CRM - November 2008 - (Page 17)

Insight nation of communication tools than the total time spent reading magazines and newspapers, watching TV, and listening Personas, avatars, and social communities will drive spending in 10 years to the radio. In preparation for that reality, Sarner said it’s important that maryounger generations go online and keters and retailers start to recognize t’s becoming increasingly obvious that customers’ expectations are participate and communicate in a flat online personas. “In this new world, changing—and a better experi- virtual environment, the generational where every customer has easy access to ence is what they’re coming to distinctions break down. Customers stand on a virtual soapbox in a massive expect. Simply becoming efficient in will hop across segments at various virtual public square, companies must take notice and engage— completing a transaction is no longer times of life for varior face the wrath of the optimal result—a fact driven home ous reasons, and are ‘virtual mobs’ and mass by Lior Arussy, president of customer ex- likely to act like sevcustomer exodus,” he told perience consultancy Strativity Group, eral generations at any attendees. “Discovering during the opening keynote at CRM given time.” customers’ true identities So how should commagazine’s destinationCRM 2008 conwill be irrelevant.” ference in late August. “When dealing panies respond to these What does this mean with the new customer, [who is] push- virtual customers, who for the data-analysis soing and extending and wants a new identify themselves with lutions that are currently emotional connection, don’t go for avatars, screen names, being purchased to analyze superficial shortcuts,” Arussy said. “It’s and SecondLife identities? Sareach customer’s identity? Sarner’s advice was simple: Pro- “Knowing a not going to cut it.” ner hinted that there will still Similarly, at Gartner’s CRM confer- vide multiple experiences and customer’s name be a place for such solutions ence in mid-September, Gartner analyst multichannel management. Ed Thompson declared that companies Gen V will expect multiple isn’t as important in the future, but their purpose will have been tweaked. are now using the customer experience paths for exploration and ac- as knowing [her] “Multibillion-dollar thirdas a competitive differentiator—but that cess to products and services. buying habits—or party customer-data providthe term experience means different Sarner also noted that there ers, [business intelligence], things to different people. “I recommend will be a gradual shift toward [her] intent.” and the analytic markets will you focus on interactions, intelligence, psychographic data over deand recognition of the customer in the mographic data. “Knowing a custom- shift toward consumer applications, er’s name isn’t as important as knowing eventually arming customers with handling of multiple events,” he said. And as the leading companies con- [her] buying habits—or [her] intent,” automated, artificially intelligent selftinue to transition from product centric- he said. He even recommended an in- learning ‘persona bots’ seeking cusity to process centricity to customer vestment in skilled anthropological tomers’ needs and wants 24/7.” Companies, he added, will need new centricity, Gartner analyst Adam Sarner knowledge workers to understand the skills and techniques to engage and warned that another transition is loom- virtual customer’s intent. According to Gartner, by 2015, more remain relevant for the virtual age. ing. By 2015, he suggested, organizations —Lauren McKay will be persona-centric—embodied by time will be spent online using a combiwhat Gartner is referring to as Generational Virtual (or “Gen V,” for short). Generation Next: The Virtual Consumers Are on Their Way “The idea of Generation X, and later Time Frame 1995–2005 2005–2015 2015–2025 Generation Y, was…a way to underGeneration Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Virtual stand and generalize new generations Self-actualization Goal Commerce Personal voice, social voice that appeared not to have connections Strategy Buying, selling Self-expression , Introspection, to the cultural icons of the Baby Boombelonging exploring ers,” Sarner explained to the audience. Technology Order management, Blogs, tagging, RSS Virtual environments, “Marketers use the idea of ‘Baby Boomcatalogue, ad-serving, distribution, podcasts, life-simulation tools, email, Web browser, peer-to-peer file-sharing, persona management, ers,’ ‘Generation X,’ and ‘Generation Y’ HTML XML, wikis, reputation persona bots, company as a way of segmenting the population engines, community word bots of mouth, community for targeting products and services. portals, location-aware However, as more Baby Boomers— services, wireless who are living longer—and the Virtual Spenders I Source: Gartner www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2008 17 http://www.destinationCRM.com

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

CRM - November 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Working with the Years CRM on Twitter Virtual Spenders Contact Centers Chatting to Success The Complexity Chasm Required Reading Generational Spending: A Special Report Who, What, Where, When, Y The Slackers’ X-cellent Adventure The Boomer Boom The Matures Endure Boosting Productivity North of the Border Changing the Channel Invicta’s Thrill of Victory Secret of My Success Connect Re:Tooling Pint of View

CRM - November 2008

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