

Ethnic marketing in Canada has been part of the marketing mix for decades; it started as early as in the 1940s and 50s when the Eastern European immigrants came to Canada. There were newspapers catering to these European markets.

When I started, we used to publish advertising in a slew of European languages with Ukrainian, Italian, German and Portuguese being the bigger ones. Then, the immigration trends started to change in late 1980s and 90s, when Punjabis from India and Pakistan and Chinese from Hong Kong came, and this brought a boom in the ethnic market. Particularly in these last 10 years since Statistics Canada released the 2006 census numbers, corporate marketers realized the need to communicate in diverse languages. ❱ DMN.ca

Marketers saw the spending power in these markets and that’s when marketing turned the corner!

Q:

Interesting that you mentioned Asia—which are the main countries that people are immigrating from?

The initial trends were from two main countries of origin— Cantonese speaking people from Hong Kong started immigrating in the 80s when Hong Kong was ultimately to be handed over to China in 1997 and also immigrants coming from Punjab in North India and Pakistan in the 80s.

In the last 10 years or so, the trend has shifted from Hong Kong to Mainland China. India continues to contribute and Filipinos have increased in large numbers. The two largest ethnicities in Canada today are South Asians, which includes India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and Chinese, which includes Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan.

A:

Q: A:

And how have companies responded to this large influx of immigrants?

Actually before I answer that, I would like to point out that these immigrants have settled in fairly concentrated geographic areas—almost 70% can be found around six cities or metro areas in Canada with the highest concentration in the Greater Toronto Area, Greater Vancouver Area and numbers are growing in Edmonton, Calgary and Regina. This having been said, it is of no wonder that products and services cater to these communities and are rich sources of revenue for the companies providing them. Financial services, telecommunications, automobile industries are aggressively marketing to these consumers and the consumer product industry is following suit. Government services like financial benefits, education, health and utilities are all being targeted to these audiences too.

These immigrants have the spending

power of about $42 billion per year, with a continuous influx of around 260,000 newcomers annually. Ethnic marketing has moved from being a brand manager’s whim to becoming a boardroom topic of discussion.

Q: A:

So are these communities consuming mainstream media?

Those who have a certain level of competency in English do consume English media. Now, that doesn’t mean that when they arrive or settle down, they stop using/ communicating in their language of origin. In fact, there is an extra effort made to retain it. They continue to consume the media from their home country because they want to keep in touch with their roots; they want to keep themselves updated on the events going on in their home country.

No wonder, there are around 500 ethnic media outlets here of which there are over 300 ethnic print media alone. Many of these are free of cost and in-language, bringing news and views of Canada and their home countries. The style of reporting is by journalists who know the correct ethnic nuances in reporting news or writing articles. This content is what continues to draw readership and circulation of ethnic media.

Q: A:

And what about digital?

I was just about to bring that up; ethnic communities are over indexed to the Canadian gen pop as far as internet connectivity and internet browsing. The reason is clear; convenience. Keep in mind that they continuously try to adapt, they want to know what it means to be Canadian and they want to find out what Canadians do; which over the internet is convenient. Plus, they research products and services before venturing out to seek them. Finally they are big on streaming entertainment and sports content from their home country. All this makes me come to the changes we have made at Balmoral.

Q: A:

Interesting, what are those?

Balmoral has increased our staff strength in the digital and social field, we have also partnered with a large social and digital agency in China called the Cross Communications Group, with 500 employees in five cities in China, to add to our digital and social media strengths. We have recently rebranded our agency to reflect the vibrancy of our services, the digital and social media investments and the future needs of our clients. Balmoral has moved into new larger office premises still in the downtown core of Toronto to be central and enable us to service our clients better. We have introduced two special divisions: Ethnic Media Tank which consolidates our ethnic media buying power bringing value and extra mileage to our clients and D-Lounge, our digital arm, staying at the forefront of digital trends in the multicultural media space.

Q: A:

In closing, any final comments you would like to make for our readers?

It is not news that the ethnic consumer numbers are growing day by day and there is ample research available that shows the spending power of these groups.

It is now the time for marketers to incorporate a balanced mix of English and in-language, just as a mix of traditional and digital media and have a regular investment in these markets rather than just on special festivals like Diwali and Chinese New Year. It needs to become more than just a topic of discussion in a boardroom; it needs to be part of strategy up front not as an afterthought. And finally, we need to remember that these consumers want to be recognized as Canadians, yet at the same time, do not want to forget their roots, so communications must acknowledge the fine balance.

June 2016

Ethnic Marketing

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Chinese and South Asian families get the ROYALE treatment

By Timothy Yip

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or over 50 years, ROYALE has been a household name and fixture in Canadian bathrooms. In that time, it has welcomed new additions to the family, making ROYALE Canada’s leading brand of household paper products.

As one of Canada’s leading manufacturers of household paper products, Irving Consumer Products Limited is staying ahead of their competitors by extending their ROYALE family of paper products to South Asian and Chinese Canadians. Backed by qualitative and quantitative research, insights and analysis, ROYALE was able to better understand the needs of these communities including the differences across the cultures. The strategy was to connect with both in a meaningful way to build long-term relationships for the family of ROYALE paper products.

“Our master brand strategy makes it easier for newcomers to identify with ROYALE since it is a consistent focal point in all our media and in-store communication. The ROYALE brand name is well recognized and is very familiar since ‘royale’ is a commonly used around the world, signifying the same qualities as our paper products: high class, premium and royalty,” said Gary MacIntosh, director of marketing, ROYALE. The strategy was to first introduce the ROYALE Tiger Towel brand to both Chinese and South Asian communities followed by the rest of the ROYALE family of products. The insights and research showed that the family setting was very important to both groups. ROYALE wanted to resonate with Chinese and South Asian families on a day-to-day level, showing how

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busy a family household can be especially with children, while demonstrating the strength and power of ROYALE Tiger Towel for cleaning up messes. In addition, ROYALE Tiger Towel was a perfect fit for major family holidays, helping prepare the home for family get-togethers.

