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Conversation with Tom Verbugt, Director E-Acquisition, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
According to the 2019 Dentsu Aegis Network CMO Survey, more than half of marketing leaders see developing the overall customer experience as the primary role of the marketing function in their organisations. Tom Verbugt, Director E-Acquisition, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines shares his views around elevating the customer experience and attracting the right talents. All companies are going through some form of digital transformation to maintain or improve their customer experience in the digital age. What is your approach to addressing challenges and opportunities around the customer experience? We don’t differentiate from competition through the lowest price or the most luxurious product, but by providing exceptional service. According to Bain & Company, 80% of marketers believe they deliver superior customer experience and only 8% of consumers agree. As an airline, we have a lot of contacts with our customers: through our call centres, via our mobile app, at check-in, at boarding, in the airplane, when they read our magazines, etc. All of these contacts create our customer experience, and our difficult job is to orchestrate, to personalise and to scale this experience. Building a brilliant customer experience is rooted in how data and technology are combined and deployed, which is one of the universal challenges of our time, data being quite often situated in silos within organisations. How do you address this challenge? Leadership plays a critical role. Recognising that we have to bring all the data together, to be more agile and to co-create instead of keep building expertise within silos requires a broad perspective. Although it is obviously very important for teams to be able to explain to top management why they need more data integration, leadership needs to challenge the status quo and take a clear direction. At KLM, we now have teams with a central responsibility of clustering data and aligning data sources. This organisation comes with its own set of challenges, because we used to have smaller sources with smaller teams, enabling us to quickly access and fix issues that frustrate our customers. As the organisation becomes bigger, the process becomes slower. It is a constant challenge to think ahead and try to be prepared for what's next. As younger generations’ expectations around commerce are increasing and as marketers have so many options available, from voice search to shoppable social media, where do you think the big bets are in terms of the changing commerce landscape? How do you take advantage of them? We make the distinction between the servicing part and the commerce part. Being everywhere the consumer is is very important for servicing. We want to be on WhatsApp, on WeChat, on Messenger and help our customer in the experience they have with KLM. For the commerce part, direct sales are very important for us, as they enable us to provide the best customer experience. For instance, if there are disruptions at the airport, we are able to update the customer about the new flight or hotel because we have the customer’s contact details. The direct online channel gives us the most direct relationship with the customer and is also the cheapest one. Source:KLM flight info on WhatsApp, KLM via Youtube We know that obviously trust is a key issue for brands. We interviewed 300 leading marketers, and feedback in our study showed that 88% of marketers make trust a key priority for their brand. How do we ensure that brands’ digital marketing doesn't jeopardize trust between brand and consumer? As a consumer, I love GDPR. As a marketer, I hate it! We need to learn from this discrepancy to create trust. “We don’t differentiate from competition through the lowest price or the most luxurious product, but by providing exceptional service.” One of the key challenges for businesses in the digital economy is attracting and retaining the right talent. Not only in terms of hard skills around data, technology, programmatic, AI, but also in terms of soft skills like agility and inclusivity. What is your business doing to address the evolution in talent requirements? This is actually a very big challenge for us at this moment. The airline industry is becoming the new banking industry, in the sense that we start being seen as a not so sustainable industry, especially in Europe. This is not helping us attract the younger talents. For our brand it is very important to explain that we are the most sustainable airline in the world and that potential recruits can help us move forward. This story, and how we position ourselves on this topic, are key. Besides our brand, the growth potential for people in the company is crucial: trainings, onboarding, career potential, development programs, all of Let’s focus on the evolving role of agencies in that moving landscape. The dynamic between agency and client does change. We are more and more involved in discussions around in-housing and consultancy, from media to data and technology. We have observed it improves our relationship, and this increased trust leads to better business performance. What is your perspective on the changing role for agencies in the next years? In the 1960s to 1980s, agencies were some sort of advisors to the CEO, giving new growth ideas on profitability and efficiency. In the 1980s, agencies became experts in how TV ads worked, but this expertise could be copied across the industry. In the 1990s, a new mantra appeared: more technology is more profitability. Now we get verticals of industries and verticals of profession, and consultancies and agencies are connecting these verticals and telling me they can build, run and even own our customer experience! Maybe I’d prefer to go back a little bit to the 1960s, to have people help me with new growth ideas on how I can create new profitability. The agency world has shifted away from being rewarded for growth ideas, profitability and efficiency, and it would be very interesting to go back a little bit into that disrupting mindset. This article is excerpted from the report Data-Driven Commerce. Download it now for key insights on winning at commerce in the new digital economy. 06 min read
Netflix claims 10% of US TV viewing time
