CMC NewsByte: UK marketers leave board in the dark about performance

16 May 2006:
UK marketers leave board in the dark about performance

Two in five marketers fail to report in detail on marketing performance to the board and one fifth find assimilating marketing performance management data so difficult they don’t bother measuring performance at all.

Half of marketers spend on average an entire working week preparing the relevant content for their board meetings in a survey taken by Enterprise Marketing Management specialist, Aprimo, Incorporated.

Aprimo’s research shows a worrying lack of effective performance measurement and reporting by marketers. Surprisingly 16 per cent of those surveyed saying that measuring the success of marketing strategies and goals was not something the board was demanding. This contrasted with 50% of the survey participants who confirmed the ‘marketing measurement imperative’ in the board room but complained of the lack of IT infrastructure required to capture the raw data needed.

Less surprising was the confirmation that the preferred tool for capturing and presenting marketing performance was email, spreadsheets and PowerPoint. Only one in ten respondents actually used a custom or packaged Marketing Performance Management (MPM) solution.

The general picture painted by the research was that marketers felt measurement and reporting was too time-consuming and difficult, with 28 per cent of those who do not provide reports to the board admitting it was because the process simply takes too long in relation to the benefit it delivers.

"The lack of effective measurement systems available to marketers today is astonishing given the pressure marketers are continually under to justify their budgets and resources. This points to the fact that data is captured in lots of different places and this makes it difficult to consolidate and report in a meaningful way to someone who is likely not from a marketing background," said Aprimo EMEA Managing Director, Andrew Yates.

15 May 2006:
Consumer phone rage is serious issue for UK customer service

37 per cent of UK consumers surveyed admitted that they have shouted and sworn at customer service agents over the telephone. This 'phone rage' may be an issue which is to blame for the current high levels of absenteeism and agent churn, as agents become stressed and disillusioned with their roles. This year's annual Merchants Global Contact Centre Benchmarking report (out 22 February 2006) had already revealed contact centre staff absenteeism to be up almost 50 per cent on last year’s levels (11% from 8%). The same report also revealed that contact centre agents are changing their jobs more frequently too, with an agent churn level at 21 per cent (Merchants believes the actual figure for the industry to be much higher than this).

There are an estimated half a million contact centre agents in the UK who handle customer orders, enquiries and complaints. Merchants’ explanation for the high levels of consumer verbal abuse directed at agents is that the rapid access to information provided by the Internet has increased consumer expectations from the suppliers they deal with. Merchants also sees the demise of telephone etiquette as attributed to the informal nature of texting and calling on mobiles. This would explain the decrease in verbal abuse in the older age brackets - 17 per cent for those over aged 66, as opposed to 49 for those aged 26 to 35.

Martin Dove, Chief Marketing Officer at Merchants said: "As an industry we need to take steps to protect contact centre agents from customer abuse as much as we take an interest in the service we are providing our customers. Educating consumers about the impact of inappropriate behaviour on these agents’ everyday lives is one part of this. Training agents to empathise as they acknowledge customers problems and empowering them to provide resolution and take care of customers is vital. Well handled calls should leave customers happy rather than angry.

"Due to certain companies delivering fantastic customer service, through clever and integrated use of technology, as well as highly skilled agents, consumers have come to expect this from suppliers across the board, regardless of size or industry. Only when all businesses have developed directing their callers as quickly as possible to appropriately engaged agents who can handle their query well will the level of customer abuse of agents reduce."

10 May 2006:
SMS Patient Reminder Messages Reduce Missed Appointments by 30%

Existing research highlights the fact that 15 million medical appointments are missed each year costing the government and private healthcare industry millions in lost annual revenue.

Recent studies from the 'Research and Markets' Report has highlighted that fact that more and more healthcare organisations are embracing SMS text messaging in order to enhance business operations, reduce the number of missed medical appointments and ultimately increase patient care.

The report has indicated that Outpatient clinics, that are using SMS based appointment reminder systems, are seeing a reduction in missed appointments or 'Did Not Attend' (DNAs). Furthermore, it reveals that Outpatient clinics that deployed SMS patient reminder systems saw DNA rates fall by up to 30% even though less than 20% of patients chose to use the service.

Peter Tanner, Managing Director and Founder of TMC Ltd. commented: "SMS bulk messaging technology, as provided by The Messaging Centre, can provide critical support to sectors such as mental healthcare where Outpatient clinics and social services are under political pressure to ensure that patients keep appointments and comply with medication regimes. Text message based reminder systems are particularly useful for this sector because the demographic profiles of persistent DNAs and mobile phone users are very similar."

