November 2018 - Woveon

4 Terribly Executed Customer Strategies that People Use

Posted on November 27, 2018March 15, 2023 by David Dinh

Having a good customer service strategy is really important if you want your business to run smoothly. One wrong experience for a customer and it can create a snowball effect for the company and can ruin your brand image.

Unfortunately, bad customer experience is inevitable and there will come a point in time where you will have to deal with some dissatisfied customers. This is a good way to see any cracks in the management and service of your company and you can learn from the experience.

How you respond and react to your customers sets the tone for good damage control. No matter what the trends of marketing strategy for a business may be, one thing remains true that the customer is king. The customer might not always be right but you don’t have to let them know this. Your mission should always be to deliver the best, in any way possible, without causing any further problems for the people who help you run your business, a.k.a. the customers.

**4 Ways of NOT Carrying out a Customer-Driven Strategy**

1. Not following the market trends

Times have changed drastically since the advent of the internet. Marketing strategies have evolved over time and most of the ad campaigns rely heavily on online strategies to target customers. Online marketing tools are in fact, so important for any business that it is almost impossible to survive. Even mom and pop run businesses need some online marketing tools these days to attract more customers.

Using SEO based strategies to come up in the search results is just one of the many examples of how you can create a more customer-focused strategy. Cookies that follow online users and Adwords are also crucial to the online marketing mix.

See also:Customer Experience Strategy

2. Not including social media

These days, companies have at least one social media page even before they have a website. There is also a flipside to it; businesses that already have websites are now creating their own social media pages and strategies to target their customers.

Thus today, social media is like an extension of your business. A customer might not sit down specifically to send you an email or feedback for the product or service you are selling. But if you have a social media account that they follow and regularly use, there are higher chances of them coming to your page and leaving feedback. Your social media posts would be on their timeline or feed frequently and they will almost always respond or comment on it.

3. Not following up

Customer satisfaction and feedback are two sides of the same coin. Sometimes you have to nudge the customers a little to know what their opinion is and ask for their suggestions. A little bit of tweaking and change can go such a long way and in doing so, you will also gain their trust by showing that you genuinely care about their opinions.

Reach out to your customers by any means necessary after providing them with any service or product. You can have a questionnaire or online feedback form filled or send them an email. Having a rating and review feature like Amazon is a good example.

4. Not seeing things from the customers’ perspective

Many businesses just view their customer base as a bunch of numbers or a portion of the pie that they wish to devour. They should realize that at the end of the day, they are dealing with a large group of unique individuals that have to be catered to, according to their needs. Using the same cookie-cutter approach doesn’t do well all the time. Customers now know that when their rights are being stepped over. Even if the customer is wrong in a situation, businesses should never point it out in a way that would make them leave for good.

Connecting with the customers on a personal level and making them realize that they are dealing with people who care, is the best customer-centered approach any business can use.

What are the Components of Customers Data that Have to be Secured?

Posted on November 22, 2018June 23, 2021 by David Dinh

The level of security provided to the sensitive information of a business or an individual determines their privacy. With the digital age progressing fast with every passing second, the concerns on the privacy of data are mounting as well. Whenever and wherever the data is provided, collected, and stored, there is a high risk of its being misused, lost, or being accessed by unauthorized people when left unprotected.

Therefore, the Privacy Act 1988 was set in place to make the entities take essential steps for the protection of customer’s data and prevent it from being misused in any way. Moreover, this step ensured that the concerned authorities collecting the data would either destroy or at least de-identify the customer’s data once it is not needed anymore.

While the Privacy Act is subjected to a number of organizations, credit providers, agencies, and credit reporting bodies, the entities that do not come under this, should try to follow these rules as well. This will ensure improved security of the personal information of their customers.

Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) Guide

The Australian government has also released a guide that will help the organization secure private information in the best way possible. This guide is not legally binding. However, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) refers to it whenever it is undertaking any Privacy Act functions. Further information on the regulatory powers that are to be exercised can be found in the Privacy Regulatory Action Policy.

