Customer Insight V2 I2_0

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WWW.CUSTOMER-INSIGHT.CO.UK AUTUMN/WINTER 2012

Plus...

Latest ThinkingOnline PanelsBook Review

COMPANIES IN

THIS ISSUE

HalfordsLand SecuritiesThe Co-operative GroupLeeds Federated

DOESSPONSORSHIPWORK?LATEST UKCSI RESULTS

INTERNAL CUSTOMERS

HOW PEOPLE USE TABLETSAND SMARTPHONES

MEASURING SATISFACTIONIN SOCIAL HOUSING

SPONSORSHIP


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Further information please visit our website or email [email protected]

www.leadershipfactor.com

New Hal Day Briengs

Tursday 18th October 2012 Tursday 15th November 201209.00 12.00 - Central London 09.00 12.00 - Central Manchester

Measuring complaints

A practical guide on how to measure your customers experience with your

complaints process. Find out how to drive improvements and reduce customerdefections.

Consistent customer experience across communication channels

Whether its face to face, online or through a call centre, customers expect

consistency in their experience every time they interact with a company. Do

you have the right measures to understand your customers multi channelexperience?

Tursday 18th October 2012 Tursday 15th November 201213.00 17.00 - Central London 13.00 17.00 - Central Manchester

Customer Satisaction v Net Promoter Score v Customer Efort Score

Debate the pros and cons of different ways of surveying your customers. Find

out which is the best measure for your organisation and how you can use the

best bits of all three.

uesday 23rd October 2012 uesday 6th November 201209.00 12.00 - Central Manchester 09.00 12.00 - Central London

Measuring the non customer experience

Most organisations measure their customer experience but they tend to know

very little about the people who arent their customers. Find out what causes

customers to defect or not become a customer no one can answer this better

than your non customers.

uesday 23rd October 2012 uesday 6th November 201213.00 15.00 Central Manchester 13.00 15.00 - Central London

Housing Brieng measuring tenant satisaction with your repairer contractors

Assessing contractor performance is important - a well designed and actionable

survey will track and highlight any issues that impact on your overall tenant

satisfaction. Find out how to set fair targets for your contractors to ensure high

quality standards.

Wednesday 7th November 201209.00 12.00 - Central London


3/363www.customer-insight.co.uk | Autumn/Winter 2012 customerINSIGHT

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 2 AUTUMN/WINTER 2012

6 UKCSI

The latest results and insights from

the UK Customer Satisfaction Index

12 Case study

Land Securities - Satisfying internal

customers

YSP18 Online panel

Pulse of the nation online panel

surveys

24 Technology

iTV. Another game changer?

26 Latest thinking

The long and winding customer

journey

29 Technology

Social satisfaction

30 Case study

A new approach to customer

satisfaction in social housing

32 Customer

Satisfying the high rollers

33 Customer

Golf club satisfaction

34 Book review

Thinking Fast and Slow by

Daniel Kahneman

Inthisiss

ue...

22 Technology

How do people use tablets?

21 Technology

How do people use smartphones?


4/36



Nigel Hill editor

Customer Insight is the magazine or

people who want their organisation to

deliver results to employees, customers

and any other stakeholders as part

o a coherent strategy to create value

or shareholders. We publish serious

articles designed to inorm, stimulate

debate and sometimes to provoke.

We aim to be thought leaders in the

eld o managing relationships with all

stakeholder groups.

Editor:

Production Editor:

Designer:

Creative Director:

Advertising:

Nigel Hill

Chris Newbold

Rob Ward

Rob Egan

Charlotte Ratcliffe

Printers o

Customer Insight Magazine

[email protected]

Customer Insight

c/o The Leadership Factor

Taylor Hill Mill

Hudderseld

HD4 6JA

NB: Customer Insight does not accept

responsibility or omissions or errors. The points

o view expressed in the articles by contributing

writers and/or in advertisements included in this

magazine do not necessarily represent those

o the publisher. Whilst every eort is made to

ensure the accuracy o the inormation contained

within this magazine, no legal responsibility will be

accepted by the publishers or loss arising rom

use o inormation published. All rights reserved.

No part o this publication may be reproduced orstored in a retrievable system or transmitted in

any orm or by any means without prior written

consent o the publisher.

Copyright CUSTOMER INSIGHT 2012

ISSN 1749-088X

Companies are racing to adopt technology and be seen as leaders.

Within the last month M&S announced the roll-out o a wi- initiative in its

stores to enhance the customer experience. It will see sta equipped

with iPads to help them give a better response to customer enquiries,

QR codes around the store or customers to scan with their mobile

devices and large interactive screens resembling giant iPhones to engage

customers.

The latest UKCSI results (rom page 6) conrm that organisations with the

best customer satisaction tend to deliver the best customer experienceacross multiple channels. But just because technology is exploding and

the top 2 companies on the UKCSI are both internet retailers, it would

be a mistake to assume that the web is where you need to ocus your

customer service investment. The importance o channels varies across

industries and above all depends on how customers want to interact with

your type o business. For example, or utilities and most public services,

customers are much more satised when they receive personal service

than when using the internet (see page 8).

Clearly its a dilemma. Youre being warned rom all sides not to get let

behind on technology and were saying the same in several technology-

ocused articles in this issue o Customer Insight (rom page 21).Moreover, theres a strong trend across many organisations towards

encouraging (orcing?) customers to deal with them over the web. This

has strong appeal to the organisations because its cheap. But is it right?

There are some guidelines that apply almost universally. Inormation

gathering is a very popular use o the web, so make it easy or customers

and potential customers to nd out anything they want to know rom

your website and rom other relevant third party sites. When it comes to

other things customers want to do with your organisation (e.g. purchase,

communicate, make an enquiry or a complaint, get advice or assistance),

most organisations will nd that they are aced with a range o segments

with dierent needs, priorities and expectations.

The only way to keep customers highly satised and loyal is to

understand and meet the varied channel needs o your particular

customer base. So you must survey your customers to establish their

channel preerences by activity, by touchpoint and by segment, and

make your customer service investment decisions accordingly. For most

organisations this will mean giving customers a choice o channels. That

is likely to include embracing the internet and social media or customers

who cant live without their mobile devices (see pages 21 to 23), but

it does not necessarily mean reducing levels o service via traditional

channels. You might nd that a signicant percentage o your most

valuable customers preer to interact with you this way. Moreover, since

peoples use o technology is changing rapidly you need to research on

a regular basis (at least once a year) and use the ndings to evolve yourcustomer management investment in a way that will maximise customer

satisaction and loyalty.


6/366 customerINSIGHTAutumn/Winter 2012 | www.customer-insight.co.uk

UKCSI

The State of CustomerSatisfaction in the UK

What the scores mean

- A score of 80 corresponds to an 8 out of

10 rating for customer satisfaction.

- Eighty organisations achieed a score of

oer 80, and 21 organisations achieed a

score of 85 or oer. Customer satisfactioncan be assessed by both an organisations

absolute score, and how they compare to

the aerage score in their sector.

The latest wave of the UKCSI was conducted for The Institute

of Customer Service by The Leadership Factor by web

survey during May and June 2012. The results are based on

a representative sample of 26,000 UK adults and show that

overall customer satisfaction in the UK has slightly increasedfrom 77.4 to 78, continuing the long-term trend of increased

customer satisfaction in the UK.

Customer satisaction by sector

As shown in Figure 2:

Retail (non-ood) has extended its lead

over other sectors Leisure and Automotive have improved

signicantly since January 2010

The lowest perorming sectors are

relatively unchanged or improving only

slowly the gap between the highest

and lowest perorming has increased

rom 8.6 points in July 2011 to 11.8

points in July 2012

We can divide the sectors into our

groups based on their success in satis-

ying customers.