Many businesses across the EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) have already harnessed the power of browser-based SMS texting.

Here are just a few examples:

• Reed Executive sends 120,000 SMS messages per month to job seekers all over Europe
  
• Royal & Sun Alliance has integrated text messaging with it's call centre to support new electronic insurance services
  
• McDonalds experienced a 29% response rate on an SMS monthly game
  
• ITV and Channel 4 ran major SMS services to accompany their Survivor and Big Brother programmes
  
• Emergency services alert their response vehicles and notify essential information

08 May 2006:
International poll finds out what really bugs consumers about contacting call centres

A new international survey of consumers about their experience with call centres reveals that the British get more cross about customer agents with hard-to-understand accents than being put on hold for up to 10 minutes when they contact a call centre with a problem or query.

Conducted for NetReflector , a leading provider of enterprise feedback solutions for major corporates, the research explored the customer experience of contacting call centres in nine countries around the world.

Overall, the Brazilians appeared to be the top complainers with 83% of the respondents claiming to have made a complaint in the last six months. They were followed by the British, who surprisingly were ahead of the USA (5th), French (6th) and Germans (7th). The Chinese appear to be the least likely complainants with only 37% saying that they had complained.

When asked what frustrates them most about call centres, UK respondents said bad accents (27%) were their top complaint, followed by being made to wait too long on the line (21%). Other English-speaking countries – Australia, Canada and USA – agreed with UK respondents on this issue – perhaps, highlighting consumer resistance to how customer support functions have been outsourced to off-shore providers in such countries as India or the Philippines.

Difficult-to-understand customer agents seem to cause greater offence than long waiting times to get through to the agent in the first place. Over half of the UK respondents (53%) said they were ready to wait up to 10 minutes, for example.

Customers in non-English-speaking markets rated other issues as more problematic. For example, for the French and the Germans, waiting on the phone was the prime problem, whilst the leading frustration for the Chinese and the Russian respondents was that call centre staff were condescending or rude.

Regardless of some national sensitivity to bad accents, the survey suggests the solution for improving the customer call centre experience is to keep the experience as short as possible. Across all countries, the most important ways to satisfy customers in a service interaction is to ensure they speak with knowledgeable service agents who resolve the customer's problem in one interaction. Less important elements to ensure satisfaction with customer service revolves around the service agent’s interpersonal skills. .

Commenting on the research, Professor Merlin Stone, Visiting Professor at Brunel University, London, and an expert on customer service for change management consultants WCL, said: “This research confirms my worst fears – that far too many companies have focused on cutting costs, even if it makes the customer experience worse. No wonder that the best thing for them to do is to keep the (bad) experience short. But there is another way - provide the customer with better service, retain them for the longer term, and sell them more, while controlling costs by encouraging them to increasingly use self-service, on the Web or through Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR).
That’s what the best companies are already doing.”

03 May 2006:
Unica Announces Results for Fiscal 2006 Second Quarter

For the second quarter of fiscal 2006, Unica reported record total revenue of $18.8 million, an increase of 23% compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2005. License revenue increased 21% to $8.5 million and maintenance and services revenue increased 25% to $10.3 million from the prior year quarter. For the second quarter of fiscal 2006, maintenance revenue was $8.0 million, an increase of 32% from the prior year quarter, and services revenue was $2.3 million, an increase of 6% from the prior year quarter.

Yuchun Lee, chief executive officer of Unica Corporation, stated, "During the second quarter, Unica continued to deliver strong financial results while managing two strategic acquisitions and transitioning our financial executive leadership." Lee added, "We are optimistic about the long-term future for Unica. Customer and industry analyst response to our strategic direction is very positive, and we believe we remain in the early stage of a large market opportunity. In particular, we plan to increase our resources dedicated to the rapidly growing internet marketing sector, which is intended to further differentiate Unica and extend our leadership position in the core EMM market."

03 May 2006:
Maconomy launches new version of project management software

Maconomy, a leading provider of business solutions for professional service companies, has today launched the newest version of its project management software. The latest release, Maconomy X, is designed and developed specifically for management, engineering and creative consultancies, and will enable these businesses to manage, monitor and bill for the hours worked by consultants on client projects more efficiently and effectively. As a result, Maconomy X gives them more time to ensure deadlines are met, increase their focus on quality and improve results.

According to research, employees in professional services companies only register and invoice half of their work hours. Maconomy X incorporates Maconomy’s innovative ‘Time - on time’ concept, which allows users to capture the number of hours spent on various jobs and tasks in real time. This enables companies to invoice based on an accurate calculation of hours spent on a project, and to follow up quickly on initial project estimates.

