Liz Roche, Director, Product Marketing, Customer Engagement Solutions Digital Commerce Solutions at Pitney Bowes, believes that customers are more powerful now they’ve ever been before. And they have things to say in ways they haven’t been able to communicate previously.
Along with David Schwartz, Vice President of Sales, Pitney Bowes Digital Commerce Solutions, Roche shared with attendees during Thursday’s Loyalty360 webinar, Powering Engagement Through Personalized Viewer-Driven Video, that Personalized Interactive Video (PIV) is fast becoming a key point of customer experience differentiation among marketers.
“Organizations are in the midst of an era of increased power in the hands of customers, an era in which an organization’s ability to focus on customer experience matters more to its success than any other strategic imperative,” Roche said. “The challenge for most companies is to shift their thinking to focus on engaging customers in ways that customers find valuable, rather than focusing primarily on ease or cost of execution. It has become paramount to ensure that customer experience—the single greatest predictor of whether customers will return—is a deliberate strategy for every organization.”
Customer experience predicts financial outcomes, Roche said, and new technologies change consumer behavior.
“Think about the customer from the outside in,” Roche said.
PIV helps marketers manage relationships over the customer lifecycle:
Engage and inform prospects in their research and decision process
Explain documents to increase understanding and acceptance
Provide entertaining self-service (and blended) customer support
Present cross-sell and up-sell options
Investigate and respond to negative customer feedback or contract cancellation
Drive renewals of expiring contracts
By 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic (Cisco); 64% of marketers expect video to soon dominate their strategies (Nielson); and seven in 10 people view brands in a more positive light after watching interesting video content from them (Axonn Research).
PIV is:
Personalized communication via video
Viewer controlled content journey
A unique experience is generated in a few seconds
Cross platform compatible
“We help our clients increase the lifetime value for their customers,” Schwartz said.
PIV helps clients:
Increase customer lifetime value
Improve customer experience
Transfer knowledge
Shorten sales cycles
Reduce operating costs
Pitney Bowes offers the only comprehensive Customer Engagement Solution with Personalized Interactive Video where each viewer sees a unique video; and each viewer controls the personalized video for a unique experience.
There are two forms of PIV: Virtual presenters/bills and statements.
Pitney Bowes differentiation:
Customer engagement: A full suite of Customer Engagement Solutions with Personalized Interactive Video
Interaction: Viewers control content; alternative videos require client participation of interaction
Deployment options: On-premise and fully managed cloud options; allows tighter integration into the operation; no need to send sensitive customer data to the cloud
“It’s a pretty rich experience and we offer different greetings based on the time of day,” Schwartz said. “We want to create a lean forward experience. We want the viewer to recognize instantly that this is different.”
Schwartz shared a case study involving asset management firm Curian Capital.
Curian needed an innovative solution to help Financial Professionals (FPs) learn about Curian Select Portfolios, and to help FPs share information about the portfolios with their clients.
Curian was particularly interested in developing a solution that would quickly command attention, establish differentiation, generate interest and motivate viewers to seek more information from a Curian Regional Business Consultant.
Curian’s virtual presenter greets viewers by name and invites them to participate in an interactive journey as either a Financial Professional or an Investor. Throughout the experience, viewers are prompted to select the topics of most interest to their individual needs and circumstances.
Over a five-month period, Schwartz said, benefits included:
$30 million increase in sales
44% increase in sales from participating FAs vs non-participants