1) Social media and microblogging have become key tactics for driving customer engagement, with investment in these areas set to increase. 2) Companies expect customer intolerance of poor service to rise, highlighting the importance of customer experience. 3) While many are exploring social tools, opportunities remain to better utilize customer and employee input for product development and internal communications. Mobile also represents an area where more can be done to build engagement.

1. 4th Annual Online Customer Engagement Survey
Report 2010

3. 4th Annual Online Customer Engagement Survey
Report 2010

4. 4th ANNUAL ONLINE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2010
Econsultancy’s reports, events, online the Peer Summit, roundtables, briefings and cScape is an award-winning, full service digital CIM’s Course Director for Social Media, as part
resources and training help an international a range of social events. agency that ranked number 14 in NMA’s design of its exceptionally qualified team.
community of more than 80,000 digital and build 2009 top 100 poll. Based in the UK
marketers make better decisions, build Econsultancy also runs the prestigious but operating internationally, cScape is part of We’ve won multiple awards for our information
business cases, find the best suppliers, look Innovation Awards where pioneering work the AIM-listed cScape Group Limited which architecture, user experience and creative
smart in meetings and accelerate their careers. carried out in the world of digital marketing has over 110 staff. We offer digital marketing/ work. In addition, cScape is technically strong
and e-commerce is judged by an international customer engagement campaign strategy, across the board, with particular expertise
Econsultancy, which has offices in London panel of experts from companies themselves planning, management and training (including in Microsoft SharePoint technologies,
and New York, is an award-winning online known for innovation. social media governance); graphic design and holding Gold Partner status with a Microsoft
publisher of reports covering best practice, rich media services including app development Most Valuable Professional as our Chief
user experience benchmarking, market data, The Econsultancy site now attracts 175,000 Technical Officer.
unique users per month where they access and video, and technical health checks/build
trends and innovation, and supplier selection. (intranet, extranet, website and mobile) for
Econsultancy is an invaluable resource for research, read the blog and take part in We’ve an exciting programme of events
discussions in the forums. And as a portal to customers such as Aviva, Sony, Barclays, the planned for 2010 and hope you will be able
internet professionals who want practical British Council, ExxonMobil, Tesco, Carbon
advice on all aspects of e-business. the digital marketing community, Econsultancy to join us. For more information about these
members can also link up with other members Trust and the Chartered Institute of Personnel events, cScape’s CEU and other services
Econsultancy also operates a highly popular and digital suppliers through the directories, and Development. contact Theresa Clifford: t.clifford@cscape.
training division, used by some of the world’s as well as find a new job or new digital talent We practice what we preach in terms of com.
most prominent brands for staff education, using the job listings. engaging our own clients, many of whom have
both in-house and via public courses.
Some of Econsultancy’s members include: retained cScape to help them with their digital Find out more about cScape:
Econsultancy provides training across all marketing for many years. So what made these
Google, Yahoo, Dell, BBC, BT, Shell, Vodafone, www.cscape.com
areas of digital marketing and at all levels customers choose us? The main reason cited
Yell.com, Oxfam, Virgin Atlantic, Barclays, www.customer-engagement.net
from one-day courses to an MSc in Digital is our unique blend of strategic, technical and
Marketing. Carphone Warehouse, IPC Media, Deloitte,
T-Mobile and Estée Lauder. creative services, combined with our ability to Follow us on Twitter:
In addition, Econsultancy hosts more than 100 draw on multi-disciplined engagement experts @cscape
conferences and events a year, including the Join Econsultancy today to learn what’s from around the globe. @cscapeCEU
Online Marketing Masterclasses, the annual happening in digital marketing – and what
works. Call us to find out more on +44 (0)20 Our Customer Engagement Unit (CEU) counts Join the debate:
Future of Digital Marketing Conference, Dr Dave Chaffey, recognised by the Chartered
7269 1450 (London) or +1 212 699 3626 www.customer-engagement-network.com
(New York). You can also contact us online. Institute of Marketing (CIM) as one of the 50
marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide that have shaped
www.econsultancy.com digital marketing, and Richard Sedley, the
2

