Llew and Sahlia talk through some great examples of chatbots being used across different industries, but brands such as Shop Spring, UBank, and Spikes Asia.

They also talk you through the key steps that need to be taken to plan and build a powerful, automated customer service assistant that customers actually love to use and that provides great value to your business.

A key point here is that chatbots need to be customer-led – driven by a deep understanding of your customers, what they need and expect, and how a chatbot can add value to their experience. Then, you can find the best technology solution to deliver on those needs.

If you’d like to read more about chatbots and AI for customer service, check out this blog article that talks through the capabilities and possibilities that chatbots and AI technology have to offer.

The post Video – How to build Customer Service Chatbots that actually help your customers appeared first on Reload Consulting.

One idea of many struck home with our Reload Consulting team. It was to do with creating content that matters most to the target market. The question was raised: how does an organisation generate content that is meaningful and represents resources well-spent? Kurt Sanders answered with our team clapping. Kurt emphasised that the power is in nailing the customer journey at each point of that journey with relevant and value-adding content. I think it’s important to add that what is considered ‘value-adding’ may look different at various stages of the journey, from one organisation/brand to another. The trick is to create poignant content for each part of the customer’s experience. In other words, do your best to understand the journey that your customers (or stakeholders) are taking with your brand. Dig into their journey and see if you can spot any opportunities to outwork content better. Revel in knowing that content can have a purpose at all those different points. Then and there, is where you can strike powerful content.

???? this from @sanderlands at #nxbris

TO DO: Nail the customer journey at each point with content! Create relevant and poignant content for each part of their experience… what’s their conversion experience like? Their post purchase? Match content! ???? @NetworxEvents

— Reload Consulting (@ReloadConsult) July 24, 2018

We understand that the idea of ‘digging deep into a customer journey’ may seem a bit complex and time-consuming, this is because customer journeys are rarely linear and rarely super simple. We subscribe to the notion that there’s not always a one-journey-fits-all approach to most brands. Although this means that customer journeys can get complicated and timely to unpack, it makes customer journeys also incredibly exciting and nuanced.

Off the back of this core takeaway, we’ve sewn together 5 steps for you to follow to craft meaningful and stand-out content for your own social media success.

1. Know your customer’s journey. By that, we mean whipping up a journey grid on a whiteboard and using your insights and customer-intel to fill it in. Try analysing your customers’ behaviours, thoughts, feelings, touchpoints with the brand, barriers to them moving to the next stage of interaction and common influences they have – at each stage. Stages may follow a journey like awareness of need, initial research, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, post-purchase, satisfaction/dissatisfaction, loyalty and then advocacy.

You may like to start simple with asking questions like, ‘what content should we be serving up prior to conversion? Or after purchase?’ but the art of meaningful content management is with being hyper-aware of your market’s needs and desires, and what would help them reach a certain goal state (greater awareness, engagement, and conversion etc.). Break down a customer journey map into stages to tackle one at a time, but try to not sacrifice depth and specificity for the convenience of doing a quick and easy journey map. You may also like to rename your journey stages to align with the customer experience. For example, a boutique art gallery might have stages such as ‘arrive at the art square in the city, arrive at the boutique building, experience the exhibition, exit location’.

2. Select areas of the customer journey most in need of content, or the ‘lower hanging fruit’. If this is a new way of strategic content planning for you and the team, start easy and start by breaking up the journey into chunks. For example, what would make for an easy landing page or eBook download?
3. Design content around the customer journey. At Networx, one of the points tackled by the panel was how do you even begin to tackle content creation? We get it, sometimes creating content in-house (or even mapping out an action plan for outsourced content) is sometimes (quite honestly) overwhelming. The key as highlighted by the panellists however, is to just knuckle down and start simply. Ashton Rigg says to grab out a whiteboard, pull out some post-it notes and simply go at it with your ideas and with what could work in line with the customer journey. Put all your creative ideas as a team within the scope of possibility. Try not to overthink it at this point.
4. Post content to meet the market right where they’re at. Here, begin to integrate the appropriate content ideas within the stages of the customer journey. In this, you might like to be thinking about how to integrate content pieces with one another, or with the next stages of that customer’s experience with the brand.
5. Evaluate the effects of the content you’ve woven into the customer’s journey. Don’t stop at the execution of content, about your users. Perhaps your data sources will reveal a new need or behaviour of users on your website or out at your location. How can you adapt your content to meet this new need?