Group one - Retail (non-ood)

This sector has extended its lead over

other sectors and with a score o 84.1 it

is 2.5 ahead o the next best sector Retail

(ood) with 81.6. This has been driven by

very high scores or internet retailers such

as Amazon and ASOS as well as tradi-

tional bricks and mortar high perormers

such as John Lewis. It is interesting to see

how the non-ood retail sector has pulled

away rom the others over the last year as

the most popular internet retailers havegained market share and thus become

a bigger component o the sector index.

Figure 1: UKCSI by sector - July 2012 versus January 2012

Table 1: The top 10 companies and their sector are shown in the table below:



UKCSI

Group two

This group comprises Food Retail, Ser-vices, Leisure, Automotive and Tourism.

Some o these sectors have always

been high perormers, but Leisure and

Automotive have not always been in the

lead group - both have improved rap-

idly rom January 2010. Although its

index remains good at over 80%, Tour-

ism is one o only three sectors to show

a downward trend over the last year.

Group three - Financial Services

This group comprises the insurance sec-

tor and banks/building societies. These

sectors have scored relatively close to

the overall average - with scores o 78.3

and 78.1 respectively. Over recent years,

insurance has improved customer satis-

action only marginally but banking has

made much stronger gains in the last two

years.

Group our

Utilities and Public Sector

Comprising Utilities, Public Services

(national), Public Services (local), Telecom-

munications and Transport, this remains

the poorest perorming group in terms o

customer satisaction, but as a group has

shown good improvement over the years,

particularly National Public Services and

Utilities. By contrast, customer satisac-

tion has allen over the last year with Local

Public Services and Transport.

Figure 2: Customer satisfaction by sector



UKCSI

Customer satisaction by channel

The organisations with the highest sat-isaction tend to have the least variation

o satisaction rates across channels o

communication. In keeping with the best

customer service advice, they are oering

a more consistently satisying experience,

whichever channel a customer chooses.

In person is the preerred channel or

many sectors including Services, Automo-

tive, Leisure, Finance (insurance), Finance

(banks and building societies), Public

Services (local), Telecommunications and

Utilities. Web is the highest scoring chan-

nel or Retail (ood), Retail (non-ood),

Public Services (national) and Transport.

In Public Services (local) and Utilities, cus-

tomers are much more satised when

dealing in person than over the web.

How customer satisaction drives busi-

ness perormance

Organisations invest in customer service

to achieve tangible business benets in

terms o increased sales and prot. This

can take a number o orms includingcustomers buying more products and ser-

vices, customers becoming more amiliar

with an organisation and thereore less

costly to serve and customers recom-

mending an organisation to others. In this

section we examine some key indicators

or a number o sectors Retail (ood),

Telecommunications, Finance (banking

and building societies) and Finance (insur-

ance) that demonstrate how companies

benet when they achieve high levels o

customer satisaction.

Retail (ood)

In the Retail (ood) sector, the UKCSI

results suggest a correlation between high

(or low) customer satisaction and market

share growth. Companies with an overall

customer satisaction score higher than

the sector average (81.6), have seen an

average market share growth o 0.8% in

the last 12 months. Companies with an

overall customer satisaction score lower

than 81.6 have seen an average market

share drop o -0.13%.

90

85

80

75

70

65

60

CSI

Retail(non-food)

Retail(food)

Services

Automotive

Leisure

Tourism

Finance(insurance)

Finance(banks

&buildingsocieties)

PublicServices(local)

Telecommunications

Transport

PublicServices

(national)

Utilities

In person

On their website

Over the phone

In writing

+0.5%

+0.3%

0%

-0.3%

-0.5%

Market share change

CSI75% 80% 85% 90%

Aldi

WaitroseIceland

Lidl

Sainsburys

Asda

Morrisons

Tesco

The Co-operative Food

-0.13%

Above sector average UKCSI

Below sector average UKCSI

0.08%

-0.15% -0.10% -0.05% 0.00% 0.05% 0.10% 0.15%

Figure 3: Customer satisfaction by channel

Figure 4: Supermarkets market share change (May 2011 May 2012)

Figure 5: Customer satisfaction and average market share change



UKCSI

There is also a good relationship

between customer satisaction and

sales growth. Supermarkets with

customer satisaction levels above

the sector average achieved an aver-

age year-on-year sales growth o 9%,

compared with only 3% on average or

supermarkets recording customer sat-

isaction below the sector average.

Finance

(banks and building societies)

The score or banks and building soci-

eties has increased rom 77.4 to 78.1.Organisations that have a customer

satisaction score higher than the sec-

tor average (78.1) have an average

positive recommendation rate o 37%.

For those who score less than 78.1 on

overall satisaction the recommenda-

tion rate is only 24%.

Finance (insurance)

The Finance (insurance) sector score has

increased rom 78 to 78.3. Companieswho have achieved a customer satisac-

tion score higher than the sector average

(78.3), have a larger number o custom-

ers who have recommended them - an

average o 33% - compared to 27% or

companies whose overall satisaction is

lower than the sector average. Compa-

nies with higher customer satisaction

scores are also more likely to have higher

renewal rates, and more customers who

hold multiple policies.

3%

9%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10%



% of customers

who have

recommended an

organisation

UKCSI over 85



37%

24%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

49%

% recommended

Above sector average UKCSIBelow sector average UKCSI

33%

27%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 6: Customer satisfaction and average sales growth

Figure 7: Customer satisfaction and propensity to recommend

Figure 8: Recommending insurance


10/36

% recommended



36%

26%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

% recommended



49%

30%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

% customers

Balance of price and serviceLow price less service Excellent service, high price

Banking (5.8)

Insurance (5.8)

Automotive (6.3)

Telecommunications (5.8)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

10 customerINSIGHTAutumn/Winter 2012 | www.customer-insight.co.uk

UKCSI

Telecommunications

The Telecommunications sector score hasincreased rom 74.1 to 74.7. Companies

with a customer satisaction higher than the

sector average (74.7), have an average pos-

itive recommendation o 36%, compared to

an average o only 26% or companies who

score less than the sector average.

Automotive

The Automotive average customer sat-

isaction score has increased rom 80 to

80.9. The companies whose satisactionscores are higher than the sector average

(80.9), have an average recommenda-

tion rate o 49%, compared to 30% or

the companies below the sector average

or customer satisaction. The companies

with the highest customer satisaction

scores (over 83), have an even higher rec-

ommendation rate - 55%.

The service/price trade-o

We asked customers in our sectors

Finance (banks and building societies),

Finance (insurance), Automotive and Tel-

ecommunications - to rate the relative

importance they give to price and service,

on a scale o 1 to 10. Higher scores meant

that service was more important to them;

lower scores meant that price was more

important. Most customers seek a bal-

ance o price and service, with the balance

tipped slightly in avour o service over price.

This pattern was similar in the our sectors

we surveyed, with three o the our sectors

registering the same average score o 5.8.

But there are notable minorities o custom-

ers who are either very price-driven or very

service-driven. Its likely that these groups

o customers would nd their needs met

by dierent suppliers in most markets. In

the our sectors surveyed, more than 1

in 4 people indicated a strong preerence

or excellent service, even i this meant a

higher price. There is an especially high

proportion o customers in the Automo-

tive sector who are more service-driven

31% o customers rated service much

more important than price. This may refect

that buying a car is a high involvement pur-

chase or most customers.

Stephen Hampshire

Client Manager

The Leadership Factor

I you have any thoughts about this article

you can contact Stephen at

[email protected]

Figure 9: Recommending telecoms

Figure 10: Recommending cars

Figure 11: The service / price trade-off

CI


11/36



Case Study

Satisfying Internal

Customers is vital tooImproving internal performance results in higher customer loyalty and improved

business performance. Measuring this allows you to manage it but it is not often

done because it can be complex and painful. Here we present a new approach.



