Lessons from LEGO at Forrester’s Marketing Forum EMEA 2009

[Posted by Angela Beckers]

The highlight of Forrester’s Marketing Forum EMEA 2009 for me was the industry keynote speech by Conny Kalcher – Vice President Consumer Experiences at LEGO. Her presentation described LEGO’s path to recovery from the crisis that the firm faced in 2004 when profit had dropped drastically and the company was getting mired in debt to the point where there seemed no way out. What were the key elements in LEGO’s recovery? Focusing on the core of the business and its core customers, listening to its customers, and acting on what they said. In order to do so, Conny stated, there must be a shared vision throughout the company with a strong focus on the customer. This focus on the customer implied that LEGO had to clearly understand who its core customers are. So LEGO defined customer groups according to their level of affinity, starting with households that never or rarely buy LEGO products up to users who are ‘true fans’ – who spend a considerable amount on LEGO products and are actively involved in the LEGO community :

Affinity Pyramid:
— Lead users
↑ 1:1 community
↑ Connected community
↑ Active households
↑ Covered households
↑ All households

To move customers up the affinity pyramid, LEGO aims to create a connected brand experience and a shared enthusiasm – ‘The LEGO Experience DNA’ across a range of touch points. Here are a few numbers:
- 53 million LEGO hits on google.com
- 259,000 ‘brick films’ on YouTube (1% of the videos on YouTube, by some estimates)
- 3.2M members in the LEGO club

Word of mouth is very important to LEGO and the activity of its fan communities is the best recommendation that the brand can get.

When it comes to measuring customer experience, LEGO places emphasis on Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure the impact of action plans and to drive ongoing improvements. LEGO’s NPS score increased 20% since 2005.

Particularly impressive is LEGO’s “Live NPS Program” – Customers who buy products in branches can indicate a score on their receipts at the moment they transact at the store. All negative feedback and comments are sent directly to the branch manager who has the obligation to respond within the same day. Conny described an example of one store where the response time for a manager to address low NPS feedback is as little as 24 minutes.

In the Q&A session at the end of the presentation, someone asked how Conny managed all the work. Her answer? “Like everyone else. But it helps if you love your job.”

Were you at the forum? Or did you follow the presentations via Twitter and UStream? What presentations were interesting to you? And what were your takeaways?

The Future of Agencies: What Do You Think?

[Posted by Vidya Drego]

We’re in the process of pondering a very important question in the industry today: what is the future of agencies? Agencies have played such a crucial role in helping companies market their products and services for more than a century. Names like McCann Erickson, Young & Rubicam, J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy, and Saatchi & Saatchi (among others) are practically household names. There’s even a massively popular and critically acclaimed television show capturing life in the golden age of legendary agencies on Madison Avenue.

Yet the agency model was built during a time when there were only a handful of channels in which they could push one way messages en masse. Does that model still work in a time when nearly a quarter of online US adults now create content online? Many more questions begin to arise as we open Pandora’s Box: Can one agency do it all? Are holding companies the answer? Can digital agencies compete with them and lead brands? Do marketers rely on agencies like they used to? Should marketers consolidate their agencies or de-centralize to dozens of agency partners? Are technology providers and crowd sourcing legitimate threats? Where is this all going?

To conduct this research we’re speaking with some of the most influential agencies, marketers, and service providers. However, what better way to get a feel for the pulse of the industry than to crowd source it? So we’re reaching out to get your take on the space. Please give us your thoughts in the comments section on the question: What is the future of agencies?

We’re looking forward to your input (and please try to keep it to one or two paragraphs)! Since this research is a collaborative report across roles, this post is cross-posted on the Interactive Marketing, Direct Marketing, and Marketing Leadership team blogs.

Gearing Up For Forrester’s Marketing Forum EMEA 2009

[Posted by Angela Beckers]

I’m Angela Beckers, a Researcher on Forrester's Customer Experience team. Next week (November 17th and 18th) I will attend my first ever Forrester event - the Marketing Forum EMEA 2009 - in London, UK. I’m very excited about this opportunity to see some great presentations and interact with marketing and customer experience professionals from across Europe.

