Grant Stanley Consulting

Customer Service in 2015   As 2014 wound down, I took the time to pause, and look ahead to what top customer service trends will surface in 2015 and beyond. Good service — whether it's to answer a customer's question prior to purchase, or help a customer resolve an issue post-purchase should be pain-free, proactive at a minimum and pre-emptive at best, deeply personalised, and delivered with maximum productivity. Here are 6 top trends - out of a total of 10 - that I am keeping my eye on! Trend 1: Customers Embrace Emerging Channels to Reduce Friction. In a recent survey, we found that web self-service was the most widely used communication channel for customer service, surpassing use of the voice channel for the first time. In 2015, I predict that customers will continue to demand effortless interactions over web and mobile self-service channels. They will also explore new communication channels such as video chat with screen sharing and annotation. Trend ...

Big Data. It’s a buzzword uttered by both industry experts and business professionals; a marketing term and industry description bandied about by techies and creative types alike. Everyone acknowledges how important it is and its unlimited potential in affecting how decisions are made in various areas of our lives. However, that’s all it has actually been thus far: potential . Big Data gives us the ability to gather and access data online, regardless of whether that information comes from open sources or behind layers of cyber-security. But we have yet to maximise this data and harness it to its fullest capacity. That will change in the years to come. Many say we are at a tipping point. The ubiquity of mobile devices, cloud computing, and digital technology permeating every aspect of our lives will affect how all these volumes of information will be used and processed. Here’s how 2015 will prove to be big data’s break out year. 1.        The De...

The greatest salespeople aren’t always the greatest CRM experts… and it doesn’t always matter. Every sales department has one. And, sadly, new recruits born into a world of web often sneer at them. The experienced sales executive who prefers landlines to telepresence, remembers the birthdays of his clients’ children and writes stuff down on paper. Yes, that guy. The guy who’s kept three £250k accounts loyal for a decade! Salespeople who started work in a different decade aren’t always familiar with CRM technology and, sometimes, it frustrates their (often younger) colleagues charged with getting the most from their IT investment. To the point where our traditionalist hero – let’s call this hero Geoff – ends up excluded from departmental strategy, with the millions of business pounds he brings in, ignored. Can I change your perspective a little? Geoff isn’t anti-CRM. In fact, he’s the most pro-CRM guy you’ll ever meet. (He just doesn’t always do it through software.) ...

Video content is a growing commodity for brand marketers and investment in such content is continuing to grow, a trend that CSM’s Sales and Marketing director, Grant Stanley, predicts will continue throughout this year. In 2015, US consumers looking for information, products and services on the Internet will—for the first time—do more of their search queries on mobile devices than on desktop computers. Combined with the fact that YouTube will nudge Google into second place to narrowly become the number one search engine, it’s clear mobile and video will be front and centre of every marketer’s activities. The focus on mobile is underscored by a survey (The Advertiser Intelligence Reports, Wave 21) of approximately 2,000 marketer and agency decision makers conducted in July and August of 2014 by research firm Advertiser Perceptions. Among all respondents, 48 per cent expected to spend more on mobile advertising over the next 12 months while a mere 5 per cent indicated they would ...

What, another clarion call urging executives to fundamentally rethink their business models through digital technology? The business media have had no shortage of these. Many such bulletins focus on radically changing the nature of competition in an industry, as Apple did for music and Uber did for taxis. While there is certainly merit in questioning your business model, revolutionary business model transformation remains elusive despite the buzz. In our survey, a mere 7% of executives said that their company’s digital initiatives were helping them to launch new businesses. And only 15% said digital was helping them to create new business models. Why is that? Business model innovation is hard. But managers make it harder when they think about it only as radical industry reinvention. While revolutionary business model changes can be valuable, you don’t necessarily need to transform your industry. You don’t need to destroy your current business model. There is another way to make ...

Changes and improvements in parcel delivery options will give a boost to e-commerce sites in 2015, according to a new report by Fastlane International. The internet retail delivery and international parcel market is poised for some “significant developments” next year, including increased delivery options, the growth of Sunday and same-day delivers, better ‘signature’ proof systems and even the developments in drones. CSM Consultants Grant Stanley commented: “We are expecting 2015 to outperform even the technology-powered e-commerce revolution of 2014. Retailers have paid lip-service to the idea that the customer is king, or queen, for many years; but today they really are. No longer do companies decide how much stock might be available in any store, or how many days it might take to deliver. “We were in a push-economy, with manufacturers and retailers calling the shots. Now we are in a pull-economy: customers are in the driving seat, and are deciding exactly when and where ...

Marketing Spend in 2015   There’s no better time than the New Year to bring fresh ideas to your business. Last year we saw the rise of crowdfunding, the announcement of exciting wearable technologies, and a continued effort to engage customers through social media and mobile. It was a year of thrilling trends in consumer development. How many times have you or one of your colleagues said “That’s just the way things are done around here”? Don’t get stuck in a pattern of doing things a certain way just because that’s how things have always been done. Ask WHY, and if there isn’t a good reason perhaps now is the time to think of changing. Innovation in 2015, innovative ways to spend your budget. There’s no better time than a New Year and a new budget to bring fresh ideas to your business. Here are 5 exciting and innovative places to allocate your marketing budget in 2015 with an eye toward future revenue streams: 1. Getting to know your buyers Consumers are expec...

The New Year will be here before you know it, and 2015 promises to bring exciting trends. Before you make the leap into 2015, it is important to look back and see which parts of your company flourished and which areas could use improvement. Which tactics did you use and were they successful? You need to know if you were able to exceed your company’s forecasted financial goals and how the marketing tactics you used attributed to that success. Marketing professionals are already making their own estimations about what kinds of trends to expect in the very near future. Here is a list of a few trends you may want to keep in mind as you develop your 2015 marketing strategy: Visual Storytelling. Short videos have gotten very popular, especially with the younger demographics. They are short and engaging and, when done correctly, instill a strong message. Get your staff and customers involved by shooting a quick video of how your business operates  and post it to your social media a...

Branding is the process of figuring out who you are and what you stand for, conveying that to your audience, and then maintaining that perception. And it’s hard work­! It requires careful management, but those that manage their brands well instantly stand out. Obviously brand management has changed a fair amount in recent years, in response to changes in consumers and the culture at large. Brand management today includes a mixing of tried and true principles and an ever-evolving adaptation to the age we live in. As you look ahead to the New Year, here are a few reminders from CSM Consultants for managing your brand successfully in 2015.  1. Experience is everything   From front-end employees and project managers to the nit-picky details of a website, each and every aspect of interacting with a brand plays an important role in how consumers will value their overall experience and relationship with your brand. It’s the small things to a brand that can often be the big...

1)   Learn how to Delegate and do more of it. There are so many things to do when you're running a business, it's easy to delude ourselves that we need to do all of them. Then we wonder why we're so tired and frazzled and have no time to do anything else!  Determine your own Return On Investment, and decide to let someone else do some of the tasks for a change. Delegation is the key to a healthy work-life balance. 2) Promote your business regularly and consistently. Too often the task of promoting a business slips to the bottom of the to-do list in the press of urgent tasks. If you want to attract new customers, you have to make promotion a priority. Make a New Year's resolution to hire a marketing expert, or take the time to create a Marketing Plan on your own and follow through. Try some Low-Cost ways to promote your business to get started. 3) Make business planning a weekly event. Planning is vital if you want a healthy, growing business....