Case Study

There is a chain o events that

creates business success

The Service Prot Chain concept described

in detail by The Harvard Business School

almost 20 years ago makes it clear that

business success is dependent on cus-

tomer engagement and that high levels

o satisaction with the product and ser-

vice relationship are needed to create this

engagement. Satisaction with service deliv-

ery is strongly linked to sta engagement,

and sta engagement is dependent on their

satisaction at work. Sta satisaction is

dependent on a mixture o such elements

as security, achievement, recognition,

reward, development, relationships with co-

workers, and the working environment.

My own interpretation o these links is

shown in Figure 1. The ocus o this article

is on Measure 2 (readers and clients will

already be amiliar with our work on Meas-

ure 3 and Measure 1).

Successul organisations are ocused on

delivering the elements that result in anengaging customer experience and this

means ensuring that all parts o the organ-

isation understand how the work they do

contributes to this and that the service

they provide to colleagues is an integral

part o the picture.

Feedback about perormance is an essential

part o perormance improvement, whetherthe intention is to improve your gol swing,

your creative writing or your ability to retain

loyal customers. By measuring your peror-

mance you are more able to manage it.

Measurement o the end-customers sat-

isaction is critical but measurement o the

internal services that help to deliver that

satisaction is just as important. In some

organisations this is conducted using such

techniques as six-sigma or o course indi-

vidual perormance appraisal systems but

these may be too complex or not eectively

pursued.

So, working closely with our client Land

Securities (see inset) I devised a new system

which has already worked very well or them.

Objective

To reveal internal customer perceptions

about the service or services they receive

rom other departments and to use the

result to promote best practice. This willincrease internal satisaction and eciency

which will in turn improve external custom-

er experience.

Background considerations

The rst thing to be aware o is that this

type o survey needs to provide anonymity

to respondents so that they neither conceal

nor exaggerate their real perceptions. Web

surveying should work or such a survey but

using external resources and assuring staabout condentiality is critical to success.

The previous approach was to conduct

an annual web-based survey covering

R esult Me as ure 3 Re sult

Lower costsHigher productivity

Increasedcustomerlifetime

value

Result

Retention

Related sales

Referrals

Growth

Better ROI

Action

Improvement in

employeeselection,

development,

recognition,

reward

Measure 1

Employee

satisfaction

Result

Higher

retention

Increased

capability

Measure 2

Internal

service

satisfaction

Betterexternal

service

quality

Customer

satisfaction

Use customer centred survey results to identify the focus needed to improve performance perceptions

We asked David Holt (Finance Director o

Land Securities) to tell us a little about the

company and why this change in survey

design was needed.

Land Securities is the UKs largest

Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)with a commercial property portolio

worth over 10.0bn including landmark

developments such as New Street

Square and One New Change in London

and the White Rose centre in Leeds.

We own and manage approximately 29

million sq t o commercial property and

provide property services to more than

2,500 private and public sector clients.

We go beyond bricks and mortar,

through design, community engagement

and customer service to create places

where people choose to shop, are proud

to work and want to live.

Our approach to customer service

excellence dierentiates us rom our

peers and helps ensure that our clients

make us their partner o choice or

commercial property relationships.

The whole company needs to perorm

well to deliver that service excellence

and or several years we have been

measuring the ability o a number o our

central services teams to work with other

areas to deliver the best experience to our

clients. The system had become tiresome

or sta since it asked them to rate a wide

range o areas on a broad set o criteria.

Giving eedback took too long, response

had allen and it was hard to translate the

results into improvement plans.

The solution that we developed with Jim

removed these problems and revitalised

the process so that it is easier or sta toparticipate and much more ocused and

useul or management.

OperationalManagement

HumanResources

Training

InformationTechnology

FacilitiesMngmnt

Finance

Legal

R&DDesign

Planning

3rd PartySuppliers

CorporateComms Regional

Oces SalesDept

ContactCentre

Marketing

Accounts &Credit

ControlProduction

Logistics

Tech.Support

FieldSta

Customer

Figure 1 - investing in your most important asset produces results

Figure 2 - everyone serves the customer



Case StudyCase Study

all departments. This meant that the sta

involved were expected to complete a

long survey about more than one service.Experience revealed that over time this

was increasingly likely to be considered too

much to ask and that response rate and

the quality o response would suer.

So we needed to nd a more acceptable

way o obtaining the vital eedback.

The proposed solution

As a rst step some exploratory work

should be carried out to dene the crite-

ria by which sta will judge the success

o other departments. This would ideally

involve sta themselves by running a ew

ocus groups or it may be sucient (as in

Land Securities case) to develop the ques-

tions with management.

It will then be possible to ocus the measures

so that the survey will be more interesting

to complete, still be ocused on the prior-

ity areas, and provide a greater depth o

understanding about the action that can be

pursued to improve the user experience.

The survey could be staggered across the

year, perhaps running every our months

and surveying up to six service areas each

time. In each case sta could select up to

three services to assess. This would mean

that each service would achieve a good

response rate and that no member o sta

would be asked to assess too many ser-

vices at one time.

Surveys should also be ocused on obtain-ing useul comments so sta would only

need to give a score or a ew broad

measures rather than a long list o detailed

specics. To ensure that the score is a con-

sidered one a context statement is included

(this would be agreed with each department

being assessed). The example below shows

the main ve areas that customers may

experience, along with a context statement:-

The next question would depend on the

score given, and only one comment would

be requested

I the score is rom 1 to 5 the question is

What has made you dissatisfed with the

service?

I the score is rom 6 to 7 the question is

What would need to change or you to be

more satisfed with the service?

I the score is 8 to 10 the question is

What has made you so satisfed with the

service?

In this way just ve satisaction scores are

given but every score will be accompanied

by a comment that is ocused to provide

guidance about improvement actions.

The ve main questions are likely to applyto all areas but the bracketed descriptions

can be made specic to each.

Further questions can be included, these

being

Has the service improved, deteriorated or

stayed the same in the last year?

I improved or deteriorated the survey

would ask In what ways?

What, i anything, would you like to add

that has not been covered already?

The sta delivering the service can also par-

ticipate by completing the survey as they

believe their customers will. This provides a

useul comparison and can help to realign

the views o the supplier and the recipient.

Analysis should produce a simple set o

scores or each service. This may not

convert easily into an Index but it is more

important to ocus strongly on the improve-

ment opportunities identied. The next step

will be or each department to read all the

comments and develop plans or action.

For the activity to be o maximum benet

it is important or each service department

to assess the results and establish a plan

o action that becomes part o the annual

business plan. This will mean that the imple-

mentation o these plans will be reviewed

at senior management level and that sta

objectives will include them, both o which

make it more likely that improvement will be

achieved. The staggered timing o the sur-

veys is not an issue, since each department

can simply use the most recent o their sur-

veys to draw up plans and progress will be

assessed in relation to the trend o results.

The department heads will be able to eed

back the survey results easily and sta willbecome engaged in developing the action

plans and should be encouraged to take

ownership o them.

The inormation produced by this activity

would play a signicant role in achieving

internal eciency improvement and in

improving the satisaction o external cus-

tomers. It is an essential part o the Service

Prot Chain.

Sta reliability (Delivering on their promises, being accountable, keeping you inormed about issues

raised)

Sta competence (Responsiveness, proactivity, creativity)

Communication (Accuracy, relevancy, timeliness, being pitched appropriately)

The relationship (Treating you with respect, being open to suggestions, being fexible when possible)

Processes and systems (Eectiveness, ease o use, having the right tools or the job)

The web survey question would thereore look similar to this

In relation to the Legal Department what score out o 10 would you give them or ..

Sta reliability 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10(Delivering on their promises, being accountable,

keeping you inormed about issues raised)

Jim AlexanderClient Manager and a Director o


Contact Jim to discuss any aspect o this

article on 01484 467025 or e-mail him at

[email protected]

CI


15/36



The Opinion Dashboard is an online tool where

you can watch, listen to and read the thoughts and

views of your customers or UK consumers.

Individuals can respond to your questions quickly,

bringing research to life and provide in-depth

qualitative insights.



