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	<title>Accenture BlogPodium &#187; Marketing</title>
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		<title>Content: a content strategy supported by shared insights</title>
		<link>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/content-strategy-insights/</link>
		<comments>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/content-strategy-insights/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Apr 2013 10:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Marije Gast</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Transformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latest Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Content creation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[content development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[content management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[linked and liquid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/?p=9547</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Social media is not about campaigns. Social media is a continuous force which needs to be relevant and up-to-date each and every day. But how do you take care of your content and how do you organize it?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Accenture-Content-Digital-Blgopodium.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-9549" title="Accenture-Content-Digital-Blgopodium" src="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Accenture-Content-Digital-Blgopodium.jpg" alt="" width="345" height="165" /></a>Social media is not about campaigns. Social media is a continuous force which needs to be relevant and up-to-date each and every day. But how do you take care of your content and how do you organize it?</em></p>
<p>Creating content is not as easy as it seems. To publish a daily average of two posts (which fit brand values, are suitable for global use, and are engaging and very shareable) is quite hard. To make the job easier, Coca Cola developed two key principles for content creation. The soft drink company developed a content strategy for all its external social communications which helps them in developing new content; it is called ‘Linked and Liquid’ and these two pillars can be put in good use by every brand.</p>
<p><span id="more-9547"></span>“Linked” means that all content must relate to the core brand values and the content must relate to the company&#8217;s strategic goals, for example selling more soft drinks and increase the market share. This helps in having one brand voice and to keep the focus on the ultimate goal of social media; doing more business by building a long term relationship with your (potential and) loyal customers. This keeps brands on track, avoiding the pitfall of putting effort and resources in creating content which not relates to the strategic goals.</p>
<p>“Liquid” refers to the fact that content needs to be sticky; people need to love it in order to share it. Or, as Peter Kim (Chief Solutions Architect at Dachis Group) pointed out at the Social Conference 2013: content has to “make me laugh, make me cry or make me famous”. Content at scale has the advantage that the more content you have, the more you can analyze it. Via social content management tools and other software, you can measure which content resonates well on a very detailed level, for example with Accenture&#8217;s SNAP tool, Unmetric or SocialBakers. You could find out that for your brand polls work best in Asia on Wednesday afternoon. Or that localized content in Portuguese works best for your Brazil market. Or that historic pictures work very well for your retail brand, while technology updates work better for a car brand.</p>
<p>These insights helps content managers create (new) compelling content. In large organizations, where multiple content contributors develop the content, it is very useful to share these insights on a regular basis, for example via internal collaboration tools or via ‘old fashioned’ newsletters/content calls. This helps in developing and transferring internal knowledge from the Social media Hub or Center of Excellence to the content contributors. Although agencies might be very useful in content development, it is important to develop the social capability in-house.</p>
<p>In the end insights must find its way back into the business by improving products, or creating new product and services. Nike is an example of an organization that recently decided to develop all social media activities in-house for that reason. And next to creating your own content, fans are eager to create content for you too! Coca Cola explicitly mention this in its Liquid strategy; think of the fan pictures KLM shares each month with its Facebook fans; or the American brand that used Instagram for its cover image.  And once again, software (Accenture SNAP, eValue) can help you promote your best performing posts automatically in social advertisements to engage your fans and friends of fans even more.</p>
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		<title>Social media at scale</title>
		<link>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/social-media-at-scale/</link>
		<comments>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/social-media-at-scale/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:20:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Marije Gast</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Transformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latest Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brand identity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brand reputation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Online Branding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Social Conference]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/?p=9328</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Businesses are eager to start with social media, already started or customers took the privilege to do it for them… But how are they able to coordinate this?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Accenture-Social-Media-Scale-Blogpodium.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-9333" title="Accenture-Social-Media-Scale-Blogpodium" src="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Accenture-Social-Media-Scale-Blogpodium.jpg" alt="" width="345" height="165" /></a>Social media has grown beyond the marketing function. Whether it is PR managing a brand’s reputation, or R&amp;D crowdsourcing its new product, it is a company-wide practice nowadays. Numerous CEO’s (i.e. Richard Branson) already start their day by checking the daily update on mentions, fans and sentiment. But for most companies there is still a world to win in becoming social, connected and agile.</p>
<p>On February 14<sup>th</sup> 2013 The Social Conference was held at Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam, a conference on the impact and future of social media. Now social media is expanding, companies need to follow this trend and scale up their social practices. In my presentation titled “Social at Scale” I discussed how global brands can realize this while maintaining one voice and brand identity over multiple social platforms. Other topics discussed were “How to organize global content management?” “How to monitor sentiment in multiple languages?” and “How to engage and guarantee web care 24/7/365?”.</p>
<p><span id="more-9328"></span>In this series of blog posts I will be sharing the recaps and key take-aways of my presentation. Topics of this series include Monitoring and Insights, PR &amp; influence, Recruitment and Internal collaboration; kicking off with the best practices of global organizations on organizing social channels.</p>
<p><strong>Channels: </strong><strong>Organize and keep organized<br />
</strong><em>As a company, you might have multiple brands or location where you are operating. And these businesses are eager to start with social media, already started or customers took the privilege to do it for them… But how are they able to coordinate this?</em></p>