The theme for the forum is “Marketing On A Tightrope: From Surviving The Downturn To Thriving In An Upturn.” Speakers on both the main stage and in the track sessions come from well known companies such as LEGO, Capital One, Orange, and more. Many of the sessions will be directly focused on customer experience topics that I know are of interest to readers of this blog. For example, on Wednesday, the Forrester keynote speech by Moira Dorsey will be on the “Future Of Online Experiences.” Immediately after Moira, the industry keynote of the day will be presented by Conny Kalcher, Vice President Consumer Experiences at LEGO. In addition, the event will have a specific track devoted to customer experience professionals. The CXP track speakers include Sue Wilmot, Head of Customer Strategy Delivery at Orange (UK) speaking about “Building Customer Loyalty With Every Interaction” and Mike Cripps, Customer Experience Manager, Service Operations, at Capital One Financial Services explaining how you can “Take Control Of Call Quality In Your Contact Center.” Our guest speakers will be joined by Forrester’s Senior Analysts Megan Burns and Jonathan Browne who will offer insight on “Finding Money For Web Experience Work In A Tough Economy” and “Using Ethnography To Make Tomorrow’s Multi-Channel Experiences.”

But wait, there’s more! On Tuesday, November 17, 2009, Forrester will host a London Tweetup. Tweetups are low-key social events where Twitterers can network and meet the people they tweet with. Anyone can attend; it is an informal atmosphere that allows casual conversations. This Tweetup is for anyone who's attending the Forum or lives in the London area. There is no charge for attending the Tweetup, so come meet and mingle with @forrester, @jonathanbrowne, @jgownder, @Mark_Mulligan, and others.

Any questions, comments, concerns? Post a comment here or send me an email at:

 abeckers at forrester dot com

See you in London!

Assumption Personas (handle with care)

[Posted by Jonathan Browne]

About ten years ago, when Forrester was writing some of our early research on effective Web design, we noticed a pattern among leading companies. They told us they were finding it very helpful to use design personas - models of customers based on qualitative research into real customers, but presented as vivid stories about individuals (not segment descriptions). These tools enabled them to stay focused on the needs of their most important customers when designing online experiences.

Since then, design personas have become fairly mainstream design tools in North American companies, and increasingly common in Europe and Japan - not only for Web design, but across all channels. However, the quality of personas varies enormously from company to company. For example, I'm evaluating personas from UK interactive agencies at the moment and although some are clearly well researched, engaging, helpful to designers and believable, others seem to be mere stereotypes.

Why is this? I think one of the main reasons is because some firms just pay lip-service to the idea of customer centric design, while others truly obsess about their customers - which is one of the three principles that companies must embrace to achieve Experience Based Differentiation. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to convince business stakeholders that they need new customer insights. Furthermore, it's not always clear to researchers what kinds of insight they should be seeking when they observe or interview customers.

So what's a customer experience professional to do when he is faced with business stakeholders who view qualitative research methods with skepticism? And how can persona creation teams ensure that they pay attention to the right things when they're doing their research?

I interviewed several design experts who deal with these challenges by using "Assumption Personas" at an early stage in the design process. Essentially, assumption personas are imagined profiles of customers that are created in collaborative sessions with key stakeholders rather than derived from primary research.

Wow! So stereotypes are OK?

Well ... They are not OK as design tools. It's important to understand that these imagined profiles may be riddled with errors, prejudices, false assumptions and inaccuracies. Don't take the risk of designing products, channels or messages based on them. The reason they're valuable is because they help CXP professionals to:

Prove the need for a shared customer model. 

Make the case for funding ethnographic research.

Generate hypotheses to test with the research.

I've written about the reasons to use assumption personas and the best practices for getting good results from them in my latest research for Forrester clients - Assumption Personas Help Overcome Hurdles To Using Research-Based Design Personas.

In organizations that don't have a lot of experience with qualitative research, it's vital to get buy-in from the business stakeholders and to make sure that the first projects are demonstrably successful. Do you have other techniques for doing this? Have you had success in getting organizations to obsess about customers and use customer insights more effectively? What has worked for you? Please let me know by adding a comment to this post.

Introducing Emotional Experience Design

  [Posted by Ron Rogowski]

In a world where users approach the Web with ever increasing expectations, a firm's Web site has become critical for building a company’s relationship with its customers. Today, the  Web site is often the first, and sometimes only, place customers interact with a company. Unfortunately, many sties offer lackluster experiences that leave an emotional void.

So how can companies create more engaging connections with their customers? That’s the subject of my new report called “Emotional Experience Design.”  

