Loyalty360 will host a webinar titled, “Improving Customer Experience and Loyalty through Real-Time Marketing,” which will be hosted by SAS on Sept. 16, 2014, at 1 p.m. EDT.
John Lodmell, Director of Credit and Data Analytics, Advance America will be the featured webinar speaker. Lodmell participated in a compelling Q&A with Loyalty360 to offer a sneak preview of the webinar.
Why should marketers use real-time marketing tactics?
Everything is moving quicker these days, and consumers expect your offers to be timely and appropriate. As a consumer’s situation changes, the most successful marketers will be the ones that can provide a meaningful offer that addresses a customer’s current need. The best way to make that offer is to understand the customer’s current situation and respond with the best offer in real-time. Waiting days or weeks before being able to make that offer you will likely miss your chance. The customer will already have met their need in another way or their situation could have changed again. The best time to make the offer is when you are directly engaged with them.
What are the key points behind being able to use real-time technology to its fullest potential regarding customer experience and engagement?
People are very concerned about their privacy but they also appreciate a good offer. In order to really make a real-time decision strategy work, you need to get the right amount of data to be able to assess their need and make a suggestion, without invading their personal space too much. Using internal data (data that the customer already expects you to know) and by asking good questions you can get really good information that can be leveraged into making a real time analytically based offer. External (purchased data) can be very useful, but has to be used carefully. Showing a customer that you know “too much” about them (buying preferences, social media things, etc.) could actually do more harm in that you start looking like Big Brother.
What are the challenges to real-time marketing?
I think offering levels of consistency with the offers and the way in which the offer is delivered to the customer are key. From a consistency perspective, you want the customer to have a consistent brand experience. If their experience is too varied across the board, then they start to question the unity of the brand. From a delivery mechanism, in order to provide the consistency, you need a centralized system even if you operate a decentralized business. Maybe you can effectively push the experience out to customer service reps through training and policies, but it is much better from a consistency perspective (and also from a learning perspective) to have a centralized strategy that is driving the offers is better. The challenge is in being able to gather the data directly with the customer and have it respond back with offers in real-time.
What steps must companies take to successfully embed real-time communications in their business strategies and respective cultures?
One of the biggest hurdles for an organization is making the cultural shift in trusting that a model or business rules engine can do an effective job versus a human being ultimately using personal judgment. People (especially the ones who are used to making the decision or the offer) will resist this initially. If you can get a few quick wins to build some momentum, things will pick up and support will grow. The next big challenge is in imbedding the real-time offers into the customer interaction process. For example, if I am running a customer service call center or a retail store, I want the real-time offer to be part of the normal interaction with that customer, not something additional or awkward.