5. 4th ANNUAL ONLINE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2010
4th Annual Online Customer Engagement Report 2010
3
Introduction 4 Comments on the findings
Executive summary and highlights 7 Andy Beal 13
Ron Shevlin, Monica Hart 14
Methodology and sample 9
Dr Dave Chaffey 17
Findings 12 Rob Killick, BJ Cook, Guy Stephens 18
Customer engagement strategy 12 Linus Gregoriadis 19
Importance of customer engagement to the organisation 12 BJ Fogg 20
Interest in online customer engagement 12 Adam Hibbert, Amanda Davie 25
Attributes of an engaged customer 15 Theresa Clifford, Paul Blunden 26
Success of customer engagement strategy 16 Jay Cooper 29
Tactics, behaviours and attitudes 16 Jim Sterne, Pete Mortensen 30
Improving customer engagement 16 Rich Wand, Bruno Ancona Lopes 31
Investment to drive increased customer engagement 20 Eric T. Peterson 33
Changing behaviour and attitudes 20 Hugh Gage, Janet Grimes 34
Enterprise 2.0 22 Martha Russell, Ian Jindal 35
Adoption of technology for product development and innovation 22 Clare O’Brien, David Dodd 36
Adoption of technology for internal (employee) communications 23 Marc Sibley, Aurélie Pols 37
Adoption of technology for customer service improvement 23 Zia Zareem-Slade, Steven Woods 38
Resourcing social media and customer engagement 23 Stéphane Hamel, Lucy Conlan 39
Barriers to cultivating customer engagement 27 Becky Caroll, Richard Sedley 40
Mobile 28
Investing in the mobile channel 28
Survey partners 41
Mobile and customer engagement strategy 28
Using mobile marketing to build engagement 29
Barriers to a more focused approach to mobile 30
Mapping and measurement 32
3

6. 4th ANNUAL ONLINE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2010
The definition of customer engagement:
Repeated interactions that strengthen the emotional, psychological or physical
investment a customer has in a brand (product or company).
Introduction
Welcome to the 2010 Online Customer Predictably the big ‘winners’ in this report customer service and employee engagement, So it is slightly surprising that the number
Engagement Survey Report. Now in its are social media and micro-blogging tools all areas of increasing importance to customer of companies planning to step into mobile
Organisations
fourth year, this annual report has become like Twitter. These are the technologies engagement. customer engagement is not larger.
to need focus on
a regular benchmark for organisations that companies see as worthy of increased quality, simplicity
wanting to assess their customer engagement attention and financial investment. If 2009 was If I were to make any recommendations based More than any other channel, mobile has
and customer on the results in this year’s report it would be
strategies. With over 1,000 participants the the year that saw the main-streaming of many the ability to connect emotionally with us.
service in the next
that organisations need to focus on quality, The mobile phone is omnipresent and highly
survey continues to be the largest of its type of these social technologies, then 2010 will be 12 months.
anywhere in the world. Indeed this year the the year that social technologies get serious. simplicity and customer service in the next personal – I spend more time with mine than
survey gained the largest number of non-UK This will manifest itself not only in terms of 12 months. These are three key areas that can I do my family. This poses both challenges
participants in its history. marketing investment, but also in the way foster an understanding of value and emotional and opportunities in equal measure. While
they begin to impact the internal structure and connection within the customer. 2010 appears to be the year when many more
The number of you who consider customer culture of organisations both large and small. organisations are preparing to get their toes
engagement ‘essential’ to your organisation Since the conception of this survey we have
wet with mobile, it appears most are waiting
continues to grow slightly, but what I feel The reorganisation required to take advantage stressed the importance of an emotional
for someone else to start swimming. If that’s
this year’s survey reveals best is the extent to of these social technologies should not be connection as part of engagement – our
you, you’ll probably have a healthy lead by the
which the last 12 months have changed how underestimated. It is worth recognising that the definition has it at it’s heart (see above) – and
time the others dive in.
we will do business in the future. In many introduction of these tools is unprecedented. this has never been more important than today.
ways this was to be expected. The world Technologies like fax, email and the telephone Indeed ‘strengthening emotional investment in What the 4th Annual Online Customer
has just experienced the toughest economic had all first established themselves (and your brand’ showed the biggest year on year Engagement Report reveals to me is that we
environment since the 1930s and any company their associated behaviours) within business increase of all the reasons why organisations find ourselves firmly placed in an interregnum
not looking to change the way they operate is before making their way into society as are interested in customer engagement. – a period between the close of one era of
likely to be suffering the consequences already. a whole. Today we are seeing the reverse business and the opening of another. This isn’t
Underlying much of this year’s results is
as enterprises struggle to adjust and embrace something created by the current troubled
But how to change and into what, have been an expressed desire to get closer to our
the pre-established attitudes and behaviours of economy but what our economic woes have
the hardest questions for most organisations. customers, to understand them better and to
customers and employees while trying to bring done is focus our attention on the changes
become a more integral part of their lives.
these social tools ‘in-house’. happening.
This year we’ve added a new section to the While customer engagement is no panacea
report entitled Enterprise 2.0. This touches on for a troubled economy, or changes within the
issues of product development and innovation,
4