ROYALE has made significant strides in delivering programs that demonstrate an understanding of the unique needs of these consumers. In less than two years, the ROYALE brand has managed to over-index share in all paper categories in the ethnic markets measured by Nielsen.

With the help of their Toronto-based ethnic agency partner, Maple Diversity Communications, they’ve created and successfully launched original in-language TV commercials, radio, print, digital and experiential event activations for the ROYALE Tiger Towel brand and family of products.

“We understand ethnic communities in Canada have unique cultural nuances and the family setting is a very important attribute in their lives,” said Niraj Sinha, managing partner and chief creative officer, Maple Diversity Communications.

It’s no longer just mainstream adaptations. ROYALE is investing in long-term ethnic strategies to continue the dialogue with these communities and to continue to build on their success with Canadian ethnic markets.

“ROYALE will continue their commitment to ethnic marketing, as the brand strives to build long-term relationships with Canada’s fastest growing consumer segments,” said MacIntosh.

Timothy Yip is COO, Maple Diversity Communications, an award-wining ad agency specializing in multicultural marketing and advertising in Canada.

TV commercial: The original TV commercial not only resonated with Chinese and South Asian Canadian families on a day-to-day level, but also demonstrated the strength and power of ROYALE Tiger Towel. The concept was backed by insights and a profound understanding of the Chinese and South Asian household.

This was further amplified by connecting our ROYALE family of products to ethnic households through the use of our tagline “From our Family to Yours” around key holiday celebrations.

“We drew the main creative idea from the fact that the mother holds a position of an ‘anchor’ in both Chinese and South Asian families,” said Sinha. “She works like a superwoman to take care of her household and these TV spots demonstrate how ROYALE Tiger Towel makes her life easier.”

Digital banner ads: ROYALE understands that online media reach is very strong and that Chinese and South Asian Canadians connect through digital and social media for most of their information needs. The media strategy included South Asia- and China-based popular portals that were targeted to Canadian IPs.

June 2016

Ethnic Marketing

// 7 Grassroots event activations: ROYALE Tiger Towel participates in both Chinese and South Asian cultural grassroots events. These events are a unique opportunity to engage with ethnic consumers at a time and a place when they’re most receptive to new experiences and having fun. They have also been amazing opportunities for consumer engagement from sampling, demonstrations and data collection at a local level.

“The South Asian and Chinese communities are very social and tend to rely on friends and family for referrals and recommendations when it comes to brands they trust. Multicultural grassroots events are a great way for us to establish a personal connection between our ROYALE family and theirs,” said Meryem Leyoussi, marketing coordinator, ROYALE.

Print/FSIs: Coupons/FSIs are not only distributed in prominent ethnic publications, but are also distributed at grassroots events.

The overall plan was to generate trial for ROYALE’s latest product launches: ROYALE Tiger Towel and ROYALE Velour.

June 2016

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Ethnic Marketing

When do culture and ethnicity matter in marketing?

By Rupen Seoni

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aving worked with a wide range of clients over the years, my colleagues and I at Environics Analytics have seen multicultural marketing go from “everyone’s talking about it but nobody’s doing it,” to “a lot of people are talking about it and some are actually doing it.” That’s positive news, though marketers often express their struggle—and occasionally some guilt—associated with multicultural marketing. We hear that budgets are really tight, making it difficult to support these niche markets; that the markets are so splintered and small that it’s hard to achieve a positive ROI; and that multicultural populations are not well understood. The guilt seems to come from marketers’ realization that while these markets are growing rapidly and will affect brand health now and in the future, they’re not getting the attention they deserve.

So I’ll pose the question that is undoubtedly on many marketers’ minds: “Do you have to do something tailored to cultural markets?” I would say the answer is: not necessarily.

If we adopt a statistician’s point of view, we would think about different consumer attributes that drive the consumption of products. These might be demographic characteristics such as age, number of children, income, urbanity and dwelling type, or psychographic attributes like technology orientation and ❱ DMN.ca

environmental consciousness. A statistician would view cultural identity as just another attribute that could have an impact on consumption.

It is one that’s gained importance in the past few years because there is more variation in culture on a large scale in Canada than there used to be. But it doesn’t always matter, just as environmental consciousness or presence of children doesn’t always matter for every product or service.

So when does it matter? The trick is to identify when cultural identity in and of itself actually drives consumption of a product. This could be caused by habits or customs in a cultural market, or an inherent brand affinity within a culture that may have been built halfway around the world, but still impacts behaviour here in Canada. Habits and customs could be religious or social, such as Jews buying Kosher foods or South Asians’ preference for Scotch whisky.

And affinity for a brand could be due to the brand’s market position in the native country. For example, Chinese consumers favour many western luxury brands, including BMW, Coach and Burberry, among others.

Affinity for those brands also tends to exist among Chinese Canadians.

These examples are fairly obvious opportunities for marketers.

If there is no inherent affinity present, a brand may try to create affinity in a cultural market because the market’s other demographics represent an important part of the brand’s target. If the brand can connect with these consumers

emotionally, it may be able to beat the competition and establish a lasting affinity and market advantage.

Building equity from scratch is much trickier, requiring a brand to break through and connect with consumers in a relevant way. If the brand does not communicate an understanding of the market, its attempt to create affinity could fall flat or even drive some consumers away.

One campaign that has attempted to connect with a cultural market is Ikea’s effort to reach South Asians in Canada. A few years ago, Ikea created a TV ad that I thought was a perfect play on language, and the household furnisher’s strategy seemed to be driven by the insight that South Asians are a growing segment of the population that is disproportionately represented among newly minted households that require all the furnishings that Ikea sells: in other words, Ikea’s perfect market. The tagline in Hindi was “Yeh kia, woh kia: Ikea,” which translates roughly to “I got everything done at Ikea.” And “kia” in Hindi means “did,” which is a nice play on words with “Ikea.” When I first saw the ad, I was surprised by its quality and the fact that it was created specifically to cater to South Asians, complete with its clever wordplay. It had all the ingredients necessary to build brand affinity among the target, positioning Ikea for leadership among South Asian consumers.

