Watching out for consumers, Asa asks STELLAService about buying a Halloween costume online and how to identify the best sites when it comes to customer service.
Check out our previous post if you’re still in the market for a Halloween costume and don’t have time to get to a store…just a couple days left, so make sure you purchase from the best!
Companies want to sell more, and they’re always looking for ways to do it more efficiently.
Leveraging new data in new ways is the Web’s answer to optimization, and it has informed a new marketing math: data = dollars.
The most common way companies are leveraging data to optimize marketing and increase sales is though uncovering consumer preferences, traffic patterns, social media conversations, check-ins and other behaviors to specifically target – and hopefully convert – users with a high likelihood of buying.
Finding the right audience at the right time, and tailoring the right message and the right budget, is now made possible and (relatively) simple by a slew of “ad tech” solutions. They’re smart, they make sense, and they’re good for businesses and consumers. It’s no surprise, then, that there are more ad tech and social media analytics companies in New York than hole-in-the-wall sushi joints.
When it comes to leveraging data for improving a company’s marketing efforts, STELLAService is different. I mean really different. So different that I don’t think anyone really knows what category to put us in.
Instead of tracking consumer behavior patterns to help companies optimize marketing efforts and increase sales, STELLAService tracks business behavior patterns (specifically around customer service) to create credible marketing messages for top-performing companies, which helps those companies increase conversion, sales and long-term brand loyalty.
STELLAService independently and objectively collects customer service performance data to identify companies (starting with online retailers) that obsess over the customer experience. We want online shoppers to know which companies to expect great service from. We truly believe in the need for transparency around service quality throughout the Web, and companies that deliver great customer service believe in that mission too.
Through our comprehensive benchmark data, we are able to highlight the top-performing companies through the display of our STELLAService seal (examples of sites displaying the seal include Zappos.com, Diapers.com and 1800Contacts.com, to name a few). STELLAService helps these and other great businesses – large and small – close the loop on their customer service stories, validating each company’s claim and commitment to providing a world-class customer experience.
Simply put, the new “marketing math” is about leveraging all types of data – both consumer and business data – in new ways to bolster marketing and conversion rates. STELLAService is showing that customer service performance data can be a critical element in the new marketing equation, as it finally allows a company to back-up its message around the most important thing to consumers on the Web – the customer experience.
Editor’s Note: STELLAService Co-Founder and CEO Jordy Leiser will be a featured presenter at “MESA Presents: The New Marketing Math [Data = Dollars]” on Thursday, May 19 in NYC.
This post originally appeared at MESA Global.
When President Clinton’s strategist James Carville coined the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid” in the 1992 presidential campaign, it was recognition that the prevailing leadership (GW v1.0) was not focusing enough on the issue that mattered most to citizens: the economy.
In my opinion, what matters most to today’s online consumers (aside from price, which is rapidly converging) is also something that’s not garnering enough focus or attention from the leadership of the e-commerce community: the customer experience.
Our recent study with Ovum/Datamonitor (The Value of Great Customer Service_The Economic Impact) showed that there’s literally billions of dollars waiting to be earned by companies that are able to master the seemingly simple concept of providing great service. Some sites like Zappos.com, Diapers.com, BlueNile.com and a few others have successfully embraced this mission, but it’s surprising how many large online businesses still do not make the customer experience their #1 priority.
Delivering happiness should be the goal (at least on some level) for all organizations, from non-profits to NGOs to trade groups or government agencies. 
Last week, an unlikely name joined the list of organizations moving toward the successful, customer-obsessed model of doing business – the U.S. Postal Service! If the USPS is committing the time, money and resources to improve the customer experience for its 150+ million addressed customers, then no business is exempt from this responsibility.
The USPS recently announced the launch of “a new measurement system designed to better understand customers’ total experience doing business with USPS at every level of the organization.” Cheers to that.
Consistently measuring, monitoring and understanding the end-to-end customer experience is a must-have initiative for 2010 if it’s not already in action. While an internally designed and executed program for measuring the customer experience might sound like a good plan, it’s not. The only way senior leadership will ever feel comfortable that they have “on-the-ground insight” into the experiences of customers is if a truly objective third-party conducts the research and analysis. No room for bias. No room for masking weaknesses to save face. Pure and simple data from an independent source tells the story.
To be continued…
