Built-In Customer Support Turns Feedback into Conversations

Modern businesses need to do more than just provide customers with a way to provide feedback, they need to drive their customers to engage in a conversation about their product.

In March 2012, Apple announced the 25 billionth download from their App Store, giving away a cool US$ 10,000 iTunes gift card. Apple reported approximately US$ 5.7 billion revenue on those 25 billion downloads, so it is easy to do the math: the mobile app landscape is dominated by free and low-cost downloads. Mobile App analytics firm App Annie reports that the average revenue per download for iOS games in the US is just 67 cents.

Changing Dynamics

For mobile apps, having such a low price point changes the purchase dynamic. Users are skeptical of apps that charge too much up front, which has given rise to “freemium” services and in-app purchases. These sort of models lower the threshold for downloads, making it easier for customers to try before they buy. And while there are avenues to request refunds, many consumers may find it is not worth the hassle to get their US$ .99 back. Instead, they might just write a spiteful review and give the app a low rating.

This creates quite a predicament for mobile app developers, who have no way to reach out to the users behind those arbitrary star ratings and three-word reviews like, “this doesn’t work.” How can they intervene with a user who sees no other avenue for venting frustration than a one-star rating and a spiteful review?

Consider also that we are rapidly entering a world where, for many young people, talking to people is not the primary use of their phone. Even if they reach out for customer service, they might prefer Twitter or Facebook to calling in or sending email. Yet they expect all of those options to be available.

Built-In Customer Service

To succeed in the mobile app marketplace, businesses need the half-inch square icon on a customer’s mobile device to stand for a great customer experience. Which means, in part, exceeding expectations around service and support. Move beyond the baseline of Facebook, Twitter, phone and email to create a positive customer experience, even when an app fails.

• Give customers the ability to express themselves from inside the app they are using. Create a seamless customer service experience.
• Use an in-app feedback mechanism to leverage contextual information and create a personalized customer service experience. Help your customer service agents understand who the customer is, their usage history and usage preferences.
• Aggregate usage and personalization data from your app for a data-driven customer service experience. Analytics can help developers understand how users interact with an app, and assist with debugging.

When an app provides ways to reach out for service and support, it can deflect some of those bad ratings and spiteful reviews. It can also help you identify potential advocates who love your app, but aren’t necessarily thinking, “I need to go write a review.”

Research into consumer behavior in app stores suggests that the number of reviews matter: more reviews encourage more sales. And analysis from NYU and the Georgia Institute of Technology suggests that reviews and ratings are of particular value for the types of things that are difficult for consumers to evaluate prior to purchase: books, movies and apps. The higher your rating, the more likely you are to pique the interest of potential customers.

Customer service strategies can be slow to evolve. A company that pays attention to app store feedback and reviews is one step down the path. But simply listening is not the same thing as engaging. That requires being open to feedback and responding.

Modern businesses that drive their customers to engage in a conversation about their product will have a competitive advantage. Techniques like in-app feedback and usage analytics will yield better ratings and more positive reviews, which in turn can result in more sales, and engaged customers who love your product and who want to talk about it.

About the Author

Joshua Ellis works in the marketing department for Apptentive. He is a strong advocate for customer service with a focus on improving the quality of mobile applications and creating connections between developers and customers.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

How To Make The Most Of Your Too-Short Work Break

If you’re not the type who can sit on a park bench and contemplate nothing, and the conversation around the Keurig machine bores you, what can you do with 15 minutes that isn’t really work but pays off in productivity?

After 90 minutes of meeting, working, thinking, and pushing emails, your glucose is in a bad place. That’s what project management consultant Tony Wong tells his clients. And everyone from NASA to the Berlin Academy of Music have run tests that prove you truly need the equivalent of a smoke break, a shift change, whatever you want to call it.

But let’s say you’re not the type who can sit on a park bench and contemplate nothing, and the conversation around the Keurig machine bores you. What can you do with 15 minutes that isn’t really work, but pays off in productivity?

Stand up and go somewhere, anywhere.

Sitting still at your computer is really harmful, no matter how many mountain bike trails you conquer on Saturday. All you have to do to beat back the creep of fat accumulation, heart disease, diabetes, and simple tiredness is to stand up for two minutes, every 20 minutes, as New York Times fitness columnist Gretchen Reynolds advises. You can set your timer of choice to go off every 20 minutes, or rely on something like 20 Cubed for Chrome that’s custom-built for the task.

Walking around is even better, but all you really have to do is stand up. You can make a quick phone call, check Twitter on your phone, and pretend you’re reading an email, the important thing is that you get your butt out of your seat.

If you feel guilty (or feel you’re being watched) on your two-minute standing break, try thinking of it instead as the equivalent of a 10-minute break every 90 minutes, which is, as noted, just about when you’ll hit your own focus wall. Add another 5 or 10 minutes, and you’re the healthiest, least pressure-cooked person at work.

Give yourself a “shower moment”

It’s a cliche that the best ideas come to us in the bathroom, in the shower, or in the baking supplies section of the supermarket. One Columbia Business School professor sought to figure out the real reason why we do so much better in those moments than in times we set aside for formal brainstorming or planning. William Duggan discovered a big part of the answer had already been written by a 19th Century Prussian General who obsessed over Napoleon. As Duggan explains it, General Carl von Clausewitz determined that part of Napoleon’s strategical brilliance involved:

… reaching a presence of mind free of all preconceptions, allowing the mind to make its own connections in a flash of insight, and resolving to execute the course of action despite potential resistance, he said.

Most of us don’t have minds as singular and focused as Napoleon’s (probably for the better). But we can aide our minds in gaining flash insights by focusing on a menial but mindful task, like walking the dog, or washing the dishes. Come up with some rote task you sorta-kinda need to do twice a day at work, and you'll give your mind the crucial strategy time it needs to make connections.

Connect with your mentors, and mentor others

"Mentoring" feels like such a heavy, official word, so call it "advising," or "coaching" if you like. By setting aside regular breaks to give people advice on their projects, or their career path, you are also reinforcing your own goals and values. 

If you’re new to a field, or you feel you always have a ways to go, you need to get your own mentor. It doesn’t have to be someone who’s an unreachable top-shelf pro; having a younger mentor can be an energizing relationship. If it feels awkward to reach out and ask someone for free help, take career columnist Penelope Trunk’s advice: do lots of favors, figure out when it’s easy for them to talk or email, and go out of your way to meet in person.

A quick email, phone call, or IM exchange with your mentor or mentee easily fits inside your break. If you haven’t found the right individual yet, consider being a kind of meta-mentor by contributing to answers with your expertise on Quora, community projects and wikis, and other sites that you never have time for you in your personal web browsing.

Meditate for just two minutes

Does meditation absolutely, scientifically clear your mind, make it stronger, and produce measurably greater work product? No, and the science isn’t quite there to prove a direct correlation either way. But it works for some people, and as blogger and minimalist enthusiast Leo Babuta explains, you can start a practice with literally two minutes. It’s more about making meditation a habit than mastering the art, and it doesn’t require pillows, music, or anything, really, but a place to sit.

Meditation fits nicely into a break on a few levels. You’ll find yourself fighting against it, trying to avoid actually taking a break from thinking about all that stuff you have to do. But the benefits of getting away from your desk, thinking beyond your inbox, or just thinking about nothing are huge.

Source : fastcompany[dot]com