PowerPoint Presentation

Using Online Communities to Optimize the Customer Experience The innovative and collaborative ways organization can leverage online communities to inform and enhance the customer experience.

PRESENTED BY

Whitney Miller, Ph.D.Director, Insights at PassengerWhitney is a corporate anthropologist & digital strategist and applies her craft to help organizations obtain the community engagement necessary for generating actionable insights, accelerating innovation and inspiring advocacy from customers and employees.

Since receiving her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Harvard, Miller has worked in the communications and insights space in various capacities Communications Consultant at Hall & Partners, Senior Manager of Insights at Viacom, and most recently as a Brand Futurist and Senior Director of Consumer Insights at an agency focused on luxury brands including automotive clients Ford and Lincoln Mercury.

At Passenger, Whitney is responsible for working with all teams to provide strategic insights to help address clients business objectives. Michael Lowenstein, Ph.D., CMC Thought Leadership Principal for Beyond PhilosophyMichael is Thought Leadership Principal for Beyond Philosophy, an international customer-centricity and customer experience training, planning and research consultancy, a member of the Advisory Council of Villanova Universitys Center for Business Analytics, and Adjunct Marketing Instructor at Rutgers University School of Business Executive Education Program.

He specializes in customer life cycle management, strategic/profitable customer relationships, customer behavior research, customer-centric enterprise design, and employee performance research, consulting, and training.

He is the author of six customer-centric strategy books and over 200 white papers and articles.

USING ONLINE COMMUNITIES TO OPTIMIZE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

why are we talking about the customer experience?

what drives positive and negative customer experiences?

what impact does the customer experience have on brands?

how does it impact brands?

how to create a more human experience?

THERE IS A NEW NORMAL

Customers are more empowered than ever before and they expect you to ask for their opinion then, they expect you to listen and respond

To adapt to these market changes, brands must adopt a collaborative approach where customers are integrated into every business unit from marketing to sales to innovation

Online communities can help facilitate this new relationship between you and your customers

WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THIS?

of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated.(McKinsey)

or sooner, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.(Customers 2020 Report)

of companies expect to increase their focus on customer experience measurements and metrics.(Temkin Group)

reduction in your customer defection rate can increase your profitability by 25 to 125%. (Leading on the Edge of Chaos, Emmet Murphy and Mark Murphy)

5%70%202084%How Beyond Philosophy defines customer experience:

A customer experience is an interaction between an organization and a customer as perceived through a customers conscious and subconscious mind. It is a blend of an organizations rational performance, the senses stimulated and emotions evoked, and it is intuitively measured against customer expectations across all moments of contact.

ROLE OF ONLINE COMMUNITYOnline communities allow companies to connect customers with employees and each other, provide customers with valuable content, insight and advice, and provide platforms for them to express their opinions and be heard

Use qualitative tools such as live chats, surveys, login polls to ask your customers questions to find attributes that are associated with satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

These hubs help companies improve the customer experience, increase sales, augment customer loyalty and generate increased company awareness

HOW?

WHAT DRIVES POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE?

WHAT CAN ONLINE COMMUNITITES TELL US ABOUT WHAT DRIVES POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE?

Conversations between community members offer insights into what they feel is positive and negative about their individual experiences.

and how this experience can influence what they will say, do, think, feel about a brand.

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DRIVERS

Keeping PromisesTrend-SettingOverallPerceived ValueSpeed of ProblemResolutionClarity ofCommun-ication PositiveReputationProducts/Services ThatMeet NeedsCustomer Care SimplicityInnovativeProductsProduct/ServiceQualityProductReliabilityTreatment as a ValuedCustomerHonestyMultiChannelAuthenticity& TransparencyTime-linessBillingAccuracyKnowledgeOf StaffServiceProaction

WHAT IMPACT DOES IT HAVE?

A DOMINO EFFECT

1 person will share a negative experience with between 10 and 20 people*

* White House Office of Consumer Affairs The consumer shares their experiences to their networks, both online and offline, which shapes future customer behavior. Corporate and brand image is as important as product and service performance.

Communities offer the opportunity to understand and leverage what elements of the customer experience most contribute to brand image and reputation.

All contribute to trust building, which is central to customer behavior.ON CORPORATE AND BRAND IMAGE

What can an organization learn from an online community which would help it build, sustain, or reconstitute trust and a positive brand image? WM to ask 14

HOW?ONLINE COMMUNITIES CANBuild customer brand familiarity

Enhance brand within the consideration set

Understand customer experience and value delivery relative to promises and expectations

Assess brand credibility, image, and reputation, expressed from an emotional/trust perspective

Gauge customer likelihood to understand the brand message, and share it in a positive manner

1.2.

3.4.5.TO

Give your customers a personal investment in your brand and its success

Become more transparent and open

Connect with customers through branded emotional experiences

Sustain value delivery in being seen as a conscious capitalist 1.2.3.4.

CONNECT WITH CUSTOMERSThe most valuable customers appreciate and want more personalization, a relationship, and an emotional connection.

identify the strongest emotional drivers and

b) effectively leverage them

ITS UP TO ORGANIZATIONS TO

HOW TO CREATE A MORE HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND PERCEPTIONHow can online communities offer guidance to create a more human customer experience and enterprise perception?

Given that building enterprise humanity and having a social awareness and conscience have become increasingly important in customer perceptions of suppliers, and in their decision-making, how can online community achieve this? 19PROVIDE A TRUST-BASED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCEBranding, and connection to the organization, is always a personal response. Companies have begun to understand this on a more fundamental level. Especially in terms of how they need to become less institutional and more accessible and social, transparent, and trustworthy in the minds of customers. Community is a key way they can both understand this, and also explore concepts for making the enterprise more socially conscious.

Online communities represent a tool and an environment for helping brands be more open, authentic, collaborative, transparent, and innovative.

trust

a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or somethingBOTTOM-LINE BENEFITS

1. Lower customer service costs

2. Product/concept beta testing3. Customer value research

4. Discovery, Innovation, and Advocacy

THANK YOU! Whitney Miller, Ph.D.Director, Insights at Passengerwmiller@thinkpassenger.comMichael Lowenstein, Ph.D., CMC Thought Leadership Principle for Beyond Philosophymwlowenstein@gmail.com