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Not the Same Old Touch-point Management
Online Touch-point Management is a Whole New Ball Game
Mr. Jim Sterne,
Founding President, Web Analytics Association,
G-CEM International Partner (US)
www.targeting.com
This article is exclusively written for G-CEM.
We know that one bad experience can ruin your whole outlook on an experience. The hostess may have been gracious, the interior divine, the meal spectacular and it all would have been perfect had you not had to wait thirty minutes for the check to arrive and another fifteen for the server to bring back your credit card. An almost perfect experience that you no longer wish to repeat or recommend.
There are so many single actions that can spoil the whole feeling, regardless of the type of goods or services you are buying. The restrooms were dirty. The product was poorly packaged. The call center rep was poorly trained. The store clerk was absorbed with texting when you had a quick question for a speedy purchase.
Online, these events look similar, but with a twist. The navigation was confusing. The Buy Now button was too hard to find. The ability to make corrections to your order was botched. There was no phone number on the page you were on. The Customer Service button opened a new window over the old one and "broke" the back button. So many things can go wrong and spoil an otherwise excellent experience -- and therefore, relationship.
The feeling of being let down by the organization is visceral. "Why didn't they provide covered parking? Don't they know it rains?" is just as bad as "It said they had it in stock but the day before my mother's birthday, I get an email apologizing for the inconvenience. Now what do I tell Mom??"
Touch-points Are Brand-points
My definition of a touch-point is broader than most. Rather than limiting touch-points to those places where customers interact with employees (sales rep, customer service rep, accounting, telephone receptionist, etc.), I think of touch-points as every time a customer is exposed to any message about the company, the product or the service, no matter the source.
Offline, that would include seeing a sign on the side of a bus, overhearing a conversation at a restaurant, seeing a product name scrawled on a public restroom wall or the hearing a signature jingle as a ring tone. These all have an impact on prospects' and customers' attitude about a company.
Online Touch-points include an organization's banner ads, blog mentions, their own blog, their website, their emails and newsletters, their webinars, their appearance on Google searches, etc. As with offline, most of these are intentional. They want you to look at and really see their banner ad or their tweets. They want you to remark about their funny direct mail piece just as they want you to blog about their (hopefully) viral video on YouTube. And this is where online touch-points diverge from offline.
Online Touch-point Management is a Whole New Ball Game
Welcome to the world of Social Media. Suddenly all of a company's efforts to manage their touch-points fly out the window. Yes, they can plan their website for ages and optimize their landing pages with Six Sigma precision, but when it comes to the word-of-mouth part of the equation -- that occasional overheard conversation or the casual comment over the back yard fence -- the Internet has taken all sense of management off the table. Any opinion, regardless of origin, can now spread like wildfire.
Is it really a touch-point when some disgruntled customer who missed lunch goes bonkers and ravages a company's products in public? Oh yes. The credibility of one berserker is much higher than twelve company spokespersons. That displeased customer's tweet is definitely a touch-point that can shape public opinion. Every brand manager must be on the front line to participate in that conversation and not assume he can manage it.
Nestle leaned that the hard way in March of 2010 when the opened up a Facebook Fan Page with their brand management hat firmly in place. The individual responsible treated it as any other Media, devoid of any Social grace. Nestle publically battled their "fans" with copyright warnings and an offhand attitude about being in control and calling the shots. They lost. There are now thousands of people who think that Nestle uses palm oil harvested by a contractor that kills gorillas as a cost of doing business. Those Facebookers had no desire to get the facts. The facts were immaterial. The mob said Nestle was bad and made it fun to agree. The mob took over Nestle's Fan Page and turned it into a corporate embarrassment.
Managing Online Touch-points
In 1993 through 1996, clients repeatedly told me that they didn't want their customers emailing them because then they would have to hire people to answer email. I told them they would not have the choice, customers were emailing them already, they just didn't know it. Today, they tell me they do not want to have a Twitter account because then they'd have to hire people to monitor tweets. My response is the same. It's not a question of whether it will happen, it is only a matter of time. And every day that goes by, there is another touch-point that their company is ignoring, much to the dismay of their customers.
To manage online touch-points means mapping out all the places people might talk, chat, post, blog, and upload pictures and videos about your products and services. That map should be cross referenced to the general sequence of touch-points people use as suspects become prospects, prospects become customers and customers become advocates -- or not.
Individual product marketing managers can be on the alert for product and company mentions, customer care can keep an ear open for product fail comments and the PR agencies of the world can be on high alert to all of the above on behalf of their clients.