So when does multicultural marketing not matter even if a significant portion of consumption comes from these markets? If

other drivers of consumption are paramount (presence of children, income, environmental consciousness, etc.) then maybe a multicultural strategy isn’t necessary. If there is no cultural insight that you could use to create an emotional connection to, say, orange juice consumption, mainstream marketing might be just as effective. Culture doesn’t drive product decisions around orange juice, or if it does, the potential return from developing a separate strategy may not be worth the cost.

Admittedly, these days a whole new dynamic is emerging. I was discussing the merits of multicultural marketing strategies with a marketer whose target is young urban adults as they socialize with each other. His view was that in his target—one that represents the leading edge of change in Canadian society—multiculturalism is actually just the norm; his target isn’t multicultural in the sense of South Asians as a bloc or Chinese as a bloc that he is marketing to. It’s more about reaching a South Asian socializing with one friend who has an Anglo background and another who is half Vietnamese and half French—all together. So the challenge is how to be relevant to a very new and diverse, fluid mix of cultural identities all at the same time. Success in this world is, of course, an emerging art, but one that can be informed by the insights that analytics offer.

Rupen Seoni, a senior vice president at Environics Analytics, leads its government, health care and not-for-profit practice.

June 2016

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Industry News

AIIM changes name, not brand

By Sarah O’Connor

AIIM has changed its name from Avant Imaging & Information Management Inc. to Avant Imaging & Integrated Media Inc., but the management team emphasizes that this is not a rebrand.

In an open letter to marketers, CEO Mario Giorgio and President Frank Giorgio explain how the change was driven by the evolution of the industry and the expanded array of solutions that AIIM now offers: “As business has evolved over the last 25 years, so has AIIM… AIIM has built a strong business foundation based on the industry’s best practices and technologies in the hands of craftsmen… To accurately reflect the solutions that AIIM provides today and in the future, we’ve changed our name.”

“Over the past 10 years we have been developing a lot of proprietary software and solutions for our customers,” explained Mario Giorgio in a subsequent interview. These services now include AIIM • VICI MAP, a fully variable custom mapping application that allows marketers to use individualized maps within a printed piece; AIIM • 1:1, an integrated marketing solution that leverages clients’ CRM database; AIIM • CONNX, a cross-media solution that can manage the global production and fulfillment of a wide range of marketing materials from a central location; AIIM • SMART STATEMENTS, a highly personalized communication experience to maximize reader participation and response; and more.

In 2014 AIIM acquired Ricoh Document’s Aurora print facility, and General Manager Mark Phillips explains that the subsequent expansions to their document management and direct mail services set the process leading up to this name change in motion.

“We believe that AIIM offers more value than simply playing in the supply chain and putting ink on paper,” says Phillips. “We have a lot of non-traditional solutions that go above and beyond what a traditional printer would bring to the marketplace, but we needed to bring that message to a bigger audience… outside of the traditional customer group that we were focused on. We didn’t want to lose sight of our strong history in print, but rather strengthen that history with value-adds.”

The Canadian Marketing Association elects new board chair & board members The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) is pleased to announce that Chris Stamper, senior vice president, corporate marketing, community, environment at TD Bank Group, has been elected as the new board chair for 2016-2017.

Stamper, who was elected at CMA’s Annual General Meeting on May 26, takes over from Bryan Pearson, president & CEO at LoyaltyOne / AIR MILES. At the meeting, the association elected Sandra Sanderson, chief marketing & quality officer at Walmart

Canada Corporation, as the vice-chair of the board. Aldo Cundari, chairman & CEO at Cundari, was elected secretary and treasurer.

Newly elected members of the board of directors include: ❯❯ Peter Furnish, vice president, marketing, Cineplex Inc. ❯❯ Jan Kestle, president, Environics Analytics ❯❯ Nancy Marcus, corporate vice president, marketing, Kruger Products L.P. “Some of the most influential and talented marketers in the industry are on the board of directors,” said Doug

Brooks, president & CEO of the Canadian Marketing Association. “This year’s additions are no exception.”

CMA would like to acknowledge the exceptional service and contributions from those who have completed their terms: ❯❯ Stephen Brown, president, Fuse Marketing ❯❯ Lynn Fletcher, partner, Fletcher Weir Consulting ❯❯ Ken Wong, associate professor & distinguished professor of marketing, Smith School of Business at Queen’s University

To send press announcements, please direct them to Sarah O’Connor, Editor, at sarah@dmn.ca June 2016

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industry News

Did you know?

Contactless payments take off in Canada The value of contactless payments made by consumers in Canada more than doubled over the past year, according to a new study published by Technology Strategies International Inc. The report titled Canadian Payments Forecast – 2016 estimates that the value of contactless payments transactions increased by about $30 billion in 2015, on the back of more than 1.2 billion transactions.

“The contactless market has evolved to the point where consumers are frustrated if the merchant doesn’t accept contactless payments,” says Christie Christelis, president of Technology

Strategies International. “A number of merchants have found it necessary to place signs on their POS terminals apologizing for the inability to accept contactless payments.”

Contactless acceptance is, however, growing rapidly, but the report suggests that consumers expect contactless POS terminals to be ubiquitous, particularly in grocery stores and supermarkets, the most popular category for contactless payments Other barriers to contactless payments are the lack of availability of contactless debit payment cards, especially amongst BMO customers, forcing them to use credit cards or switch banks if they want to join the ‘tap’ revolution using their debit cards.

“Only about one in six people who own contactless payment options do not use them,” Christelis says. “And people are using their contactless payment cards more and more frequently, approaching three times a month,

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on average.”

Mobile payments at merchant outlets will make use of the same acceptance infrastructure as contactless payments, he says, and the rapid uptake of contactless payments amongst consumers will make the switch to mobile contactless payments fairly easy when the time is right.

“At the present time the mobile payments landscape has not yet evolved to the point where it is easy for a consumer to embrace mobile payments,” says Christelis.