7. 4th ANNUAL ONLINE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2010
business environment, what it does offer is It just remains for me to thank all those who’ve
grounding – an opportunity to stabilise and continued to help make this a successful
reap the benefits of increased predictability report.
in our customer relationships. As I wrote
back in 2006 in the introduction to the first To all those who took the time to complete
of these surveys; ‘customer engagement this, the longest survey to date, we salute you.
is the best measure of current and future Thanks to Linus and Aliya at Econsultancy –
performance; an engaged relationship is great job guys. To our partners who promoted
probably the only guarantee for a return the survey around the globe, particularly
on your organisation’s or your clients’ Bruno. To our report contributors – over
objectives’. 30 experts this year – thanks for sharing your
time and intellect. And finally to my colleagues
There are many interesting observations at cScape: Monica, Theresa, Sal, Sarah A
and insight within this report, probably and Rob. “With the latest set of results we can
more than any previous report we see the clear, common benefits that
have produced. I really do hope you
find it useful and stimulating, and look
engagement can offer”
Richard Sedley
forward to any feedback you care cScape Customer Engagement Director
Dr Dave Chaffey, p17
to share.
E: r.sedley@cscape.com
T: @richardsedley
5

8. Executive summary and highlights
6

9. 4th ANNUAL ONLINE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2010
Executive summary and highlights
This is our fourth annual Customer Engagement Report. There were • The tactics which have come to the forefront for driving customer • Only 17% have processes and workflows in place to encourage staff
more than 1,000 respondents to our research request, which took the engagement are social networking and Twitter activity. Presence use of social media, and only 13% actually incentivise staff to use
form of an online survey sent out in October 2009. on social networks has almost doubled from 23% to 44%, while the social media to engage with customers online.
percentage of respondents saying that micro-blogging (i.e. Twitter)
has tangibly improved customer engagement has, remarkably, gone up Mobile
This is a summary of the key findings: five-fold (from 7% to 35%). • A large proportion (41%) of companies are not planning any
• The majority of companies (61%) say that they will increase investment at all in the mobile channel in 2010, and a further 49% are
Customer engagement strategy planning only limited investment. Only 11% are planning to invest
investment in their social network presence and 44% will spend more
• The proportion of company respondents who regard customer on micro-blogging. significantly but this increases significantly for the largest companies.
engagement as essential for their organisation has increased to 55%, • When it comes to building customer engagement, companies have
up from 52% in 2008 and 50% in 2007. The number of agency • Intolerance of poor customer service is the type of behaviour or attitude
that company respondents are most likely to expect to increase over been quickest to use the mobile channel for increased dialogue with
respondents who regard this as essential for their clients has jumped customers. A fifth of company respondents say they are doing this and
significantly from 43% to 55%. the next year. Well over half of respondents (61%) say that they expect
people to become less tolerant about poor service, and this percentage a further 36% say they plan to do this.
• Customer engagement is seen as being about creating relationships has almost doubled since last year. • A third (34%) of companies are planning to create applications for
which result in value both for customers and for companies. mobile phones, in addition to the 16% who say they already do this.
Company respondents are most likely to indicate that increasing Enterprise 2.0
long term customer value (37%) and increasing value delivered to the • Just over a third of organisations (36%) say they are using social • Nearly two thirds of companies (62%) have no plans for mobile
customer (35%) describe their interest in customer engagement most networks and email newsletters for product development and commerce. Only 10% of companies are using transactional mobile
appropriately. innovation but only a quarter (25%) of companies tap into user ratings activity to build customer engagement. A further 28% are planning to
and feedback. Even fewer (17%) are using discussion forums to feed do this.
• The biggest area of increased interest since last year is in strengthening
emotional investment in your brand. The percentage of respondents into development. • Companies who are either using or planning to use mobile as part
saying their interest in customer engagement relates to this has • Many companies are also neglecting to share information internally. of their customer lifecycle marketing, for broader CRM, for user-
jumped from 25% last year to 31%. Very small percentages of respondents are using employee blogging generated content or location-based marketing are also in the minority.
• Compared to last year, respondents report increased participation in (17%), internal social networking tools (13%), intranets (10%) or social • Companies generally attribute their inertia when it comes to
online communities or support groups (+9%), giving regular feedback knowledge sharing (8%) to help drive development and innovation. integrating mobile to a lack of resources (51%), although there are
(+8%) and participation in innovation and design (+7%). Marketers are • Email newsletters and internal social networking are used by around a other widely cited reasons including lack of skills/experience/
benefiting more from the relationship-building aspects of customer third of companies (32%) for internal communications. understanding and lack of business case.
engagement rather than being exclusively focused on the more directly
financial benefits such as sales. • The increased profile of social media is also reflected by the fact that a Mapping and measurement
third (34%) of companies have increased their social media budget in • Web analytics play a pivotal role in gathering intelligence, with over
Tactics, behaviour and attitudes the last 12 months. half of companies surveyed (51%) saying this is useful for online
• As was the case last year, email newsletters are the tactic most likely • Companies who urge their staff to engage with social media are still engagement.
to have resulted in a tangible improvement to an organisation’s online very much in the minority. Some 29% say senior staff members are
customer engagement. Two thirds of respondents (67%) indicate that • Despite the growing awareness around social media metrics and
urged to use social media to build customer dialogue, while a fifth measurement, only a fifth of companies (21%) say buzz monitoring is
regular email bulletins have had a positive effect, down very slightly (19%) say this applies to junior staff.
from 69% a year ago. useful for engaging customers online.
7

