 Coming on the heels of old-school data crunching, surveys and statistical tools, data science has been teetering on the horizon of business analytics for quite some time and is now empowering millions of businesses worldwide, providing unprecedented access to understand and react to a vast and expanding network of customers. Data science not only provides precise insight into the cogs and wheels of the ever-changing marketplace but provides sure-footed predictions on what the future holds for your business and customers.
The sheer computing power available today allows data scientists and professionals to crunch individual customer feedback, their preferences as well as dislikes and what expectations they have of your products. Based on a variety of myriad factors like their history, previous engagements, locale and demographic, data science can provide with targeted and personalised results for every customer, whether existing or potential, allowing you to cater to their tastes all the time, making sure your bottom line is never hit. At the same time, it enables you to disseminate the same actionable information to your employees, ensuring a pleasant customer service experience leading to a higher retention rate among your satisfied customers. Rapidly evolving tastes across all demographic groups make it a challenge to predict what line of products, choice of advertising medium or inclination towards certain distribution methods is going to engage your customers’ shortening attention spans in the near future. Data-fueled business analytics help your business stay ahead of the curve by telling you what advertising and distribution channels to select, which to discard, and which to build upon. All of these methods, however, are marked with convenience of being built upon the existing, pervasive and robust structure of the internet, thus making a speedy transition for your business with absolutely no downtime. Powered by this convenience and the incredible mathematical strengths of big data, data science can be used to attract new customers, retain old ones, engage their interests and social networks and even encourage them to recommend your business to their friends and loved ones. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter
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 Benefits of M2C process There is a pressing need for utilities to overcome the inherent operational issues due to a legacy culture combined with manual procedures, inefficient processes and outdated technology in order to leave behind the tag of a digitally conservative industry, which can be achieved by reducing operational costs, augmenting customer retention, optimising load management, enhancing meter data management and meeting regulatory demands.
Furthermore, of late, on one hand, utility providers are facing a stiff competition from new entrants as a result of market deregulation worldwide, while on the other, they are struggling to retain their customer base. All said, utilities seem to embrace the digital with smart-grid and processes like meter-to-cash, which is a significant process for utility companies to realise revenue generated from the down-stream value chain as well as connect with end-user directly. If done effectively, M2C also entails a fall on the overall cost-to-serve per customer by proactively communicating with customers by addressing and solving their complaints, and thereby improving the price competitiveness. However, utilities are being challenged with capital intensive investments in upgrading to smart-grid/metering infrastructures and consumer-centric revenue models, for instance, net-metering and time-of-use pricing that could significantly drive revenues down as consumption shifts to off-peak periods. Hence, utilities cannot ignore the efficiency if they adopt the M2C process. For the companies, M2C brings a bouquet of benefits as depicted in the figure. In September 2009, the European Union ratified a “Third Energy Package,” which aims to see every European electricity meter smart by 2022. Deployment of smart meters involve huge infrastructure cost as it brings in many elementary modifications to the M2C operations and managing the operations with cost efficiency may not be an easy task for utility companies by themselves, which is where the external service providers fit in. Managing the cut-over from traditional to smart meters, dealing with new network technologies, the diminished role of field services, and the upgrades required to meter data management systems (MDMS) are just some of the key obstacles that this industry needs to overcome while implementing smart meter systems. This would mean that instead of monthly or quarterly readings, consumers can have real-time access to data accurate up to an hour, which present a new challenge in the form of a vast amount of information and how a utility should leverage the data for meaningful business intelligence purposes. Utility industry have found outsourcing as one of their solutions wherein the service providers let utility companies use their own technology platforms that allows M2C process to be delivered by utility companies without any upfront capital expenditure. Some of the M2C functions that are being included on the smart metering wave range from pre-implementation advisory to post-implementation services such as smart analytics offerings. According to the Everest Group, M2C business BPO has been projected to reach nearly USD 70 billion from 50 billion globally, nevertheless, the current penetration remains insignificant. Moreover, outsourcing firms can help in standardisation of processes that result in overall enhanced performance of utilities. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, please click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.  Importance of customer experience services and marketing team's contribution to digital commerce Longevity, loyalty and profit are the pillars of retail business which can only be strengthened via great customer experiences. Although, retail industry has grown leaps and bounds with increasing digital commerce, nonetheless, digital commerce strategies does not only mean redefining through online and social platforms, but to focus on the value delivered to customers. Today’s customer is much more active, increasingly indecisive as to what and where to buy from as well as much more knowledgeable about their rights. Thus, it becomes necessary to deliver on the customer expectations and elevated customer demands across various touch-points through cohesive and seamless interactions.
