A mobile approach to surprise and delight customers in Brazil
When you think of a way a customer service agent can placate a frustrated customer and improve the relationship, what is the first thing that comes to mind? If you thought of ways to surprise and delight like sending packages and free products, you’re not alone — many brands find themselves instantly jumping into these techniques, and the practice is growing in popularity. However, wowing every customer can get expensive and takes away the novelty and specialness of a dramatic outreach. Instead, brands should be more strategic in how they try to delight customers.
Moments matter: Timing is everything
Surprise and delight doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. It might translate into something as basic as a delivering an electronic coupon for a free appetizer when a customer walks past a favorite restaurant or steps inside. Or it might mean automatically upgrading shipping to two days without an extra charge for a holiday, such as Mother’s Day, or providing a free night at a hotel for a great customer — above and beyond a loyalty program.
It might also take the form of a handwritten thank-you note or phone call to a long-time loyal customer or introducing a more streamlined way to pay or interact. Uber, for example, makes ordering a car and paying for it a completely seamless experience by tapping the power of the smartphone. There’s zero interface and no friction point.
The best surprise-and-delight moments — and those that generate affinity — are delivered to a person who is not expecting anything and without strings attached. It should be viewed as a gift, and it must be something that has a perceived value. It’s the hook, and it’s the icing on the cake.
Customer experience: Beyond the coupon
Surprise and delight has existed as long as businesses have been around — and companies such as Disney, Apple, Nordstrom, and Amazon have continually found ways to achieve a higher level of loyalty by putting the concept into play through innovative products, services, and features.
However, digital technology, including smartphones, beacons, geofencing, and analytics, have introduced new and far more advanced ways to interact. Clouds, mobility, and big-data platforms have created real-time capabilities that take business to an entirely different level.
Success in this arena starts with a good idea, but it involves technology and execution. Digital and mobile create opportunities that are still mostly untapped.
Data equals relevance
Over the past decade, the phrase “surprise and delight” has emerged at the center of marketing. The idea that it’s smart for a business to introduce experiences that slide the dial from “mundane” to “awesome” makes perfect sense, whether it’s in the form of a promotion or a streamlined way to interact or transact.
Yet exceeding expectations and cementing long-term loyalty is no simple task, as many CMOs and marketing executives have learned. Surprise and delight typically requires a lot of different things to come together the right way.
Always on, always happening
The focus shouldn’t be on the company; it must be on the customer.
True digital transformation involves marketers embracing and accelerating “the blurring of lines” between marketing, innovation, PR, sales, products, and technology.
For instance, a restaurateur may recognize a patron through a beacon and smartphone app, and see that the individual often orders a certain appetizer or dessert item. As a result, the system may generate an electronic coupon for a free order delivered to the customer’s smartphone, or a waiter may appear at the table and simply hand over the item “on the house.” Likewise, a grocery store or other retailer may recognize that customers are standing in a long line and push out a $10 coupon to make up for the delay. The recipient will almost certainly be surprised and delighted.
The next wave of innovation: fit-based mass personalization
If you’re not creating marketing platforms with the understanding that consumers are more demanding than ever before, you’ve missed the point. Unbridled access to information, mixed with intense competition from all angles, has raised the bar. One key trend that has emerged from this new paradigm is an ever-increasing desire for experiences that are customized to each individual.
“When you think of best-in-class experiences, they are usually when someone treats you in a personal way”
Regardless of product category or industry, [companies that use mass customization] have all turned customers’ heterogeneous needs into an opportunity to create value, rather than a problem to be minimized, challenging the ‘one-size-fits-all’ assumption of traditional mass production.”
“It's all about the customer”
Related articles worth reading:
https://www.psfk.com/2017/02/adam-tishman-co-founder-helix-rise-fit-based-mass-personalization.html
A fresh approach to driving digital affinity
People expect to be treated as individuals, and when they receive this type of treatment, they feel a deeper sense of attachment to a company or brand. People do not want to be marketed to, and they are becoming less patient with interruptive and pushy advertising and marketing. It’s about providing the right thing at the right moment. In fact, this might ultimately lead a business outside the boundaries of traditional marketing and into a more multidimensional place. In this new order of marketing, it’s all about timing, details, consistency, and understanding the nuances of human relationships. The days of presenting a brand to consumers in a monolithic and generic way are fading.