To view this Dashboard:

For more information please contact:

Darren Wake

01484 467012

[email protected]

To view this Dashboard please visit:

www.leadershipfactor.com/dashboard



YSPOnline panel

Parents and carers putting

childrens lives in danger

Every year 1,423 children aged 11 andunder are killed or seriously injured whilst

travelling on UK roads - and travelling by

car is when Britons are most worried that

children are at risk o injury, with 41% citing

this as their main concern.

Yet parents, grandparents and carers are

putting childrens lives in danger by allow-

ing them to travel in cars without booster

seats beore they are legally allowed. The

research o 1,000 carers by YourSayPays

showed that three-quarters o respondents

(74%) have stopped or plan to stop using

booster seats while their children are aged

ten or under, despite the law saying that

children must be aged 12, unless they are

over 135cm tall. YourSayPays sourced and

surveyed a sample o over 1000 UK adults

who regularly care or young children and

transport them by car.

Men are less likely than women to use a

booster seat and women are more likely

than men to keep a child in a booster seat

or longer 58% o men will stop using abooster seat when a child reaches 8 years

o age, compared to 43% o women. More-

over, quite a lot o people, o both genders

(35% o respondents) regularly carriedthree or more children in the backseat o a

car even i there was not a booster seat or

each child.

There is also considerable ignorance o the

2005 laws relating to booster seats. 72%

o those surveyed did not understand when

it was permissible to carry children without

booster seats and 75% did not know the

purpose o booster seats. Another miscon-

ception is the view that children are exempt

rom wearing a booster seat i they are rent-

ing a car and no booster is available or i

they are travelling outside the UK.

Martin Howard, spokesperson at Brake,

said: It is alarming that so many drivers

are unaware o the height and age at which

children are sae to travel without using

booster seats. Children have delicate bod-

ies and are never more at risk than when

travelling as passengers on the roads, and

it is thereore vital that they are provided

with the correct support. Brake is calling

or parents, grandparents and carers toensure that children are carried saely in

booster seats until they are over 150cm

tall, in line with EU recommendations. We

are also urging the Government to invest ineducational campaigns to raise awareness

about the dangers o not using booster

seats, which will help ensure that drivers

are not unwittingly putting childrens lives

at risk.

These fndings rom YourSayPays oer

real insight into the limited knowledge par-

ents today have about booster seat saety,

said Grainne Kelly, CEO o BubbleBum.

Its apparent that whilst many parents

are doing everything they can to keep

their children sae in cars, theres no real

understanding o the protection provided

by booster seats. There is clearly a lot o

work to do to educate about not only the

law but the reasons why its in place, and to

make sure parents arent putting the lives o

children at risk.

The research generated huge exposure

or BRAKE and Bubblebum car seats. The

ndings were discussed on both national

and local radio stations with the BBC high-

lighting the statistics. The ndings werealso published in many newspapers includ-

ing Metro, Daily Mail, The Sun and The

Independent.

Research carried out by YourSayPays showed parents have little understanding o booster seat lawand generated signicant exposure or road saety charity BRAKE and BubbleBum car seats.

Darren Wake

Business Development Manager


01484 467012

[email protected]



YSPOnline panel

Funeral etiquette

given last rites

Funeral etiquette is dying out as more

than one in our people admit to not

paying their respects to a passing pro-cession. YourSayPays asked a nationally

representative sample o over 2000 adults

questions about uneral etiquette and

how they act i a procession passes. The

research, commissioned by Co-opera-

tive Funeralcare, the UKs largest uneral

director, revealed that generations o

people are unaware o traditional uneral

etiquette and show no courtesy to uner-

al corteges with teenagers and those

aged up to their mid-orties the most like-

ly to be ill mannered. The research oundthat those in their late twenties and early

thirties were the most oblivious to uner-

al traditions and etiquette while Scots

remained the most courteous.

Almost one in three (29%) o those aged 18

to 44 years old were unaware o the unwrit-

ten rules or uneral processions and how

to act when a procession passes. Over hal

o those questioned (51%) were unaware o

etiquette such as workers stopping by the

roadside as a uneral procession passed.

43% o pedestrians would no longer doth

their cap as a sign o respect and 38%

would not stop what they were doing or a

passing uneral cortege.

Our research was independently backed

by the views o uneral directors rom The

Co-operative Funeralcare, with almost

three-quarters o sta having witnessed an

increase in discourteous behaviour even

within the last ve years. Earlier in the year,

The Co-operative Funeralcare reported that

instances o road rage against uneral pro-cessions were on the increase.

David Collingwood, National Operations

Director, The Co-operative Funeralcare,

said: There has been much talk since

the riots last summer about attitudes andrespect within society and we have seen

a signicant shit over the years away

rom people observing the unwritten rules

o uneral etiquette. Many people ignore

a passing uneral procession and it is not

uncommon or pedestrians to purposely

disrupt a cortege by using a pelican

crossing to stop uneral cars or even

cross the road between uneral cars. Our

research has highlighted generations o

people who are unaware o the traditions

and etiquette which were once common-place or people to show to a passing

uneral. He added: The days o workers

stopping what they were doing to mark

a passing procession or people remov-

ing their hats and bowing their heads has

long gone.

The top three regions that show the great-

est respect are Scotland, Northern Ireland

and Northern England. The regions least

likely to ollow uneral etiquette are the

Midlands, South East England and South

West England.

The research generated signicant media

exposure or Co-operative Funeralcare.

The ndings were discussed on BBC

Breakast News and Radio 2s Jeremy

Vine hosted a phone in to discuss the

research and peoples experiences with

regards to uneral etiquette. The research

also eatured in many newspapers

including The Daily Telegraph and The

Independent, and launched numerous

discussions in blogs, orums and socialmedia channels. The news article on The

Telegraph website alone was re-tweeted

over 300 times.

Another YourSayPays survey which recently generated signicant exposure in the media

was or Talk Talk Business, the telecommunications company. 500 SME Directors and

Senior Managers were asked questions relating to business communications and key

issues relating to technology. The resulting story has generated 22 pieces o coverage to

date reaching a readership o nearly 3.5 million people. Highlight pieces included Reuters,

Wall Street Journal Europe, IT Europa, Total Telecoms and extensive regional coverage.

Talk Talk

CI



Online panelYSP

According to a surey conducted by Your-

SayPays for Halfords, the answer is Yes!

Based on a sample of 1,000 adults, the data

was gathered after the Tour de France but

before Bradley Wiggins Olympic gold medal.

An amazing 64% had seen the Tour

de France on ITV4 at least once and

whilst only 27% o the total sample cor-

rectly identied that the programme was

sponsored by Halords, 37% o the 664

respondents who had seen it identied

Halords. This level o awareness is good

or a programme that was broadcast or

only three weeks.

Participation

There has been much speculation about

whether greater participation in sport will

be one o the legacies o the Olympic

Games. According to this survey, greater

participation in cycling will denitely be a

legacy o this years Tour de France. 58%

o people who had seen the ITV4 coverage

said it had inspired them to get out on their

bike. 43% o the total sample were also

inspired, and o course there was plenty o

other media exposure or the tour includ-

ing radio, newspapers, websites and apps

as well as other TV coverage.

76% o the sample elt proud o the

example that Bradley Wiggins is setting

to up and coming cyclists, rising to 88%

amongst those who had seen the cover-

age, and very similar numbers thought it

would inspire other people to get out ontheir bikes.

Impact on buying intentions

For any TV advertising or sponsorship,

awareness and recall are always important

measures. Impact on purchasing behav-

iour is always harder to quantiy and, due

to the many other variables involved, very

dicult to link directly to the specic slots

on TV. However, based on the results o

this survey, there should be a clear nan-

cial benet or Halords. 49% o the total

sample said they were thinking o buying or

upgrading a bike (or themselves or amily

members) and this rose to 56% amongst

those who had seen the ITV4 coverage.

