Sound judgement needs sound information
For any emerging problem or opportunity faced by a business, showing sound judgement and making the best decision is heavily reliant on having sound information. Whether it is living up to the statement of “knowing your customer”, assessing the attractiveness of a market, or establishing your core brand values, all these decisions require a degree of high end analysis which means the need for quality data. Employing market research that can be tailored specifically to help address the ambiguity surrounding the decision on whether to act on a problem or opportunity is one effective method where information can provide much needed guidance.
Market Research and Telemarketing – Maintaining the Great Divide
The success of Market Research depends on maintaining the divide between Market Research and Telemarketing. Most people being interviewed will baulk at even the slightest sense of some kind of hard sell being put to them, particularly given the poor reputation of international Telemarketing companies who make repeated unsolicited calls during the family dinner. This has the potential to discourage participation in Market Research when people are not made completely aware of the difference between the two. Willing participation of the public is critical for the success of a Market Research project, which in turn depends on the respondent’s confidence that the research is carried out with integrity, objectivity and for the purpose stated. As such, Market Research needs to commit to high standards and keep well away from Telemarketing to maintain and grow public response rates to Market Research surveys.
Committed Employees Make Happy Customers
How satisfied are your employees with their jobs and their company? When did you last ask yourself or them this question? Workers who are not satisfied will not only be looking for a new job, they will be disinterested, underperforming and more destructively in some cases, transferring negativity to their fellow workers.
On the other hand, engaged employees who are satisfied and committed will continuously strive to foster a motivated environment and have their hard work rewarded. They’ll take personal ownership of the company brand and their customers’ experience. Happy employees are a great source of valuable word of mouth advocacy and goodwill. It is crucial that before an organisation looks to concentrate on elevating customer satisfaction levels, the employee level of satisfaction needs to be addressed first. Do this through great communication, listening, focusing on the good and training & development of your people. These are all important facets of a robust and effective employer brand.
Employee Engagement – Just how motivated and satisfied are your employees?
Growing organisations face a great many challenges as they increase in size and turnover, one of these is communication. Inconsistent communication creates silos and break-downs not just between business units, but also departments, supervisors and the team of employees. Typically, it is this growth which results in many companies falling prey to overly bureaucratic, top down types of communication. The importance of motivating and engaging employees is well documented. Satisfied employees contribute more in terms of organisational productivity, dedication to ‘go the extra mile’ and commitment to offering superior customer satisfaction.
Turning Customer Service into a Positive Customer Experience
When organisations are espousing commitment to customer service, shouldn’t they really be talking about the customer experience? Commitment to delivering a positive experience will build loyalty to your brand and ensure you hold the heart and mind of your customer. This in turn will differentiate your business from competitors and create clear advantage, at same time realising positive impact on the bottom-line.
It’s very important to distinguish service from experience because, in this context, service is just the mechanism for delivering the experience to the customer; whilst it’s the experience itself which builds an emotional connection between your customer and the brand. The customer experience will encompass every aspect of your brand’s offering. Therefore good products backed up by quality service will result in a positive experience. For example, Dell managed to turn the risky process of buying a computer over the internet into a reliable and positive experience by making improvements that focused on mitigating their customer’s perceived risk.
Market Research: When to do what?
Contemplating market research before careful consideration of what you really want to understand leads to research that doesn’t answer the question at hand, an unfortunate (and expensive!) mistake. The type of research done should be dependent on the information you are seeking; the method of getting this information can vary depending on the nature of the survey population, client budget, ease of administration and the like. By definition, a research type refers to the purpose of the research, whereas a research method is the mechanism for undertaking the research. Market research consists of mainly three types – exploratory, descriptive and explanatory – all of which are appropriate for differing purposes and situations.
Australia’s Banks and Telstra – A real need to revisit their Brands
Strategic branding should precede marketing; it is the foundation of any organisation – its DNA. Branding sets the path and base for future marketing strategies and tactics. It is strategic whilst marketing is often very tactical and promotion based.
Strategic branding involves differentiating your business, product and/or service in the most compelling and significant way possible. Handled correctly, this involves an ‘inside-out’ approach, first by internally determining the company’s organisational values (what is valued, how staff conduct themselves). These are powerful enablers of your brand.
Have you deserted your Employer Brand?
During the downturn many companies refocused priorities and resources, in the process making their Employer Brands virtually redundant. Abandoning an Employer Brand during a recessionary phase can prove to be a very costly mistake during a market upturn.
Let’s not forget the basics surrounding the need to engage employees regardless of the market environment and business challenges. Cutting back on internal communication and people development is short-sighted and a knee jerk reaction. Amidst market recovery, employees will look to ‘jump ship’ on the basis of what is on offer and how they were previously treated.
What makes inspirational, trusted ‘Leadership Brands’?
Real Leadership Brands take an ‘inside-out’ approach to executive development and look to construct a pipeline of consistently excellent managers over concentrating on strengthening the skill level of individuals. In distinguishing between ‘individual’ and ‘brand’ leadership, ‘individual’ focuses upon developing leaders with the emphasis usually on personal qualities, whereas real ‘brand leadership’ centres on the methods and programs which secure future commercial success of an organisation and as such, are embedded in the organisational culture. If focusing on desirable traits of individual managers and leaders, then senior management is at risk of promoting very generic competency models.
Employee Engagement – Investing during a down turn
One of the biggest challenges senior executives face during the current recession is managing the need to balance costs with sliding revenues and profits during the market downturn. To find the balance between shedding unprofitable investments and not missing out on too many potentially profitable ones, it remains not a question whether cost cutting should be undertaken, but rather from where, how this is conducted and why it’s crucial to communicate information on such measures to your team.
During the recession, executives placed emphasis upon the financial risk of investing, often at the expense of assessing the competitive risk – i.e. of not investing. How you manage a downturn, including employee engagement and development will directly influence your talent position in an upturn.