The data of customers are subjected to easy attack from the criminals of the cyber world in several ways. Thanks to the ambiguous nature that a connected world offers, the security concerns have increased tremendously. Mobile networks, BYOD, bringing your own devices in public areas, and IP addresses set to public setting provide environments that are unprotected and are not the best way to access sensitive data.

While the consumers are concerned that their data might be stolen, the government identities and businesses are always on the lookout for protection against malicious cyber attacks on a number of fronts, including even their own organizations.

Here are the Components of a Customer’s Data that needs Protection

This means that there is a great need to understand which type of customer’s data needs to be protected on a priority basis.

In order to make it easier for you to identify the data that should be protected, we have compiled a list of components of customers’ data that should be protected:

Biometric Information: This is used for identifying an individual on the basis of one of their distinguishing biological trait. Such traits include fingerprints, iris and retina patterns, signatures, and DNA. This information comes under the personal identification type and can create many issues if it reaches the wrong person.
License Number: Personally identifiable information is the licensee number since it is unique and can easily be traced to that individual.
Medical Information: Another important type of data that needs protection is an individual’s medical information. It can allow a criminal to commit identity theft.
Date of Birth: Perhaps no other information requires a higher level of protection than an individual’s date of birth as it is the most commonly asked question when checking anything for security purposes.
Employee ID: In the wrong hands, an employee ID can create a lot of problems for the person. If the data becomes insecure the thief can use the information for stealing other more important types of data.
Social Security Numbers such as Citizen Visa code: Stealing someone’s citizen visa code is the most common form of robbery. This allows the culprits to steal IDs and conduct illegal activities through it.
Patents: These allow a person to have legal ownership of their product.
Copyright: Anything that is copyrighted for an individual should be properly protected. Theft in this case means that you would be losing your intellectual property.
Industrial Designs: A company’s industrial design should also be well protected as well since they are responsible for giving them an economic advantage over other competitive businesses.
Trademark: What is more unfortunate than losing your original trademark? The logo of a company is their identification mark and losing it means losing a lot of clientele as well.
Data on new business Ideas
Passwords for forums where the customers market their businesses such as social media
Legal Documents numbers
Credit Cards: These should be protected for the safeguard of your hard earned money
ACH Numbers needs protection as well
Bank Account Information
Loan Information
Payroll Information: This can lead to financial losses
Non-salary Information (expenses, fringe benefits, pension, etc.)
Investment Information (Stock, 401K, Trade, etc.)
Any of the unique identification system that is created by the customer

The Secret Sauce for a Successful Digital Marketing Strategy

Posted on November 17, 2018June 23, 2021 by David Dinh

Whether you’re a billion dollar company with a million different customers to your name or a small firm still in its cradle catering to only a handful of people, you need a proper digital marketing strategy in place to lure customers and ensure that they stay on your website for longer than a few brief seconds.

Digital Marketing Strategy Ideas for 2019

1. Customer Segmentation

Businesses that fail to properly divide their customer base into proper segments fail in the long run. For instance, a toy will attract little kids while an electronic gadget will lure in older teenagers. If your company focuses only on marketing to the little ones, the teenagers and any adults will simply migrate over to your immediate competition. Your business suffers the loss of an important demographic simply because it failed to segment its customer base into identifiable groups each of which has unique requirements. One size doesn’t fit all. Learn to reach your most profitable customers first.

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See also: Customer Engagement

You will need proper advertisement campaigns focusing on both kinds of customers. It doesn’t really matter if your business does indeed sell to both of them. For instance, if you only advertise to little kids, you can’t expect teenagers to know of the brand new gaming console you’re selling by magically landing on your website. You can’t expect the kids’ parents to give your toys any importance either. You need to achieve a balance.

2. The Proper Use of Social Media

The entire world is using social media in one form or another. Whether it is the hulking social media giant that is Facebook or the front page of the internet, also known as Reddit, social media is a powerful tool, the effective use of which can propel your business to unprecedented levels of success.

With television and newspapers, you only have a limited reach. Advertising on them will expose your business to a few thousand prospective customers who won’t even bother to read your ad. But advertising on Facebook has the ability to reach more than a billion users. Devise a proper social media strategy now!