O these 56%, the majority (58%) said they

had been inspired by the achievements o

the British competitors in the Tour and

the TV coverage. This is a very interesting

statistic, because normally, many people

whose purchase decisions are infuenced

by TV advertising do not acknowledge that

possibility when asked the direct question.Even more encouraging or Halords is

that when asked which brands they would

consider i buying a new bike, all o the top

our selected are rom a list o 19 brands

stocked by Halords. They are Raleigh,

Apollo, Carrera and Boardman. Perhaps

more interesting is that it was the higher

end bikes, Boardman and Carrera thatshowed the biggest increase i people had

actually seen the ITV4 coverage.

16.4% o the sample knew other people

who had been inspired to buy a bike as a

result o this years Tour de France, rising

to 22.6% amongst those who had seen

the ITV4 coverage. When incorporating

the act that some knew two people and

others three or more, it emerges that every

100 people who saw the ITV4 coverage

know at least 29 others who are now

thinking o buying or upgrading a bike.

All things considered, this suggests a

great return or Halords on its sponsor-

ship o the Tour de France coverage.

Has Brad inspired us to get on our bikes?

Mark Forde

Business Development Manager

01484 467050

[email protected]

CI



Technology

How People UseSmartphones

Were spending 2.3% o the time with music

and video apps, 11% with the browser and

more than hal with other apps. And text

messaging consumes 13.4%. The iPhone

has shaken up entire industries, rom navi-gation to gaming, and replaced household

items such as torches and alarm clocks

or many o us. Their constant compan-

ionship has also made our smartphones

handy shopping tools -- to the chagrin

o plenty o bricks-and-mortar retailers.

According to Nielsen, 29% o owners use

their smartphones or shopping activities,

including comparing prices and purchasing.

Fewer devices

Thanks to the almost limitless unctional-

ity o smartphone apps, people now need

ewer gadgets. In a recent survey conduct-

ed by Gazelle.com (a company that buys

your old iPhone), nearly 70% o survey

respondents have said goodbye to their

iPod or mp3 player, 55% have ditched

their camera, and over 40% no longer use

their GPS unit since buying an iPhone.

Phones or babies?

In June, Asda conducted a survey o1,662 mums and ound that smartphones

are increasingly becoming the primary way

to entertain young children. The research

revealed that 27% o mums use their phone

regularly to entertain their o-spring, ahead

o a bottle or a drink (25%), sot toys (21%)

or a dummy (9%). 40% o mums let their

children play with their smartphone or anaverage o 10 minutes or less a day, but

10% admit to allowing them to regularly

play or one to two hours at a time. Mums

in Scotland are most likely to entertain

their children with a phone (40% o them

do it), ollowed by Wales (32%), the Mid-

lands (32%) and Northern Ireland (30%).

Parents most oten use smartphones

to keep their children quiet when they

wake up early in the morning, or when at

a restaurant, in the car or waiting or an

appointment. Most have a range o apps

on their phones or their children to play

with rom puzzles and games to educa-

tional programmes.

Popular electronic pacier apps include:

Wheels on the Bus - Winner o

multiple awards, this animated and

interactive music story book allows

children to do things such as spin

the wheels and swish the wipers o

the bus alongside the happy tunes.

Classic Simon -An updated version o

retro classic Simon Says, the app ea-

tures our colour modes, along with more

advanced challenges or older children. It

has already racked up 3.5m downloads

with an average rating o 3.5 stars.

iStory Books - Aimed at kids agedtwo to eight, this app oers various ree

books complete with text, audio and

pictures. New books are added to the

app each week.

Not improving our manners

However, smartphones are not so good

or our manners, with more than 25%

reporting that they almost always

use their iPhone while in a social set-

ting such as during a meal or while at a

party. A urther 58% say they use their

iPhone in a social setting either usually

or occasionally, while only 17% say they

rarely or never use it in a social gathering.

Smartphone or sex?

Which would you rather give up or a

weekend - sex or your iPhone? 15% o

respondents to the Gazelle.com survey

said they would choose a romance-ree

weekend rather than go without their

beloved device. But why not have both?Nearly 4% o respondents to the Gazelle

survey reported having used their iPhones

whilst having sex!!!

According to Nielsen data, only 5.4% o mobilephone time is taken up by the phones diallerunction, meaning traditional talking.

CI


22/3622 customerINSIGHTAutumn/Winter2012 | www.customer-insight.co.uk

Technology

Ownership profle

Ocom report that tablet uptake is cur-

rently highest amongst amilies with

children and 45-54 year olds (42%). Over

hal live in London, the Home Counties

or Manchester and over two thirds are

ABC1. In line with this afuent ownership

(and the 45% o buyers who didnt needone), upmarket tablet users are spon-

taneous and materialistic, being 79%

more likely than other upmarket adults to

spend money without thinking clearly

an audience worth chasing! Fully unc-

tional tablets such as iPads have a male

bias, whereas women are more likely

to own an e-reader such as a Kindle.

Tablet Usage

InMobi, the largest independent mobileadvertising network, and Mobext, the

mobile marketing network o Havas Digital,

recently released the results o their global

consumer research, The Role o Tablets

in the Consumer Sales Journey. Con-

ducted on mobile and tablet devices, the

survey examined the media consumption

habits o over 8,400 respondents across

seven dierent markets and demonstrated

that consumers are spending increasing

amounts o time on mobile connected

devices, with tablets strongly infuencingpurchasing decisions as consumers nd

new ways to research and interact with

brands. The key take-outs include:

At the time of writing (July 2012), 13% of UK households now own at least one tablet computer or e-reader compared with only

2% in March 2011, and an additional 17% intend to buy one in the next year. According to Ofcoms annual Communications

Market Report, entertainment is the main reason for buying a tablet, haing been cited by 56% of owners. Next on the list was

easy internet access (53%) followed by portability (52%). 45% of tablet buyers admitted they had no particular need for the deice

but just wanted to treat themseles. Needless to say, this huge increase in adoption rate has led to a spate of research into tablet

ownership and usage drien by companies growing interest in this market and communication channel.



Technology

According to Adobes Digital Index

Report, one tablet generates as many

website visits as our smartphones,

so although there are ar ewer tablets

around, by March this year they already

accounted or 4.3% o website hits com-

pared with 6.1% on smartphones. Adobe

predicts that internet trac on tablets will

overtake smartphones by the beginning

o 2013. However, organisations mustnt

lose sight o the act that PCs/laptops stillgenerate the lions share o website visits

19 times more than tablets in Q1 2012.

This isnt surprising in view o the vast

installed base and the act that shipments

o PCs/laptops still considerably out-num-

ber tablets a lead that may even increase

rom the end o October with the launch o

Windows 8 and ultrabooks.

Tablet users are buyers

Tablet users do more things on their tablet

(an average o 3.9 activities chosen rom

a list o six broad options) compared with

laptop (3.6) or smartphones (2.7). They

also use their tablet more than any other

device to buy stu. 46% preerred to make

purchases on their tablet compared with

41% on a PC/laptop and only 9% on a

smartphone. And 69% o tablet owners

had actually done some shopping on their

tablet in the last 30 days, with almost 10%

o these happy to use it or a big ticket

purchase, in contrast with smartphone

users who typically use their device orsmaller, more unctional purchases. More-

over, 20% o tablet users claim to shop

less in bricks and mortar stores since pur-

chasing their device. These acts, together

with the hal o tablet owners who share

the device with amily members illustrate

the value o tablets or companies sell-

ing products or services that are oten

amily decisions. Joint amily decision

making includes items such as holidays,

tourist attractions, eating out and takea-

ways as well as bigger decisions suchas cars and housing. However, accord-

ing to Adobe, PC/laptop conversion rates

remain much higher or any shopping

activity that involves a signicant amount

o research, whereas tablets are more

likely to be used or passive consumption

o content or or more repetitive, routine

purchases or inormation gathering. Lap-

tops/PCs thereore remain well ahead or

anything where consumers lack expertise

such as buying a smart TV, anything where

they make multiple comparisons, such as

holidays or, to a lesser extent, purchases

where they rely on peer reviews. So, or

example, deciding on an up-market res-taurant or a special occasion (especially

i it will be a rst visit) is more likely to be

researched and booked on a laptop/PC,

but takeaway owners should make sure

that they have a very tablet riendly web-

site. Interestingly, tablet owners are very

likely to use their device or repeated inter-

actions with nancial services providers.

