Connect differently

Social media listening in and customer analytics lead to proper allocation of marketing and sales resources

In the current dynamic economic scenario, business is no longer just about maximising sales or increasing revenues. It is about increasing the profitability of sales. To do so, organisations are increasingly focusing on one of their scarcest resource - consumers. Owing to the digital and social revolution, consumers are talking to fellow consumers spread across geographies, sharing experiences and interacting with brands. With the balance of power gradually shifting towards the consumer, most businesses are aiming at transition to a customer-focused business strategy.

A customer-centric strategy for improving shareholder returns should focus on three factors: costs, potential customer value and consumer needs. When companies miss out on these, they end up placing customers into inappropriate value groups. This leads to inaccurate managerial decisions, improper allocation of marketing and sales resources, and low profits and lack of competitive advantage. Organisations need a complete picture of the measurable value of each customer relationship.

The ever-growing complexity
Keeping the customer at the heart of business initiatives enables organisations to understand the customer needs better. Being customer centric is a simple goal, however, it is difficult to attain. The complexity of attaining this objective further grows with increase in the organisation's cost constraints, number of channels, number of product lines, social network penetration etc.

Each of these parameters leads to the creation of data, which keeps on growing bigger. Another primary concern that typically exists in the Indian context is the lack of enterprise-wide consistency. Organisations consist of several departments and each department has its own data and from diverse sources. This leads to poor management of marketing assets and inconsistency in customer communication.

Tapping the big opportunity
Amid all these challenges lies the big opportunity - engaging with the connected consumer. Creating delightful customer experiences across customer lifecycle and across touch-points is the key to success. Today, customer is very aware. Losing a loyal customer might just be a click away! It is, therefore, vital to consistently create experiences that customers would love to share. Offering a low price or high discount might not create loyal customers, however, giving them an opportunity to connect with the brand and stakeholders will certainly keep them glued throughout the lifecycle.

Another important aspect in managing customer lifecycle is to understand the emotion behind each data-point - be it structured or unstructured. In such scenarios, reactive analytics do not seem to work. Organisations need to adopt proactive customer analytics.

Customer analytics equip the business with the expertise to recognise the customer in terms of business value, what he/she prefers to purchase today and in the future, which communication channel suits her the most and her propensity to remain loyal. Once these insights are discovered, it can be leveraged in running targeted campaigns, optimising communication, managing marketing assets and communicating the right offers across multiple channels.

Leveraging the connected world
With over 60 million Indians using one or the other social network, social media engagement emerges as one of the most effective platforms to interact directly with end customers and gain feedback. Today, the role of brands has changed from that of a content publisher to that of a conversation facilitator.

Organisations are constantly challenged to create customer experiences, analyse sentiments and measure marketing performance. Despite the vast potential social media brings, many organisations across industries such as banking, telecom, entertainment, insurance and automobile view social media activity primarily as a one-way promotional channel, and are yet to capitalise on the ability to analyse consumer conversations and turn the information into insights that impact the bottom line.

By applying data mining and text analytics, organisations can discover exactly how people feel about specific products or services so that they can pinpoint emerging issues, make improvements, enhance target marketing, and identify brand threats.

New-age marketing for the new-age consumer
Successful marketing is based on relationships - things such as listening, analysing and communicating - just like real life. But in real life, we know that if we keep doing the same things, we're likely to get the same results. In marketing, you may or may not get the same results if you keep doing the same things. Just a few years ago, we were talking about the information revolution; today, we are witnessing the social revolution. For businesses, it is both a challenge and an opportunity. On the one hand one influencer can spread positive vibes among thousands of potential customers, on the other hand one bad experience faced by the same influencer can create a negative image of the brand.

Social media listening in, customer analytics, marketing optimisation and campaign management tools enable decision- making across all departments of an enterprise. They help streamline, channelise and optimise marketing inputs to create a positive buzz about the brand and enables profitable revenue impact.

Sudipta K Sen

Regional Director, South East Asia, CEO & Managing Director, SAS Institute (India)