It’s hardly news that the internet has transformed customer buying behaviour. To meet the new and ever-changing customer requirements, companies must adapt and reorganise. This is a huge challenge for most – not least for the well-established.

The danger of doing nothing is very real and present. Every day traditional companies lose terrain to web based startups, who are able to focus fully on building loyalty and customer engagement with cohesive experiences.

Customer centricity and creating cohesive customer experiences is not just about letting the customer continue their journey regardless of platform and channel. It’s more about knowing your customer’s needs, wants and behaviour, so you can deliver the right message in the right moment and context. The snag is being able to act on the customer’s premise and predict upcoming needs – whether it for is inspiration, product information, a concrete offer, quick follow up, recognition, personal service or a video on how to check the oil.

Timing is everything and shouting BUY a little too soon may turn interested instantly off – and possibly straight into the arms of the competitor. Buying a car is rarely a here-and-now decision. Kindling the customer relation carefully, inspiration should be offered in the early stages of the decision making process. Later, when the customer is ready, we offer more solid information on the specific model, a test drive to experience the car and only when a lead is burning hot, we push the sales message. After purchase the relationship is consolidated, as satisfied customers with a positive brand experience are more likely to buy again, trade up and recommend in their own network.

The post Make Customers the Centre of your Business appeared first on Nzinck.

Smartphones have overtaken desktop as 1st screen, and we are far more intimate with it than with our closest friends. 87% of us sleep with it every night, and 68% check it as the first thing after waking up. And this is just the first of 150 daily checks.

Google clearly favours mobile users, and so should we. There’s no time to waste, as people who are checking us out on mobile are:

• 57% more likely to visit our shop
• 40% more likely to call us, and
• 51% more likely to buy our products and services

These facts and much more can be found in Google’s report about micro moments and the shift to mobile.

Micro-moments happen everywhere

Micro-moments happen everywhere, all the time, and mobile users are impatient creatures. The days are gone, when we solemnly sat special time aside and our butts down at the desktop to research on a new car or the next vacation destination.

We want our answer here and now, and we are gone if it takes more than 3 seconds. In fact, 82% consult their phone on their way to the check-out counter in physical shops, and poor you, if all you’ve got is slow loading desktop content.

Ultimately, a customer journey is the sum of all micro moments with differing intent in each phase and across all channels and devices. It’s crucial to realise that only a small fraction of people who encounter your brand or content are ready to buy now and will get turned off if pushed too soon or aggressively.

To drive incremental revenue, lead generation and brand sentiment, we should focus on offering short, clear interactions that add value or help the customers on their terms – instead of our own.

The post Catch Your Customers in the Micro-Moments appeared first on Nzinck.

Why is B2B so boring, humorless and cold? My inbox is crammed with B2B inquiries that reveal an alarming lack of understanding of me and my business. It’s the same old business bullshit. Traditional letters, so detached and deadly drab that most of them, fortunately are discarded by good old miss Outlook before reaching my delicate eye.

Personas are increasingly used to develop relevant content for business customers. But why then is the actual person then given such low priority? It’s people, we are communicating with – not companies. And even as business customers, most of us are guided by unconscious impulses. We may be really good at rationalizing our choices and preferences afterwards, but the fact is, that even business people act on emotion.

B2B no doubt will become much more engaging, effective and enjoyable, once we start communicating to and as people rather than detached companies.

The post Does B2B have to be Boring? appeared first on Nzinck.

That’s the reality, and in our efforts to gain some kind of control over our brand and business, marketeers search desperately for the truth in the shape of a new buzzword, technology or marketing mantra to boost sales, brand value, conversion rates, or whatever may be the answer to our prayers.

A closer look at the new buzzwords reveals a certain familiarity, but even if it’s old wine on new bottles, you may want to dive in and drink it up. New terms like customer engagement, client management and customer journey breath new life into the ever important (but stale old) customer relation.