“NFC phones still have to make their way into the market en masse, and while some mobile payment options do exist, they don’t work seamlessly for every customer, on any phone, with any payment credential, over any network.”

Apple Pay’s recent announcement that it will work with major banks in Canada, rather than just American Express, to bring mobile payments to market for iPhone users will undoubtedly have an impact on the market, he says, but it will take some time before this, and others like Samsung Pay and Android Pay, will filter through to consumers and achieve mainstream adoption.

The report predicts that the mobile payments landscape in Canada will change dramatically within the next five years, with more than three quarters of the smartphones in Canada having NFC capability by 2020, and major financial institutions and other key players releasing mobile wallets and applications that are more in

line with consumer needs than the current slew of offerings.

Additional highlights from the study are: ❯❯ Debit and credit card payments accounted for more than 60% of personal consumption expenditure in 2015 ❯❯ Debit card transactions and credit card transactions will exceed cash transactions in 2016 and 2020, respectively ❯❯ Cash usage is declining, but at a relatively low rate ❯❯ Smart phone penetration is likely to reach 90% by 2020 ❯❯ Online payments continue to experience high growth ❯❯ The usage of Bitcoin has doubled over the past year The 260-page report provides a comprehensive review, analysis and forecast of consumer payments in Canada. It draws on established statistical sources as well the Canadian Consumer Payments Survey, 2016, conducted by TSI amongst more than 2,000 consumers.

The report identifies high growth segments in the Canadian payments market in the context of some important recent developments in the economy, regulatory environment and the industry. Detailed forecasts are presented for credit card payments, debit card payments, cash payments, cheque payments, contactless payments, prepaid cards, gift cards, P2P payments, remittances, online payments, mobile payments, bill payments and transfers, ABM installations and POS terminals.

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Flyers, coupons & inserts

Fast food receipt surveys: Who completes them and why?

By Armen Matosyan

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urveys are an effective method for business owners and marketers to receive feedback from customers.

Knowing which products and services most excite your clientele helps you serve them more effectively, leading to repeat business and a healthier bottom line.

What’s the best method for conducting these surveys? We’ve all seen the invitations on our fast food receipts to complete a survey and receive a reward. Do these work? With today’s technology, business owners have many other options available that could collect feedback more efficiently.

Why are they still using this method?

Is there a better answer?

To dig into the issue, we conducted a survey of our own. Our goals were to gain insight into how Canadians perceive fast food restaurant receipt surveys and discover if we could improve on this method of marketing.

We surveyed approximately 500 restaurant customers across Canada.

Our results provide informative insight for marketing and business teams. We discovered that diners are typically willing to share their thoughts, provided that marketers make the survey process as convenient and rewarding as possible.

Let’s examine our survey, then take a look at the insights it offers for marketing strategies.

Customer visits: Fast food restaurant frequency ❯❯ Around 80% of Canadians go to restaurants either weekly or a couple of times per month. This means there are plenty of opportunities to get feedback from repeat customers. ❯❯ 44.6% go to restaurants a couple of times per month. If the right reward is given, you might get these people into your restaurants more often.

Fast food receipts: Where do they end up? ❯❯ 48.6% of the respondents said that they throw away their fast food ❱ DMN.ca

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receipts immediately, meaning almost half of your customers will never provide feedback, even if they would have been interested in doing so.

22.5% take their receipt home but do so to destroy it, not to take the survey. This indicates the survey is not something of great interest to customers.

Only 10.7% of customers take their receipts home with the intention of filling out the survey and getting rewards. We didn’t ask these customers if they follow through and fill out the survey or not, but, if we assume that around 90% of them actually do take the survey, we are left with around 9.6%. This translates to receiving feedback from less than 10% of your customers.

Survey rewards: Are they noticed?

A stunning 45.9% of customers didn’t even notice that their receipts had offers. This is pretty amazing, given that most companies prominently print it in color on the back of their receipts. Clearly, something in the marketing design must change to increase visibility and boost the feedback response.

Survey completion: Response rates Of those customers who noticed the survey invitation, only 56% took the survey. We asked the other 44% for the main reasons they didn’t take it. ❯❯ The biggest barrier was that customers didn’t think the reward offered was worth their time. ❯❯ The other two main reasons were “forgot about it” (23.5%) and “absence of time” (18.9%). ❯❯ 13% of customers thought that the survey was too complicated.

Survey options: Better methods 85% of respondents are ready and willing to provide feedback to restaurants, provided there is a better way to do it. With this in mind, restaurant owners should consider how to seize this opportunity with the best feedback method possible.

Summary: Marketing impact Restaurants are not getting feedback from the majority of their customers.

As we can see from the Canadian respondents, feedback is currently only provided by around 9-10% of customers. Other customers, who might like to provide feedback, never notice how to do so or are deterred by the method used. These are great opportunities lost, as obtaining feedback from diverse customer groups can have a big impact on improving operations. This includes the opportunity for headquarters to gain a better understanding of the operations at specific franchise locations.

Restaurants can increase the quantity of engaged customers and improve the quality of feedback by addressing several key areas. ❯❯ Send receipts electronically, via texts or emails that include invitations to provide feedback. This will capture customers who throw receipts out—48.6% of customers who visit restaurants. ❯❯ Ensure customers realize they have been given an opportunity to provide feedback. This will affect the 45.9% of customers who currently don’t notice surveys. ❯❯ Make rewards compelling enough that customers are enticed to complete a survey to earn them. This will attract the 44.0% of those who notice surveys but never participate in them. ❯❯ Offer a way for customers to immediately engage. Allow them to provide feedback on the spot and receive their reward instantly.

As we can see, almost 42.4% of respondents didn’t take the survey because they “didn’t have time” or “forgot.” Today’s customers are busy.

If something doesn’t get done right away, it will probably never happen.

As they move on to more important matters, the opportunity for feedback is lost. Allowing customers to provide feedback immediately helps capture the 42.4% who are willing to take a survey but never do.

