Whether they’re seeking lower prices or better terms on an item they see on a store shelf, consumers are quickly learning that their smartphone can be used for more industrious tasks than playing Words With Friends or snapping and posting photos on Facebook.

Last year, more than half of U.S. smartphone users performed retail research while inside a brick-and-mortar store, with nearly one in eight using their phone to compare prices in real time, according to comScore’s “2012 Mobile Future in Focus” report. Tack on the fact that 42 percent of mobile cell users in the U.S. own a smartphone, as do 44 percent of European mobile-phone users, and that little stat may amount to a big-business loss for your bricks-and-mortar store.

Continue Reading

There are plenty of perfectly legal ways to get below-the-radar competitive information. Here are some time-tested methods that predate the Internet, as well as newer techniques to mine the wealth of information readily accessible online.

1. Read the local papers
2. Tap your vendors
3. Go to trade shows
4. Take a plant tour
5. Hire a secret shopper
6. Browse public documents
7. Google your competitor’s website
8. Explore LinkedIn
9. Monitor Twitter and Facebook chatter
10. Find competitors’ job ads
11. See Who’s on Quora
12. Check Slideshare

View the full list here: Entrepreneur.com

“Customer service online has been relegated to “handling complaints”. Sites like to boast about how quick they can respond, but it’s rare you’ll hear any boast about what a great shopping experience they had online.

Online businesses are obsessed with user experience, optimisations, page rankings and much more. Yet a thousand of their customers could walk past their offices every morning, and they wouldn’t even recognise them, never mind offer to stock their friend’s CD.

In our quest towards total commerce automation, we’ve failed to bring the most important part of commerce with us. The customer experience.”

Where are your customers going?

The chart above shows a well-cited study by the Rockefeller corporation studying precisely why customers leave. Everyone expects that people leave because of lower priced competitors. If not that, then because of some gimmick their competitor has. It’s rarely the case. Customers leave because they don’t feel that you care about them. Online retailers are at best apathetic about their customers. I’ve spent literally tens of thousands of dollars on flights and holidays with some travel companies, and my reward is weekly spam from their newsletter. Unsubscribe.

With this degree of apathy, it’s no surprise that people booking flights have 10 tabs open running parallel queries. There is no service, there is no customer care, so it’s no surprise there is no loyalty.

He who cares wins

Each era of the web has brought new “must-have” skills. It used to be a “CSS web designer”, then it became “Web 2.0″, and of late it has been “UX designer”. Each skill starts out as rare and exciting, but all end up being simply the cost of entry. Already it’s a cliché to claim your app is “easy to use”. It will come down to relationships.

Companies that have a strong bond with their users will succeed. Those who focus on short term tactics will experience short term customers. The investment in relationships is high, but the reward is significant.

Building relationships

Let’s state the obvious. Here’s what doesn’t work.

• John searches for XBOX Game
• John clicks advert
• John arrives at site, and purchases game
• Game is delivered and John is satisfied
• John receives email every week from then onwards offering games he already owns, or doesn’t care about. Music he doesn’t listen to, electronics he can’t afford
• John unsubscribes, or worse creates a filter to ignore mails

There is nothing personal about filling in pre-defined web forms. There is nothing memorable about entering credit card details and clicking “Submit”. To get John back again, a business needs to do more than issue receipts and fulfil obligations. It needs to reach out and be human. Every communication from a business is a chance to delight your customers.

Making the connection

If you want to elevate your business out of the race-to-the-bottom, good customer service is the key. Loyal customers who feel valued are your road to riches. Loyal customers shop more, pay more, are the first to forgive, the last to criticise, and are your number one marketing channel.

Source

Many companies are prepared and have resources or software in place to monitor their online reputation, but sometimes when complaints go viral… you need to be very quick off the mark to try to avoid an online customer service crisis.

View larger image via source.

Samra

The 32nd annual SAMRA convention is being held at the Riverside Lifestyle Resort on the banks of the Vaal River this week.

Besides the two Esomar workshops which will be presented in South Africa for the first time on 30 and 31 May, the conference boasts a number esteemed international as well as South African keynote speakers.

From the UK, Space Doctors Founding Partner Malcolm Evans will address the issue of Sustainability: Cultural and Semiotic Perspectives, while Neil McPhee, MD of Nuance Research in the UK, will examine the topic Putting the (He) Art back into Qualitative Research in a keynote address. In another keynote address, Esomar President Dr Dieter Korczak will provide international perspectives on consumer protection legislation.

South African keynote speakers are Millward Brown non-executive chairman Erik du Plessis on the topic 1979 to Neurobullshitting, Neil Higgs, senior advisor and head: Innovation at TNS Research Surveys, on Understanding People’s Lives: People and the Revolution in Research, Nigel Hollis on How Doing Good Builds Strong Brands and Sharon Olivier on Self-care – 4 Keys to Emotional Well-Being.

You can find out what has been going on here:

Bizcommunity
Twitter

(source: Bizcommunity)

The WWD Beauty forum is looking to answer questions about brand creation, brand renewal and how to refresh and revamp a brand without doing damage to customer loyalty and perception. A big mention is digital. Digital has fast become a major player from blogs to eCommerce and to social media,  but what’s being said on digital may be falling behind the aspect of “following the behavior,” according to Greene.

This is an article by ReadQWriteCloud - interview article with Pierre on his thoughts behind designing the infographic.

Pierre:

“Will it be interactive or static? Will it be used as a tool or to illustrate something? Depending on how we position the visualization, it will be more demanding on UI aspects or on visual aspects. Dashboards, online reports and interactive web visualizations need a solid understanding of UI design, while infographics and print reports require a strong foundation of typography, layout and visual communication.”

Sources: Coolinfographics, ReadWriteCloud and ChartPorn