In digital retail services, the customers expect not only an easy and smooth buying process but an equally good or even better after-sales service. In other words, cohesive digital commerce connects channels and devices from targeting to retention of a customer by segmenting and targeting digital marketing content and offers so as to reach the right audience at the right time. Wherever the customers decide to shop from, they expect a seamless transition and same standards whether it is on the website or their mobile platform. Consumers are becoming finicky and fickle-minded as never before, which may well serve as an indication to retailers that they should evolve as well by giving their customers a digital experience by attracting, engaging and converting them from prospects to buyers by providing them personalised services and products sometimes both onsite as well as offsite (for instance, through follow-up emails). According to Gartner, as depicted in the figure, the marketing team plays and contributes the most towards digital commerce of a brand/ business. Moreover, the onus to design the customer experience strategy also lies with the marketing team. On an average, marketers spend 20% of their budgets on support for digital commerce. Marketer’s prime spending focus is towards offering of customer experience services, with digital advertising accounting for 12.2% to attract customers, mobile marketing to engage customers at 9.5% and finally, digital commerce spending at 9.6 percent to convert prospects to buyers. Value creation comes through the entire customer experience of the retail brand, not just through the pricing of the product. For example, in USA, as Lionbridge observed, 59% of Americans are willing to try a new brand for a better customer service experience. Thus, it makes sense how customers can help in building a brand, drive online and offline sales and generate leads for the businesses. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, please click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.  Being digital does not mean serving your customers through digital medium. With this strategy you only end up creating another channel and with millions of customers you might end up in a position when one customer is connecting you over various channels. Embracing digital customer services mean a lot more - developing and creating meaningful 1:1 relationship or supporting a brand determined to be a cultural change agent. You will always have some customers at the far end of the spectrum who would still want to be in touch with you through traditional medium. Segmenting your customers and fine tuning the digital customer service strategy is essential. Customer services units also needs to educate customers and incentives them to connect through digital channel which is a win-win for both companies and the customer. The benefits of having a completely digital customer services unit are :
A noteworthy example here would be how Skype manages its entire customer services through online communities and analysis based support center. A 2013 McKinsey report found that 65% of social media users prefer digital options when seeking product and service information and support. No surprise, then, that Hubspot research found that 62% of brands used social media to address questions and comments in 2013, more than twice the 30% doing so in 2012. Social and other forms of digital customer service and support are make-or-break operations for global brands. The digital option can reduce CRM costs, speed response times and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. That’s the good news. Here’s the less-than-good:
If you still need more convincing there is a plenty of fact on what social customer service is really worth: stats Author: Debaleena Debnath and Suraj Poddar Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. Suraj is the founder and CEO of speradigital. To know more about our services, please click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.  Home insurance in India is growing The general insurance business in India is currently at Rs 77K crore (US$ 12.41 billion) premium per-annum industry and is progressing at a healthy rate of 17 percent.
In India, house insurance can be classified as building insurance which covers the structure against man-made and natural disasters; and content insurance which covers all household items, the value of which is calculated on market price. To elaborate, a home insurance policy would cover damage caused by fire, storm, lighting, earthquake, explosion, riots and damage from the overflow of water tanks or the bursting of pipes, acts of terrorism and aircraft damage. Interestingly, according to the IRDA, only about 1% of Indian homes are actually insured! This trend is all set to change and things are bound to look up in the days to come. In the wake of catastrophic earthquake, this industry has seen an upsurge for property/home insurances, with several banks and financial institutions advocating property insurance along with loans. Traditionally, the insurance companies in India have followed an indirect approach towards customer acquisition. One major drawback of this model is that they end up losing somewhere around 3-5% per policy on commissions. With the dawn of digital and social media, this model of engagement needs to be changed. Companies also need to create a process to educate customers about various other products apart from life insurance. CMO’s need to create a digital sales strategy so as to engage directly with the customer which in turn will enhance customer engagement leading to higher revenue. @ speradigital we have customized processes and methodologies for Insurance companies that can them drive revenue and growth. To know how having a spera consultant in your team can help you achieve your business goals, please click here. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. |
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