What I appreciate most about brand content is that it can achieve several purposes and conversion goals. Meaningfully-crafted content has the power to alter behaviour and mindsets; subsequently, it can cut through the crazy noise of social media and aid in achieving your social media success.

The post A Customer Journey Solution to Crafting Content appeared first on Reload Consulting.

As you may already know, competitor analyses are useful as benchmarks, but we really shouldn’t rely solely on them, especially when developing a business and brand. Your desire to simply outdo the competition shouldn’t drive your strategy. As business leaders, our aim is to be proactive in our strategy creation, not reactive; and to be customer-focused, and not competitor-focused. There is one major draw-card with having your focus on customers, not competitors.

The #1 drawcard with having a customer-focus is: not getting held back

Conversely (and to illustrate my point), the problem with a competitor-focus is getting held back. I remember running a 100m race back at my Grade 2 athletics carnival. An eager little sprinter back then, I knew I had the chance to take out that first place ribbon. Despite kicking off to a fantastic start and leading in first place for the first 90 or so metres, I suddenly realised I couldn’t glimpse another runner. Curiously, I turned my head to see how much I was leading by, when my friend Bethan swiftly darted past for the next 10m, unexpectedly winning first-place.

As business leaders, we can’t afford to make the mistake I did in the running race. We can’t fix our gazes behind us or to the side to see where our competitors are, what they’re doing or how they’re going with the race. If we do, we lose momentum, we slow down, we can get overconfident, and then end up discouraged as they leave us in the dust. ‘This sounds easy,’ you might scoff, ‘of course, I wouldn’t get too fixated on what other people are doing,’ yet, unfortunately, we see dozens of businesses of various sizes falling into the habit of hyper-focusing on competitor strategies.

Do you relate?

Let’s say you own a hairdressing salon and you hear that your main competitor is offering a ‘deluxe’ new experience. Google reviews reveal that the billing system of your main competitor is slow though, and repeatedly leads to confused staff and time delays of over 10 minutes. You conduct an informal competitor analysis and decide to combine the opportunity to improve your business, with their weakness.

Inspired, you create campaigns around how quick – yet luxurious – your salon is. You invest in an efficient point-of-sale system to ensure billing is seamless. You also decide to improve your first-class feel by offering extra treats, hot towels, and a complimentary hair product during treatment; all of which is ordered within days.

Two weeks later, you hear that your main competitor has now implemented a brand-new point-of-sale system, other efficiencies, hot towels, complementary offerings and sweet treats. New Google reviews prove that they are delivering an amazing experience for clients now. You’re competing on similar ground; overwhelmed, you decide to push more advertising and tell staff to emphasise how quick everything is becoming.

A few days later, you get feedback from a loyal customer saying they don’t feel like they should be paying ‘luxury’ prices for how quick your service is becoming, with less attentive staff. Your updated first-class branding hasn’t been effectively communicated; although they appreciate the hot towels. They don’t return, opting to try out your main competitor instead. Disappointed, you realise that although your competitor analysis provided a guide, you probably shouldn’t have based your new strategy on it alone.

So how should I analyse my competitors?

Competitor analyses are effective for benchmarking and gaining broad awareness of what your market is drawn towards. They are great to do as you’re setting up a brand, new business, launching a new product/service or if you want to simply revisit how you’re tracking in the marketplace to make improvements to your strategy.

Analyse your competitors by asking some key questions.

Given that a goal of ours as business people is to offer the market something that’s more competitive than other brands while meeting customer needs; we should be asking questions like:

• What do our target markets desire?
• If I was my target market, what would I prefer about my competitor’s brand, service, and offering than my own business’?
• How can we best serve the market needs and exceed their expectations throughout their customer journey /experience with our brand?
• Are we providing something that will offer more value in the long-run?
• Does our offering align with our value proposition? Even if they may not see it written down, would our customers know what our value proposition is through their experience with our brand?

If you remember one thing

While competitor analyses reveal ‘easy wins’ to overcome competitor offerings, it remains insufficient to base your marketing and business strategies on what you notice and know about competitors. Business and marketing strategies are usually composed of a myriad of major aspects, such as a revenue model, a human resources strategy, operational processes and procedures to align with your value proposition, goals and objectives, and your messaging strategy – to name but a few. The most overwhelming part facing strategy leaders and teams is often that these elements (and all the other ones!) must be integrated tightly and strategically for them to work. (Hey, don’t worry, my team can work with you if you’re in need of a hand!) Whatever industry you work in, you’re running a race, but whether you’re first or not; just keep on sprinting and improving your technique as you go. Know where those other runners are, but just don’t let them hold you back, don’t overly fix your gaze on them, and you might just take out the first-place ribbon.

