Category — Good Mutual Business

People often used demographics when describing their customers: some will add a lifestage view (25 - 35 years with children), some may add a value (people who aspire to healthy living), and some may add a lifestyle (sportsmen). But few use all three to describe the context of their customers’ lives. Yet, it is in this context that ‘unique selling propositions’ are to be found. Additionally, as a 2007 report by McKinsey found, not understanding this context is creating a trust gap between consumers and organizations.

Pigeonholing consumers into lifestage as a start, is a pretty reasonable gauge for needs: Shakespeare’s ‘seven ages of man’ still elicits wry smiles, whatever our age. But today’s ‘lover sighing like furnace’ is more likely to check his mistresses views on climate change before texting his ballad. For each generation has life shaping values, and astute companies must monitor these to guide their value propositions.

As the world enters a new economic stage, how are trends in cultural values playing out with different generational lifestages?

How are the ‘freedom protesting’ baby boomers approaching their retirement, will they differ from today’s austerity pensioners? How are generation Y coping with their mobile lives, and are emerging teenagers ‘hoodies’ or ‘greens’?

To start with differentiate between lifestage, values and lifestyle – all of which drive customer behaviour.

1. Lifestage – is based on demographics (age, and family situation). Young families naturally have different needs to young singles, empty nesters from older families.
2. Values – are what people aspire to and spring from two sources, upbringing and culture. Generational values are laid down in formative years and shape our life view, even as cultural values shift. For instance, how does the 60s generation react to the green values of today’s culture, and does this differ to the 80s generation?
3. Lifestyle – the way people actually behave given their environment.

For the report Bridging the Trust Gap which looks at how values are affecting different lifestages resulting in various lifestyles, click here.

When travelling, ‘local’ breakfast television makes an educative ’screen saver’ for the morning routine. Pictures, and presentation style speak volumes, even if the language is incomprehensible: a black cloud ‘avec’ rain drop, means a soaking in any tongue.

So, on a recent trip to Ljubjana it was enlightening to watch Slovenian television showcase business leaders on its breakfast programme; it even appeared to give their salary, although I’m not entirely sure about that. The tenor of the pieces are obviously meant to inspire, giving career path, and an ‘ideal day’. Not quite ‘Hello Magazine’ style, but it could easily be given a gloss.

Apart from celebrity business people such as Richard Branson, Simon Woodroffe and Alan Sugar, when did I last see a ‘normal’ business hero outside the business pages of newspapers and journals in the UK? When did you?

Slovenia is a new country rising from the ashes of communist Yugoslavia; which itself was wrested out of the fatally tangled Habsburg Empire. Except for a short time under Napoleon, the Slovenes don’t seem to have had very much independence in the last 1000 years. Now, with around 2million people, the Euro, and EU development funding, they are seeking a purpose with competitive advantage and ‘feeling’.

Making business rather than ‘Pop Idol’ an aspiration for people seems a shrewd move. And there is evidence aplenty to show that distinctive business success based on a personal social responsibility is Slovenia’s zeitgeist. “Forward with nature” is their united mission covering everything from pre-fabricated motorway architecture, to ecological housing construction and a hospitality industry built around ‘wellness’ and ’slow-food’.

But I would say they still have one cultural disadvantage to overcome from their communist past - customer service. Real, honest, altruistic customer service woven into their shiny, new, green, designer businesses could well be a world beater for brand Slovenia.

Back in 1999 CRM equalled call centre: wall to wall stands at every CRM exhibition exuded the relationship benefits of the channel. But, in reality call centres have not equalled better relationships and dealing with modern ‘contact centres’ is high on the list of stressful experiences. Many customers would prefer efficient self service to talking to a run of the mill call centre agent.

At CallNorthWest’s directors debate on ‘Automation and Strategic Planning for the Future’ recently, Director Tim Kirby reminded the call centre industry that hearing your child was going to be a city trader would be wonderful news, whereas being told they were going to work in a call centre would be disheartening, to say the least. Yet in both roles they would spend all day wearing headphones to engage with people on the telephone in order to build up assets.

As companies return from India a little wiser, how to lift the image of the industry in the UK is taxing minds. On the expert panel with me at the event were Directors from Vertex, O2, arvato services, and Dimension Data. In the audience senior managers from SME’s, international companies and government pooled ideas - even a Government minister has promised an appearance at the next event!

Distilling all the thoughts the answer to this question is not easy and has several strands:-

• Beak the habit of micro management and spending excessive amounts of time reporting facts irrelevant to good service such as wrap up time and calls per agent; call answering is a poor proxy for customer service. Analytics are needed but should reflect customer outcome priorities, not transaction costs.
• Promote your strategic value. How does what you do meet company goals other than cost reduction? Where do you engage customers over the ‘customer journey’? For example, are you key to the renewal of service contracts. Do you detect customer attrition, or warm customers for cross-sales? If you don’t know your value how will others?
• Where is the future for customer contact in your organization? The call centre of today will not be around in 10 years time, and the changes will be driven by technology - real-time marketing, social software, virtualisation. Do you have a pilot team in place with IT and customer experts to experiment you way into the future of conversational marketing?

Paper on the past and future of call centres - Your call is important to us - prove it!

If you are in the IT market, software, hardware, or service provider, then word of mouth is hugely important to getting that invitation to go and talk to prospective clients. As well as using the internet to research options, companies also use their peers, and analysts as a source of recommendation. Good relationships with analyst companies such as Gartner, Forrester and Ovum are as valuable to IT organizations as sales to customers; they will help shape your strategic marketing, R&D and go to market plan. But too many companies see an analyst briefing in the same vein as a media interview - and make the mistake of using the same techniques.

When doing an analyst briefing here are some key points to remember:-

• Choose the key analysts in your field who influence the markets you want to reach. This is not necessarily the top analysts at the top firms. Grade them into gold and silver relationships - gold are close strategic relationships, silver are ‘good terms’ relationships.

• Understand the analyst’s field of interest and their research agenda. The more you can help them with their research, the deeper will be your engagement with them. When you talk about what your technology/service does, give case studies and stories about your implementations.

• Bear in mind that an analyst is looking for knowledge, a supportive network, and fame in their sphere of influence. If you can help them, they will help you. Your briefing is a dialogue, not a dump of your brochure and sales presentations. Send those out beforehand as background material.

• In a good analyst relationship there will always be some give and take by way of reciprocal information; and even in a fledgling relationship you will glean a lot about the market direction by listening carefully to the questions. Analysts will trial out market hypothesis on you. It is these ’stalking horses’ that shape markets. If your strategy is in line, it will be better for you.

• A journalist is looking for a ‘700 word story’ for the next deadline. An analyst is looking to write a report that will shape markets and have some longevity, plus have the information to offer clients best advice on who should be on their shortlist.

Analysts like to have good relationships with experts in companies; working together will move markets. To help companies develop their analyst briefing skills we have been asked by clients to develop a coaching service. We are now delighted to say we are now ‘open for business’.