Marcus Leathwood, business development director, Maconomy UK, says: “‘Time is money’ may be a worn-out expression, but when a company's very existence is based on providing time-based services, efficient tracking is vital to overall profitability. Maconomy X is designed and developed for employees to log their time easily and swiftly. Only when employees register their time correctly can work hours be invoiced precisely.”

Other new features in the software include a pricing module that enables consultancies to create realistic estimates in the sales phase and convert this to the baseline budget once the contract has been approved. Maconomy X also offers enhanced project management capabilities, a decentralised planning and forecasting module and integrated business intelligence reporting technology from Business Objects, while retaining the intuitive ease of use that has characterised all Maconomy products.

03 May 2006:
The AA joins Nectar scheme as partner

Loyalty Management UK today announces that the AA will be joining the Nectar loyalty programme expanding Nectar’s offering into the field of breakdown cover.

As the UK’s leading breakdown service, with almost 15 million drivers relying on it, the AA repairs more breakdowns by the roadside than anyone else. From June 2006, Nectar collectors will have the chance to earn two Nectar points for every pound spent when purchasing AA Personal Membership - including optional European Breakdown Cover and Breakdown Repair Cover.

David Warren, Head of Affinity at the AA, said:

"Nectar has a strong brand alignment to the AA because of its reliability and popularity with consumers – this relationship provides the AA with a real opportunity to engage and acquire new members, while at the same time rewarding our existing members."

02 May 2006:
Free copy of the UK Contact Centre Operational Review, plus a £10 Marks and Spencer gift voucher

Companies with at least 25 UK agent positions in their contact centre(s) are invited to take part in confidential research for the 4th edition of the UK Contact Centre Operational Review, the largest and most comprehensive study of our industry.

Participants will receive a full copy of the 200-page report (which will be sold for £200), containing key analysis and data segmented by vertical market, contact centre size, region and activity.

Respondents will also receive a £10 Marks and Spencer gift voucher as a small gesture of appreciation for their time (it will take around half-an-hour to fill in the questionnaire).

Past reports have been contributed to by over 800 companies, of all sizes, locations and industries. Respondents have a choice of Excel- or telephone-based interviews, and the report will be available in September 2006. (All data are aggregated and will remain strictly confidential).

To qualify for the free copy of the UK Contact Centre Operational Review and receive the £10 gift voucher, all responses must be completed and received by July 14th 2006.

For more information, please contact Steve Morrell at ContactBabel on 01740 629835 or email him at smorrell@contactbabel.com.

28 April 2006:
Skype achieves 100 million users

Skype, the global Internet communications company, today reached a major milestone when it passed 100 million registered users. The company achieved this milestone in just two-and-a-half year’s time, and has nearly doubled in size from September 2005 when it had 54 million registered users. Skype makes it easy for anyone with an Internet connection to make free, unlimited worldwide voice and video calls.

"Skype has grown in leaps and bounds by making it simple for anyone across the world with an Internet connection to do something they could not do before – talk for as long as they like, to whoever they like for no cost. Passing 100 million registered users within such a short time reinforces how much people love how easy Skype makes it to call friends, family and colleagues all over the world for free," said Niklas Zennström, CEO and co-founder of Skype. "We owe the Skype community a debt of gratitude for helping us realize this exciting milestone and look forward to keep growing together."

27 April 2006:
Independent analyst firm places Trillium in 'Leaders' Quadrant for data quality tools

According to the Gartner report, "leaders" demonstrate strength across a complete range of data quality functionality, including profiling, parsing, standardisation, matching, validation and enrichment. They exhibit a clear understanding and vision for where the market is headed, including recognition of non-customer data quality issues and the delivery of enterprise-level data quality implementations. Leaders also have an established market presence, significant size and a multinational presence.

"Trillium Software's products are an integral part of our data quality strategy," said Keith Landau, vice president, customer relationship management, for Monster Worldwide. "Monster has had great success evolving an enterprise solution over the course of several years to meet rapidly growing business demands. We continue to execute on this strategy and feel confident that the latest version of TS Quality will contribute significant value to our business."

"We understand what it takes to be successful in the data quality market, a focus on client success, clear and compelling product differentiation, and the ability to deliver technology that enables customers to achieve their business goals," said Len Dubois, vice president, Harte-Hanks Trillium Software. "Our position in the 'leaders' quadrant underscores our ability to know where the market is headed and that we continue to be ahead of our competition in delivering innovative technology that allows our clients to expand their use of high quality data to drive their business. Client focus has been and will continue to be a key to our development philosophy and enable us to remain a leader in this market."

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