<p>Large companies often struggle with managing a large number of social media accounts. Although nobody owns social media, brands want control and influence over their presence on social channels. Although Facebook pages started by fans of the brand are fantastic assets, it is sometimes hard to manage the corporate identity if these pages and content are not branded. On the other hand, where non-fans are starting fake or fraudulent accounts, you also need to take action.</p>
<p>For all not self-owned brand accounts, a “social” approach is recommended. When approached in the right way in most cases the initiators of the pages are willing to hand over the accounts. For example, one company offered the moderators of non-owned brand pages a company tour, product samples and an exclusive preview of the launch of their new product. When dealing with cooperative accounts, a good relationship with legal and the social networks helps in solving intellectual property issues. Always consider the “win” for your brand against the “social publicity/reputation damage” when choosing your strategy. The next step is to determine the most appropriate way of representing the brand online (i.e. all brands under an umbrella brand such as Unilever). Based on your brand identity, your social strategy and the range of your brand across geographies, a strategy of organizing your accounts can be shaped. Great examples are Dove (soap) and Le Meridien (hotel chain), both on the other side of the spectrum.</p>
<p>Dove set-up their Facebook pages based on one brand identity and tone of voice. To reach customers across the globe, the pages are available in different languages based on the IP address of visitors. When this is not the preferred language, the user can change this manually, think of the large Hispanic population in the US who might prefer Spanish. The visuals are adaptive to the campaigns of the specific geography, but remain part of the Dove family; whether you buy soap in Asia or the UK, the product is the same.</p>
<p>On the other side of the spectrum is Le Meridien. This hotel chain has exclusive locations and emphasizes its local destinations as much as possible. By allowing all locations to maintain their own local page with specific local content, (potential) customer are able to feel the connection and inside knowledge. By using a company template (use of logo, photography, elements) they are able to maintain their overall branding.</p>
<p>Next week I will discuss the importance of Content and how content can increase your organizations’ relevancy.</p>
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		<title>Measuring customer experience and personalizing &amp; differentiating through analytics</title>
		<link>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/customer-experience-analytics/</link>
		<comments>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/customer-experience-analytics/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:21:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sandra.van.Maarseveen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Transformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latest Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Analytics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Effort Score]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer experience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Experience Index]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personalization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/?p=9276</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week I informed you about the rise of the mobile  customer experience and the trend of phone contact as a channel of last resort. This week I am moving away from our favorite device to customer experience trends that appear across all channels: measuring customer experience and personalizing &#38; differentiating through analytics]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Accenture-Customer-experience-Blogpodium.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-9296" title="Accenture-Customer-experience-Blogpodium" src="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Accenture-Customer-experience-Blogpodium.jpg" alt="" width="345" height="165" /></a>Last week I informed you about <a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/mobile-customer-experience/">the rise of the mobile customer experience</a> and the trend of phone contact as a channel of last resort. This week I am moving away from our favorite device to customer experience trends that appear across all channels: measuring <strong>customer experience</strong><strong> </strong>and <strong>personalizing &amp; differentiating through analytics</strong></p>
<p><strong>Measuring the customer experience<br />
</strong>Companies are becoming more and more open about their efforts to improve the customer experience. Think about website visits, service calls and even your average in-store experience, where you often get the question to provide feedback, rate offered services and sometimes even queries for improvement suggestions.</p>
<p>The Net Promoter Score is still the most popular metric to measure customer experience. However, as its popularity grows, the validity of the scores is likely to decrease. As NPS is merely a representation of intention, actual recommendation behavior tends to be much lower. How many companies you actually recommend to others? Exactly: not a whole lot. Now think about the number of companies that ask you NPS questions, do your answers reflect your behavior?</p>
<p><span id="more-9276"></span>Therefore companies start to explore other means to measure customer experiences. The Customer Effort Score (CES) and Customer Experience Index (CxPI) are gaining popularity. These metrics capture the customer experience in real time and can therefore be directly tied to business results. This is superior to the NPS that merely measures a future intention: uncertain of <em>when</em>, and foremost <em>if</em>, the customer will translate this into actual behavior. CES measures the ease of doing business with a company based on one question: “how much effort did you have to put in to handle your request?”.</p>
<p>The CxPI elaborates on this question by also asking how the customer felt after the interaction and whether the company met the customers’  needs. Measuring experience enables companies to develop a 360 degree view of the customer, helping them raising the bar on customer experience even further. What other measures of customer experience have you observed?</p>
<p><strong>Personalizing &amp; Differentiating through analytics<br />
</strong>Most Customer Centricity programs are focused to improve the customer experience by optimizing (internal) processes using some sort of customer feedback loop. As a result, the experience for customers in general has changed to overcome further incidents in the future. This is good, but companies fail to design the experience for every single customer anticipating the customer’s behavior.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it be a great if, after I tried to call my bank 3 times in one week to settle a payment dispute, the bank proactively called me to ask how it can help?  This sounds like magic, but with analytics this customer experience becomes reality. When customer feedback data is integrated within a company’s CRM system, a 360 view of the customer is created. Customer analytics can consequently be used to predict customers’ behavior, segment customers based on value and all the great stuff you never deemed possible.</p>
<p>Using the example of the bank, the bank analyzed its data and found that customers were most likely to leave after they had to call the contact center 4 times in 1 week. As corrective measure, the bank implemented a policy to proactively contact customers who had called the contact center 3 times in one week. These customers felt appreciated and well serviced, but what matters most was turning a negative feeling into a positive experience. More likely, these customers will tell others about their experience with their bank. Using and combing data that is already available in the company can further build and deliver the customer experience and even create a personal and memorable experience that lasts.</p>
