CRM - October 2008 - (Page 42)

TOO MUCH MARKETING? that monthly mailings were too much— the company wasn’t gleaning enough new information. Fearing customer backlash, Weber slowed to quarterly mailings. found that marketers have approximately 12 chances to reach a customer before being shut out forever. Offering to gauge a customer’s “digital body language,” some vendors are pitching a systematic process for approaching and nurturing each lead. Tools like lead-scoring algorithms help to automate measuring the “worth” of a lead. The people, for example, who come up to your trade-show booth just to score the stuffed animal you’re giving away hold the least priority. Those who engage in a 15-minute product demonstration, however, are more likely to take the relationship further. better discount the next day. Instead, when E-Loan, for example, funds a mortgage, it can periodically send customers tips on how to pay off the loan or offer home-improvement advice. As marketers perfect their art, campaigns will get more targeted and more relevant to the consumer. At first glance, this seems to be the making of the perfect relationship. But Hren, of SPSS, predicts that “it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.” Today, consumers can blindly ignore 5,000 of the 6,000 messages they receive—and of the 1,000 that might be a fit, 700 of them aren’t immediate concerns. Eventually, it comes down to a handful that a consumer really focuses her attention on. What happens, then, when the balance of 5 percent relevant, 95 percent noise becomes 40 percent relevant, 60 percent noise? Realistically, there’s a lot of ground to THE SOUND OF SILENCE If companies don’t heed explicit requests, it’s hard to believe they’ll listen to customer silences. Facebook got in trouble for this when members weren’t given a chance to opt out of the Beacon feature that automatically made public any offsite purchases. Sue Aldrich, senior vice president at consulting firm the Patricia Seybold Group, recalls a similar situation when ordering plane tickets through online travel merchant Orbitz. Presented with an offer for traveler’s insurance, Aldrich clicked “Continue” instead of “No, thank you.” The site then proceeded to bill her for the protection. The only way to cancel the insurance and get her TAKE A BREAK Sometimes, additional product marketing just doesn’t make sense. All it takes to identify these periods is a basic understanding of your product. Stefan Pollard, “The easiest way to know you’re doing too much is often the most painful”—opt-outs and a drop in customer retention. money back was to call Orbitz and speak to a customer service agent. “How’s that for a streamlined process?” she asks. Typically, the customer response to “too much” is to turn off. As one marketer put it, “The easiest way to know you’re doing too much is often the most painful”—opt-outs and a drop in customer retention. To prevent a formal opt-out, listen for the deafening thud of silence: Track unopened emails and unreturned direct-mail pieces, not to mention mail that’s simply undeliverableas-addressed (UAA). When campaigns are irrelevant, it’s not just annoying to the customer, it’s a waste for you. The UAA Clearinghouse reports that marketers waste $6 billion annually on the 43 million Americans who relocate each year. And as the nation goes green, marketers are only adding insult to injury. “I look up and down my street at the Verizon phonebooks scattered along the walk and think, ‘Well, there go four trees,’” Aldrich says. Even if there isn’t a high monetary cost in email, a Unica study 42 director of consulting services at emailmarketing solution provider EmailLabs, emphasizes the significance of honoring “rest periods” in a purchase cycle. Pollard describes how, one week after his new Dell computer arrived on his doorstep, he received an email from the computer manufacturer inviting him to purchase a new computer. What Dell should have done, he says, was focus on other products that would enhance the experience of his new computer, such as a compatible printer or digital camera. During the rest period, marketing should focus less on the “sell tactic” and more on informational or serviceoriented offerings, Pollard says. The key is to stay top-of-mind so that when it comes time for the consumer to make another purchase—perhaps a year later—it’s clear that you’ve been there the whole time. This strategy is particularly applicable in the financial services and wireless phone service industries. After a consumer signs up, you don’t want to cannibalize your product by offering a cover before marketers get that sophisticated. Nevertheless, Aldrich argues that we have a fixed attention threshold for marketing messages, whether that limit is 100 or 10,000. Despite the growing complexities of consumers’ expectations, she doesn’t believe their tolerance will change. When marketing becomes more relevant, consumers will have more time to focus on the messages, rather than waste time sorting through the clutter. “There’s no big Holy Grail,” Hren says. Marketing thrives on efficiency and relevance: Give the customers what they want to buy; communicate across the channel they want to use; and talk to them when they are ready to talk to you. Hren admits that, while delivering effective and efficient marketing has never been easy, “it’s doable now.” He adds, “There’s no reason to be negative or skittish; everyone else is in the same boat. Get over it and get working.” Contact Assistant Editor Jessica Tsai at jtsai@destinationCRM.com. www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | OCTOBER 2008 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - October 2008

CRM - October 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality�Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Sprinting Toward Disaster? SAP�Retains Market-Share Lead in�CRM A�Week of Strong Customer�Service CRM�on Twitter Build a Good Event and They Will Come Required Reading There's No Place Like Home The New Breed of CRM�Consultant The Price is Right...You Hope How Much Marketing is Too�Much? The�Sweet Smell of High-Quality�Service The Next Act! For An Acquisition Some Stories Never Get Old CRM�Eases the Pressure For WIKA�Instruments Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - October 2008

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