How important is it to capture and keep correct data about your customers?

How Bad Data Hurts Customer Experience

Inaccurate data can cause long wait times to your call center, aggravating customers. It can cause them to abandon purchases. Inaccurate data increases customer frustration if they are targeted incorrectly by your marketing efforts. According to today’s inforgraphic from Experian, 45 percent of consumers would walk away from a company that contacted them via a channel the customer indicated they did not wish to be contacted. In fact, poor customer experience costs billions in lost revenue every year.

What’s a Company to Do?

“If a company is on its omnichannel game, communication will be seamless no matter the touch point.”

With so many issues caused by bad data, how can you make sure that your data is accurate and helpful? According to this infographic by Experian, there are three important actions you can take to ensure you have the best customer data:

• Train your customer support team to verify customer data
• Clean, enhance and profile your customer data
• Create a “Single Customer View” to see your whole customer

Check out the infographic to learn more about the hazards of bad data and the ways you can work on improvement.

Learn other tips for retaining customers in our complimentary guide: Retaining Subscribers & Optimizing the Renewal Process.

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy — Bad Data Is a Hazard to Your Customer Experience [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

Companies are refining their self-service processes to provide a rich, effective experience. From utilizing new digital channels and employing CRM data to streamline interactions to improving the transfer from self-service to live agents, companies are looking for ways to ensure customers do not have to repeat themselves eternally to a recorded voice prompt.

These advancements in technology are making it easier (and cheaper) to solve customers’ problems with a personalized self-service environment. Companies that provide outstanding customer service will win customers for life. But do not take half-measures in your solution. Research shows users will quickly abandon a faulty customer self-service option. Succeeding with customer support, even with self-service options, means investing in a solution that works for every customer.

Take a look at this infographic from Aspect to get a better idea about what your customers really want from self-service.

Learn more about how to keep customers engaged in our complimentary guide, Attracting and Acquiring New Subscribers.

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy — Customer Self-Service [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

Focusing on the customer experience, defined as the sum of all interactions a customer has with a company, requires a shift in mindset. Consider this: According to Forrester, 59 percent of buyers would prefer not to interact with a sales rep as their primary source of information. Consumers are now making purchases through more channels than ever, and there is no guarantee marketers will be able to engage their customers as they have in the past. Given this reality, providing an unforgettable digital experience to your customers has never been more critical than now.

As you begin setting goals for 2016, make a resolution to deliver unforgettable customer experiences. The tips below, highlighted at this fall’s Forrester Digital Business 2015 forum, should help. Consider integrating these into your organization’s marketing strategy.

1. Understand the Buyer Journey

In 2016, it’s no longer about filling the top of the sales funnel and waiting for revenue to drip onto your bottom line. To drive customer loyalty, you must meet customers where they are, with the information they need. The first step is understanding your customers’ perspectives. To do that, Forrester recommends researching your buyers’ role within their organization to understand the complexity of their purchase decisions and the outcome they expect.

For instance, among the four buyer archetypes discussed in the image below, the Procurer archetype is primarily sensitive to budget demands. Often, they have already done their research, and simply need a solution that fits their budget allocation. This role contrasts against the Transformer archetype. Transformers are usually executives who are looking to radically change the way their business operates. They are often sensitive to a solution’s flexibility in dealing with complex problems.

Once you understand your different buyers’ perspectives, create a map that details their expected journey from initial trigger to post-purchase. By understanding the buyer journey, you will better understand the motivation behind your buyers’ purchase decisions, and what content will attract the buyers as well as the right channels for delivery.

2. Be Authentic and Consistent

2016 is the year to offer shoppers unforgettable experiences through relationship marketing. As Forrester described throughout the event, there are more channels than ever to connect with customers. Another goal for marketers in 2016 is to focus on building brand loyalty and long term customer engagement, rather than quick, short term customer acquisition.

Forrester noted that 55 percent of US retail customers agree that they shop more with retailers who offer a consistent customer service experience online and offline. Be sure you offer consistent product and price information across all channels, and deliver on your brand’s promises — consumers will respect this. Most importantly, put the customer first. Offer some control over how and when customers can expect to engage with your brand, and use messaging that centers on the outcome they can expect.

3. Accelerate Adoption (And Your Response)

Keeping pace with consumers will make all the difference to their experience in 2016. Consumers are more willing to try new things now than ever before, adopting technologies at an ever increasing speed; a process called hyperadoption. It is important to clarify that customers do not adopt devices at breakneck speeds. Rather, consumers hyperadopt outcomes.

A great example of a hyperadopted outcome is WhatsApp, a popular messaging app. By offering the service for free, WhatsApp reduced the risk of testing it out. And when you reduce the risk of new behaviors, you lose less with a negative outcome and gain more from a positive outcome. This process, in turn, increases customer interest and adoption, creating a network effect. The question you need to ask yourself is: How can you increase the adoption of your products and services? First, anticipate the outcomes customers can expect, and then be hyperresponsive to invite your customers to experience these new outcomes through digital channels. These outcomes will resonate with users and they will embrace your brand.

4. Embody Customer Obsession

Consumers expect brands to use a customer-experience-first approach and personalize their efforts. They are well aware that brands collect data on their interactions and expect what’s learned to be put into practice. Omnishoppers want it all: They expect to easily find product information, access to loyalty information and no-hassle returns. It may be a challenge for brands to meet the omnishoppers’ expectations in bigger and better ways, but the good news is that customers reward brands for unforgettable customer experiences.