Shaping a new experience
There must be an emotional connection to how the experience is delivered to achieve lasting results.
The end goal for surprise and delight shouldn’t be to collect positive app reviews or land a string of gushing tweets—though these are certainly nice outcomes. It also shouldn’t be limited to an occasional moment of bliss for a customer. It’s all about constructing a more holistic framework for affinity and loyalty by solving problems, improving interactions, and making a customer feel truly special and appreciated.
Connected consumer: Why mobile-first?
By the end of 2014 Brazil was already the 6th world market for smartphones, surpassed only by China, USA, India, Japan and Russia.
Number of smartphones in use in Brazil reaches 168 million. The projection is that, by 2018, the number of smartphones will reach 236 million.
Brazil is the third country in the ranking of connected travelers.
Approximately 73% of Brazilians who have smartphones do not leave home without it, and for young people, it is the most important item to be taken to an event, ahead of documents and money (June 2013 data);
In the second quarter of 2015, the number of Brazilians using the smartphone to access the Internet surpassed the 72 million mark, representing an increase of 23.5% over the previous semester.
Where the numbers above come from:
http://exame.abril.com.br/negocios/dino/estatisticas-de-uso-de-celular-no-brasil-dino89091436131/
Consumer trends
Mobile internet use is most common among the young and the higher earners
Retail mcommerce sales will nearly triple in four years due to sales via smartphones
Finance leads among industries for its mcommerce share of ecommerce sales
Apps outperform mobile web
Impressive! But what can we do with that?
Predictive Analytics
An app that understands user behavior, their habits, their taste, their journey today, tomorrow and beyond. From this ocean of data it is possible to offer a uniquely crafted experience for each and every customer.
E.g. Let’s say Leo is a fan of Paul McCartney and he walks by the Allianz Arena in Sao Paulo. Since our system already knows about the concert and also that the artist will perform there in the following week, it could send a notification not only telling him about the show, but also offer him a 20% discount within his loyalty program.
We can take it even further, like having the artist call him by his name and take him for a walk into the backstage, since our back-end system would know the moment he arrived at the Arena.
Push notifications
Notifications could be triggered by geolocation associated with all the other information available about the customer and their preferences.
In addition to the proximity to the point where there are offers and discounts, there could also be associated geocontent, suggesting related benefits, such as a discount on air tickets to Rome, when a user who has many international travel profile, passes in the Italian neighborhood of Mooca in Sao Paulo.
Engagement map: Mapping out a strategy for engaging with customers
One of the most important differences of this kind of app, especially compared to a mobile website, is the power of engagement with the customers, as the experience goes beyond buying at a discount. Through a highly secured panel, the marketing team could also have real-time access, on a map, to critical intel on its customers behaviors. This tool and its data may be quite useful for performance marketing strategies and targeting benefit negotiations, as your marketing team would now where and how many potential customers are in a certain location anytime.
An engagement map puts the customer front and centre. It defines your customer relationships and identifies the best ways to build on these relationships. It defines the very nature of customer engagement, looking at why you want to engage with your customers in the first place – and what the substance of that engagement should be. And it also defines what you want to get out of the relationship, delivering strong business value into the long-term.
“When done right, these apps can recognize you, remember your preferences, and not just what they are, but why you have them. And they are relevant, because they understand your unique motivations.”
Key value proposition
This kind of product could bring with it a unique and differentiated experience that enables a strategic business vision not only for an entire loyalty program but also for future brand actions such as:
Data Intelligence
Critical intel for both marketing, sales and new partnerships.
Behavior Marketing
Customized content and offers, backed by big data gathered from many sources, including preferences of the different targets.
Geomarketing
Refined social media campaigns through precision marketing.
Content drive to Business
A broader and organic range of offerings through content.
Engagement experience
A deeper user engagement with the content.
This text is a summary of several articles and interviews found mostly on cmo.com and psfk.com and is part of a broader research done by Izaias Cavalcanti, a passionate business researcher with almost a decade of experience helping enterprises and startups achieve success in the mobile space.