Impact on traditional media

The research also revealed that 72% o

respondents watch TV while using their

tablet. This helps to explain the growing

popularity o Zeebox. Somewhat surpris-

ingly, 20% o owners claim to watch more

TV since buying their tablet, so maybe

mobile internet wont be bad or the TV

industry. Interestingly the UK showed the

highest levels o dual-screening across

the globe.

This is consistent with the act that tablet

usage peaks between 7.30 and 10.30 in

the evening, when owners use them morethan PCs/laptops or smartphones. During

the daytime, however, PC/laptop usage

is twice that o tablets, suggesting that

BYOD (bring your own device) remains ar

rom universal.

69% o tablet users have

shopped via their devicein the last 30 days

users regularly use their

tablet and watch TV at

the same time

The average number o

in-home devices is 9.7,

up rom 8.7 in 2010

44% o tablet owners wouldnot want to be separatedrom their tablet

o tablet owners spend

at least an hour a

day accessing media

content

22% o tablet owners have

shopped in physical

stores less since getting

their tablet

20m tablets were shipped inQ1 2012

Apple dominates the

market with a 68%

share

There are 1m+ Zeebox

users in the UK (30 min

average session)

51% use a tablet to ll what

would previously have

been dead time

49% o respondents share

their tablet with amily

members

42% said that their tablet has

revolutionised the way

they communicate with

riends/colleagues.

63

% o tablet users think it is

easier to access media

content on a tablet than

on a mobile or laptop/

desktop.

7 outof 10

Over

50%

CI

APPLE DOMINATES THE

MARKET WITH A 68% SHARE



Technology

But the Apple TV set will almost certainly

be beautiul, easy to use, and it will usher

in a whole new way to navigate nearly

unlimited content through the electronic

device that is still the hub o most house-

holds home entertainment.

Heres how Walter Isaacson put it in his

biography o Steve Jobs.

Assuming he had cracked it, has Apple

acted in time? Some very large players in

electronics and TV, such as LG and Sam-

sung, have already launched very elegant

all-in-one smart TVs whose appearance

and unctionality will be dicult to better.

Due to advances in screen technology

even the largest sets have edge-to-edge

displays and are much thinner than cur-

rent plasma or LCD TVs (only 4cms thickor a 55 inch display). They are wi- ena-

bled, will link with smartphones, tablets

and PCs and have a home screen which

looks rather like the orthcoming Windows

8 but is ully customisable. LG call it a

Home Dashboard. It can be controlled by

the traditional remote or an app on your

phone or tablet. Whilst the manuacturers

such as LG are heavily promoting 3D and

gaming, which is very impressive on the

big high resolution screens, businesses

will be more interested in the possibilitiesaorded by the households entertainment

hub working just like a smartphone or

tablet. Whether its social media, YouTube

or just surng the web, the opportunities

or communicating with customers are

immense. Clearly this will have massive

ramications or the TV-ad industry.

Whether that threat will be spearheaded

by Apple or the current TV market lead-

ers is anyones guess. The incumbents

now have a clear lead but every time Apple

has launched a disruptive device criticshave said that its too expensive and peo-

ple dont really need it. Theyre also saying

that since we hang onto TVs longer than

we do phones or computers, theres no

way it will have the impact o Apples other

innovations. But similar criticisms were

levelled at the iPod, the iPhone, and the

iPad (that costly, in-between device that

people werent even asking or). Though

the iPhone wasnt the rst smartphone, it

ushered in a dierent way to think about

and use mobile (see page 17), and dramati-cally altered peoples behaviour. So maybe

Apple will surprise us with something no-

one had thought o or TVs as well.

Refecting on the massive behavioural change over a relatively short time stimulated by the 2007 introduction o the iPhone, what will

happen when Apple introduces a TV? Is the TV ecosystem -- rom programme makers, the marketers that rely on TV to sell products, to

the ad agencies that buy its media -- ready or TVs iPhone moment? Just as with the iPhone (or the iPad or iPod), Apple TV wont be the

rst device o its kind. Even without smart TVs, early adopters have been streaming or some time via a range o set top boxes such

as Xbox or Roku or via the Airplay unction on Apples existing TV solution, all o which bring wireless connectivity to the TV. And increas-

ing numbers are turning to the Zeebox app to combine their TV viewing and social media activities.

ITV or iTV?

Steve very much wanted to do or

television sets what he had done or

computers, music players and phones:

make them simple and elegant. Id

like to create an integrated television

set that is completely easy to use.

It would be seamlessly synced with

all your devices and with iCloud. No

longer would users have to fddle with

complex remotes or DVD players

and cable channels. It would have

the simplest user interace you could

imagine. I fnally cracked it.

CI


25/36


26/36

Latest thinking

UK consumers today ace an almost

bewildering choice o channels when it

comes to engaging with brands. The high

street, the industrial park, the website,

email, the catalogue, direct mail, interac-

tive television, SMS, mobile apps and

social media are all part o the rich mix o

touch points that make tracking the cus-

tomer journey more o a challenge than

ever beore. And or companies operating

in this dynamic and competitive environ-

ment, understanding consumer behaviour

on a multichannel level is becoming ever

more crucial or the successul manage-

ment o their customers.

Multiple touch points

Do todays consumers even have a pre-

erred channel? Well, it can depend on

what they are buying. Few, in act, limit

themselves to one channel or both

researching then purchasing a product

or service. But ar rom viewing consum-

ers as ckle and indecisive when they

consult not only a high street store but

also a brands website and relevant social

media pages beore making a purchase,

companies must use all data to hand to

analyse, interpret and then address cus-

tomer behaviour. Only then do they stand

a chance o growing loyalty and building

sales through tailored communications

and oers that demonstrate genuine

insight.

Where once businesses debated bricksand mortar versus mail order, today the

retail landscape is multiaceted and multi-

dimensional, and the question has moved

onto how they use various channels. The

key to understanding this is to look at how

consumers use the multiple channels at

their disposal or dierent parts o the deci-

sion-making and purchasing process. The

latest research rom GI Insight shows there

is logic to consumer behaviour across

multiple channels. Understanding this on

an individual level can be crucial to manag-

ing customers eectively getting them to

remain loyal, to buy more with each trans-

action, and to purchase more requently.

Mixing bricks and clicks

The research shows that, when it comes

to their avourite brands, consumers arecomortable mixing their points o interac-

tion, with 63% o the 1,000 UK consumers

surveyed revealing they buy rom both the

The Longand WindingCustomerJourney

Understanding how consumers use various touch points toresearch and buy dierent products is essential to gaining ullcustomer insight in todays multichannel marketplace. Andy Woodexplores the implications or CRM and marketing.




Latest thinking

websites and high street stores o the

companies they purchase rom the most.

Indeed, despite the boom in online shop-

ping, consumers today still use high street

stores (and other bricks and mortar outlets

such as shopping malls and retail parks) to

examine and test a great many products

prior to nal purchase. So, despite the rise

o the quick and easy internet purchase,

shopping is still not a one dimensional

activity that begins and ends with an

instant transaction: more than ever it is a

social experience, it takes place across

channels, and it does not require point

o purchase to be the same as point o

perusal.