With these considerations for 2016 in mind, where should your company invest? The forum highlighted customer insights, predictive analytics, targeted interactions, scaling platforms and solutions that can be easily configured (compared with a one-off customization) as areas on which to focus.

Keystone

As we head into the holidays and you anticipate launching your marketing strategy for 2016, take a few minutes to conduct a self-assessment. Ensure that your marketing and sales strategies are set to deliver a seamless customer experience. Brands that prioritize understanding their buyer and building meaningful relationships based on customers’ desired outcomes will be rewarded.

Get inside the heads of your B2B customers with our helpful guide, 5 Things Your B2B Customers Need You To Know.

Andrea Bailif-Gush is the Product Marketing Manager at cleverbridge

The post Four Tips for Delivering Unforgettable Customer Experiences appeared first on cleverbridge.

For the omnichannel shopper, their journey can start with a search on a mobile device for product info and price, which spurs a visit to a retailer’s website or an in-store visit. If a company is on its omnichannel game, communication will be seamless and proactive throughout the process, providing messages and even promotions along the way.

A hallmark of the omnichannel trend is the end of the brick-and-mortar vs. ecommerce duality. For example on Black Friday this year, Amazon dominated ecommerce sales, accounting for 35 percent of all transactions. Even so, four of the top five ecommerce sellers were traditional brick-and-mortar retailers.

While ecommerce sales still only make up 9 percent of total sales, the data show most holiday retail sales are now influenced by digital interactions, with 64 percent of all in-store sales being influenced by digital channels. Enjoy today’s infographic and read more about why meeting the omnichannel consumer’s needs improves your bottom line.

Download our Maximizing Holiday Ecommerce Guide, one of the Six Guides on Ecommerce Essentials, today.

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy — Omnichannel Holiday Retailing [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

For the September Ecommerce Digest, we’re going to dig into localization, Klarna’s debut in the U.S., the role of shopping carts in subscription commerce, omnichannel shopping challenges, and the impact of chip-and-PIN cards on ecommerce fraud prevention.

Global Ecommerce and Localization

Website Localization Must-Haves For Global Ecommerce | Forrester Research

In this blog post from Forrester Research, Lily Varon writes about what you need to succeed in global ecommerce. This is a topic that is dear to us, and we are happy to see a report detailing global expansion issues like domain names, global gateways, global user interfaces, language elements on a web page, multilingual SEO, customer support best practices, and localized currencies and payment methods.

Alternative Payment Methods

Klarna Launches in the U.S. | Re/code
Speaking of localization … payments! Klarna is a popular payment provider for online Swedish shoppers. Klarna is a compelling payment option because it assumes all the risks of fraud instead of the merchant. If you are looking to gain customers in Sweden, one of the best things you can do is add Klarna to your checkout process. But now Klarna is looking to expand its operations into the U.S. Which merchants will start offering this type of payment for customers outside of Sweden? Will it make a significant impact on conversion rates? It will be interesting to see if Klarna’s attempt at global expansion will disrupt the ecommerce market.

Shopping Carts and Subscription Commerce

Why the Shopping Basket Is the Next Big Thing in Digital Commerce | Demandware
This blog post from Demandware advocates that merchants should “persist that basket,” that is, they should not neglect the great power of the online shopping cart to drive sales and retarget bouncing visitors. We do not disagree that the cart is a crucial element of ecommerce success. But just as conversion rates are less relevant in today’s subscription dominated market, so is a narrow focus on shopping carts. The real question is, “How are you messaging customers before and after they create a cart?” Today’s subscription dominated market demands attention to the entire customer lifecycle — not just the cart.

Content Marketing

Primer by Google Is Here to Make You a Better Marketer | NewsCred
Looking to learn more about marketing automation or creating relevant search ads? This interview with Hope Friedland, Content Lead at Primer, showcases a new educational app from Google. It is a handy library of content that helps people learn the ins and outs of digital marketing. It is designed to be consumed by mobile device users on the go, and it is highly interactive. Aside from the educational content, this app also serves as a source of inspiration to marketers thinking about alternative ways of educating their audiences and communicating brand value.

Omnichannel Shopping

MasterCard Busts Myths of the Omnichannel Consumer | PYMNTS
We love the image offered in this post of today’s digital shopper as “a patient, skilled, value-seeking missile.” Based on MasterCard’s The Retail CMO’s Guide to the Omnishopper, PYMNTS explains that customers research their purchases piecemeal: over time, in both physical and online spaces. Even in the digital world, they search across different devices and through different channels. The main point here is to consider where your customers are viewing your messages, and to make sure those messages are consistent.

Fraud Prevention

How Chip-and-PIN Credit Cards Protect Consumers From Fraud | NPR
This interview with security expert Brian Krebs discusses the  impact of this switch and notes the difference in the European and American cultures of using credit cards at physical stores. Many countries adopted chip-and-PIN credit cards a while back, and the U.S. is slowly catching up on this important security improvement. However, as we explained a year and a half ago, blocking one avenue of fraud is sure to send the fraudsters looking for another way to steal your customers’ personal information and money. Krebs notes that it is not just online shopping carts that are affected by a new surge in fraud activity: New account fraud and account takeovers are going to occur too.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

The post September Ecommerce Digest appeared first on cleverbridge.