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Lucy Nixon

Lucy Nixon

Customer Journey Maps: Taking the Scenic Route

Most of us are very well connected these days.

I’m not talking about knowing the right people, but about technology—smartphones, tablets, and laptops give us a lot of mobility and potential to do research and shop from just about anywhere. That is why it is important for businesses to show a unified front when it comes to customer experience. Your site should look the same and have the same functionality no matter what device you’re using.

The path to purchase isn’t straight and narrow, it’s now a winding path— or maybe stepping stones are a better analogy, as we hop between devices—however, companies can use their own data to develop a customer journey map that leads customers back to purchase.

There are other things that you can do in order to help visitors to buy your products:

  • Making sure your site loads quickly on all devices is a big one. The attention span of today’s shopper is apparently shorter than that of a goldfish, which is 9 seconds. That’s not because consumers are stupid; quite the opposite—they know what they want and they know that they can find it faster somewhere else if your site isn’t loading quickly enough.
  • You can also make shopping more personalized using real-time data and marketing techniques. This allows for systematically responding to your customers while they are on your site depending on their behaviour, and can increase conversion rates by up to 26%.

The customer journey is not always a short and sweet process but using techniques like these you can help increase sales and conversions on your site.

I came across this infographic, which I thought you’d enjoy, from Signal.co. Read their post, too; it’s very interesting. I know I switch between devices all the time, depending on where I am; and I double-screen too…

And, of course, this doesn’t apply only to B2C customer journeys.

signal-cross-device-purchase-journey-outline

Customer Service, Scripts and the Other Lucys

problem

How many other people have the same name as you?

There are a lot of Lucy Nixons. As well as several in the UK, I know there’s an estate agent in America, as well as a Lucy who does equine Reiki treatment. In Australia there’s an illustrator and a cyclist… and there must be more.

Plenty of scope for confusion, especially since we obviously have similar email addresses. In recent weeks I have:

  • fended off multiple invitations to join TV shoots as a makeup artist (I get the shooting schedules, including which star is in which taxi and where they are going)
  • received the cyclist’s race results
  • apparently passed an interview and been signed up as a representative of a home sales beauty company
  • and I regularly get confirmation from a well-known pizza company of the food ordered by a Lucy who lives 230 miles away from me. She always has the same: she likes to create her own pizza (with lots of meat), and have it with doughnuts and cherry coke. I don’t eat meat, and prefer diet coke…

It must happen to some of you too, surely?

Mistakes happen to us all, and I don’t mind emailing the cyclist’s coach to explain that I’m several decades older than her athlete and on the wrong continent. I do understand that mistakes happen. And I do my best to sort it out – I don’t like to think that people are missing out on work, for instance, because the emails have gone to the wrong place.

But it seems that customer services from some big companies just can’t cope when someone who isn’t a customer phones up to try and rectify a mistake.

I’ve now phoned the beauty company multiple times, but their customer services teams don’t know what to do. Responses vary:

  • I’ll report it to the fraud team
  • I’ll deal with it immediately (weeks ago – no action taken)
  • I’ll put you through to my supervisor (followed by hanging up on me)
  • And the most honest of all: they tell me they can’t take any action because I’m not the account holder.

Although I know the account number and order numbers of one of the other Lucys, since I’ve received everything including her contract agreement, I’m going to fail security because my address, phone number and date of birth are never going to match hers, no matter how many times they ask. Because I’m not her, and that’s why I’m calling.

All I want them to do is to contact the Other Lucy and ask for her correct email address. They obviously have her home address and phone number, so it shouldn’t be hard…

So here’s the thing: can your processes handle a mistake of this type? Can your customer service team step away from the script and pro-actively resolve a problem? Because if not, you may find that they’re frustrating people who aren’t even their customers, and who are only trying to help.

And—the other Lucys? If you’re out there, please tell them what your real email address is.

*** update ***

Today I received an email from the beauty company to let The Other Lucy know that she owed them some money. So today’s call with their customer service went a lot better… I explained (yet again) that I wasn’t their representative and wasn’t going to pay this bill. I believe that they are now trying to contact her to ask her to change her email address.

Psychology of Logo Designs

We don’t often post infographics, but I did like this one that Chris Landry from Colourfast sent to me, so I thought I’d share it.

Chris says “There is a lot more to logo designs than meets the eye. The colour, font, and shape of a business logo have certain associations that influence how a customer perceives your business…the importance of choosing an appropriate logo for your business becomes all the more important.”

psychology-logo-designs

Tell Your Diversity Story

hsbc-people
“Well of course we’re serious about diversity,” the HR Director said, “You can see it on our website”.

And there it was in their People section – a single webpage with a few dry paragraphs and a library picture.

But HSBC have come up with a great way to tell their diversity story online. By including video profiles of HSBC employees with disabilities, they’ve provided content that engages and conveys key messages about HSBC workplace culture.

Communication, Jargon and Recruiting

Today’s post comes from Chris Lee, and talks about choosing when to use different kinds of language when recruiting: using the right tool for the job. I thought it aligned neatly with our earlier posts about plain English, and with our posts about recruitment. Over to you, Chris…

woodworking-tools

Effective communication during the recruitment process

Normally, when a business tries to communicate what it does to the wider population it tries to avoid using esoteric terminology. However, it becomes necessary to use industry-specific terms when advertising job roles and recruiting new staff.