10. 4th ANNUAL ONLINE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2010
“Mobile is a healthy media, yielding good
results for those who know how to use it.”
Jay Cooper, p29
Methodology and sample
8

11. 4th ANNUAL ONLINE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2010
Methodology and sample
Methodology Figure 1 Figure 3
Which of the following best describes your job role? All respondents: In which business sector is your organisation?
This is our fourth annual Customer Base – all respondents (1198)
Engagement Report. Over 1,000 respondents
20 Fina
took part in an online survey conducted over
33% of respondents Part of an in-house team
a five week period from October 2009*.
are client-side, (client-side) 33%
Ret
Econsultancy and cScape promoted the while 55% are External agency / supplier
survey via Twitter, Linkedin, Email newsletters agency-side. / consultant 55%
Pub
and other channels. The incentive for taking Other 12% 15
part was access to a complimentary copy Trav
of the report just before its publication on
Econsultancy. Tele
cScape and Econsultancy would like to thank Cha
10
those who took the time to complete the 20 Financial services: 16%
questionnaire. If you have any questions about Ent
the research, please email Econsultancy’s Retail: 10%
Research Director, Linus Gregoriadis (Linus@ Publishing: 8% Pub
econsultancy.com). Figure 2
15
5 Travel: 7%
Con
What is your annual company turnover?
Respondent profiles Telecoms / Mobile phones: 6%
10 Charity: 6% Oth
The vast majority of survey respondents work 50 50 Companies
Companies Entertainment: 4%
either for in-house teams (i.e. client-side Pro
organisations), or for external agencies 42% 42% Agencies Agencies
0 Public Sector: 4%
(including consultants and technology 40 40 5 Consultancy / Marketing Services: 4% Hea
suppliers). A third (33%) of respondents work 20 Financial services: 16% Other manufacturing: 3%
client-side, while just over half (55%) are Aut
30 28%
agency-side. 30 27% 28% Retail: 10% Property: 2%
27% 0
Publishing: 8% Healthcare: 2% FMC
For the purposes of this report, we have 15
carried out separate analysis for both these 20 18% 18% Travel: 7% Automotive: 1%
20 18% 18%
Gam
groups and the distinction is abbreviated 14% Telecoms / Mobile phones: 6% FMCG / CPG: 1%
to ‘companies’ (including not-for-profit 14%
10 9%
10%
10 Charity: 6% Gaming: 0% Pha
organisations) and ‘agencies’. 9%
10%7%
10 Entertainment: 4% Pharmaceuticals: 0%
3% 7% Util
In total, 401 company respondents took Public Sector: 4% Utilities / Energy: 0%
0 3%
part in the survey, compared to 657 agency < £1m £1-10m £10-50m £50-150m 5>150m Consultancy / Marketing Services: 4%
participants. Company respondents were 0
< £1m £1-10m £10-50m £50-150m >150m Other manufacturing: 3%
asked to comment in respect of their own
Property: 2%
0
*
Clicktools was used for the survey.
9
Healthcare: 2%
Automotive: 1%