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Create surveys that are simple, fast, fun and rewarding. Often, surveys are boring, are filled with complex matrix questions or require numerous steps to complete.

Keep it simple (e.g. answer three questions via text and get a free drink) or divide your big survey into three or four smaller surveys.

The initial survey can tackle the most important questions and you can offer customers the option of answering more questions for a better reward (e.g. answer three questions to get a drink or answer five questions to get a burger and a drink).

Automate to simplify even more. It is important to note that most of the initial questions you are asking customers (e.g. visit date and time, restaurant number, location, etc.) can be easily automated using technology to save the customer’s valuable time. Implementing these changes in your survey strategy will entice the 13% of customers who think surveys are too complex.

Customers are willing to participate and provide feedback. Our survey shows 85.8% of customers are willing to provide feedback if they are given a better way to do so. Restaurants can seize this opportunity.

Multiple new technologies are available to collect customer feedback on location. These eliminate delay and capture customer attention immediately, removing many of the barriers to survey completion that our questionnaire revealed. Potential solutions include on-site survey stations, mobile apps that promote surveys based on customer location and a simple interactive text messagebased survey on restaurant tables.

Armen Matosyan is the co-founder and chief innovation officer of TTAG Systems, a technology company that helps enterprises create custom marketing solutions with components like Voice, SMS, MMS, NFC and web. To learn more please visit http://www. ttagsystems.com.

June 2016

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE ISSUE 2 • 2016

The

Operations Issue ❯❯ Top trends for 2016: It’s all about customer experience ❯❯ 10 tips to engage remote agents ❯❯ When should you hire an outside expert?

The Operations Issue

Top contact centre trends for 2016: It’s all about customer experience

By Andrew McNair

A

s businesses and brands become ever more competitive vying for attention in a cluttered marketplace, the ability to deliver a compelling, engaging and successful customer experience (CX) continues to stand out as a distinguishing factor that sets businesses apart from one another. Now in its 19th year, Dimension Data’s 2016 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report highlights that 82.5% of some 1,320 organizations polled across 81 countries now view the contact centre as the key differentiator for their business.

Furthermore, the report evidences a corporate understanding that every interaction between a customer and the organization forms expectations and brand perception. A positive experience is now shown to encourage brand attachment, trust and loyalty among customers, eventually improving business performance and driving higher revenue.

Improved analytics are helping to validate these benefits directly related to an improved CX and justify boardroom buy-in to its ability to also improve customer loyalty and reduce costs.

At the same time, an accelerated migration of traffic to digital channels such as web chat, social media and mobile means organizations have had to transform their strategies to keep pace with customer expectations. Power has shifted in favour of consumers as digital channel choice combine with social media to alter behaviors.

Technology has become an enabler, with contact centres evolving into contact hubs, creating a seamless CX. Businesses need to innovate and orchestrate their efforts in order to create a unified CX across various channels.

Findings from the report show that digital technology

is completely transforming the North American contact centre industry.

However, it’s not without challenges and if anything the pressures to deliver are growing. Beyond, organizations now recognizing customer experience (CX) as a key differentiator—it’s emerged as the top indicator of strategic performance in the boardroom and the demand for a seamless ‘omnichannel’ customer journeys is the top industry trend.

Yet the report highlights that digital channels could be more powerful, making for more effective CXs, if shown more of a ‘human touch’, and with it, maximize the technology capability.

CX dominates the digital revolution CX is the dominating force toward a technology-based service revolution as organizations mature their contact management strategies and develop better quality migration paths toward digital channel choice. Organizations now better appreciate the intelligence provided by customer analytics.

It’s helping them validate business benefits and justify investment in technology that will elevate service capabilities.

By focusing on CX, organizations

are using analytics to better link the impact of CX back to revenue growth, customer loyalty and cost reduction through greater efficiency.

It also leads to happy employees, as over three-quarters (77.5%) of North American contact centres acknowledge the impact of good CX delivery on employee engagement.

As customer journeys span combinations of the nine different contact channels now offered by the majority of service providers, organizations are intent on connecting their systems and improving consumer experiences.

Full channel integration—that is, omnichannel capability—is set to nearly triple within the next two years. Customer journey mapping tracking user patterns has emerged as a top trend alongside analytics that will reshape the industry over the next five years. But, for now, capability is lacking, and 68.4% can’t track interactions that span multiple channels, and just 13.2% of respondents can locate problem hotspots that affect CX. While ease-of-contact and a variety of touchpoints give a newfound convenience for consumers engaging with service providers, it’s also driving additional

CX is the dominating force toward a technology-based service revolution as organizations mature their contact management strategies and develop better quality migration paths toward digital channel choice.

2 | contact management

Issue 2 • 2016

The Operations Issue contacts. Interaction levels are on the rise for 73.2% of North American contact centres, and most of it’s going digital as almost every digital channel experiences volume increases. Yet the transition toward digital isn’t reaching its full potential and, for now, a missing human touch is causing the gap between service delivery and customer expectations to widen.

The missing human touch Digital volumes handled by contact centres remain on track to exceed agent-led phone interactions by the end of 2016. As service consumers embrace digital it’s led to a further 12.5% shrinkage of phone in the split of interactions handled by contact centres. CX is now the top reason for offering self- and assisted-service channels, ahead of cost. However, just 17.5% of respondents say their digital technology will meet future needs.

The problem is that organizations are frequently being unclear about who owns, oversees and manages the digital channels in their contact centres. It’s this lack of accountability and focus that impacts the design and resulting effectiveness of the digital solutions and, by consequence, how customers engage with their businesses.

The report indicates that businesses tend to design new contact channels in isolation, often without any involvement from the contact centre. Research reveals that nearly half (49.0%) are excluded from, or are only partially involved in, the design phase of new technology solutions in contact centres, while 58.0% have little or no involvement in solution approvals. It’s impacting the effectiveness of the technology. In fact, one third (32.5%) of organizations said that their digital channel systems don’t meet existing business needs. Contact centres clearly need to be more involved in approving the design of digital CX solutions.

Performance management disciplines perfected on the phone need to be applied across the entire CX spectrum.

