Customer Journey Planning...Nurture Your Customer's Experience

Are you familiar with the concept of Customer Journey Planning?

Think of the customer journey as a roadmap detailing how a customer becomes aware of and their interactions with your brand.  It's the sum of all the experiences your customers encounter when experiencing your company.

What are you doing to Nurture Your Customer's Journey?

In other words, this roadmap has a lot of ground to cover! And, unpacking the customer journey will help you nurture (and, ultimately, maximize) the customer experience.

Here's a sample: imagine you're a retail coffee shop:

     -- Your potential customer is driving from home to work and sees your store (that's the first opportunity to understand the customer experience: signage: is it visible, prominent, enticing?). Or, was there already a missed opportunity via website, FaceBook, Twitter?
     -- The customer walks in (opportunity: can they easily locate the door, is it easy to walk in and see what is available?)
     -- Your employee greets the customer (opportunity: does this greeting actually happen and is it friendly, knowledgeable and helpful?)
     -- Then, the product is ordered and delivered (opportunity: how readable is that menu? is it easy to place an order? what is the packaging? appealing? maintains temperature?) and paid for (opportunity: how is the payment processed? easily? latest technology?).
     -- The customer leaves with your coffee (opportunity: did your server offer food? are there POS items? anything else enhancing the exit process?).
     -- Any followup to this purchase? (opportunity: a receipt with survey info? customer loyalty program? any motivators to generate return visits?)

That's just one scenario -- and, if you're not maximizing the opportunity to understand your customer's mindset, you might be selling both your product and brand short.

Of course, every customer's journey will be slightly different; you'll want to note actions, motivators, questions and obstacles.  Take another look at the Whole Foods Customer Comment Board at the start of this blog: how does this enhance a customer's journey?

2015 Marketing Trends - technology, agility, narrowcasting

Everyone has their Top 10 List -- and marketing is no different.  While it is probably true that the fundamentals of marketing are always going to be with us, it's important to keep an eye on what is currently activating the fundamentals for businesses or consumers.

Narrowcasting: the marketing tsunami trend

Here are a couple of ideas to mull over as to their impact and how your organization is responding to their emergence:

(1) Marketing technologists will emerge as digital marketing becomes more of a force. Forbes says we'll see new faces and skills enter with "heavy digital DNA and technology acumen and they'll be integrated seamlessly into our  marketing groups."

(2) Agility marketing will become more prominent with the rise of the short-term focus seen in social media.  Forbes notes, "the best marketers will have ever more consumer data, capable of faster adaptation, shorter lead times, and always-on, real-time marketing." What do you think of this focus on the next hour as compared to traditional month or quarter; can your organization support this demand?

(3) The marketing pendulum is moving ever faster from globalization to personalization.  Remember the old adage: All politics is local?  We're seeing the same thing in terms of marketing communication as consumers resist the traditional "broadcast" approach to marketing.  Call it narrowcasting or personalization but... it isn't a trend; Forbes says we're in the midst of a marketing tsunami in terms of both marketing entities and communications.

What trends are you seeing? CPS is moving further ever further into the mobile and interactive world for both business and consumer-facing applications.  An example: our SalesTouch interactive touchscreen product is designed around the concept of narrowcasting -- providing information in discrete pieces based upon consumer requests.  It's omnichannel, too -- available large-screen in sales/leasing offices, on tablets via download and over the web, as well.

Waiting in line: keep it fair!

All of us have spent time waiting in line -- whether at the DMV or department stores or...you name it, we've waited in that line!

Waiting in line: using automation to enhance fairness

Generally, people waiting in line aren't happy about the wait -- many think it is a waste of time, boring, tiring and generally unpleasant. Thus, any organization facing lines wants to enhance their operation.

There's an entire field of study about lines: queuing theory.  It started in Denmark about 100 years ago.

Queuing theory, says Seth Stevenson in a recent Slate article, has transitioned from a mathematical process to more of a psychological analysis. More about feelings than formulas, in other words.

The element of fairness is key to the latest queuing studies and systems.  Queue rage (yes; that is a concept!) develops when waiting in line and somehow someone else is served ahead of their perceived time. No one wants that, to be sure!

There are multiple ways of handling the queue fairness issue and CPS' QuikLine manages one of the most prominent solutions: the serpentine (or single, wrap-around) line.

There are other line psychology issues; we'll be discussing them in future blogs. Meanwhile, take a look at QuikLine with a serpentine line servicing about 20 cash register lines: Whole Foods Foggy Bottom Washington DC. Here's QuikLine video highlighting multiple lines serving about 40 cash registers: Whole Foods Union Square New York.

What type of queue makes waiting fair in your mind?

Content Marketing: Telling Stories, Building Relationships

How are you doing as far as all the terminology revolving around today's concept of Content Marketing?

Grab your audience; encourage participation in your brand!

Saw a nice blog on Contently: 10 Content Marketing Buzzwords You're Going to Hear Way Too Much This Year. 

No, we're not going to review all of them! If you're interested, you can read the entire blog here! It's still January so great idea to get a jump on the year!

We particularly liked and wanted to encourage use of Storytelling (as in: your brand encouraging storytelling) and Storyscaping (a new one for us but defined as "Stop creating ads, start creating worlds").