12. 4th ANNUAL ONLINE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2010
organisations, while agencies were typically Figure 4 Figure 5
asked to comment in terms of a typical client. What types of business have you focused on in the last Company: In which country are you (personally) based?
12 months?
Annual company turnover
Figure 2 shows the range in the size of 60 58% UK 71%
Companies
participating organisations, as defined by Europe (outside UK) 6%
company turnover. Approximately a third of 52% 58% Agencies
60 North America 9%
Respondents are Companies
respondents (32%) work for companies with 50
spread across 52% Agencies
Other 13%
annual revenues of £10 million or less.
numerous 50
Over half of companies (56%) taking part have business sectors or 40
a turnover of more than £10 million, of which verticals, reflecting 40
the universal 31%
more than a quarter of respondents (28%) 30
work for companies with a turnover in excess
importance 31%
of customer 30 22%
of £150 million. 20%
engagement. 20 18%22%
20%
Agency respondents typically work for smaller 20 18%
organisations. Some 42% of responding
10
agencies have a turnover below £1 million. 10
Business sector 00 Figure 6
Mainly B2B
Mainly B2B Mainly B2C
Mainly B2C Both B2B and and
Both B2B Agency: In which country are you (personally) based?
Respondents are spread across numerous B2C equally
B2C equally
business sectors or verticals, reflecting
the universal importance of customer UK 51%
engagement. The best represented sectors are Europe (outside UK) 11%
financial services (16%), retail (10%), publishing
(8%) and travel (7%).
Geography North America 10%
Other 29%
The majority of respondents (71%) in this survey are UK-based, but this
Business focus is very much a global survey. Some 9% of respondents are located in
North America, and 6% are based in mainland Europe.
The majority of companies in this survey (52%)
are B2C-focused businesses, whilst 58% of ‘Other’ countries or regions represented include Brazil, India, Australia,
agencies have a B2C focus. Just under a third and South-East Asia.
of companies (31%) and a fifth of agencies
(20%) have a B2B focus. Half of the agency respondents are based in the UK (51%), with
a higher proportion of respondents (29%) coming from the US, Europe
and beyond.
10

13. 4th ANNUAL ONLINE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2010
Findings
11