<p>How do you think analytics can play a role in building a personalized customer experience and/or create service differentiation?</p>
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		<title>The rise of the mobile customer experience</title>
		<link>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/mobile-customer-experience/</link>
		<comments>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/mobile-customer-experience/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:54:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sandra.van.Maarseveen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Transformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latest Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer experience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer support]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile customer experience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/?p=9191</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the next three weeks I will post a number of the, in my opinion, most interesting customer experience trends. I will kick off this series with the rise of the mobile customer experience and the decreasing importance of the phone as a service channel.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Accenture-mobile-phone-Blogpodium.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-6409" title="Accenture-mobile-phone-Blogpodium" src="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Accenture-mobile-phone-Blogpodium.jpg" alt="" width="345" height="165" /></a>From the moment you start your career as a Customer Service consultant, there is no turning back: you will inevitably take a different perspective towards all service experiences you encounter professionally, as well as personally. When I notice something new or different in my customer service experiences, I cross check these with competitors and service organizations in different industries. This way I keep track of the maturity of Dutch service organizations and spot new trends!</p>
<p>In the coming weeks I will post a number of the, in my opinion, most interesting customer experience trends; kicking off this series with <em>&#8220;<strong>the rise of the mobile customer experience and the decreasing importance of the phone as a service channel&#8221;</strong></em>.</p>
<p><strong>The rise of the mobile customer experience<br />
</strong>Retailers are constantly seeking new opportunities to connect with their customers and to provide them superior customer experiences. The use of mobile internet is (still) growing significantly. In the Netherlands, for instance, the volume of mobile data usage <a href="http://www.opta.nl" target="_blank">increased 21% in the last 6 months</a>, while the more traditional mobile services such as sms are becoming less popular (-16%). Not surprisingly, retailers are keen on launching mobile websites and mobile apps. While initially mobile sites and applications might have been seen as just another sales channel, they offer opportunities for the entire customer journey from orientation, to purchasing and to after sales.</p>
<p>It appears to be challenging for retailers though to keep customers engaged via mobile apps. Features are frequently limited to shopping carts, store locator functionalities and viewing loyalty points. Mobile apps should offer the customer something extra, which should be relevant and fun, to continuously keep customers engaged. Think about offering customers a personalized reward when they’ve checked in 10 times, or in-store, location based mobile offers. The Neiman Marcus store in the US conducted a test letting customers communicate and interact directly with sales assistants via their mobile app. If a customer had downloaded the application and he or she walks into a Neiman Marcus store, sensors that interact with his or her mobile devices will kick into action. When that happens, alerts will be sent to the customer that let him or her know where in the store a preferred sales assistant might be working at that given moment in time. These are the fun elements that keep customers engaged!</p>
<p><span id="more-9191"></span>One area where mobile is particularly coming on strongly is the area of customer service. According to <a href="http://www.callcentertimes.com/Home/tabid/37/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/395/CategoryID/1/NewsID/338/Default.aspx" target="_blank">research</a> done by ClickFox, 78% of consumers surveyed use mobile apps for customer service purposes such as billing, account status/updates and interactive chat.</p>
<p>An example of a successful customer service app is <a href="http://fonolo.com/why-fonolo/" target="_blank">Fonolo</a>. Instead of waiting on the phone to speak with an available agent the app also makes it possible for customers to receive a call back once an agent is available. Both are prime examples of functionalities that get rid of frequent complaints and optimize the customer experience.</p>
<p><strong>Phone contact as the service channel of last resort<br />
</strong>Increasingly, the phone is seen as the last option for customers requesting support. Various self-service options and popular new channels will pull traffic away from the traditional call center.</p>
<p>Self-service options, like self-service portals and virtual agents, are becoming more advanced and reliable in the number of service requests and transactions they can support. New technologies allow the development of life-like computerized personas that mirror the behavior of a real call center agent. An example of this is <a href="http://www.apple.com/ios/siri/">Siri</a>, the virtual personal assistant developed by Apple. Siri helps Apple users to get things done just by asking their Iphone or Ipad. We expect this kind of technology to be implemented by an increasing number of companies this year.</p>
<p>For companies, to pull customers away from the expensive call channel, it is important to first create self –service solutions that support those features that are used most frequently. At a later stage the more complex, lower volume customer requests can be facilitated.</p>
<p>Alternative (live) channels, such as chat, social media and online customer support forums also contribute to this trend. Chat is a channel that often fits seamlessly in the cross-channel customer journey as it makes it easy for a customer to switch from browsing the company website to live contact with a support agent, while staying seated behind the PC or tablet. Social media and online forums have the advantage that other customers can actually act as a company’s customer service rep, taking work (and costs!) away from the company itself. Herein also lies a danger in that a single bad experience can easily be shared online using the same social media and customer support forums. This makes providing an excellent customer experience to every customer essential.</p>
<p>Next week I’ll share two additional trends I see from a customer experience point of view.</p>
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		<title>HPMC 2013 &#8211; Achieving the R-factor</title>
		<link>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/hpmc-2013/</link>
		<comments>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/hpmc-2013/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:42:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Harald Timmer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Transformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[homePageVideo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/?p=9050</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="342" height="250" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_i2pwGiR-fY" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="342" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_i2pwGiR-fY" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p>In today&#8217;s digital world, customers are becoming very knowledgeable, more aware of their power and they easy step away. With customers having unlimited choices, staying relevant to them has become part of the life blood that sustains any organization. Organizations which don&#8217;t produce products that are important and provide value to its customers will cease to exist. So what is the secret of organizations like Apple, Google and Amazon having a tighter grip on the customer than their competition in keeping and winning customers? The answer is the R-factor, which stands for &#8220;Relevance at scale&#8221;.</p>