Increasingly, traditional high street stores

are venturing online, with brands such

as John Lewis and Next establishing a

powerul digital presence. And, not to be

outdone, pure online players are them-

selves entering the high street market,

with Amazon reportedly establishing its

rst physical outlet this year to oer cus-

tomers the opportunity to purchase its

Kindle products in-store, believing this

could boost sales amongst impatient

shoppers and those sceptical o buying

sight unseen. When Amazon, arguably the

worlds most successul online retail busi-

ness, acknowledges that the high street is

ar rom obsolete, it signals that the mul-

tichannel relationship is here to stay at

least or now.

Product category aectschannel choice

Although the business o selling uniorm

products such as books and CDs prod-

ucts which easily t through the letterbox

and can be just as successully vetted

online as in-store works well as a web-

only enterprise, many retailers are learning

that marketing more varied and bigger

products ranging rom the latest ashions

to consumer electronics to outdoor urni-

ture requires a more complex approach.

Indeed, GI Insights research conrms that

the type o product being purchased has

a major eect on the path o the custom-

er journey: 73% o consumers preer to

examine and test bulky products (such as

bicycles, garden tools, playpens, urniture)

in person and 69% choose to check out

and try on ashion items (such as clothes,shoes, sunglasses, accessories) in-store,

even i they make their nal purchase

online. The majority (60%) even preer to



Latest thinking

look at and test electronic products such

as televisions, DVD players and comput-

ers in-store beore buying whether in

the shop or later over the internet. This

behaviour is in stark contrast to the pur-

chase o standardised products (such as

CDs, DVDs, books, batteries, light bulbs

and kitchen utensils) where the trend is

reversed: 69% say they make these types

o purchases directly online.

Redeeming loyalty rewards

The research also uncovers that UK

consumers are almost evenly split when

it comes to the channel they preer toredeem their loyalty points through: 54%

in store versus 46% online. Clearly, retail-

ers should not presume that customers

will redeem their points via the channel o

purchase and, in act, should ensure loy-

alty scheme members are rewarded with

vouchers and points which can easily be

used via either channel.

Implications or sales sta

It is clear, then, that the modern shoppingexperience does not involve the straight

emergence o a single channel and no

savvy retailer today would wed shoppers

to one specic location, physical or virtual.

On the contrary, sta dealing directly with

consumers across any channel need to

be trained to respond to the customers

preerences and likely customer journey.

For instance, i store based sta realise

a customer is researching a product in

store with the intention o later purchas-

ing online, they should be ready and able

to issue a limited time voucher or a web

purchase, enabling them to capture a con-

sumers business and secure their loyalty

to the overall brand. Currently, there are

very ew cases in which retailers provide

an incentive to purchase rom a brands

website when a customer is clearly

browsing in-store. In the new multichan-

nel environment where shops are used

as showrooms, this needs to change.

Implications or customer

communications

UK consumers typically arrive at the point

o purchase via a combination o channels

their journey is rarely linear and employ-

ing data and analysis to derive insight on

the customer journey to inorm appropri-

ate actions along the way is essential tothe uture o any successul operation. As

the research shows, the customer journey

may be complex and winding but, by the

same token, it is not wholly unpredictable.

I a rm can see that specic products

trigger certain types o behaviours and

trends, then it can use that insight to tai-

lor post, email and other communications.

For instance, i the data shows that a cus-

tomer tends to browse online rst beore

going in-store, the communications dont

need to push a product but rather thewebsite as a source o inormation, pro-

viding relevant content to make the brand

stand out. Or i analysis tells a company

that multichannel customers are more

loyal and valuable than a single channel

customer, it can mould communications

to get a store-only customer to become

an ecommerce customer too, and vice-

versa.

Recognising, then, that bricks must coex-

ist with clicks, brands should develop

relationships which harness multiple touch

points so consumers get more rom their

retail experiences whether perusing in-

store, checking a catalogue, browsing

online or receiving an oer on a smart-

phone. This process can start even beore

a customer goes online or visits a store

with a longer-term communications pro-

gramme that uses data to address the

consumers behaviour and build loyalty

through tailored oers demonstrating gen-

uine insight. Appreciating that customers

regard brands in a holistic ashion ensures

relationships are grown and nurtured

regardless o channel.

Implications or customer databases

The key to all o this is applying the cus-

tomer data an organisation has to hand,such as transaction details and inormation

supplied on web orms, and not keeping it

in silos. That means collecting it properly

in one database or all channels and then

analysing it to see what the trends are and

what preerence and behaviour catego-

ries individual customers all into. Getting

a grip on what customers buy, what they

are spending, and how they purchase in

order to determine how better to motivate

them to remain loyal or to purchase more

and more requently is undamental to asuccessul brand in todays multichannel

marketplace.

Andy Wood

Managing Director

GI Insight

[email protected]

01162 321 711

CI



Technology

CI

In February LinkedIn topped 150 million

users and, ater launching in 2006, Twitter

has over 300 million users generating over

300 million tweets and handling over 1.6

billion search queries per day.

So clearly we are interacing with each

other through social media all day, every

day on our work PCs, our laptops, our tab-

lets and our smartphones. Walk into anyast ood outlet in the country and have a

look at what most people are doing whilst

they are waiting to be served. The chances

are they have their smartphone in hand and

are sending / receiving updates on status!

It is no surprise that business is increasingly

keen to get in on the act and utilise such

an instantaneous and pliable technology.

Investment in social media strategy is rising

exponentially with barely a single brand not

wanting you to like them on Facebook

and watch them on YouTube. Service

sector based businesses are starting to

look at Twitter as a means o providing

technical or account support to customers.

It is instant, trendy, allows them to gather

inormation and provide promotional mes-

sages wherever and whenever.

What needs to be considered is what

impact this will have on customer satis-

action and ergo customer loyalty? Do we

want business and brands muscling in

on our social media? Should there be a

real distinction between the two? Is youravourite sports stars latest tweet about

their new car an honest comment to be

shared with the world or a discreet com-

mercial endorsement broadcast to loyal

ollowers? I have heard more than one

person comment negatively on someone

who has a Facebook type photo on their

LinkedIn prole so do they want their bank

eeding into their Twitter account?

The Leadership Factor recently conducted

an online panel survey o Twitter users on

behal o a leading high street bank about

Twitters usability as a support tool. The

results showed that currently 9% used

Twitter to contact organisations they did

business with compared to nearly 60%

who used it mainly or celebrity news, the

majority having genuine concerns about

Twitters suitability as a business tool due

to issues such as privacy and the limited

number o characters per tweet. But or

the 9% its an important channel and

banks cant ignore that.

One interesting aspect to consider is theeectiveness o these social media sites as

they carry more and more trac. What is

the risk o missing something important in

all the chatter? Path is a relatively new kid

on the social media block but is based on

the anthropological principle Dunbars num-

ber, which states that we cant manage a

network o more than 150 connections so

that is what you are restricted to.

So by all means keep on engaging with the

social (media) revolution. The more we do,

the better we will become. Just make sure

it is enabling your organisation to do best

what matters most to your customers and

not just because it is something new!

One o the true phenomena o the last ten years has been the rise and rise o social media. You needto have been on Mars or the last decade to not know what Facebook is and even ootballers have

worked out how to tweet but what is truly staggering is the amount o social media out there. The listis endless and covers work, rest and play in all its orms!

Mike Ball

Client Manager



you can contact Mike at

[email protected]


30/36

Case Study


Following the end o the regulatory require-

ment to test tenant satisaction using

the old STATUS methodology, House-

Mark (a membership based organisation

or housing associations) was asked to

devise a new voluntary methodology that

measured satisaction and that could be

benchmarked in the same way as STA-

TUS. Following extensive consultation

with RSLs (Registered Social Landlords),

the Survey o Tenants and Residents

(STAR) was launched including the STAR

benchmarking service.

But how actionable is the research? Can

it identiy key drivers o dissatisaction

amongst tenants that can be actioned and

incorporated into the strategic plans o the

RSL? Can benchmarking work alongside

more detailed research that aims to identi-

y tenant importance, impact and priorities

or improving tenant satisaction? One

social housing provider that has cham-

pioned a new approach to this is Leeds

Federated Housing.