3. Nail down those KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

KPIs are hands down the most effective means for you to gain insights into your customer base. Every website has access to this analytic, but most managers don’t place much importance to them and conduct their business like a headless chicken – no strategy, directionless and all over the place. Effectively tapping into KPIs will help you measure your sales growth and the working capital in your firm.

Customers are able to generate tons of useful data, all of which has been derived straight from your business. You should learn to surround yourself with these beautiful numbers which can help your business change for the better. It is equally important to not let big numbers delude you into thinking that your business will necessarily succeed. Sometimes numbers serve to merely comfort us without really providing useful insight. Each business has its own set of useful KPIs, identifying the useful ones from the relatively useless ones requires time and patience on your end.

4. Create Useful Content

Creating relevant content for your business is the most effective way of promoting your business by increasing your online ranking and encouraging more conversions. In fact, 72% of marketers believe that content was their most effective SEO tactic! You need a select choice of wording for your ad campaigns. These words aren’t just selected based on your whims and desires, but by gaining insights into your customer base through the use of KPIs.

The internet, as we know it, thrives on content creation. Websites such as YouTube and Vimeo won’t really exist if the content on them was lackluster. There are professional content creators available to do the job for your business if you don’t have the time or skills to do the heavy lifting. The more often you publish good content, the higher would be your website’s ranking, which means the likelihood of people clicking on it increases. It’s a vicious (but good vicious) circle that drives up sales exponentially and doesn’t keep your business in the lurch for too long.

5. Build a Great Website

An attractive website is a difference between successful conversions and failed ones. A boring colour palette and cluttered designs that resemble the early era of the Internet will put off even the most adamant of customers from using your business. There are literally millions of beautiful, free website templates to choose from which means you really don’t have an excuse to support your business with a dull looking website. Statistically speaking, 38% of people leave your website altogether if they find it too dull!

The Importance of Click-through Rate (CTR)

Posted on November 10, 2018March 15, 2023 by David Dinh

Monitoring the success of your digital campaign rests on several key factors. One of these key factors is an important but often overlooked metric; click-through rate. The metric often tends to get overshadowed by other metrics such as cost-per-click and the number of purchases made by a customer. Cost-per-click is just one part of the whole picture and will shed little light on the success of your marketing campaign without taking into account other key metric indicators.

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The click-through rate (CTR) measures how frequently an ad or page was clicked compared to how often it was viewed. A high CTR directly affects your quality score and the amount you pay each time someone clicks on your advertisement. The average CTR on AdWords is somewhere around 2%, a higher number doesn’t necessarily mean you’re on the right track though. CTR is very industry specific, so while 2% may be high for a nutritionist business, it might be considered too low for a paid publication. Remember that it is easier for you to gain an increment on your CTR and conversion rates than to try increasing traffic to your website. You can’t just snap your fingers and bring new visitors out of thin air.

There are subtle changes you could make to your ad or content which can profoundly impact the CTR of your digital campaign such as:

Making sure that the background of the ad has a different contrast to the website’s overall look and theme. If the ad blends in with the rest of the page, it really wouldn’t capture the reader’s attention, will it?
Once the reader does happen to look at the ad or page, your next step would be to ensure that the headline is capable of maintaining that attention. Using catchphrases such as “Watch this video”, “Phenomenal success with weight loss” will eventually push the reader to click on the ad. Remember that you’re dealing with human psychology and are finding ways of piquing a person’s interest – the numbers only reflect how well you’ve been able to grab a person’s attention.
Sometimes it is not a good idea to make your ads stick out too much from the rest of the content on the website. The more your ad resembles the colour thematic of the website, the higher are the chances that users will click on it. It is even better if the ad and content actually helps to supplement the information already present on the website.

Why Click-through Rate (CTR) is Important

1. Directly affects your Quality Score

Think of the quality score as your credit score. A bad credit score hampers your chances of qualifying for a loan, similarly, a lackluster quality score will increase the price you pay for each click. On the flip side, a higher quality score means Google will be charging you less per ad click, while simultaneously placing your ad and content at a higher rank.