<p>To gain more insights and discuss the challenges of staying relevant to customers anywhere and anytime, Accenture organized the High Performance Marketing Conference on January 24th 2013. With six key note speakers and two break-out sessions of leading organizations in the Netherlands, the event started with Accenture&#8217;s global expert on interactive marketing Nan Nayak discussing that customers being in control is for many industries and organizations a complete turn-around. With the momentum of Digital, Social media and Mobile, delivering the right message to the right customer, at the right time, through the right channel is not the future of Marketing, it’s today’s reality.</p>
<p>Relevance is about customer centricity, putting the customer in the center of every strategy and action of the organization. <span id="more-9050"></span>Customer centricity is beneficial to both customers and organizations, since <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/AccentureNL/hpmc-2013-oracle" target="_blank">86% of the customers is happy to pay up to 25% more</a> for a better customer experience. However, only 1% of the customers feel their need expectations for a good customer experience are always met, indicating that organizations still have a lot to win in this area.</p>
<p>Although social media had earned momentum over the past few years, the reality is that it is very much siloed in Marketing. Since consumers are making their networked lives more robust, expressing their opinions and feelings online at any given time; organizations need to reconnect with them by starting to listen. Listen to what they have to say, play an active role in asking them what they want and provide relevant answers in order to understand them and know if your products or services aligns with their needs.</p>
<p>To maximize the ability to be relevant across all channels organizations must also use next generation Analytics, putting Big data to good use to get a competitive advantage in multi-channel marketing. Although organizations are having access to more customer data than ever, during the event it became clear that most organizations are still immature in their customer data management. In order to get a more holistic view of today&#8217;s hyper-connected customer organizations need to enhance their customer databases with &#8216;deeper&#8217; information from multiple data sources (often) offered by third parties. This also includes information from social networks like interests, lifestyles and values, besides the standard social demographic and history data.</p>
<p>While decision makers are acknowledging the need for the R-Factor, at the moment little organizations are at the point of breaking down functional silos and exploring multichannel connectedness to drive a significant shift in organizational culture where consumer relevance at scale becomes a key operating principle. Organizations are only able to achieve consumer relevance by consistently unleashing relevant experiences across all channels, consumer intent segments and geographies. Although moving toward the R-Factor can be incremental, transformation is required in how companies operate in which data, technology and people need to come together to really drive customer experience.</p>
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		<title>The customer fairy tail: driving breakthrough performance in the era of relevance</title>
		<link>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/breakthrough-performance/</link>
		<comments>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/breakthrough-performance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Nov 2012 12:15:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Marije Gast</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Latest Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[agile commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business process management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CRM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer expectations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer relationship management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[touchpoints]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/?p=8524</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With the rise of new channels, even more ways of interaction have been demanded and created. Businesses try to please the customers ever increasing demand of 24/7 contact and interaction. But are they doing any good?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-8526" title="Accenture-Agile-Commerce-Blogpodium" src="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Accenture-Agile-Commerce-Blogpodium.jpg" alt="" width="345" height="165" />Once upon a time, when the shift from a product towards a service and experience oriented economy was made, inevitably customer service became more important. With the rise of new channels, even more ways of interaction have been demanded and created. By offering toll free numbers or @customerservice handles, organizations are trying to please the customers&#8217; ever increasing demand of 24/7 contact and interaction. But are they doing the right thing?</p>
<p><strong>From Channel to Touch points<br />
</strong>Customers are giving businesses a hard time. They are not only talking back via multiple channels, even worse, they are talking when nothing has been asked and expect a timely, personal and correct response. The average consumer does not think in channels or “moments of truth”, but wants interaction with (a representative of) a company at any time. Forrester outlines this in their “<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/brian_walker/11-03-11-welcome_to_the_era_of_agile_commerce">touchpoints-model</a></span>”; this model links and mixes diverse ‘old’ channels such as TV, stores and websites to new interactions via apps or social media in different stages of being a customer. Every phase knows its own touch points.</p>
<p>The challenge for companies is to adapt and optimize their way of working around this new customer behavior on all interactions and touch points, to make each contact with the organization relevant to the customers. And that is easier said than done. Recent <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.briansolis.com/2012/10/businesses-are-not-making-the-pivot-from-lip-service-to-customer-service/">study</a></span> by SAP shows that although organizations state they should use social tools for customer service, they don’t put the money where their mouth is: over 75% of surveyed organizations have invested less than 50K USD in social customer service.</p>
<p><strong><span id="more-8524"></span>Social as the CRM layer between channels and the company<br />
</strong>As long as organizations are mainly investing in setting up channels (let’s do a Facebook page!), I foresee a chaos in customer service, resulting in disappointed customers whose expectations are not met. However, Forrester spotted the first early adaptors operating in the next stage in which organizations align their traditional business with the customer facing side: “With customer experience as the competitive differentiator, more firms are moving from isolated business process management (BPM) and customer relationship management (CRM) to cross-functional transformative processes, designed to deliver <a href="http://www.forrester.com/reg/campaignlogin.xhtml?campaignID=CAM2412&amp;cmpid=mkt:soc:tw:BusinessProcessReport" target="_blank">exceptional customer experience</a>”<strong>.</strong> In some cases this goes as far as giving customers (or customer facing employees) the option to directly work in the core systems of an organization (End-to-End or Back-to-Front). They use this new approach to unleash relevant experiences across all channels and eventually drive breakthrough performance. Due to the continuous quest for organizations to reach out to their customers, the current period is declared as “<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-got-the-r-factor-summary.aspx">The era of relevance</a></span>”.</p>