What are your thoughts on basing strategies on customers instead of what competitors are doing? 

The post Our top reason why your strategy should be based on customers appeared first on Reload Consulting.

Every brand has a personality, whether unintended or planned. Either way, it’s a key element in communicating intangible benefits to consumers.

A brand’s personality impacts on preference and usage, as consumers develop an emotional bond with brands that resonate with them. Consumers often feel connected to brands that have similar traits to themselves, making their purchase decision feel like second nature. Appealing to customers’ emotions and cultivating a bond encourages loyalty, making customers more likely to advocate a brand.

For example, a teenager might prefer a shoe brand that exemplifies a cool image that is accessible (i.e. Converse). A professional woman, however, might prefer a shoe brand that symbolises sophistication and exclusivity (i.e. Louis Vuitton).

The intention behind a brand’s personality significantly increases the likelihood that the brand will resonate with the desired target market. It can, however, often be unclear as to where to start in doing so.

Where do I start?

There are numerous methods you can use to determine and develop your brand’s personality, however, the following resources and tips may help you get started

Discover your Brand Archetype

The book The Hero and The Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes, by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson, outlines a system consisting of two dimensions: self-focused vs. group-oriented, and order vs. change. This system helps brands determine their personality and create a model that can then guide other brand elements.

The Brand Personality Spectrum

The ‘Brand Personality Spectrum’ can be used to develop a quick snapshot of your brand’s personality. Simply place a dot along each horizontal line, wherever you feel your brand falls on that spectrum, or where you would like it to be. If more dots fall to the left, your brand is more contemporary, fast-moving and energetic. If there are more dots on the right, your brand is more traditional and planned in its approach with set processes in place. If you fall in the middle, then you must make a decision as to which side of the spectrum is most appropriate for your brand, as being in the middle leaves a brand forgettable.

Use Analogies

The ‘car analogy’ and the ‘celebrity analogy’ are both commonly used to identify brand characteristics. That said, many analogies would work. Essentially, this method is about considering if your brand was, for example, a car, what car would it be? Whichever analogy you use, this is about considering your brand as something more tangible with more easily identifiable personality traits. This will help you to then translate any similarities over to brand attributes.

Your brand’s personality has the power to influence purchase decisions, based on how well it resonates with your target market’s characteristics and values. Understanding your target market, their characteristics, motivators and demotivators, will mean you can create a brand personality that aligns.

The post The perfect match – Create a brand personality your customers love! appeared first on Reload Consulting.

A lot can be learned from Amazon’s success and a key learning is how vital a role customer satisfaction plays in the growth and success of a business. Customer satisfaction is a key component in the formula for growing and maintaining success.

With this in mind, here are some essential steps to consider when determining the satisfaction level of your customers.

Collect Data

You may think that you’re doing all that you can to give the best service to your customers. However, often what you consider to be best might not necessarily be perceived as best in their eyes. To gain better insight into their perceptions and feelings towards your business it is quite simply a case of asking them. The collection of information and data on your customers can be done using any or a combination of the following:

Survey

Customer surveys are used to get quantitative data on a number of topics such as demographics, attitudes, past behaviors and opinions. In order to produce the most accurate and unbiased results, it is imperative that the survey is structured appropriately in line with best practice as well as the research objectives.

Focus group

Focus groups are used to gather qualitative data from a group of individuals (representative of the target audience) gathered together to share their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes regarding topics that are raised during discussions. Focus groups require a fair amount of planning and preparation, however, they can provide a far greater depth of insight into customer perceptions and attitudes towards your brand.

Social Media

Listening to what customers have to say about your business on social media is a great way to gather unbiased opinions and reviews, and engaging with customers via these online platforms will allow you to respond quickly to any customer concerns that are raised. It is imperative that a well-planned response framework is established, particularly if your business has multiple representatives engaging on the social channels, to ensure consistency and those appropriate responses are given at all times.

Personal Interviews

One-on-one interviews with customers can result in a deeper understanding of their behaviour and attitude towards the business. This is particularly effective for discussing topics that customers may not feel comfortable discussing in a group environment, or where group influence may hinder on the participant’s response.