At the same time, the new terms accommodate new methodologies and premises. The premise for good customer relations, for example, has definitely changed with the changing customer behaviour. The technological development enables a whole new way of companies to be relevant in the context of the individual customer’s life. Consumers, customers or just people in general expect to have their needs met instantly – right here and now in all the micro moments that constantly occur throughout the customer journey. With real time marketing, we are able to react promptly to individual digital behaviour in the #ContextofNow

Too much buzz may, however, make us blind to an ever-changing reality. This is the topic of a very interesting and quite entertaining article by Tom Goodwin: It’s Now 2016, Time to Ban the Word Digital

The post A Buzzy Business: Time to Kill Your Darlings appeared first on Nzinck.

Google favours mobile users

Smartphones have overtaken desktop as 1st screen, and we are closer with it than with our closest friends. 87% of us sleep with it every night, and 68% check it as the first thing after waking up. This is the first of (brace yourself!) 150 daily checks adding up to almost 3 hours of daily mobile surfing before the sandman cuts the power.

With their SEO update last year, Google clearly favours mobile users. So should we, and there’s no time to waste, as people who are checking us out on mobile are:

• 57% more likely to visit our shop

• 40% more likely to call us, and

• 51% more likely to buy our products and services

These facts and much more can be found in Googles report about micro moments and the shift to mobile.

Micro-moments happens all the time and all over, and mobile users are impatient creatures. They want their answer here and now, and leave if it takes more than 3 seconds. All of 82% consults their phone on their way to the check-out counter in physical shops, and poor you, if all you’ve got is slow loading desktop content.

Please contact Mette Stenstrup on +45 40 88 13 60 or mette@nzinck.com for further information or to set up an appointment to discuss your opportunities.

The post The Battle for the Customer is on the Phone appeared first on Nzinck.

Whether we are on Facebook or not, people talk about our brand and what they say define it. It’s beyond our control, but by joining in the conversion, we have an opportunity to learn about our customers, and show them our sincere interest in giving them the best possible experience.

Customers have moved beyond traditional marketing. They don’t want to be communicated to – they demand conversation. Not just on social media platforms, but also on your corporate website and other touch points where they meet your brand. They expect dialogue and quick response similar to good old fashioned up close and personal service.

Do you hear voices?

And the beautiful thing about conversation is that it requires listening as well as talking. So tune in to all the voices out there, and act on it. You might not like everything you hear, but embracing the unique opportunity of learning from the voices is vital to the success of any business.

Listening to your customers allows you to pinpoint areas for improvement and create customer experiences that exceed expectations and generate loyalty.

Identify your sources of information

Being alert and open to direct approaches from customers, suppliers, staff, the press and other stakeholders is certainly a start, but we recommend setting a game plan for your feedback gathering.

You need to identify the sources of information. Where do people talk about your company/brand and where would they like to be able to talk with you? It could be:

• Different types of social media like blogs, microblogs (eg Twitter), content communities (eg YouTube), social networking sites (eg Facebook)
• Feedback from your personal meetings with customers (eg customer service, sales persons)
• Contact via website (mail, chat, formula) etc., just continue the listing. Various technologies enable very detailed and actionable feedback mechanisms today.

Listening without action, however, is a waste of time. Companies need to engage in conversation, take proactive and corrective action and generally be prepared to alter and adjust plans continuously to optimize the customer experience.

Enjoy the conversation!

The post It Takes Courage to Listen! appeared first on Nzinck.

A broader perspective

Turning the lens sharply on the customer, adjusting and optimising customer engagement in terms of KPIs on the dashboard may, however, be too narrow. In our determination to understand the customer, we tend to forget the employees and their role in creating genuine customer engagement. Widening the perspective just a tad allows us to include employee engagement in the equation.

Employee engagement is imperative to engaging customers. With insight, responsibility and authority, engaged employees are in a unique position to build relationships with customers that could never be accomplished by marketing automation.

Will companies with the best robots win all the customers? I’m convinced they wont. Smart technology can help us get the right message across at the right time, but lasting loyalty requires a personal relationship between the customer and an engaged employee.

The post What’s Customer Engagement Without Employee Engagement? appeared first on Nzinck.