<p>In this era of customer relevancy across channels, social gets the lead: from a multi-channel environment (in which social media is one of the channels) to a customer service environment where social media is the CRM layer between the channels and organizations. By leveraging the social data of consumers, organizations enable themselves to response timely, personal and correct to customer demands and deliver a better customer service experience.</p>
<p>And the customers and businesses lived long and happily ever after.</p>
<pre class="exampletext" style="background-color: #edf1f3; text-align: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 6px; padding: 6pt; border: 1px solid #9aaab4;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Sans-Serif; line-height: 19px; white-space: normal;">

<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 19px; white-space: normal;"><strong>HPMC 2013: driving breakthrough performance in the era of relevance</strong>

On January 24 2013, Accenture organizes the <em>8th High Performance Marketing Conference</em> with the theme: “Got the R-Factor? Driving breakthrough performance in the era of relevance”. Get up-to-date on the latest innovations in Marketing, Sales, Service and Digital CRM. Broaden your scope by attending presentations and break-out sessions on leading practices by registering at: <a title="http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/hpmc/Pages/introduction.aspx" href="http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/hpmc/Pages/introduction.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/hpmc/Pages/introduction.aspx</a>.</span>
</span></pre>
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		<title>New pressure for Utilities: the consumers quest for choice!</title>
		<link>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/new-pressure-for-utilities/</link>
		<comments>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/new-pressure-for-utilities/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:57:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Angela Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Latest Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Accenture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Consumer Choice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer expectations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer experience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer interaction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer loyalty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer needs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Utilities]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/?p=7948</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The bottom line is it is not about just energy anymore.  Consumers are looking to their energy providers for information around complementary products and services to improve convenience and solidify the relationship.  ]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Capture.jpg"></a><a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Accenture-Innovatie-ICT-Blogpodium.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-7899" src="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Accenture-Innovatie-ICT-Blogpodium-300x143.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="143" /></a>Earlier this year Accenture published the results of their 3<sup>rd</sup> annual global survey of energy consumers titled, <em><a title="Actionable Insights for the New Energy Consumer" href="http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-actionable-new-energy-consumer.aspx" target="_blank">Actionable Insights for the New Energy Consumer</a></em>.  This report provides energy organizations a detailed perspective into the current drivers influencing the shift in consumer needs and behaviors.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">“<em>The energy consumer landscape is constantly shifting with smart technologies, new products and services and challenging economic realities</em>.”  &#8212; <a title="Greg Guthridge" href="http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/accenture-u-blog-utilities-forum/FullBiography.aspx?name=Greg Guthridge" target="_blank">Greg Guthridge</a>, Global Managing Director Accenture Retail and Business Services for Utilities</p>
<p><span id="more-7948"></span>The above quote from Greg Guthridge highlights the multiple external factors influencing the consumer today and the leading role technology has been playing in driving this change.  As seen in many other industries, technology is making the daily lives of consumers more convenient and ‘mobile’.  Whether it is a new gadget, or a new software solution, today’s consumers are increasingly online and expecting convenience and transparency in everything they do.  This key shift in consumer behavior has made its way into the Utilities industry and is high-lighted in the report as the need for Energy providers to offer the consumer ‘choice’.  Choice in what products or services consumers can buy, choice in how they pay, choice in how they save, and choice in how they can bundle everything into one packaged tailored to their specific needs.</p>
<p>The bottom line is it is not enough to just provide energy anymore.  Consumers are looking to energy providers for information on complementary products and services to improve convenience and solidify the relationship.  The top three ranked responses in the report around what additional services consumers would value was information on: products and materials to make simple improvements to their home to save electricity, home energy generation products, and home energy audits and consultations.  These responses reflect an increase in ‘awareness’ for conservation, ‘loyalty’ as they want to contribute to supply generation, and ‘service’ to help them learn and become smarter about consumption and conservation.  These shifts are the beginning of the transition from traditional one way relationships to a two way open relationship build on trust and common goals.</p>
<p>An additional consumer &#8216;choice&#8217;  insight offered by the report is the willingness and openness of consumers for additional products and services not directly complementary to energy, but rather provide the consumer great convenience.  A few examples as found in the study are: 52% of consumers are somewhat, or very interested in, receiving home repair services (ex: plumber), and 49% of consumers are interested in receiving telecoms products from a Utilities.  It appears that energy consumers are becoming more interested in a wider, and more diverse portfolio of products and services.  Supporting this new idea of extending consumers &#8216;choice&#8217; beyond the traditional energy products and services is the direct correlation found in the report between number of products offered and the level of customer satisfaction.  A key challenge for Utilities companies will be to strike the balance between offering those extended products and services to drive customer satisfaction while not increasing the internal complexity and costs to effectively deliver the traditional versus the non-traditional energy products and services.</p>
<p>So how can Utility’s best approach the challenge of consumer ‘choice’?  Two key takeaways from the various findings supported by the research are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Know your consumer!