14. 4th ANNUAL ONLINE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2010
Findings
Customer engagement strategy Interest in online customer engagement Figure 8
Company: Which of the following best describes your organisation’s interest in online
As was the case last year, it is clear that
Importance of customer engagement customer engagement?
customer engagement is seen as being about
The proportion of company respondents who creating relationships which result in value 40 40 Increasing long-term customercustomer value:
Increasing long-term value: 37% 37%
regard customer engagement as essential both for customers and for organisations.
Increasing value delivered to the customer: 35%
Increasing value delivered to the customer: 35%
The biggest shift 35 35
for their organisations has increased to 55%,
since last year Company respondents are most likely Deepening and enriching your product or service offering: 31%
up from 52% in 2009 and 50% in 2008. More 30 Deepening and enriching your product or service offering: 3
is the emphasis to indicate that increasing long-term 30 Strengthening emotional investment in your brand: 31%
striking is the significant jump (from 43% to Strengthening emotional investment in your brand: 31%
placed on customer value (37%) and increasing value 25 Gaining customer insight: 29%
55%) in the number of agency respondents
strengthening delivered to the customer (35%) describe 25 Gaining customer insight:
Increasing market share: 26% 29%
who regard this as essential for their clients. 20
emotional their interest in customer engagement most
This jump may be because companies are 20
Enhanced public profile: 22%
Increasing market share: 26%
investment in your appropriately. 15
doing a better job of communicating its Reducing acquisition costs: 18%
brand. Enhanced public profile: 22%
importance to their agencies. The biggest shift since last year is the 15
10 Reduced customer service costs: 16%
Reducing acquisition costs: 18%
emphasis placed on strengthening emotional 5 Increasing short-term conversions: 15%
investment in your brand. The percentage 10 Adjusting to the increased importance/power 16%
Reduced customer service costs: of customer: 9%
Figure 7 0
of respondents highlighting this factor has Improving business predictability: 6%
Company: How important is customer engagement to your 5 Increasing short-term conversions: 15%
jumped from 25% last year to 31%. Improving employee satisfaction: 5%
organisation? Adjusting to the increased importance/power of customer: 9
Insulating against a troubled economy: 1%
Fewer respondents (18% compared to 21% 0
Improving business predictability: 6%
100 last year) see reduced acquisition costs as
Figure 9
something which defines their interest in Improving employee satisfaction: 5%
Agency: Which of the following best describes your clients’ interest in online customer
customer engagement. Since the recession
80 engagement? Insulating against a troubled economy: 1%
took hold, companies have been much more
focused on customer retention, rather than on 35
60
35 Increasing long-term customercustomer value:
Increasing long-term value: 30% 30%
acquisition.
Increasing value delivered to the customer: 30%
Increasing value delivered to the customer: 30%
30
30
According to agencies, the most significant Deepening and enriching your product or service offering: 21%
40 Deepening and enriching your product or service offering: 21
factor driving client interest in customer 25 Strengthening emotional investment in your brand: 31%
engagement is gaining customer insight, 25 Strengthening emotional investment in your brand: 31%
Gaining customer insight: 34%
20 mentioned by a third (34%) of respondents.
20
Gaining customer insight:
Increasing market share: 24% 34%
Agencies also report an increased focus (+9%) 20
15 Enhanced public profile: 22%
Increasing market share: 24%
0 on strengthening emotional investment.
2010 2009 2008 Reducing acquisition costs: 18%
15 10 Enhanced public profile: 22%
2008
Supply-side respondents have also seen more Reduced customer service costs: 16%
Not interest driven by the increased importance Not
Essential Important Nice-to-have important
5 Reducing acquisition costs: 18%
Increasing short-term conversions: 23%
Essential Important Nice-to-have 10
important
2010 55% and power of the customer. The proportion of
33% 11% 1% Adjusting to the increased importance/power16%
Reduced customer service costs: of customer: 21%
0
2010 55% 33% 11% 1%
2009 52% agency 35%
respondents who say this is a primary
11% 1% Improving business predictability: 6%
2009 52% 35% 11% 1% 5 Increasing short-term conversions: 23%
2008 50% driver of interest has increased from 11% last
41% 8% 1% Improving employee satisfaction: 5%
2008 50% 41% 8% 1%
year to 20%. Adjusting to the increased importance/power of customer: 2
Insulating against a troubled economy: 5%
0
Improving business predictability: 6%
12 Improving employee satisfaction: 5%
Insulating against a troubled economy: 5%

