fedex mobileBrands that truly listen are ahead of the curve when it comes to customer engagement, customer loyalty, and brand advocacy. FedEx prides itself on listening to its customers in this fashion.

Loyalty360 caught up with Becky Huling, Vice President of Customer Engagement Marketing at FedEx, to talk about how important listening is for a brand.

Brands are struggling with their ability to listen to their customers – creating that “actionable” insight that they know they should be “creating” yet many still struggle. How does your technology enable more effective listening?

At FedEx, we constantly listen to our customers using a variety of technologies in the online and offline space – and we continue to get better at listening and responding in real time. For example, when a customer visits our FedEx Small Business Center and searches for the term “international shipping,” we use personalization technology to customize their content experience by bringing together articles and videos that fit their specific needs. Are they considering the idea of serving customers outside the U.S.? Or are they ready for insights on simplifying international paperwork? Maybe are they somewhere in between? This helps us create relevant customer experiences on our website, but we want to push this same level of “listening to understand” to our other channels, as well. This is how brands can turn story telling into a “conversation.

Brands are struggling to create alignment with their audience. They are transitioning from a push-driven (CPM / CPA) focus to a “dialogue-based” approach with their customers. How do you think brands can do this most effectively?

FedEx is taking this dialogue-based approach with the FedEx Small Business Center, which is focused on helping small businesses with more than just shipping. We strive to have a “conversation” by recognizing a visitor’s specific interests based on what we observe and conclude, as well as what we know from a previous visit. With every click a visitor makes, we have an opportunity to respond in way that acknowledges “we heard you and here is the next piece of information that might interest you.” As we have more and more of these conversations, we can improve our ability to anticipate what a specific visitor might find valuable and be even more proactive in how we personalize the dialogue. 

Brands are looking for simplicity, yet with disparate technologies, confusing acronyms, and more data than ever before. What is your advice for brands?

FedEx has consistently been at the forefront of providing our customers with the technology tools for shipping and visibility tools for tracking that they need to meet the demands of their business on fedex.com. Our global email preference center technology also allows customers to select the type of content they want to receive from FedEx, whether it is information about our specific transportation services, sports sponsorships, or our corporate social responsibility initiatives. We use our technology platforms as an enabler to tailor the experiences for our customers and ultimately drive stronger loyalty with the FedEx brand.

How has social media being used differently today than a year ago, and how do you see it changing over the next two years?

Being active on social media channels allows brands to reach new audiences and engage on a deeper level with existing customers. Social media gives brands the ability to have two-way conversations about things that are essential to the brand and, more importantly, to discuss things that are important to their target customers. Social engagement gives brands a way to tell their story to new audiences and anticipate the conversations that are most relevant to those audiences.

Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat, however, now are moving away from being just tools for customer engagement and are becoming key tools for marketers use in facilitating commerce. Decision-makers from businesses of all sizes now turn to social media for information and smart brands are learning how to join those conversations at relevant moments. It is critical for marketers to understand the impact of social media and to leverage these channels to the advantage of the brand.

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