We’ve defined Emotional Experience Design as:

 

Creating interactions that engage users by catering to their emotional needs.

 

While we feel that the definition is important, what’s most important is that companies consider the three principles of Emotional Experience Design (EED) we outlined in the report.

1. Address customers' real goals. Today's most effective sites help users achieve specific goals related to their visit. But customers' needs go well beyond a single visit to a Web site. To make meaningful connections with customers, firms must uncover what customers really need and help them accomplish these higher-level goals, which often span time and channels.

 

2. Develop a coherent personality. Companies that want customers to feel "connected" to their sites need to project a consistent persona throughout all experiences. Plastering a site with defined colors and tag lines may be "on brand," but it's not good enough. Firms must let down their defenses and create a human-like personality that customers can depend on.

 

3. Engage a mix of senses. Reading content and clicking hyperlinks was once revolutionary. But the Web has evolved beyond the printed-page metaphor. If firms want to keep users interested, they need to enrich the sensory experience. While Web experiences don't allow users to taste or smell objects, they can and absolutely should engage users' senses of sight, hearing, and even touch.

 

To get more detail on the importance of EED today, the principles, and how to get started incorporating them into your site’s design, please access the full report at Forrester’s site.

 

As always, we welcome your feedback and comments on this report as we continue to develop this idea with additional research to follow in the coming months.

 

New Report: "How Chief Customer Experience Officers Gain Active Executive Support"

[Posted by Megan Burns]

 

I’m excited to announce the release of my latest report: “How Chief Customer Experience Officers Gain Active Executive Support.” Executive involvement is critical to the success of any customer experience transformation, but it’s hard to get. I interviewed several successful CC/EOs to find out how they got their peers on the leadership team on board.

Here are a few highlights from the report:

 

·       Uncertainty stops executives from acting. Senior leaders agree with the principles of customer centricity, but often fail to actively engage in efforts to be more customer centric. Why? Because they’re uncertain about one of two things: 1) the business value of customer experience efforts as compared to other potential investments, and 2) what, exactly, they should do to help.

 

·       CC/EOs should tailor their approach to each executive’s current level of support. The report includes a scorecard that helps the CC/EO classify each member of the leadership team based on his or her current level of support for customer experience. The first category, called “Passives,” resist participation in customer experience programs because they don’t see the value. “Willing” executives are happy to help, but need the CC/EO’s help charting out a plan of action. Leaders in the “Engaged” category are the firm’s customer experience champions. They set the example for others and are a great asset to the CC/EO.

 

·       The CC/EOs passion and attitude are a powerful tool. The advice we got from one former CC/EO was “Be positively relentless.” This journey can take a long time, so you have to be persistent in the face of many challenges. And through it all, the CC/EO must put their belief in customer experience front and center to help others move forward in the face of uncertainty.

 

For the full report, see: http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,54957,00.html

 

Have a great week!

-Megan

 

 

 

Take The Conversation Offline At Forrester’s Chicago Tweetup

Are you attending Forrester's Consumer Forum 2009? Do you live in the Chicago area? Do you ever wonder who you are talking to on Twitter?

On October 26, the night before Forrester’s Consumer Forum, Forrester will be hosting a Chicago Tweetup. Tweetups are low-key social events where Twitterers can network and meet the people they tweet with. Anyone can attend; it is an informal atmosphere that allows casual conversations.

The Forrester Chicago Tweetup is for anyone who's attending the Forum or lives in the Chicago area. There is no charge for attending the Tweetup, so come meet and mingle with @CarrieJohnson, @nate_elliott, @jsymons, @jgownder, @drnatalie, @forrester, and others.

Web Site Brand Review Workshop October 26, Chicago, IL (In Conjunction With Forrester’s Consumer Forum 2009)

 [Posted by Ron Rogowski]

 

Ever wonder why Web sites offer such lackluster brand experiences? Want to know how your site can help you differentiate your brand online?

 

If you care about how your brand succeeds online and are attending Forrester’s Consumer Forum 2009, I encourage you to consider attending our Web Site Brand Review Workshop.

 
The Workshop is being held on Monday, October 26^th at the Fairmont Chicago (the same venue as the Forum).