Measurement of cost and time per interaction is currently lacking on most digital service channels, which suggests an absence of consistency in management approach. Just four in 10 (39.0%) respondents said they track quality on digital, compared with 91.2% on phone. Some 79.4% reported that they have processes to identify sales opportunities on phone, compared with 50.7% on digital.

As technology dependency levels are growing, the pressure to get it right is deepening. Digital demands are broadening, but organizations are struggling to connect disparate systems. Legacy infrastructure, placed alongside a growing stretch on resources, are the main inhibitors to success. It’s causing many organizations to look at hybrid technology models to increase the power of their digital channel systems and provide a more agile backbone for new service options.

Cloud making a powerful impact Putting it simply, traditional technology approaches can’t keep pace with innovation. Solution focus has now shifted from contact centre infrastructure to delivery models that connect customer journeys and enhance end-user experiences. For many, hosted cloud is seen as a solution that drives powerful results.

In fact, moving to the cloud, in one form or another, is becoming an industry standard. Of current cloud users, 92.3% recognize its value in providing a seamless customer contact platform. Some 87.0% said this approach gives them access to new functionality in their contact centres, while 82.4% agree it has reduced costs.

Issue 2 • 2016

The results are compelling and are driving rapid adoption of cloudbased models. The report shows that usage levels are set to more than double to 53.6%. Most are leaning toward a hybrid cloud solution that fuses legacy systems to the cloud.

This blended model is fast becoming the ‘go-to’ enabler for many in the industry. A transformational approach toward more flexible, alternative procurement solutions is evident.

Looking ahead, technology enabled service strategies, supported by analytics as the number one trend to reshape the industry in the coming five years, will drive a new personalization of services. It will help identify opportunity for

proactive automatic solutions, which when applied will transform the entire industry... and for everyone’s benefit. We’re on the cusp of a service revolution. Positive, proactive, and personal CX will soon be a reality.

Andrew McNair has been with Dimension Data for 15 years and Head of Global Benchmarking since 2010. With 19 years senior customer management experience across the UK, Europe, Australia, North America and South Africa, he possesses exceptional industry insight and a wealth of strategic vision. Andrew’s role encompasses responsibilities as Head of Solutions, allowing for continued practitioner involvement on the evolution of the industry.

contact management | 3

The Operations Issue

10 tips

to engage remote agents

By Mike Aoki

I

magine being alone in your home, answering customer phone calls, emails and text messages all day. Imagine never seeing your co-workers or manager face-to-face.

On top of that, imagine being monitored by technology that records your calls, your availability and even your computer keystrokes and mouse movements.

Does that sound like a cold, impersonal place to work?

Of course it does. Thankfully, there are ways to improve employee engagement and make remote agents feel part of the team.

1) Team managers must be proactive and well organized Managing remote agents requires you to proactively coach and engage your offsite team. Since you cannot walk up to your agent’s desk and just start talking, you have to schedule your one-on-one coaching sessions and virtual team meetings ahead of time. In addition, let your remote agents know when you are available in case they need help. This may involve allowing them to see your calendar in Outlook or using other tools to show if you are online.

Ensure you respond promptly to emails, texts and phone calls. Unlike in-house agents, remote staff cannot tell if you are at your desk just by walking across the floor. You need the virtual equivalent of an “open door policy” since they cannot actually see when your door is open.

2) Leverage technology to build relationships Relationships can be built online. Technologies such as Skype, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting and WebEx make it possible to experience live, real-time visual and audio communication with your remote agents. Seeing your face and hearing your voice creates a better sense of connection than reading an email from you. So, do not settle for just a phone call or email. Leverage technology to increase your personal connection with your remote agents.

3) Get everyone talking during virtual meetings Become a great facilitator who encourages everyone to participate in meetings. Since your weekly or monthly Google Hangouts or GoToMeeting event is online, it can be challenging to get people to talk. Encourage people to ask questions and share ideas by calling upon them by name.

Also, let agents ask other agents about trends and best practices. You need to promote interactivity so remote agents feel more engaged with their peers and the company.

4 | contact management

4) Ensure remote agents are involved in new training and announcements Trust is the key. Remote agents may already feel isolated. If they are left out of the loop even once, trust will erode. Build a communication plan for your remote agents, offering them extra time on video conferencing to review announcements and ask questions. You can leverage technology such as product videos, online demonstrations and webcasts to ensure every team member, whether in-house or remote, gets the same information.

5) Constantly ask for feedback and do something with it!

Ask your remote agents for feedback on customer trends, processes and procedures. They are a great source of information since they communicate with customers on a daily basis.

Listen to their ideas. Let them know their suggestions are being heard (this is true for onsite agents as well, but even more so for remote agents who may already feel left out).

6) Let agents communicate with each other, as well as with the manager Leverage your company’s Skype, instant messaging or similar technologies to help remote agents communicate with each other on a professional basis. This allows Agent A to ask Agent B a question regarding their customer notes. It also builds team morale as agents get to know each other.

7) Offer support after a challenging customer interaction I train people on how to handle irate calls, so I’ve seen firsthand how those calls wear down an agent’s energy level and focus. Empower your remote agents to contact you to debrief and recover after a tough

call. This builds morale since remote agents know they are not alone.

8) Offer online training and development Increase your remote agent’s skills by leveraging online training such as Orion Learning’s contact centre courses. Online training matches a remote agent’s work style so they can continue to grow their skills.

9) Have more than one inhouse point of contact Encourage remote agents to build relationships with multiple points of contact at the office. That way, if their primary point of contact is away on a vacation or a sick day, they still have people they can call for help. This may involve having a “buddy” team manager who occasionally leads or at least attends your team’s meetings.

In addition, quality assurance team members need to build relationships with the remote agents they are coaching.

10) Have onsite events once or twice a year Events such as Town Hall meetings, sales rallies and customer service banquets allow remote staff to meet their in-house counterparts. This builds departmental morale. Be sure to include a team building or networking event so remote staff feel more engaged.