2. It will help you understand what kind of messages matter to your customers

Since CTR is directly affected by how frequently a user clicks on them, a higher percentage will indicate if your ads or content are properly able to communicate with the audience or not. CTR can effectively help you fine-tune messages so the next time someone sees it, they will spontaneously click on it.

3. Target the right kind of audience

Although a large portion of readers might be able to spot your ad on a particular website, only a small portion actually want to click on it. You might be wondering why? Your keywords are not accurately geared towards attracting customers from your particular niche. For instance, if your ad contains the word ‘nutrition’, it may be seen by readers looking for nutritional pills rather than nutritional tips. A giant portion of your digital budget might be going to waste by reaching the wrong kind of audience who might be accidentally clicking on your ads, inflating your CTR percentage slightly so, but never translates to a call to action.

4. Predict offline conversions

According to Google, only around 45% of people that search for products online go through with transactions, instead preferring to make their purchase offline by making a visit to the retailer. The CTR percentage can be used as an indication of a customer’s interest level for your product. So while their curiosity might not actually translate to a call of action such as filling a form or making a purchase, it might strongly correlate to offline purchases.

5. Higher CTR score equals lower cost per click
The way Adwords decides your ad’s price is by multiplying your quality score with the bid price. A high-quality score significantly reduces your cost per click. The quality score itself is a function of CTR; the rule of thumb is that a higher CTR results in a higher quality score.

4 Handy Tips for Busy CIO

Posted on November 5, 2018March 7, 2019 by David Dinh

Customer experience has evolved unconditionally and exponentially within the last decade, and it’s expected to continually evolve in the coming years to a point where we might not even recognize what it looks like today.

The Essence of Customer Experience Management

Customer experience or CX could clinically be described as the product of the basic interaction between one organization and its consumer over the course of time. However, customer experience and by that connection, customer experience management is so much more than that today.

It’s the personalization of a fast, economical and interactive communication between an organization and every single one of its consumers. It’s the simplicity and ease of navigation, the awareness and advocacy of brand, it’s the integration of the purchase experience with the provided support and most importantly, it is the cultivation of the business relationship to result in a loyal and long-standing consumer.

Here are some handy tips for the busy CIO

1. Use of Established Technologies and Metrics

Customer experience management reduces down to only half the battle when there are established technologies and analyzing metrics in play. For CIOs to ease the management experience, not only should they weigh in and establish the pros and the cons of a customer experience strategy in order to separate the positive possibilities from the negative, but they should also utilize a dedicated CEM platform, personalization technologies, and management tools from the get-go to facilitate the processes.

2. Bridging the Online/Offline Chasm

The technology driven CIO’s that are focused on running and managing the IT aspect of customer experience management strategy often fail to take into account the human aspect of customer experience. For successful management therein needs to be the creation of a seamless balance between the online and offline management.

While people are naturally inclined toward the digital involvement of customer service, CIOs should ensure that the digitized support is directing the online traffic into offline traffic by encouraging them to physically engage with the brand.

This brings us to the next point.

3. Create Collaborative Support

Collaborative support is exactly what it sounds like. No one tech executive can be expected to handle the onslaught of customer experience management concerns on their own without the input of external representative. Not only does this hold true for the collaboration necessary between the online and offline elements, but it’s also equally as important for other organizations aspects as well.

By bringing other technicians and experienced individuals on board or by delegating the menial tasks to one of the lower tier advisors, the higher-ups can focus on the more critical problems faced by the company – in every regard – customer experience management related or otherwise.

There’s also another added benefit to creating collaborative support – apart from maintaining the CIOs sanity – and that is saving money.

4. Communication Consistency

Often times, it’s the smallest of inconsistencies which can cause the biggest downfall of an organization. A majority of the time CIO’s overlook the importance of creating a seamless consistency between the consumer and its communicative approach to the parent organization. The connective modalities are unstructured or lack fluency creates a further divide between the two making the jobs of the employees considerably difficult – at every level.

CIOs should ensure that the consumer is able to easily access the required assistance across all channels by the provision of the option of quick movements between the smart customer service solutions. This includes being able to jump from phone calls, to text or chat messages, all the way to emails or social media interactions – along with automated technology and support that enables for efficient, effective responses and thus a fluent customer service experience.