 

During this one day session, Forrester analysts will provide insights into the dos and don’ts of creating Web sites that effectively build brands. Attendees will learn the same methodology Forrester uses to evaluate how well sites build brands as published in reports such as “Best And Worst Of Brand Building Web Sites, 2008” and “Best And Worst Of Financial Services Brand Building Web Sites, 2009.”

 

This promises to be an educational, interactive, and entertaining way to learn the tools that will help you create the online experience your brand deserves. And, if you are attending the forum, we are offering a special discounted rate. For more information, and a detailed agenda, please visit the event page.

What Customer Experience Professionals Can Learn From Kindergartners

[Posted by Liz Boehm]

My nephew just started kindergarten this year and it got me thinking about some of the life lessons we learn in our early schooling.  Here’s a short list of some of the ideas that I think are most applicable to customer experience professionals.  As always, I’m thinking about healthcare CXPs, but these also apply more broadly.

1.   Creating your own language is fun, but no one outside your group will understand you.  The cool girls in my elementary school had this language – I think it was the “idiga” language where they would insert “idig” in the middle of their words.  They could have long drawn out conversations with each other, but the other geeks and I couldn’t understand a word.  Maybe that’s why I react so strongly when I read health plan content that’s rife with terms like “provider,” “coinsurance” or “eligibility” (you can almost see the “idig” in that last one).  The uninitiated – meaning pretty much every consumer out there – won’t be able to understand it.  Health plans that want consumers to actually understand their benefits should stick to plain old English – preferably with few syllables.

2.  It’s easier to go out on a limb if you know your parents are behind you . . .  Most of us had one of those seminal childhood moments – first day in a new school where everyone already knew each other, standing up to a bully, returning to school after an embarrassing incident.  And if you didn’t have one of those moments, I’m sure you’ve seen the movie.  In all of those cases, it’s so much easier to step forward with confidence if your parents offered some advice and encouragement – and told you that they’d still love you no matter how things worked out.  The same is true in business.  It’s a lot easier to take a stand (and get others to follow your lead) when senior management has given you’re their blessing.

3.  . . . But your parents can’t protect you in every situation.  Yes, it was great to know your parents were backing you up.  But then there were situations that happened too fast – or maybe where you’d absorbed the lessons of some earlier advice – and you had to act on your own.  The same is true for customer experience professionals.  Sometimes you have to stand up against the “middle management mafia” without explicit executive backing because you know it is the right thing to do.  These situations are scary, but at least you walk out knowing you did the right thing.  And if the mean kids tease you anyway, you can always run and tell the teacher.

4.  If you make a promise, keep a promise.  This is perhaps the most important lesson we learn in kindergarten and then too often forget – maybe it’s because of those adolescent hormones.  In kindergarten, if you repeatedly failed to live up to your word, or stole, or were otherwise deceitful, your friends eventually left you for greener pastures.  So will your customers.  So whether your brand promise is to “make life a little easier,” or “improving healthcare one person at a time,” be sure you live up to your promise – in your products, your service, and every experience your customers have with you.

Nike, adidas, New Balance, & Puma Race For Cross-Channel Excellence

[Posted by Adele Sage]

I just published a doc “Footwear Manufacturers’ Cross-Channel Experience, 2009” with the results of Cross-Channel Reviews of the four leading footwear manufacturers: adidas, New Balance, Nike, and Puma. We tried to complete standard user goals (looking for running shoes, buying a pair, and then tracking the order) in several channels (Web, IVR, phone, and email) and then looked at the experiences across channels.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Nike was a clear front-runner. In addition to earning the highest overall score among the footwear manufacturers, Nike received the only two passing scores, with +10 and +12 on the IVR and email portions, respectively.

• All four tripped up on legible text and clear language on the Web. We also looked at the individual review criteria that caused the biggest problems for the footwear manufacturers. All four firms failed our Web site tests for providing legible text and for using language that's easy to understand.

• Each footwear manufacturer had problems with its experience... Some examples: During scenarios in the adidas IVR, the user encountered problems with access to human assistance, error handling, and feedback. And on Puma’s site, the user could complete the purchase online, but he couldn't sort shoes by color or price, and there was no way for him to check the status of his order once he declined to register during checkout.

• …But they all offered best practices, too. Among the best practices: New Balance recommended types of arch support online, Nike and Puma let the user customize shoes on the Web, and the adidas site made it easy to scan pages.

For the full report, see http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,48228,00.html