<ol>
<li>What are they willing to pay for? (ex: premium products &amp; services)</li>
<li>What are they willing to forgo in order to obtain a discount? (ex: default self-service)</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Offer solutions bundled to the needs of the consumer or provide them the choice to create the bundles!
<ol>
<li>What complementary services do your consumers value? (ex: energy consultation, plumbers, free weather stripping, etc.)</li>
<li>What partnerships are needed to ensure effectively delivery of those products and services outside the core business of the Utility? (don’t fall into the trap of trying to do it all yourself!)</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Doesn&#8217;t this all sound familiar?  In essence we have found ourselves back at key themes such as: Customer Analytics (know what to offer), <a title="Differentiation Drives Satisfaction" href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/delivering-choice-and-control-through-differentiation-82-like-it/" target="_blank">Customer Service Differentiation</a> (deliver the choice), and Operational Excellence (execute it seamlessly).  The good news is the report supports previous research found in many other industries (ex: Banking and Telecommunications) which means Utilities companies can learn from their best practices.</p>
<p>For more information on the survey results download the full report <a title="Actionable Insights for the New Energy Consumer" href="http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-actionable-new-energy-consumer.aspx" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
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		<title>6 ways to Drive Large-scale Changes with Social Media</title>
		<link>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/6-changes-socialmedia/</link>
		<comments>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/6-changes-socialmedia/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:06:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jort Possel</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Transformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latest Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Change management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Collaboration tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Management strategies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology Vision 2012]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/?p=6848</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While enterprises are eager to implement social media and collaboration tools into the corporate communications and management strategies, they struggle to be successful with such initiatives]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Accenture-SocialMedia-ChangeManagement2-Blogpodium.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-6917" title="Accenture-SocialMedia-ChangeManagement2-Blogpodium" src="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Accenture-SocialMedia-ChangeManagement2-Blogpodium.jpg" alt="" width="345" height="165" /></a>In the recent published <a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/featured/technology-vision-2012/" target="_blank">Technology Vision 2012</a> one of six most important emerging technology trends is that social media are becoming powerful catalysts that are changing the ways customers, employees and partners use technology to interact with the world around them. But most enterprises have yet to catch up to that reality and almost none take full advantage of it.</p>
<p>While enterprises are eager to implement social media and collaboration tools (e.g. web meetings and video conferences) into the corporate communications and management strategies, they struggle to be successful with such initiatives. Although the reasons for failure vary, many can be traced to the difficulty with managing multiple talent and organizational elements effectively across a global enterprise.</p>
<p><span id="more-6848"></span>Accenture believes that these challenges are well suited to the capabilities of social media and collaboration tools and identifies six ways in which these technologies can support more rapid and predictable management of large-scale change.</p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #66aa44;"><strong>Building a collaborative culture: </strong></span>Achieving success at major business transformation requires more than simply telling how things are going to be done. Acceptance of change—processes, policies and more—can be accelerated across the organization through the real-time sharing of experiences. Social networking and collaboration applications are extremely effective ways of bringing employees together to perform new processes and to share experiences. People with common interests or related roles can form communities to learn from and support one another.</li>
<li><span style="color: #66aa44;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Establishing more effective two-way communication: </span></span>Social media tools provide an effective communications medium as a large-scale change initiative proceeds. In addition, by monitoring and participating in online discussions, managers can more readily see where any misunderstandings or “pain points” exist and take steps to address them. Participation by leadership in social media-based collaboration platforms is essential for delivering the “voice of truth”. This reinforces the idea that social media can be used by employees not only to voice ideas and concerns but also to get accurate and credible answers regarding the company’s change effort.</li>
<li><span style="color: #66aa44;"><strong><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-6902" title="Accenture-SocialMedia-ChangeManagement-Blogpodium" src="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Accenture-SocialMedia-ChangeManagement-Blogpodium.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="105" />Creating more engaging learning experiences: </strong></span>Social media applications can be effective ways to deliver personalized learning experiences related to a change initiative, not just general broadcasts of information. These innovative collaboration platforms can be used in a variety of ways to encourage effective workforce enablement, including: Videocasts with short learning segments, and Live web meetings and telepresence solutions that bring together dispersed teams for a common learning experience.</li>
<li><span style="color: #66aa44;"><strong>Sharing current practices through a knowledge network: </strong></span>“Learning” refers to more than just the formal offerings that are designed and delivered from a central group. Also critical are the knowledge networks that can be formed quickly using applications such as Twitter, Yammer and Facebook. These networks can help employees get information about processes or technologies, share innovative practices and receive answers in timely ways. A platform to centralize and share content, expertise and knowledge.</li>
<li><span style="color: #66aa44;"><strong>Improving employee involvement and engagement: </strong></span>One of the critical success factors for managing large-scale change programs is engaging employees in the change—helping them to feel ownership in the initiative. Social media and collaboration solutions allow information to flow in multiple directions rather than just from the top down. For instance, using wikis and microblogs can “crowdsource” ideas and involve employees more directly in the change program. Organizations can build greater internal loyalty by actively soliciting continuous feedback on issues related to the change.</li>