The reason is simple: customers may find jargon confusing, but professionals working within an industry should not, especially if they are applying for positions that are more senior.

It is important to gauge whether applicants have the correct level of knowledge to do the job: not only to save time, but to allow the maximum about of candidates to be shortlisted. Businesses should not shy away from using the relevant terms required by the new employee, but pitching the language at the correct level is an important consideration.

As an example, in the cloud computing industry, acronyms and jargon such as SaaS, IaaS and Hypervisor are regularly used to refer to some of the foundations of a cloud-based system. Engineers and other members of staff will use these acronyms to communicate with each other on a daily basis, so when hiring a new engineer it is imperative that they have a working knowledge of these terms.

Jargon in the recruitment process

While it may seem beneficial to leave jargon out of job postings, the discrepancy between application and interview may catch the applicants off guard, wasting time on both sides. Instead, using the necessary language from the beginning of the recruitment process will help a business create a better, more informed shortlist of candidates.

Gauging a candidate’s suitability in an interview is key however, as many terms can be researched by an applicant before initially applying for a job: using jargon in an interview setting allows a business to confirm their understanding of required concepts on the spot.

It is important not to dismiss an applicant entirely for their lack of jargon knowledge: some companies use different terms, and many applicants can be trained in the terms they do not yet understand – especially in junior positions.

When to use simple language

If a business decides to use jargon in the recruitment process it is worth knowing when to explain things using simple, easy to understand language. The following rules explain when a business should and shouldn’t use jargon:

  • Only use jargon to refer to key skills and processes, e.g. applicant must have a working knowledge of Iaas and SaaS
  • When describing what the job involves, always use clear simple language
  • When explaining what a business does, always use clear simple language
  • Provide entry level applicants and juniors with glossaries or other explanatory resources before interviews

Producing a jargon buster can be even more beneficial for a business if it is also hosted on the company’s website, having two main advantages:

  • It shows that the applicant has done their research
  • It provides a source of information to clients and customers who may wish to learn a little more about the services a business provides

Referring back to the cloud-computing example used previously, the Six Degrees Group (6DG) have implemented a jargon buster to give clients and customers alike the opportunity to understand any terms that may be unfamiliar – this is a great example of how to clearly explain difficult to understand terms.

Conclusion

There is a time and a place for jargon! Used well, it is a shortcut for explaining complex concepts to people who share an understanding, used poorly it can be off-putting and daunting. Just ensure you get the balance right.

Chris writes on behalf of the Six Degrees Group, a group who enjoy their contradictions. They are a fresh new brand but have got a 15 year heritage. They’re a mid-market player but have the portfolio of a corporate. For more information, head to www.6dg.co.uk

Enterprise Mobility And Innovation Governance

mobile-worker
Every company is digital and every employee is a mobile worker.

Driving this trend is enterprise mobility one of the most disrupting changes facing business. While many interpretations exist, enterprise mobility refers not only to mobile workers and mobile devices, but also to the transfer of corporate data via messaging, conferencing, files and storage. Workers now are able to transact business with anyone, anytime, anywhere, anyplace with any device.

Enterprise mobility promotes sharing of knowledge across the company. The result–improved customer relations, faster decisions and enhanced innovation.

“Mobile collaboration means working together wherever you are. It doesn’t matter where your location is,” says Ted Schadler, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. “You’re able to get the communication and the resources you need to work together.”

Among the trends driving mobile collaboration is the fact that consumers are, by nature, social and collaborative. As they become accustomed to using those technologies in their personal lives, they want to use the business equivalents on their mobile devices.

“Increasingly, people are wanting to use their mobile devices—smartphones, touch phones, tablets—to do all the same things they can do on their computers” says Schadler”

Crystal Bedell, ebizQ

Business news is hyping enterprise mobility:

In this case, the hype appears justified. Markets and Markets expects the telecom IT services market to grow by 70 billion US$ by 2019.

Enterprise mobility drivers  include:

  • information is central to every organization’s workflow
  • the proliferation of mobile devices and apps due to rapid advances in mobile technology
  • employees increasingly use   “bring your own devices” (BYOD) and apps to use at work
  • companies need to manage how employees are using their devices and apps in the workplace
  • 865 million to 1.3 billion information workers are forecasted by 2016 according to Forester Research and IDC

Another significant driver are the returns from implementing Enterprise mobility. According to a a study by Enterprise Mobility Exchange the results are compelling:

  • 33.9% – competitive advantages
  • 33.9% – efficiencies on task in the enterprise
  • 30.4% – efficiencies on task for field services
  • 28.6% – customer loyalty and retention
  • 23.2% – improved sales performance
  • 14.3% – cost reductions across lines of business
  • 14.3% – cost reductions across with overheads
  • 14.3% – accurate, faster and higher quality field data capture

While enterprise mobility offers significant returns and advantages there are risks and this is the nexus with innovation governance. In an earlier post, I reviewed overall Innovation Governance Risks.

The list also applies to enterprise mobility and appended are more specific risks:

  • workers use third party apps that may contain malware
  • lack of effective passcode/pin compliance
  • lost devices
  • toll fraud
  • legacy devices used
  • use of unsecured wifi networks

Managing risks is an essential issue for C-Levels and is the primary cause of  delay in enterprise mobility adoption. A closer look at the innovation governance issues linked to enterprise mobility will be the subject of forthcoming posts.

Read more on this topic.