15. COMMENT
Figure 10 increasing their focus on social networks, while
Andy Beal
Company: Interest in online customer engagement – difference between 2010 agencies are even more bullish, expecting their
and 2009 results clients to spend more on social networking
(66%) than even email newsletters (41%).
6 6 Increasing long-term customercustomer value:
Increasing long-term value: -1% -1%
5 Increasing value delivered to the customer: 1%
Perhaps the most stunning statistic is the
5 Increasing value delivered to the customer: 1%
percentage of companies that plan to invest in
4 Deepening and enriching your product or service offering: 2%
4 Deepening and enriching your product or service offering: 2% Twitter as a channel for customer engagement.
Strengthening emotional investment in your brand: 6%
3
Strengthening emotional investment in your brand: 6% In last year’s report, Twitter barely registered
3 Gaining customer insight: 0%
2
Gaining customer insight:
Increasing market share: 1% 0%
Twitter and Facebook steal with survey participants with just 7% of
companies realizing improved customer
2 1 Enhanced public profile: 2%
Increasing market share: 1% the spotlight from email engagement from Twitter, hence only 13%
0 Reducing acquisition costs: -3% planned to invest in Twitter in 2009. What
1 Enhanced public profile: 2% The 2nd Customer Engagement Survey saw
-1 Reduced customer service costs: -2% a difference a year makes! Twitter has seen
0 Reducing acquisition costs: -3% businesses focusing their efforts on using email
-2
Increasing short-term conversions: -1% massive growth and companies are scrambling
newsletters to improve customer engagement.
-1 Adjusting to the increased importance/power-2%
Reduced customer service costs: of customer: -1% to make the micro-blogging channel a key part
-3 An incredible 69% of companies stated that
Improving business predictability: 0% of their customer engagement efforts. In fact,
Increasing short-term conversions: -1% they had measured a tangible improvement
-2 Improving employee satisfaction: -1% with 35% of companies seeing an improvement
Adjusting to the increased importance/power of customer: -1%
through their e-newsletter campaigns so
Insulating against a troubled economy: 0%
in their customer engagement from Twitter
-3 Since the it was not a surprise that 59% planned to
Improving business predictability: 0% in 2009, almost 44% of companies plan to
recession took invest heavily in email marketing by the time
Figure 11 increase their investment in Twitter in 2010.
Improving employee satisfaction: -1% hold, companies we came to the third survey. By contrast,
Agency: Interest in online customer engagement – difference between 2010 That’s a three-fold improvement over last year!
have been much investment in social networks – such as
and 2009 results Insulating against a troubled economy: 0%
more focused on Facebook – was down on the list of priorities What conclusions can we draw from this? Well,
10 customer retention, with only 36% of companies planning to it’s apparent that companies are realising that
10 Increasing long-term customercustomer value: -2%
Increasing long-term value: -2%
rather than on increase their investment in that area. customers expect engagement to be a two-way
8 8 Increasing value delivered to the customer: 2% acquisition.
Increasing value delivered to the customer: 2% dialogue. Email newsletters are a great way
So, what happened now we are on survey
Deepening and enriching your product or service offering: -1%
Deepening and enriching your product or service offering: -1%
to keep customers updated but they don’t
6 four and looking at 2010? Those that took a
6 Strengthening emotional investment in your brand: 9% really engage them. Instead, companies are
Strengthening emotional investment in your brand: 9% chance and invested in social networks saw a
4 Gaining customer insight: 2% seeing measurable benefits of actually having
4 big return on investment. For companies, email
2 Gaining customer insight:
Increasing market share: -5% 2% a conversation with their customers be it via
newsletters still rated as the tactic offering
Enhanced public profile: -3% Facebook, Twitter or whatever, making them
2 0 Increasing market share: -5% the highest tangible improvement (67%) but a
Reducing acquisition costs: -3% willing to invest more of their marketing/PR
Enhanced public profile: -3% whopping 44% – almost double the percentage
-2 Reduced customer service costs: -3%
budgets to reap the fruits of that engagement.
0 from 2009 – have discovered that social
Reducing acquisition costs: -3%
Increasing short-term conversions: -3% networks helped increase their online customer
-4 Andy is the CEO of Trackur, a powerful, yet
-2 Adjusting to the increased importance/power -3%
Reduced customer service costs: of customer: 9% engagement. That return on investment has affordable, social media monitoring solution. With
-6
Improving business predictability: -2% clearly caught the attention of both companies over 10 years of internet marketing experience,
-4 Increasing short-term conversions: -3%
Improving employee satisfaction: 1% and their agencies. In 2010, the survey predicts Andy specialises in online reputation management
Adjusting to the increased importance/power of customer: 9% that 61% of company executives will be and is the co-author of Radically Transparent.
Insulating against a troubled economy: -1%
-6
Improving business predictability: -2%
Improving employee satisfaction: 1% 13
Insulating against a troubled economy: -1%