This week we have seven stories, including Netflix’ latest numbers, more on last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, Amazon’s free samples, and an advertising medium with a potential audience of 7 billion people. This week's top stories... Netflix claims to have 10% of US TV viewing time Netflix released its latest quarterly numbers last night, including some numbers on viewing and specific shows. Bird Box, the Sandra Bullock film, which it earlier said had 45m accounts viewing in seven days, has had 80m viewing in 4 weeks, and Netflix total US viewing of 100m hours a day, which is an estimated 10% of the time spent watching TV (caveat - not all of Netflix viewing is on a TV, but a lot of it is). They also added nearly 10m new subscribers around the world, but missed some revenue numbers... Carat’s Trends from CES Essential reading: Our American colleague’s trends from CES, including Transparency, Human Design, Immersive Media (including eSports), and some thoughts on 5G. Lots to think about, and there’s even a handy grid to help you prioritise between different technologies. A16Z partner Steven Sinofsky’s review of CES Always a great read. This year he went everywhere and walked 26 miles, and these are his thoughts. He’s very enthusiastic on how voice is being integrated everywhere, and about the smart home, but he’s less convinced by the automotive and mobility technology that he saw. Well worth ten minutes of your time (& there’s also a DNA testing kit for cats). One more from CES - the data collected by your smart TV makes it cheaper It makes perfect sense, but it may alarm people that the new model for selling TVs includes potential revenues from content, advertising and data means that a smart TV will actually be cheaper for the consumer than a non-smart one. The ‘post-purchase monetisation’ of the hardware is something which is going to get increasingly important, and so there will be lots of pressure to make use of data supplied (with full consent) by the purchasers. Facebook is investing $300m in local journalism Facebook has often been criticised for its impact on the news industry - studies show that some demographics have Facebook as the main source of news - and now it is making moves to invest real money into journalism in the US. This includes donating to organisations like Report For America to pay for journalists in newsrooms, and also working with news groups to develop technology. It will be interesting to see how this goes, and also if it extends beyond the US. Amazon is going to start sending out free samples with packages Another brilliant idea from Amazon. It is going to test sending out free samples of things that you might want, based on previous purchases, and presumably payments from brands. Given how much empty space there is in many Amazon packages (I bought a shoehorn, and it came in a box you could serve a pizza in), why not put other items in too? & finally - Space - the final (advertising) frontier Possibly launching in 2021 - the ability to place an ad in orbit 400-500km above the earth, with a potential reach of 7bn... Thanks to Camilla Hibbert for the link! Netflix claims 10% of US TV viewing time 03 min read
Future Focus 2019: Searching for Trust
In Future Focus 2019, we examine how brands that are built on credibility, relevance, and reliability will see trust as the very foundation for their success in the digital economy. The digital economy has brought new opportunity for development and innovation in every business sector. While the majority is “good innovation”, we continue to see a significant gap at a societal level, driven by a continued disparity in access to technology based on socio-economic factors. In today’s hyper-sensitive media landscape, how should brands and publishers navigate the notion of truth and authenticity? We interviewed more than 300 global marketers and leaders across a broad spectrum of brands, including FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies, and used the real-time responses to outline key insights and priorities necessary for businesses to thrive in our fast moving, high expectation digital economy. Feedback shows that trust is at the forefront globally with 88% of marketers making trust in their brand a priority in 2019. Marketers see gaining consumer trust as vital to business growth with 76% stating that trust is important to keep consumers buying their brand. Digital will play a clear role in this with 60% believing that the rise of AI will increase consumer trust as it allows for more relevant and personal experiences.83% don’t believe brands will dominate over convenient experiences in the future 83% don’t believe brands will dominate over convenient experiences in the future 62% don’t have a proactive role in approaching online reviews, although they think reviews represent the greatest risk to consumer trust 62% say the quality of their purchase experience and after-sales service will be a priority for 2019 69% think the rise of digital assistants represents an opportunity to become closer and develop stronger relationships with consumers The report also includes exclusive interviews with global leaders from businesses, such as The New York Times Company, IBM, Microsoft, Hilton, The Economist, Rachel Zoe, Inc., IKEA, and AccorHotels. Chapter One: Credibility in the Age of Doubt Outlines the role of purpose in the digital economy and how immediate benefits for brands will be bestowed to those who can use digital to build and reinforce their credibility in the eyes of consumers. By protecting the integrity of their brand online, communicating their values, and leveraging the power of technology, brands will see a steady increase in trust of their brand. Includes exclusive interviews with: Mark Thompson, CEO and President, The New York Times Company, on leading the battle against misinformation and fake news. Armin Molavi, Interim VP Media, Hilton, on trust in the travel industry, social responsibility and the new place for data. Mark Cripps, Chief Marketing Officer, The Economist, outlines opportunities in the new value exchange and the notion of being data-responsible. Chapter Two: Relevance in the Age of Noise Explores the rise of shrinking consumer attention and an increasingly fragmented consumer landscape. Successful brands will be those who focus on relevant experiences, outplay the influx on digital content, and make the most of the Assistance revolution. Includes exclusive interviews with: Vanja Mlaco, Digital Growth Strategist, Transavia, on the importance of putting the consumer ahead of conversion, and using technology as a goal, not a means to an end. Carrie Seifer, Vice President and Chief Revenue Office, IBM Watson and Weather, on the unstoppable rise of AI and how trust and transparency must underpin all action. Laurent Tiersen, Country Marketing Manager, IKEA UK & Ireland, on the constant focus on staying relevant to their customers. Jonathan Foster, Principal Experiences Manager, Microsoft, on how he builds Cortana, using personality goes a long way to building trust, and using art to show humanity to humans. Chapter Three: Reliability in the Age of Convenience Focuses on the rise of convenience as it intersects with the more traditional power of brand, and highlights the subtle balance between building brands and designing highly convenient solutions. Successful companies will dominate by focusing on the convenience of their digital properties, media assets, and presence on third-party reseller platforms. Includes exclusive interviews with: Antoine DuBois, SVP Marketing Global Strategy, AccorHotels, on the convenience, artificial intelligence and the war for talent. Rachel Zoe, CEO, Rachel Zoe Inc., on navigating the rise and influence of digital in the fashion and luxury landscape, and why adaptability is key. DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT Trust. It's not an issue; it's the issue. 04 min read