The Marketing Leaders - Loyalty and Retention in B2B Marketing

Neil Hartley, UK country manager at SPSS, explains why using the right data in the right way is central to successful B2B customer acquisition

The concept of business intelligence is nothing new, yet I never cease to be surprised by the lack of customer-centric thinking where customer intelligence is concerned. Given today’s competitive environment whereby switching is no longer the painstaking process it once was and loyalty is not cheap to come by, it is nothing short of amazing that many firms remain stuck in the dark ages regarding business management.

There is no end to media coverage of customer relationship fiascos - customers accidentally being over-charged, sent invoices for deceased clients or those on the receiving end of inappropriate promotional offers.

Research: Junk mail or not junk mail?

Our research reveals that 71 per cent of consumers consider at least half of the direct mail they receive during the year to be totally irrelevant.

But TML’s editor comments that it can still be an invaluable part of the B2B Marketing mix, according to the Direct Mail Information Service (DMIS) statistics.

These impersonal and sometimes offensive communication misnomers only serve to feed the sceptical consumer conscious, inflating the impression that organisations couldn’t care less about the people that keep their business afloat.

Information is key to acquiring, engaging with and ultimately keeping business as customers. But this is no surprise to the majority of marketers. The real challenge is dealing with mountains of data in the most effective way. With siloed information systems and segregated departments, it’s beyond me as to how companies can expect to maintain positive business-to-business relations.

However, we know that the majority of organisations are now gathering feedback. This shows great progress in recognising the importance of the customer view for informed decision making.

Customer insight has long been confused with business intelligence – the misconception that simply gathering as much data as possible about a customer equates to a customer-centric approach.

The compulsion to collect and store data with no specific aim pervades many organisations. Gathering intelligence and data ceased to be a challenge long ago but it is taking time for companies to understand it is merely the vehicle to achieve true business insight.

There’s no denying that cleaning, storing and capturing data is a costly exercise but many organisations are missing a trick by failing to realise the potential returns. This is the insight that will prove invaluable for finding and keeping customers.

We’ve been challenging organisations for several years to become predictive enterprises – not just analysing customer behaviour and developing models and profiles based on the business data, but actually anticipating customers’ actions and choices, and taking the appropriate measures to influence outcomes and achieve the best possible business relations. This can be anything from identifying which customers are most likely to churn to highlighting those who are most likely to respond favourably to a particular promotional campaign.

To give an example, this means that mobile phone operators can seek to head off customer defection to a competitor by offering a more attractive package. It sounds pretty straightforward but for many businesses simply collecting feedback represents considerable progress.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to witness a new-found awareness of the potential value this information represents over the last 12 months. It seems that we’re on the brink of a brave new world where people really understand the value of optimising their customer data. Having seen the direct benefits this can bring to the bottom line for forward-thinking organisations, it’s been surprising to see how long it has taken to reach the tipping point whereby organisations take the leap from hoarding information to actually using it.

I expect to see considerable activity in this area over coming months as more and more organisations seek to capitalise on customer interactions by analysing customer behaviour to anticipate their future needs more accurately.

However, what I’m really interested in is how organisations handle the cultural challenges at stake here. It’s all very well having multiple departments using their customer feedback and transactional data to improve their own business interactions – but this won’t help drive customer value unless it’s shared across the entire organisation.

Recognising the value represented by data is only half the battle. The next step is to look at ways to improve sharing that intelligence, creating a single view of the customer across an entire organisation. When multiple departments are able to share the same insight, that’s when firms will truly benefit from a customer-centric approach. By gaining the much sought after ‘360 degree’ view of customers will dramatically help improve CRM and marketing campaigns.

We’re seeing a groundswell around driving insight from customer feedback.
There is also considerable buzz around EFM, otherwise known as Enterprise Feedback Management, at the moment. Many companies are keen to understand more about a concept that is currently causing a stir in the boardroom.

It’s a natural evolution from CRM – taking the concept of optimising customer data to the next level. EFM brings together customer insight from all channels, including contact centre and formal market research programmes to help organisations create the most complete picture of the consumer.

Organisations can use EFM to keep the data in a centrally managed space, allowing access for any possible function. By keeping this data available to all employees, companies can react quickly to the feedback and use it to make informed decisions.

Making the right use of the right data is integral to successful customer acquisition. However, it’s important to remember that the smart organisations will seek to drive business intelligence whereby all customer-related data is centrally stored, managed and updated and, most importantly, put to use. Not only will this help cut costs by improving the hit rate of marketing communications but also drive business acquisition and engagement as making relevant targeted offers will help convince companies that organisations actually know who they are and have an interest in them as an individual.



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