EService, Social Media and Customer Service Trends [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

June 23, 2012 

Eservice, Social Media and the Customer

With the social media craze estimated to grow by 37% this year, businesses must be ready to intercept social media friendly customers and serve them well.  It’s not just about speed of service to customers, but the other factors that play into building that customer base, and just as important, retaining those customers.

Here is a strategic look at customer service from the Eservice & Social Media business side, in this infographic from Bluewolf.

Ground-breaking customer service models driven by:

• 87% customer demand for better service
• 71% from pressures from competition 
• 28% loyalty of the customer

Customer behavior when businesses screw up:

• 17% leave after a single mistake
• 40% hit the road after a two mess-ups
• 28% have had enough after the third mistake

Social Media and Eservice Trends:

• E-service (web, social media, chat) estimated to grow by 53% in the next year
• Social media expected to grow by 37%
• By 2020: 90% of businesses will use social media for responding to customer inquiries
• 20% of Fortune 500 companies engage with customers on Facebook

Changing the customer service model may be necessary for businesses as the social media platforms in use will continue to grow.  Integrating and emphasizing an Eservice model would seem essential to the speed and effectiveness of customer service, in satisfying the customers for long-term relationships with businesses.

Here are some additional Social Media articles, blogs and infographics:

• Social Media, Mobile and Internet Data by the Minute [infographic]

• Social Media Use, From the Employer Perspective [infographic]
• Twitter Statistics Showing Exponential Growth [infographic]
• Digital Marketing – Conversion Opportunities for Business
• Social Media Buttons for Targeting Your Business Audience [infographic]
• Social Media Statistics on the Fortune 500 Companies [infographic]
• Social Media Statistics on Pinterest – Traffic and Online Sales Impacts

Customer Service blogs and infographics:

• Self-Service – The Evolving Automated Customer Service Experience
• Contract Proposal Can Lead to More Clients, More Revenue
• Product Mix – Designing Products and Services for the Consumer

Strategy Plan One

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Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Marketing Opportunities – Changing the Daily Deal Model [Infographic]

Strategy Plan One

May 9, 2012 

Marketing Opportunities

The good and the bad come with the high exposure, volume discount daily deal marketing opportunities.  One company, ConstantContact has come forward with a fresh Save Local daily deals model.  Benefits to this new model include:

• More Merchant control – on discount, timing, terms
• Deal sharing incentives – more benefits to the buyer when sharing the deal with others
• Affordability – no steep revenue sharing
• Model focuses on long-term relationship building

Check out this infographic from ConstantContact:

Through your core business and marketing planning exercises ensure that you analyze your marketing and promotional activities for effectiveness.  Measure you Return on Investment in marketing activities, and revise your marketing plan and activities accordingly.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Use of Social Media for Marketing, and Other Marketing Activities

Strategy Plan One

May 4, 2012 

Use of Social Media for Marketing

Gone is the traditional method of advertising in the newspaper and radio and in with current social media marketing and advertising platforms.  Or are those methods gone?

For sure social media is in and it continues to grow exponentially.  Just when you thought user bases were leveling out, a new interest in a platform keeps the level of growth consistent.  It seems every week a new wave of more interesting social media platforms emerge.  However, business owners must not forget the other forms of marketing that would add value to the marketing mix.

Social media marketing involves the promotion and attention of your business, and engagement between users of social media platforms and your business’ products and services.  The use of social media for marketing would be the purpose of gaining traffic and attention to your business.

Whether through short bursts of information using Twitter or detailed Facebook or LinkedIn pages, the absolute benefit to businesses using social media, is that information can be shared quickly across massive audiences.  It has been a business to consumer and business to business trend over the past era, but not known if this marketing trend will be long-lasting.  If it will be long-lasting, social media marketing may evolve as fast as the whole social media industry itself is evolving.

Marketing Activities – Considerations other than Social Media

Marketing plans could be chalked full of a mix of marketing activities, new and traditional forms.  An entrepreneur should dig into developing activities that would be applicable to promoting and getting out the appropriate message on their own product and service mix.  Yes, social media may work to a certain extent, but may not be the best avenue for local, personal marketing for example.  Entrepreneurs may have to consider forms of advertising and that promote products and service in person, such as trade shows, and promotional events.  Differing from social media marketing, trade show events give you the ability to showcase products and services to masses of potential customers, with colourful, interactive displays manned by representatives (actual people) promoting the business.

Marketing Plans

When developing detailed business and marketing plans, consider the mix the marketing activities based on your intended audience, and what type of method you will use to effectively engage with your audience and raise attention.  You may find social media works well in junction with other forms of marketing activities.  Carefully weigh your options for marketing activities and measure results from activities.  Best results may occur when revising your marketing activities mix.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Cost of Gas – Current Trends and Impacts on Business

Strategy Plan One

April 28, 2012 

Cost of Gas

Current indicators are favoring lower prices in fuel, especially the cost of gas, over the next few months.  The recent downward trend in gas futures is most likely signally lower fuel prices at the pump in the short-term.  The following graph illustrates this decreasing trend, with a drop in gasoline futures of $0.21 per gallon over a month, a 6.4% decrease this month alone.

Graph courtesy of money.cnn.com

The potential downward trend, once it hits the pump is good news for the consumer, for business and industry, who rely on transportation of goods and feel the impact of the cost of gas associated.  If it translates across to the user, a rough 6.4% decrease in fuel costs will help businesses who are struggling to balance budgets with the recent, previous spike in fuel costs.  This should be noted as a potentially lasting on the short-term, as patterns change with summer months and supply and demand.

Oil Prices

The cost of Brent Crude Oil has slightly declined over the past month, mimicking the gas futures trend.  The following graph from oil-price.net illustrates the similar pattern, with a dip in crude oil  from a high of almost $125 a barrel to the current price of $119.

Graph courtesy of oil-price.net 

Speculation has now simmered from the fears of gas hitting $5 a gallon, but consumers and businesses should take this information with caution as the impacts may be short lived, with other global concerns and factors weighing into future gas and oil prices.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Color and Design – Factors Influencing Commerce [Infographic]

Strategy Plan One

April 14, 2012 

Color and Design

Many factors influence how, when, where and what we buy in the marketplace.  Marketing plays a key role in tapping into these cues, and utilizing them out front to build a more richer, more powerful message to the consumer.  Making the powerful message resonate with the consumer more will result in a deeper connection, relationship and eventually sales and revenue.

This infographic from KissMetrics digs deep and illustrates color and design, and other factors that influence our purchase decision-making process.

Color and Design Facts

Interesting facts to note from this infographic on color and design influences:

• 93% of consumers place visual appearance as the primary factor in purchasing
• 85% state color as the primary visual factor
• Color influences brand recognition by 80% (confidence factor)
• Online shopping – 42% based an opinion of a website on its overall design
• Webpage load time factor / correlation:  longer load times result in decreased sales
• Different colors have different effects/purposes: Blue – security/business, Red – Sales, Yellow – optimistic/youth

When developing your marketing plan and marketing activities, use the appropriate color and design for maximum impact and benefits.  You may have to complete some market testing with color and design in your products and services.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur