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The Digital Dilemma: “Twist or Stick” … “the winners are increasingly twisting!!”

The Digital Dilemma: “Twist or Stick” … “the winners are increasingly twisting!!”

When it comes to Digitalising your business we are often asked 3 “Key” questions:

  1. “Where do I start?”
  2. “How do I navigate my way through this myriad of change?
  3. “Is the pain worth the gain?”

“Where do I start?”

The businesses that start with a mindset of seeing data as an asset invariably accelerate their Digital progression faster & deliver stronger results.

Woman sketching a business plan on a placard at a creative office

It’s common sense really, structuring your data in a meaningful way is a “cornerstone” to any digital strategy. In fact I’d go further it’s a key component of what sets customer focused businesses apart from the rest. Get it right & you lay the foundations for using your data & business intelligence insight smartly with both your current & prospective customers. Skip this step & you’re setting your self up for failure & disappointment.

“How do I navigate my way through this myriad of change?

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, but the transition really isn’t as difficult as you image, particularly if your a business that has Customer & Staff advocacy at the heart go your business values.

Our role is to help you set out a clear path so that the change is:

  • Built on strong foundations
  • Manageable
  • Controlled & phased
  • Focused on the priorities
  • Embedded into your business

For some business starting this journey is intimidating, but typically once you have a clear framework around how you are going to go about this, it becomes:

  • Exciting
  • Cultural
  • Progressive
  • Energising

Is the pain worth the gain?”

For those that get it right, unquestionably “yes”. Whilst digitalising your business is “not for the faint hearted”, the benefits once you’ve started on that journey far outweigh the costs involved (time, energy, & financial).

Shot of a group of businesspeople arranging sticky notes on a glass wall in a modern office

Businesses that have a clear Digital Strategy & transformation plan in place:

  • Tend to attract higher acquisition multiples
  • Attract in investments
  • Think about how they can use & access their Data as a real asset
  • Focus more on how they can enhance their customer journey
  • Attract in Talent
  • Attract Customers
  • Typically enhance their customer loyalty
  • Are best placed to use predictive analytics to win
  • Gear themselves up to improve their efficiency
  • Customer experience driven businesses tend to see better returns on investments & outperform others across a whole variety of Customer metrics including higher average order value, & improved acquisition & retention.
  • A growing % of customers (particualrly in the 18 to 34 age bracket) are prepared to share their data in return for personalised experiences.
  • Members of loyalty programmes generate up to 18% more revenue than non members.
  • Customers who have high quality experiences are 2.7 times more likely to keep buying from a brand than customers who have low quality experiences.
  • Customers who have better historical experiences with transactional brands spend 140% more compared to customers who had bad past experiences.

Customer expectations continue to evolve & being able to access information & engage through their preferred “medium” is central to winning in an increasingly “Digitalised world”.

Author Derek Findlayson

What does it take to win & succeed in a rapidly changing Digital world?

What does it take to win & succeed in a rapidly changing Digital world?

Why is it some businesses see Technology as a real barrier to growth in their business & other’s see it as the platform to push forward at a different trajectory & win market share?

Well if there was an easy answer everyone would be doing it, but here’s a few pointers we see day in day out from working with some of the fastest growing & most successful business in the market:

What are some of the things the Winners do differently

  • Structure – Invest in shaping & structuring their Data in a way which enables them to use it proactively as a valuable asset.
  • Enrichment – Actively enrich their data with relevant 3rd party Data to elevate their insight to the next level.
  • Segmentation – Segment their Customer data to target & personalise any marketing, communication, or cross & upscales activity.
  • Alignment – Match their data to relevant stages of their Customer Journey
  • Analysis – Analyse & interrogate their data to identify relevant patterns & insight
  • Elevate – Use Machine Learning & artificial Intelligence at appropriate stages of the Customer journey to optimise their proposition & success
  • Intelligent & Relevant Cross & Up Sales – Use their Data Intelligently to cross & up sell relevant products & services to their clients at the most appropriate stage of the customer journey.

Getting the most out of your Technology, Data, Customer knowledge, & Insight is increasingly setting the Winners apart from the rest.

Talk to us if you are interested in knowing more about our approach to helping businesses enhance their use & understanding of Technology, MI, Data, & Customer Insight.

Author Derek Findlayson

Data & customer insight – a rapidly changing world

Data & customer insight – a rapidly changing world

I find it fascinating to see the different approaches adopted by businesses in managing & investing in their MI, data, & customer Insight.