Mike Aoki is the president of Reflective Keynotes Inc. (www.reflectivekeynotes. com ), a Canadian training company that helps contact centres improve their sales and customer retention results.

A call centre expert, Mike has been interviewed by the Customer Experience Show and the Globe and Mail. He also serves on the Advisory Council of GTACC (the Greater Toronto Area Contact Centre association www.gtacc.ca) and was Master of Ceremonies for their 2012, 2013 and 2014 Annual Conferences.

Issue 2 • 2016

Outsource vs. In-house

When should you hire an outside expert?

By Emily Nielsen

I

f you accidentally broke the law you’d get the best lawyer that your money could buy, right?

Similarly, if you had a painful toothache you’d make a quick trip to your dentist to fix it! And if your car broke down on the way to the dentist you’d get your car towed to a qualified mechanic.

You see, we go to experts when we know we don’t have the experience or expertise to do a particular job well. We seek out professionals and we are willing to pull out our wallets and hand out our hard-earned cash to get it. After all, you don’t want to risk going to jail because you don’t know law, filling your own tooth would be crazy and you have no desire to study the intricate inner workings of your car to fix it. But, when it comes to our professional lives, many businesses expect their employees to do things that they are not qualified to do. It’s as if the decision criteria we use in our personal lives when we seek out an expert get tossed to the side.

Why does this happen? It seems that many businesses don’t have a formal process in place to determine which of their projects requires additional help. As a result, employees are teamed together to take on projects that they have little or no experience completing, nor the time required to do them justice. Without the experience that an expert would bring flawed project plans are laid out.

Unrealistic timelines are projected. Budgets are set at prices to be blown and promises of business benefits are made to be later broken. Making these mistakes when the project is of major importance can potentially ruin your team, your department, your organization and even your career!

To avoid ruin, there are two vital things that you really should do. First, take the time to determine the degree of importance of your next project. Second, honestly selfevaluate and identify gaps in your methodology from all sides; people, process and technology. You can do these two things by developing a formal process based on questions and considerations that can be used on every new project to determine if you should get an expert, whether that expert is a consultant or a new hire.

Issue 2 • 2016

Here is a sample of the things you should consider:

• How important is this project?

If this project is transformational and its outcome will greatly impact the business, whether it succeeds or fails, consider if this is a risk you and your team are willing to accept.

• Does your team have relevant experience? This is where you have to be very honest about your and your team members’ abilities.

Determine how much relevant experience the team has and question whether it can deliver what’s required to pull off the important project.

• Does your team have the time?

If your team is qualified to do the project, consider if the team members have the time available to get fully involved without competing projects pulling them away.

• Are you confident in your project plans? This one is tricky because you’ve got to have the relevant experience to accurately forecast budgets, timelines and resources.

If the project is large enough, with substantial costs, long time lines and many resources, this is where things can get messy.

Understand that the list above is not comprehensive. Its purpose is to spark ideas about the kind of considerations and questions to include in a formal process to determine if you and your team should get an expert. Depending on your project and business your

questions will vary. You must understand what is important and the threshold of risk to project failure that can be accepted by the organization.

Like you already do in your personal life, you need to be honest about your abilities. Most people don’t represent themselves in court, do their own dental work and they don’t fix their cars when they break.

Before you start your next project, determine its degree of importance and your team’s degree of expertise.

If the project’s degree of importance is much higher than the degree of expertise, that’s when you should get expert. If you have the expertise on your team, then you should consider their availability and priorities. After all, having the expertise but not having the time to work on the project is another reason why you may want extra help from an expert.

Dan S. Kennedy, an expert marketer, said “To whatever degree you can afford experience, though, buy it—because legitimate, relevant experience is almost always less expensive than experimentation.”

Emily Nielsen launched Nielsen IT Consulting Inc., one of Canada’s top unified communications (UC) and contact centre consulting firms, in 1999. Carrying an impressive portfolio of 100+ projects and having managed $65 million worth of UC and call centre solutions, she regularly acts as a trusted advisor to some of Canada’s largest organizations. Emily can be reached at enielsen@nielsenitconsulting.com or by calling 519-473-5373.

contact management | 5

Photos by Jennifer O’Neill

The Operations Issue

GTACC’s third annual Women in Leadership event

By Sarah O’Connor

T

he third annual Greater Toronto Area Contact Centre (GTACC) Association’s Women in Leadership event was a sold out affair, featuring thoughtful insights and enthusiastic participation from the audience.

Sangeeta Bhanatar, GTACC board chair, kicked off the morning by emphasizing that the event was not focused on positional leadership—that, despite their impressive professional credentials, the morning’s speakers had been selected not for their titles but because they are women who truly make a difference.

The keynote speaker was Francine Dyksterhuis, regional president, RBC Royal Bank Southwestern Ontario, who candidly shared stories from her personal life and 30-year tenure at RBC. In addition to her demanding career and family life, Dyksterhuis is an active member of the Stratford Shakespearian Festival’s board of directors (since 2016) and the board of LIME, a global 6 | contact management

organization committed to the career advancement of professionals with disabilities (since 2012). She has also launched co-ed Lean In circles, inspired by Sheryl Sandberg’s book of the same name, in Southwestern Ontario to uncover unconscious biases and advance the careers of men and women working at RBC. Following Dyksterhuis’ keynote, GTACC board member Anu Aduvala led an engaging executive panel featuring Paula Courtney, president of the Verde Group; Susan Zabolotniuk, AVP travel claims, Berkeley Canada; Karen Murkar, chair of the School of Accounting and Finance at Seneca College; and Katharine Thompson, senior advisor, cyber security at MNP.

Thanks to the generous support of event sponsor LoyaltyOne and event partners InfiniteKM and SB Global, all proceeds were donated to charity—$3,675 to Pathways to Education, which helps youth in low-income communities graduate from high school and successfully transition into post-secondary education, and $4,650 to Room to Read, which partners with local communities throughout the developing world to establish libraries and create local language children’s literature. Nominations are now open for the GTACC Achievement Awards and winners will be announced at the annual conference on November 3, 2016.

Issue 2 • 2016

The Operations Issue

Sangeeta Bhanatar, GTACC board chair, welcomes a packed audience.

Keynote speaker Francine Dyksterhuis, regional president, RBC Royal Bank Southwestern Ontario.

The executive panel included (from left to right): Susan Zabolotniuk, AVP travel claims, Berkeley Canada; Karen Murkar, chair of the School of Accounting and Finance at Seneca College; Katharine Thompson, senior advisor, cyber security at MNP; and Paula Courtney, president of the Verde Group.

Issue 2 • 2016

contact management | 7

The Operations Issue

Turn your customer service agents into advisors Grow revenues and increase customer retention by dispelling these three contact centre myths

By Cynthia Hill

P

oor call interactions can kill a customer relationship. A recent Accenture Strategy study found that found that over half of U.S. consumers had switched service providers in the past year due to poor service (banks, retailers and cable and satellite television providers were said to be the worst offenders).

The estimated cost of customers switching due to poor service? $1.6 trillion. And this same report said that 83% of U.S. consumers preferred dealing with human beings over digital channels to solve customer service issues.

That puts two things into perspective: One, there is a big cost associated with getting things wrong when it comes to customer call resolution. And two, there’s a lot of opportunity for customer acquisition if you are known for getting things right.

That’s why it’s important to create a consensus among front line staff that their mission should be to maximize the value of every contact. For inbound call centres in particular, these calls should be recognized as an opportunity where the customer is putting the company in a position to help. Customers are calling in to the organization for an answer but what they really want is a solution.

Finding that solution is what forms the basis of a good customer experience. And a good understanding of service can turn your agents into advisors, as long as you kill a few persistent myths. Here are three that many companies regularly live by.

Myth #1: You can’t provide good customer service if you are selling In our call centre coaching and development work, easily 70% of the agents we train believe that it is not good customer service to push a product or service if that wasn’t what the customer was calling about.

That kind of thinking comes from a good place but great customer experience is about determining what the customer needs and presenting that solution, which could be information or the purchase of a product or service they didn’t know about.

It sounds obvious but it’s a difficult concept to sell to service agents. You have to develop the concept in a workshop by asking small training groups to describe their best customer experiences. Almost every time we conduct this exercise, agents will talk about their own situations as customers where they personally received insight into something they didn’t know about.

Agents need to buy into the idea that they must anticipate a customer’s needs and educate them about the 8 | contact management

offerings. If that leads to a purchasing decision, that’s a win for all parties.

Myth #2: Customers just want you to answer their questions When we interviewed the customer service agents of a loyalty program as part of a call centre assessment project, we learned that many felt that spending an hour on the phone with the same person answering questions and providing lots of options was great customer service.

But too much information convolutes the customer’s thought process. When agents do this, customers tend to just call back and book something with another agent or they don’t call back at all (89% of Canadians say their number one frustration is not being able to have their problem solved based on their first interaction)! An agent’s job is to guide the customer through the options.

If your call centre is seeing a lot of this type of behavior, it usually means your agents are confused about your organization’s stated goals and how their job connects to it. This is where your organization must do a better job of communicating the goals.

Where we’ve seen the most success is when companies outline goals in terms of key areas and then show their agents how a successful call has an impact on these objectives.

Myth #3: Customers are just looking for the best price If your agents think it’s all about price, it means they don’t have a clear understanding of who your customer is and, therefore, what he or she really needs.

At one call centre we worked with in the travel industry, 80% of the agents believed the customers they were speaking with were retired and on fixed incomes.

But the company’s research studies indicated that most of its

customers were in fact working professionals who made over $150,000 a year. This revelation completely changed the agents’ notion that these customers just wanted the lowest price.

Building a robust understanding of the customer profile and needs is a critical first step to any contact centre’s performance improvement program. Once your agents understand and appreciate who your customers are, they will start to see the value in the variety of services and offerings that can be provided.

More than understanding the customers, agents should have a clear idea of how they fit into the customer experience equation. Breaking these myths allows agents to deepen their understanding not only of their role but of their ability to connect with the customer.

That better understanding can resonate with customers who will come to see their call not as a necessary annoyance but a better way to find the service they need.

That’s when they will see the agent as a trusted advisor. And that ultimately puts the organization in a better position to sell additional products and services. Top performing customer contact operations we have worked with have seen revenue improvements of 20 to 30%.

As we move to a customer experience model of doing business— where the relationship is measured by the individual’s experience during all points of contact against their expectations—how your contact centre manages these expectations will ultimately be the defining element in its ability to generate revenues.

Cynthia Hill is a consultant with Toronto-based TMG International.

She has over 25 years of call centre management experience and specializes in multi-industry call centre assessments.

Issue 2 • 2016

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PLASTIC CARDS

High quality offset PLASTIC CARDS, manufactured in Canada . Runs from 250 to 1,000,000 . Magnetic stripes, card encoding . Bar codes, smart cards . Card personalization . Fast turnaround times

Contact: Mark Henry, mark@dmn.ca

MAILING EQUIPMENT

www.cdnprintplastic.com Tel: (416) 240.7775 1.877.236.7746 Fax: (416) 241.0825 91 Kelfield St. #6, Toronto, ON M9W 5A3 sales@cdnprintplastic.com

Authorized resellers for:

. Zebra Card, Datacard, Fargo,

Evolis card printers

. Photo ID cards and systems

Unaddressed Delivery

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Mail Processing Solutions »

Inserting systems, feeders and folders

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JETVision® integrity/control systems

Learn more:

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Duplo finishing solutions

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Inkjet systems, tabbers and pressure sealers

[Sales] Wayne Quesnelle 1.800.889.6245 x2021 Wayne.Quesnelle@bhemail.com

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Parts, mailing and mailroom supplies

[Service] Charlotte Johnston 1.800.889.6245 x2012 Charlotte.Johnston@bhemail.com

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Direct Marketing Resource Directory Contact Mark Henry, mark@dmn.ca