<li><span style="color: #66aa44;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Assessing progress more regularly and effectively: </span></span>Social media applications can help enterprises with measuring progress on change programs by providing near real-time feedback about how well a program is going. Assessments can be supported in at least two ways: by providing a platform for nearly instantaneous survey-based feedback, which can supplement more comprehensive measurement exercises; and by conducting facilitated online feedback sessions. With social media tools, decision makers have timely information about employees’ understanding and acceptance of the change program.</li>
</ol>
<p>Collaboration and social media platforms play a growing role in conducting business and are important addition to a traditional change management program. With these six ways, collaboration and social media tools provide a powerful platform that can help enterprises successfully manage large-scale change and deliver a better change experience from the employee’s perspective.</p>
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		<title>Social Capital as a Marketing tool</title>
		<link>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/social-capital-as-a-marketing-tool/</link>
		<comments>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/social-capital-as-a-marketing-tool/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:15:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AccentureNL</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Transformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latest Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conversational era]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Capital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media command center]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media ROI]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/?p=6839</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If there is one conclusion that can be drawn out, it is that the uprise of Social Media changed the media landscape for good]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Blog post written by Wilko Wielinga. Wilko is a former blogger on Blogpodium and CRM consultant at Accenture Netherlands.</strong></p>
<hr /><img class="size-full wp-image-2417 alignright" src="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/social-media-attention-span-bw.jpg" alt="" width="340" height="165" />In the last couple of years Social Media has become a hot topic on the agenda of many marketeers, PR-managers and consultants with believers and non-believers both being very opinioned about the subject.</p>
<p>If there is one conclusion that can be drawn out, it is that the uprise of Social Media changed the media landscape for good. By empowering the customer to shape the ‘communis opinio’ it allows customers to identify themselves with many brands by engaging in conversations, involving in brand communities and sharing media with each other.</p>
<p><span id="more-6839"></span>Some companies identify this trend and therefore invest heavily in monitoring, participating and facilitating the conversation via Social Media channels. Dell for instance is doing this successfully with their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4ooKojHMkA">Social Media command center</a>. Other companies invest in Social Media channels as they are becoming increasingly prevalent in the marketing mix and marketeers are more and more investing in <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sodaspeaks/the-soda-report-11690932?ref=http://www.marketingonline.nl/nieuws/bericht/marketeers-geven-meer-uit-aan-earned-media/">Earned Media</a>, sometimes delivering <a href="http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Social-Media-Case-Study-With-Wizarding-World-Of-Harry-Potter-Theme-Park/1229468">amazing results</a>. However, not all online efforts are as successful. Some attempts of companies mingling in the online conversation <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-twitter-campaign-goes-horribly-wrong-mcdstories-2012-1?utm_source=twbutton&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=warroom">harmed</a> the brand or even <a href="http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/chapstick-gets-itself-social-media-death-spiral-136097">backfired</a> upon it.</p>
<p>Besides mingling in the conversation companies can create buzz by giving customers something to talk about (e.g. excellent service: Zappos), providing an original brand proposition (e.g. Michel et Augustin) or performing <a href="http://trendwatching.com/nl/trends/rak/">random acts of kindness</a>. In this way customers can be as effective as a marketing tool as the ‘traditional’ marketing tools (print advertising, bannering etc.) are. Investing in Customer Service delivers more than a good CSAT leading to more revenue, but will also leverage the customer base to an effective marketing tool replacing the tools for media attention that is normally paid for.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that the only thing missing in most <a href="http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/101-success-stories-yes-101-examples-of-roi-no-heres-why/">Social Media ROI success stories</a> is the costs that can be saved by actively using your customers as a marketing tool. Invest in satisfied/amazed/overwhelmed customers and they will create buzz and will lower costs in your marketing cost base (as these costs for media attention don’t have to be made). Good <a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/latest-post/essentials-excelling-analytics/" target="_blank">analytics</a> can provide insight in the buzz created by satisfied customers and its effect on customer opinion. Compare this to the costs you would normally have to reach this media attention (expressed in GRP, click-through rate etc.) and you would be able to define your costs saved.</p>
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		<title>Delivering choice and control through differentiation: 82% like it!</title>
		<link>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/delivering-choice-and-control-through-differentiation-82-like-it/</link>
		<comments>http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/marketing/delivering-choice-and-control-through-differentiation-82-like-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:04:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Angela Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[High Performance Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latest Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Open leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer expectations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer experience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer loyalty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer needs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Differentiated Service Strategy; customer service; workforce; digital interaction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/?p=6509</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The thing about passion is that it is catchy…the energy it gives rubs off onto others.  A colleague of mine had a recent ‘service experience’ and wanted to share it with me and I would like to share it with all of you.  I would like to introduce you to Lucinde Klop (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/Lucinde_K" target="_blank">@Lucinde_K</a> ) - another passionate customer service consultant from <a href="http://www.accenture.nl" target="_blank">Accenture</a> – and this is her service experience.