Take a look at some of CPS' other blog posts (including our most recent: Social Media Engagement: try it in your sales offices!). Storytelling and Storyscaping are key components of our SalesTouch and Social Media Wall products.  Take content (words, video, images) and engage your audience by actively soliciting touch and social media participation. Watch your audience and sales grow!

Planning on attending NAHB's Builders Show in Vegas?  We'll be telling stories all week; look for us in Booth 2860!

Social Media Engagement -- try it in your sales office!

A recent Kyle Wong article in Forbes makes a strong statement regarding the value of social media:

 Tradigital: adding digital engagement to traditional marketing

There is a near consensus that social media marketing is valuable because it allows companies to directly engage with their customers, build brand presence and ultimately sell more products.

Social Media is big and, according to a recent McKinsey & Co. report, is growing faster than any other technology before.  Just to put that thought into perspective, broadcast radio took almost 40 years to reach a 50-million listener audience; TV took more than 10 years.  Both Twitter and Facebook made it in less than 1 year.

Yes, but...is social media corporate-friendly? McKinsey suggests social media has become a commercial force to be reckoned with. Social media drives consumer empowerment though increased levels of corporate accessibility -- which becomes brand engagement which turns into purchasing.  Did you realize 66% of consumers say they trust online opinions/comments/likes -- second in trustworthiness to recommendations from people they know in real life!

We'll be blogging about Social Media throughout 2015.  For now, we wanted to showcase CPS' Social Media Wall -- a unique combination of traditional marketing media (photographs, video) and social media to create an ever changing display highlighting a new home neighborhood, its homeowners and prospective buyers.  Definitely tradigital!

How does a Social Media Wall function?  A set of images (lifestyle, homes, community amenities, schools, etc.) is established.  Twitter and Instagram hastags are established and whenever there's a related Tweet or post, it appears on the Social Media Wall interspersed with the "static" images.  The Wall goes beyond traditional marketing as it actively engages both current and potential customers!

How can the Wall be put to use in a sales office? Think of a neighborhood-wide July4th party and #July4MyCommunity. Every picture posted or tweeted will have the opportunity to be displayed as party of the sales office Social Media Wall.  It's curated, of course; an administrative website provides a mechanism to review every item before it appears on the wall. Your audience is generating marketing materials for you!

Social media, according to McKinsey, affects the entire value chain -- from product development through marketing, sales and service.  Contact us for Social Media Wall details and get your sales/leasing office and information center engaged!

Closing Starts a New Relationship: Keeping in Positive Touch

The all important Close of Escrow date means many different things for those involved: home possession, funds transferred, commissions, sales report updates...the list goes on detailing closing-related events.

COE is the beginning of a new buyer/builder relationship!

Yet, COE is just the beginning of a new relationship between the buyer and seller.  Many builders establish a  CRM process for homeowners (as differentiated from homebuyers) based on COE. Typically, this includes a welcome-to-your-new home gift, a "how did we do" buyer satisfaction survey and the ever-critical start of the referral process.

A critical component of the post-closing relationship is the home warranty process.  Part of the home builder's CRM system can include a post-closing Warranty Introduction email as well as notifications for critical time periods (such as 90-day and 11-month reminders).  Keeping in "positive touch" with homebuyers is a key part of a good CRM process -- and makes the warranty process understandable for the homebuyer.

There's no doubt homeowners will report post-closing construction issues -- large and small.  Jennifer Goodman, in a recent BuilderOnline article, Top Five Most Troublesome Callbacks, notes reducing call backs can save money and boost a builder's reputation. Managing those post-closing repairs, then, should be an important part of every home builder's construction management process.

Warranty software not only records homeowner issues and generates work orders to subcontractors, it contains the information to allow home builders to find out their own Top Five -- and more.  Do you know your most frequently reported problems?  Do you know what caused the problem?  Defective materials, poor construction, Act of God, wrong product?  There are many possibilities behind the homeowner reported "Bad front door lock!" -- and being able to drill down to the details is critical to improving your processes.  Which subcontractor has the most problems, is the quickest to repair?

Effective software, data mining, CRM, warranty management -- CPS can help you keep it positive! Give us a call or take a look at www.cpsusa.com.

ps: The Top 5? According to Goodman: leaky decks, crumbling stucco, water-logged windows, rotting roofs, peeling paint on doors.

Is anyone reading those flyers?

Very interesting article by Jen Kline in a recent DigitalSignageToday (you can read Nobody's reading those flyers here) suggesting it how difficult it is to grab a passing "eye" in today's fast-paced retail and commercial environments with traditional comment/contact boards.

Whole Foods goes beyond flyers to digital Comment Board

In other words, if you're relying on posted flyers in your store or business hallway, you're probably missing almost everyone that could (or should) be interested.  The same, it is argued, applies to occasional emails (the once-a-month sale or every other month employee highlight newsletter).

A digital platform, Kline suggests, allows for constant -- and consistent-- distribution of useful information to your shoppers ad employees.  And, of course, once the platform is established, updates should be straightforward.

Kline argues that a digital process is more exciting and advanced than traditional flyers and emails.  It demands (or at least encourages) attention -- meaning your message has a better chance of being received. And, you're able to add contemporary and eye-catching content, too.

A well-designed board not only displays information, it communicates your business objectives, enhances branding and encourages customer engagement.

Take a look at the latest Whole Foods Market Customer Comment Board; compare it to ones you've seen covered with flyers, cards, post-its and ask yourself: which would help communicate your message, your brand, your objectives better?