The first difficulty of managing online touch-points is that each of the above individuals assumes some other individual has been assigned with the task. "It's not my job" is not just an indication of a bad attitude on behalf of the employee, but insufficient direction from management. Everybody should be aware of all touch-points and who should be notified if one trips over a satirical video on YouTube or a Photoshopped image on Flickr.
A minimal level of coordination between customer facing employees is critical to making the customer feel that the company is working with them instead of against them
Online Touch-points from the Customer Perspective
Social etiquette is learned over decades; the value of a discrete omission; the kindness of the white lie; the ability to act differently than one feels in order to grease the friction of social interaction. Social etiquette is built upon the premise of seeing things through the eyes of others.
In business, it is critical to remember that the customer does not recognize organizational silos. When an individual has a question they might go to the company's website. They might call the call center. They might discover via GPS that they are half a block from a branch office and walk in. They do not think about tapping into different branches of corporate functionality, they only think in terms of convenience. Every method of communication reaches the same company. That's why they are so incensed one the phone when they are asked to punch in their membership number, transferred to a service rep who then asks them for their membership number. "I just gave you my number! Don't you have caller I.D.?!?"
Customer Data Integration for Touch-point Enhancement
It is now more important that all touch-point data be shared and coordinated between touch-point personnel. Data integration between social media monitoring tools, web analytics, customer relationship management systems, sales force automation systems, call center reporting, front office employees, store clerks, email response management systems, etc., all need to be aligned. That way, the fullest picture of an individual customer's situation is in front of the contact person.
It's often recommended to call your own switchboard, email your own info@ address and walk into a store or a branch office and experience for yourself what sort of a reception you get. Now it's time to add social media to that list. What sort of response do you get after you tweet your frustration with your own products or services? When you then call into your own call center, are they aware of your recent Twitter conversation? Or do they ask you for your membership number all over again?
National Semiconductor views customer relationship management seriously and very personally. Phil Gibson, vice president of Web business and sales automation at National Semiconductor realized they could add an important piece of information to their sales force automation systems. Sales reps could see more than last call, last sale, last customer support interaction and most recent presentation. They could see into the hearts and minds of their clients by reviewing the last couple of times that customer came to the website.
Which new products did he look at? Which white papers did she read? Are they exploring a device, a sensor or a chip they've never shown interest in before? Might they be planning a new product line that they'll need help with?
Based on behavioral information collected online, the sales rep in the field can turn on his heel as he's leaving an on-site customer visit and, Lieutenant Columbo-like, ask "Oh, and just one more thing..." and ask about that white paper. Within moments, the rep is out in the car on a wireless laptop to update that customer's private Intranet home page; adding links deep into the website where the most tantalizing product descriptions can be found.
Managing online touch-points requires a willingness to constantly participate in new means of communication. It requires a willingness to invest in new technologies. It requires a willingness to integrate data from many sources. It also requires a respect for all forms of communication. An email is as important as a phone call which is as important as a comment on a Facebook Fan page, a customer satisfaction survey, a tweet and a personal conversation over the counter.
But all of the above is useless unless there is a company-wide willingness to see the company from the customers' perspective, treat them with respect and use all the information you have about to anticipate their needs.
Waiting twenty-four hours for an email response or a reaction to a tweet is just as bad as a thirty minute wait for the check a the end of a terrific meal. It can spoil the whole experience.
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About the Author
Jim Sterne has spent more than 20 years selling and marketing technical products and produced the world's first "Marketing on the Internet" seminar series in 1994 and has since devoted all of his attention to the Internet as a marketing medium.Today, Sterne is an internationally known speaker on electronic marketing and customer interaction and a consultant to Fortune 500 companies and Internet entrepreneurs. Sterne focuses his twenty years in sales and marketing on measuring the value of a Web site as a medium for creating and strengthening customer relationships. Sterne has written six books including:
World Wide Web Marketing, 3rd Edition
Customer Service on the Internet, 2nd Edition
What Makes People Click: Advertising on the Internet
E-Mail Marketing
Web Metrics: Proven Methods for Measuring Web Site Success and Advanced Email Marketing
Sterne is the producer of the annual Emetrics Summit and is the Founding President of the Web Analytics Association.
Sterne has presented his unique perspective on Internet marketing at conferences around the world, and has lectured at Stanford, Oxford and MIT. He stays active as a public speaker and as a consultant, helping each client set Internet marketing goals and determine customer relationship strategies. With a special focus on web analytics, Sterne is dedicated to helping companies understand the possibilities and manage the realities of conducting business online.
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