Selecting a new health insurance plan has been on my ‘to do list’ for a couple of weeks. I was not looking forward to this task, as I was expecting my only choice was between marginal differences in monthly payments and reimbursements.  However, when I finally got to it, I was highly surprised! Not only could I choose from monthly payment options, but I could also choose between various levels of service defined per insurance package.

It seems that a majority of Dutch health care insurance companies have picked up a strategy that is called delivering a ‘Differentiated Service Experience’.  Insurance companies are now offering different service levels per insurance package. They range from a more basic package, where all requests have to be handled online, to extended packages where full support from a call centre is provided.

Accenture believes delivering a ‘Differentiated Service Experience’ will become a major trend this year. Our belief stems from research conducted among 2900 US consumers which established a link between an increase in customer retention, reduction in support cost, and growth in the customer base by providing a differentiated service experience incorporating control and choice by the customer. As customer’s needs are rising and becoming more diverse, companies can no longer offer a one size fits all service experience that meets the needs of all customers while controlling costs.

By offering different service experiences, the diverse needs and expectations of customer segments can be met. For instance, customers vary in the extent to which they prefer self-service. Different service levels can cover multiple degrees of self-service. A differentiated service strategy also allows for providing service through the channel that is preferred per customer segment.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/10051.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-531" src="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/10051-300x143.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="143" /></a><a href="http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Couch.jpg"></a>The thing about passion is that it is catchy…the energy it gives rubs off onto others.  A colleague of mine had a recent ‘service experience’ and wanted to share it with me and I would like to share it with all of you.  I would like to introduce you to Lucinde Klop (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/Lucinde_K" target="_blank">@Lucinde_K</a> ) &#8211; another passionate customer service consultant from <a href="http://www.accenture.nl" target="_blank">Accenture</a> – and this is her service experience.</p>
<p>Selecting a new health insurance plan has been on my ‘to do list’ for a couple of weeks. I was not looking forward to this task, as I was expecting my only choice was between marginal differences in monthly payments and reimbursements.  However, when I finally got to it, I was highly surprised! Not only could I choose from monthly payment options, but I could also choose between various levels of service defined per insurance package.</p>
<p><span id="more-6509"></span>It seems that a majority of Dutch health care insurance companies have picked up a strategy that is called delivering a ‘Differentiated Service Experience’.  Insurance companies are now offering different service levels per insurance package. They range from a more basic package, where all requests have to be handled online, to extended packages where full support from a call centre is provided.</p>
<p>Accenture believes delivering a ‘Differentiated Service Experience’ will become a major trend this year. Our belief stems from research conducted among 2900 US consumers which established a link between an increase in customer retention, reduction in support cost, and growth in the customer base by providing a differentiated service experience incorporating control and choice by the customer. As customer’s needs are rising and becoming more diverse, companies can no longer offer a one size fits all service experience that meets the needs of all customers while controlling costs.</p>
<p>By offering different service experiences, the diverse needs and expectations of customer segments can be met. For instance, customers vary in the extent to which they prefer self-service. Different service levels can cover multiple degrees of self-service. A differentiated service strategy also allows for providing service through the channel that is preferred per customer segment. Our research confirms consumer receptivity towards differentiated service experiences: 82% of all consumers appreciate if they can customize their service experience.</p>
<p>Controlling costs is the another benefit of delivering a ‘Differentiated Service Experience’.  The costs of providing certain customers higher service levels are being compensated either by the higher price the customer is willing to pay, or the higher life time value the customer has.  Further, the research shows that consumers are far more receptive to differentiated service if they feel they are empowered to control their service choices even if their choice comes at a cost. In general, consumers prefer incentives for choosing a lower cost service and they don’t want to be charged more for better service.  The previous mentioned health insurance package are examples of cost controls and customer control and choice.</p>
<p>My positive experience with &#8216;choice and control&#8217; when arranging my health insurance has left me with hope that I can soon customize my service experience for other products and services such as banking and energy.</p>
<p>Read more on Accenture’s research and insights on <a title="PoV Differentiated Service" href="http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-building-differentiated-service-experience-strategy.aspx" target="_blank">‘Differentiated Service Experience’ </a>in our recent point of view.</p>
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