16. COMMENT
The message is clear; engaging customers around the world is key
and it is not just about translating copy.
like Twitter and Facebook strengthens the behaving like good international citizens. For
Ron Shevlin role of email from a both a personal and
Monica Hart example, Citroen recently ran an online advert
business perspective. With alternative means in Spain showing Mao, which was extensively
of communicating, email can – and should (often negatively) blogged about and was
– be used for the messages that are most pulled down due to Chinese disapproval (China
appropriate to the channel. being a big potential market for Citroen).
Japan, a nation where relationships are key
The range of tools used for customer and to business, has also committed expensive
employee engagement prove that the critical cross-cultural marketing faux pas, ironically in
Words of wisdom from task for marketers in the next few years will It’s a big virtual world North America. Panasonic’s US “Touch Woody
be one of ‘right channelling’ – determining – The Internet Pecker” campaign for a new
Monty Python which are the right messages for each of the Although this year’s Customer Engagement
PC received the wrong kind of publicity and
many channels (and tools) marketers have to Survey is internationally focused, it’s
In an article titled ‘Why Email No Longer had to be withdrawn when the ‘Touch Woody’s
communicate through. interesting to count the number of references
Rules’, the Wall Street Journal recently opined Pecker’ slogan spread virally.
to ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ from contributors.
that “email has had a good run as king of
Email’s reign is communications. But its reign is over. In
The critical task for marketers The key to engagement lies in relevance The message is clear; engaging customers
to the consumer. In many places, including
over? its place, a new generation of services is in the next few years will be around the world is key and it is not just about
geographies with GDPs that are growing translating copy. Campaigns must embrace the
It’s reign over starting to take hold – services like Twitter one of ‘right channelling’
what? as quickly as social network usage such as social nuance of separate markets. This means
and Facebook and countless others vying for China, the major US and UK social networks including the use of appropriate channels – for
a piece of the new world.” In addition, the results of this year’s survey barely capture market share. Believe it or example, vkontakte.ru, smortri.ru, moikrug.
demonstrate that marketers must take a broad, not, Facebook and Twitter do not rule the
Email’s reign is over? It’s reign over what? ru and liverjournal.ru instead of Facebook in
multi-channel view of customer engagement. world. And if you are doing business with an
Over inane, mindless, useless, idiotic, time- Russia (currently the world’s largest user of
Simply focusing on time spent viewing ads international audience, you won’t either unless
wasting messages like ‘thx’, or ‘k’, and ‘got it’? social networks) and mobile for geographies
or web pages will mean that we will miss you think about cultural and linguistic specifics like Africa where PC usage is comparatively
The results of the 2010 Customer Engagement the other behaviours and dimensions that when planning your engagement campaigns. low. Culturally tailored, sensitive imagery
Survey recall the words of Monty Python characterise strong customer relationships. One size most certainly does not fit all. and rich media, appropriate inter-personal
from their movie Monty Python and the Holy communications and the right jargon or slang
Ron is a senior analyst at Aite Group, LLC. I cut my marketing teeth arguing with
Grail. In the scene where someone is walking all help as well. You may argue that it all
He specialises in retail banking issues including colleagues in North America about the
through the town crying “bring out your takes extra resource (something the survey
sales and marketing technologies, customer and relevance of content to other markets (or lack
dead!,” one man resists: “I’m not dead yet.” highlights as an issue) but just ask yourself
marketing analytics, loyalty management, P2P of it). This lack of awareness still exists in this
And neither is email. While growth has been if you can really afford not to engage the
lending, personal financial management, social online age, a fact that is highly ironic given
slower this year than last, email newsletters tremendous buying power of the non-English
computing, online banking, customer experience that over one third of the North American
still reign as the most commonly used agencies speakers who will drive nearly 70% of the
and consumer behaviour. audience belongs to an ethnic group. However,
and client tool for product development/ world’s economy in 2010?
innovation, employee communications and Aite Group is a leading independent research and while many international marketing gaffs do
customer support improvement. advisory firm focused on business, technology and emanate from the world’s leading economy, Monica is an Account Director at cScape, She has
regulatory issues and their impact on the financial some of the most heinous cultural errors over 20 years of marketing experience working
What the Wall Street Journal failed to slip from countries such as France where with companies such as Sony, Aviva, BAA, Adobe,
services industry.
recognise is that the rise of social networks marketers can actually be fined for not Logica, William Grant & Sons and Getty Images.
14