Leeds Federated Housing Association

Formed in 1973, Leeds Federated Hous-

ing Association provides housing or rent

and other services to a range o cus-

tomers around Leeds, Harrogate and

Wakeeld. The birth o Leeds Federated

came rom merging a collection o smaller

landlords and during the 1970s, 80s and

90s, Leeds Federated grew to its current

size o around 4,000 homes. As well as the

older homes they inherited, they have built

new stock, particularly in partnership with

Leeds City Council. Over the last decade,

the Association ocused on improving the

quality o its existing stock resulting in all o

the Associations stock now achieving the

decent homes standard, and the Asso-

ciation perorms well across all its housing

management unctions, when compared

to other organisations providing similar

services.

Resident ocused

Leeds Federated pride themselves on

being resident-ocused, with a mission to

make places or people to live become

places they want to stay and places other

people will want to move to . Fundamen-tal to the achievement o this bold vision

are our key goals:

It is with these goals in mind that Leeds

Federated Housing have taken the jour-

ney to understanding their customers and

improving their lives.

Like most providers in the social hous-

ing sector weve historically undertaken

the regulatory STATUS customer sat-

isaction survey as the main source o

ormal customer eedback, says Simon

Williams, Research Manager at Leeds

Federated Housing. But with the regula-

tory requirement recently being removed,

this provided us with the opportunity to

look outside the social housing sector to

see how other high perorming companies

measure customer satisaction. This is

what eventually led us to look at the Lead-

ership Factor and Customer Satisaction

Index methodology.

This move breaks a tradition in the socialhousing sector. Williams says, Bench-

marking landlord against landlord has

been somewhat o a tradition or us but it

has always been difcult given the diverse

nature o our property stock weve a mix

o new estates & older inner city hous-

ing within Leeds plus stock in Harrogate,

Wakefeld and Castleord. So to fnd a

housing association with a similar stock

mix and social challenges is very difcult,

limiting the value o benchmarking.

A turning point or me was thinking o

customer satisaction rom the customers

perspective. Whilst we can input data into

a computer to benchmark our services

against other housing providers the reality

is that our customers cant do the same

they cant easily move house or request

an alternative repairs service rom another

housing provider. Instead theyll measure

their perception o customer satisaction

against their experiences with their local

supermarket, high street bank or shop.

Moving to the The Leadership Factors

Customer Satisaction Index measurement,

which is based on a broader range o com-

panies, seemed such an obvious choice.

aNewApproachtoCustomer

SatisfactioninSocialHousingBenchmarking performance against peers is hotly pursued in most business sectors and especially in social housing.

Accounting for about 20% of UK households, until recently housing associations had a regulatory requirement to

surey tenant satisfaction and report their results to the regulator. The compulsory questions (known as STATUS)

proided a general oeriew of residents oerall satisfaction with their landlords and made peer benchmarking easy.

1. Maintaining homes with a high quality

repairs serice.

2. Improing the quality of the

neighbourhoods customers lie in

making people want to stay and others to

moe into.

3. Helping customers make the most of

their lies.

4. Continue to be a high performing housingassociation in all aspects of its business.

Simon Williams

Research Manager

Leeds Federated


31/36

Case Study

31www.customer-insight.co.uk | Autumn/Winter 2012 customerINSIGHT

Challenges

Changing to the Customer Satisaction

Index method has not been without its

challenges. Theres a lot o tradition in the

social housing sector and with that comes

the strong conviction amongst some that

STAR should remain the predominant

methodology used or tenant satisac-

tion. But closely looking at HouseMarks

own description tells you that STAR is only

designed to provide an overview o tenant

satisaction with the general services they

receive rom their provider.

Williams says, Due to the nature o our

business our services directly aect the

quality o peoples lives. Getting the right

services delivered consistently in the right

way is tremendously important. I we ail

to deliver services well, its not as i our

customers can easily move home. Getting

the best inormation possible enables us

to make the best decisions.

So rom the start o 2012 weve started

using a mix o STAR and Customer Sat-

isaction Index. In practice this means

using the minimum core questions rom

STAR which allows us to continually

monitor historical trends and benchmark

our customer satisaction perormanceagainst our social housing peers region-

ally and nationally. Customer Satisaction

Index measurement however orms the

most important part o the process we

can benchmark our Customer Satisac-

tion Index score against about 80 other

housing associations and also against

other big brand high street names. The

way the data is collated and analysed has

provided us with a ar deeper insight into

our customers needs. This has given us a

signifcant advantage against our competi-tors who are still only using STAR.

This advantage is enhanced by the act the

Customer Satisaction Index question set

is bespoke to Leeds Federated ater being

ramed round the outcomes o exploratory

tenant ocus groups to nd what was most

important to them. This again presented a

massive cultural change compared to the

one size ts all question set o STAR (and

STATUS beore it).

Outcomes

So has Leeds Federateds decision to

work with the Leadership Factor paid o?

The whole thing has been excellent,

Williams says about the partnership. Itsprovided a great platorm or us to reer

back to and as ar as we are aware were

the frst housing association in the country

that uses the combination o STAR and

Customer Satisaction Index. As a method

or understanding satisaction we do eel

we are in a strong position and bucking

the trend.

The reality is that the two methodologies

have a lot to oer; STAR provides a good

overview o perormance (HouseMark claimnothing more themselves) and can contin-

ue to maintain historically measured trends

and social housig sector benchmarking.

The Leadership Factor provides signicant

customer insight to tenant satisaction.

Chris Elliott

Client Manager



you can contact Chris at

[email protected]

CI



Customer

However, scratch the surace o service inthese platinum plated environments and

everything may not quite be as it seems...

Having recently undertaken some research

within the luxury car sector I was amazed to

nd the polarity o service levels experienced

by high net worth individuals spending

in excess o 100,000 on a car, across a

whole range o dierent manuacturers.

Further aeld the internet is littered with

reviews o our celebrated Michelin starred

restaurants that prove spending top dollaron your meal is no guarantee that you will

enjoy a perect night out and recommend

it to all your riends and amily. But why

not? Is it really that dicult or businesses

to be able to replicate the perect client

experience without ail and are the needs

o high rollers dierent rom the rest o us?

The real challenge comes, I believe, in the

people themselves. High rollers come with

big wallets but oten even bigger expecta-

tions. They are more demanding and have

a greater depth o experience to draw on.

Additionally they are more than capable

and condent in articulating their displeas-

ure should you ail to meet their exacting

standards. Above all they prize individual-

ity, being able to stand out rom the crowdwhether it is their one o a kind supercar or

their VIP table behind the velvet rope.

But as a business why bother going to all

that trouble? Well, in these recessionary

times a recent study by Barclays Wealth

shows that there are 619,000 millionaires

in the UK, up rom 528,000 in 2008 and

that the millionaire population is set to

grow by another third by 2020. I you were

looking or a growth market with dispos-

able income...youve ound it!

So how can businesses eciently and

eectively generate the level o satisac-

tion in these demanding customers that

will make them loyal advocates who will

patronise your establishment or years

and bring all their riends as well? The

answer is no dierent or the high roller

than the average man in the street. Get to

know what matters to them and keep your

promise in delivering that. What changes

is that you may have to bring the research

down to a sample size o as little as one!

What doesnt work is simply producing

a bigger bang because your customer

has more bucks. What came out o the

research rom our luxury car client was thattheir customers werent impressed by the

shiny reception area with large screen TV

and branded coee. Whilst they expected

the right environment, what really mattered

was being treated as an individual, prom-

ises being kept and the process being as

ecient as possible.

It means taking your customer insight to

a micro level and really getting to know

your customers. Add to that a degree o

fexibility in your oering that enables everycustomer to enjoy their perect experience

and your business has every chance o

hitting the jackpot.

Satisfying

Does being a high roller guarantee

Documents

Customer Insight V2 I2_0