At “one end of the spectrum”, we see businesses with historically a very “light touch’ approach to:

  1. The MI they measure.
  2. The Data they collect.
  3. The Customer Insight they gather & proactively use.

Whilst often still being solid businesses, they typically:

  1. Struggle to achieve the growth achieved by some of their competitors who use MI. data, & Customer insight to a greater extent
  2. Measure success in their business on a very limited & very narrow set of KPI’s which are mainly “backward looking”.

At the” other end of the spectrum”, we see businesses who continually invest in & enhance their approach to gathering & integrating their MI, Data, & Customer Insight.

These businesses:

  1. Have a huge appetite & thirst for Data, & Customer Intelligence.
  2. Continually look for ways in which they can use the data & insight they gather to enhance their customer proposition, journey, & experience.

When it comes to these “data hungry” businesses we find 3 common characteristics:

  1. Integrating all their Data – Wherever possible, they look for ways to Integrate all their data – Customer Journey, customer advocacy, business performance, CRM, Multi Channel Marketing activity & interaction e.g. social media, SEO, email, PPC, live chat
  2. “Dynamic Data” – Choosing & shaping the right Dashboard – They integrate all of their sources onto a  “real time” Dashboard that gives they dynamic data to proactively to drive success & improvement in their business
  3. Focusing on the right metrics – They measure a much wider range of relevant KPI’s that look both “forward” & “backward”

Through having an integrated approach to aggregating & using their data, these businesses typically:

  1. Outperform the competition in terms of Growth, Cross & Up Sales, & accelerating Customer Lifetime Value.
  2. Uncover more opportunities within both their existing Customer base & their Prospect pipeline.
  3. Create & capitalise on the ability to benchmark their business against the market.
  4. Quickly drive real value & time savings from having all of their data in one place in a format they can easily access & interrogate.

Talk to us if you are interested in knowing more about our approach to helping businesses enhance their use & understanding of MI, Data, & Customer Insight.

Author Derek Findlayson

 

Old world to new world – “The Customer Journey” – what a difference

Old world to new world – “The Customer Journey” – what a difference

Old World or is it …

In what other industry would you regularly find examples where the contact between a client & their supplier (in this case a broker or an insurer) might be as infrequent as every 12 months – None I’d venture to suggest!! but incredibly even in today’s world that is the reality of some customer relationships particularly those loyal & highly profitable customers who never have the unfortunate experience of having a claim.
But times are certainly changing ….

New World …

We are fortunate enough to work with some great fast growth, customer focused businesses & what often sets them apart from the competition is their total focus on the customer & in particular the customer journey. Those that get it really right:

  • Grasp ever opportunity they can to interact with their clients or their prospective clients
  • Understand & engage with their customers at each stage of their customer journey
  • Are obsessive about gathering data & insight about their customers at each stage of the customer journey
  • Continually look for ways to enhance their customer experience

It won’t come as any surprise to most of you that these businesses tend to be the one’s that:

  • Are growing faster
  • Are more profitable
  • Pull customers & people (talent) to them
  • Invest in multi channels marketing
  • Are really successful at increasing customer spend through relevant & targeted cross & up sale
  • Are top scorers when it comes to customer & staff advocac

As a customer myself “new world” certainly hits the mark for me …

Speak to us today if your interested in a fresh approach to developing your & enhancing your Customer Journey.

Author Derek Findlayson

“Shifting Gears” – Making the transition from Management Information to Business Intelligence … Customer Insight

“Shifting Gears” – Making the transition from Management Information to Business Intelligence … Customer Insight

Being privileged to work with a range of great businesses across the Insurance sector, from Insurers, to brokers, to software houses, to MGA’s, we’re often asked “What do you mean by business intelligence?”
Today’s fast paced world has introduced a plethora of new buzz words that energise some, & strike fear into the hearts of others – from ‘forward” & ‘backward” KPI’s, to dynamic data, to big data, but for me what really matters is:

What information can you gather that will give you an insight into “How you can enhance your customer experience & through this your customer proposition”

Those businesses that put their customer journey at the heart of the business intelligence & insight they gather, tend to be:

  • The businesses that are at the forefront of innovation
  • Top Quartile when it comes to Customer Advocacy
  • Top Quartile when it comes to business results

Why is that?

Well, it’s pretty simple really, they’ve made that transition from focusing on management information to “what do you do with that information” & what new information & insight do you need to gather” (Business Intelligence).

Those that get this really right join the loop between:

  • Continuous Customer Feedback
  • Smart & insightful use of data
  • Thought Leadership based on real & meaningful insight
  • & Customer Centric experience based Innovation

That feels like a great environment to be part of to me whether your a customer or a member of the team.

Speak to us today if your interested in a fresh approach to using business intelligence & insight to enhance your Customer Experience.

Author Derek Findlayson