Data Analytics

An effective way of tracking the behaviour of your customers without having direct contact with them is through online analytics. This method will allow you to gain insight on how your website or social networking accounts are being used, which can then highlight any strong points or areas that need to be addressed in terms of your customer service delivery.

Analyse Data

All the information in the world is only helpful if it is analysed and interpreted in a way that can be understood and used to guide business decisions. Below are the top two important things to keep in mind during this stage.

Data Interpretation

Filter the results of the data collected based on the objectives that were set at the beginning and organize the important information taken from the research. Keep a lookout for any trends and if applicable, compare the results from previous data collected.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Find out how many of your customers are likely to be “promoters” of your business by simply getting them to answer the question, “How likely it is that you would recommend (name of your company) to someone else?” This will create a benchmark, with the goal of increasing your NPS over time.

Take Action

Collecting and analysing customer data is only going to be a powerful asset for your business if it is actually put to use. An action plan should be developed to map out the actions that need to be taken to increase customer satisfaction and in effect, your net promoter score, based on the feedback collected. When this is done correctly, you will not only have loyal customers, you will also see an increase in your business’ revenue.

Knowing how satisfied your customers are is vital in growing and improving your business. Constant collection of feedback is necessary in order to know what aspects of the business and service delivery need to be improved to create a better customer experience. Ultimately, happy customers will lead to more sales through repeat business and referrals and recommendations.

The post How to increase customer satisfaction and retention appeared first on Reload Consulting.

Why is Usability Make or Break?

Websites, in essence, are a communication tool used to align business goals with the user or customer goals. In order to align these two elements, you have to understand who your target audience is, what their goals are and the psychology behind their interactions with your website. What will it take for them to move from being uncertain with your brand/service/product to being certain?

With a multitude of messages from a multitude of devices bombarding users daily, website usability design plays a key role in keeping your users engaged with your content and ultimately ensuring they get the information necessary to make a decision regarding your brand.

With this in mind, we’ve put together the following starter pack of considerations to help businesses assess how user-friendly a website is and whether there’s room for improvement:

1) Is your navigation simple? Just like in a physical space, a user should feel as though they know where they are while navigating your website and are intuitively aware of how they can find the information they’re looking for. Using familiar and consistent navigation methods (e.g. menus, submenus and call-to-action buttons) allows the user to get from one page to the next with ease. Also, consider how your content and pages are structured. Information should be organised in a logical way that makes sense to your target audience. If it’s not clear how to navigate your site or why a page is located where it is, then your navigation may need a rethink.

2) Can users easily scan your content? Users scan content more than they read it. Regardless of the quality of your written copy, users naturally scan pages and will stop to read information only when deemed relevant to them. It should, therefore, be easy for users to find the specific information they are looking for. This can be achieved by arranging information under relevant headings, ensuring the content gets straight to the point and by using a consistent hierarchy whereby the most important information is positioned where it will be seen first.

3) Is it visually appealing and representative of your brand? We should never underestimate the importance of visuals. The old adage “a picture paints a thousand words” remains true even in website strategy. Visuals help to reinforce the identity of your brand and ultimately play a role in forming perceptions of your business. Used strategically, images can also help guide the user as they navigate your site.

4) Is it fast? Don’t make your users wait. In this day and age, pages must load quickly and should be viewable on all primary devices and browsers. The longer a user has to wait, the more likely they are to leave the site. It’s that simple.

5) Are the next steps always clear? If your website visitors aren’t guided towards an end goal, there’s a higher chance they may not reach it. Consequently, there needs to be a clear path and a variety of mediums for your users to initiate interactions with the website, and ultimately your business. You might ask them to sign up for a newsletter, make an enquiry, add an item to the cart or check out. Whatever your conversion goals are, ensure there are clear and prominent call-to-action elements that are relevant to the customer’s journey, encouraging them to begin the process of interaction with your business.

As you can see, website usability draws on a variety of components that contribute towards creating a positive experience for your website visitors. Positive website experiences contribute towards a visitor’s engagement with the information they’re consuming and the actions they’re taking, which ultimately can make or break a customer acquisition or repeat online interaction. For this reason, websites need to be designed and built with usability and engagement as key considerations to help visitors progress towards reaching the desired end goal – whatever it may be.

While not comprehensive, the above considerations provide a starting point when assessing the usability of your website and highlighting opportunities for future improvements.

The post 5 simple ways to improve your website’s User Experience (UX) appeared first on Reload Consulting.