The Importance of Storytelling

Since the beginning of time, humans have served as storytellers, passing tales down through the generations in an effort to preserve history. But as technology becomes ever more sophisticated, content marketers recognize storytelling as an opportunity to expand brand reach and strengthen customer trust.

Mario Natarelli, managing partner at MBLM, defines storytelling as “shaping a strong narrative that connects audiences to a brand in emotionally-driven ways, fostering engagement and relevance.” Still, resilient narratives should start with a strong brand essence. Natarelli emphasizes that companies must know what they stand for and what makes they unique if they wish to craft an authentic, meaningful narrative. Great storytelling ultimately empowers marketers to establish the voice and personality of their brand, drawing in stakeholders and helping the company rise above its competitors.

Storytelling goes beyond typical content marketing tactics since these tales allow brands to convey the type of experience consumers can expect to have with a company’s products and services, explains Matt Langie, CMO of Curalate. Rather than use content to explicitly sell goods, storytelling relies on engaging consumers, ultimately bringing out the human qualities of the company to help marketers establish long-term customer relationships. Storytelling also reinforces trust, which resonates more than any traditional sales pitch, since customers find value in brands that support a shared purpose.

Mike Moeller, vice president of brand and communications at Marketo, also emphasizes that, no matter what story you tell from a content standpoint, it must answer one question: Why should I care?From there, the next most important step is to be consistent with your omnichannel story while being strategic about how to use each channel.”You can tell the same story across all channels, but you can’t force feed people the same piece of content on each channel,” says Moeller. “You have to tailor content for each channel based on what people are looking for when they’re using that particular channel and their expectations.”

Brands face other challenges along the way, as all successful marketing tactics require companies to strike a careful balance between art and science. Natarelli explains that content acts as fuel or propellant for brands in their efforts to reach, engage, and influence customers. Content marketing pulls to augment promotional messages that push. But as channels and devices multiply, marketers often struggle to determine which types of content are most compelling, while also trying to maintain, sustain, measure, and optimize each channel according to customer expectations. Constant behavioral changes require content marketers to remain in touch with consumer interests, while also developing consistent, seamless stories that support their own mission and appeal to their target audiences.

Although content marketers are well aware of the benefits behind successful storytelling, many have yet to bring these practices full circle. How can brands create content that delivers valuable stories while simultaneously advancing sales goals? The following three factors are critical to effective story development and execution:

1. Establish the Story You Yearn to Share

Content marketers can’t tell their story if it hasn’t been written yet. Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, recommends that brands should begin their journey by determining the story they want to tell-a story worth telling. “Most brands start with the story around the product or service,” says Pulizzi. “This never works. The story is about the audience’s needs and pain points, and your differentiated take on that. Narrative must never sell the product. Instead, it needs to have a point of view, must deliver consistently, and must truly fill an audience need.”

No consumer wants to be sold to, notes Pulizzi, but everyone likes hearing a story that’s relevant to them. However, because brands become so caught up in short-term sales goals, they frequently forget that their customers must come first. Content marketers often falter with storytelling because they tell campaign-based stories over short periods of time instead of developing a longer-term narrative aimed at building loyal relationships. Instead, marketers should look to longer-term initiatives that may very well take years to blossom, Pulizzi emphasizes, since a campaign mentality will ultimately hinder bottom line growth.

2. Understand What Constitutes Great Storytelling

Although everyone defines a ‘story’ differently, Andrew Linderman, founder of The Story Source and adjunct instructor at New York University, notes that, at its core, content marketing is storytelling with the goal of driving a particular action. Business storytelling, specifically, is a way of connecting an experience, or series of experiences, to a specific call to action. But before marketers can effectively drive business through content, good stories must all exhibit these three key qualities:

Be Honest: Linderman explains that humans have an innate sense for detecting when someone’s lying to them, and dishonesty-especially from a marketing standpoint-can be lethal for the company or the brand. Therefore, content marketers need to tell it like it is to gain consumers’ respect, for they will admire the company’s candor and authenticity.
Be Personal: Marketers should develop content that establishes the consumer’s stake in the outcome of the story, a.k.a. the success of the product or service being sold. Linderman highlights that, by creating campaigns in which the characters in the story have clearly something at stake, consumers will begin to engage, for the more personal something is, the more people will care and interact.
Be Specific: Marketers must be explicit about what’s possible as a result of using their company’s product or service. The product or service is an extension of the customer experience, as well as the company’s values-the central idea of the brand. As such, every “story” should communicate these values to maintain brand consistency and help future marketing endeavors.

3. Engage Customers’ Emotions to Deliver Value and Relevance

Emotion stands as the primary pillar of successful storytelling because this element permits marketers to create intimacy between customers and the brand. Most purchase decisions depend upon emotion on some level, as consumers usually gravitate toward brands that share the same values and better their everyday lives. Jennifer Sullivan, marketing executive at Allego, notes that one crucial attribute-authenticity-empowers marketers to embed emotional elements into their storytelling and engage their audience at a much deeper level while reinforcing the corporate brand. Successful brands address customer pain points by telling stories that connect with consumers and satisfy their needs.

For instance, Sullivan points to Procter & Gamble‘s Swiffer “Golden Couple”, Lee and Morty Kaufman, real people who demonstrate how these products have changed their lives. These two 90-year-old lovebirds from New York talk about the “Swiffer effect” in every day life and do so as real people carrying out real lives. Audiences have become smitten with the couple. Besides being adorable, they are relatable as people for both men and women. The commercial tells the story of the couple using the Swiffer and adds in elements relevant to both genders, making them even more memorable because there’s an authentic appeal in their interactions with each other and with the product.

“Allow your content to be emotive in the sense that it gets to the emotional aspects of the problems or issues that your audience has to contend with,” says Sullivan. “Then explain how your product or service can directly address their pains by telling a story. An engaging and ‘real’ or ‘authentic’ story will give customers pause to consider what you’re offering.”

Sullivan also notes that good content often begins with some question or thought-provoking statement-Imagine a world where…-because such phrases invite customers into the story. Ultimately, customers want to be engaged. They want to be part of the story, and appealing to their emotions lets them become part of the story. Everyone wants to feel like they’re part of something greater than themselves and by bringing customers into the fold, brands can gain their trust, which inevitably translates to improved loyalty.

Dove and Dawn Blend Storytelling and Social Justice to Capture Attention

Tapping into consumers’ emotions usually means brands must appeal to their sensitive side. For both Dove and Dawn, however, successful storytelling relies upon tugging at consumers’ heartstrings by embracing social issues that go beyond the scope of their given products. Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign, for example, plays off the company’s long-standing reputation in the health and beauty industry, while connecting with women on an emotional, personal level. These campaigns don’t try to sell soap or shampoo. Instead, they promote self-confidence and inner beauty by telling the stories of real women and real customers. Dove remains true to its brand promise by tearing down societal conventions and endorsing personal wellness.

Here’s one of Dove’s most notorious campaigns, in which women recognize that they’re often their own worst critics:

Similarly, Dawn reaches beyond dish soap by demonstrating other uses for its products. Dawn focuses on how wildlife rescuers use their soap to safely clean animals that have been threatened by oil spills and other man-made disasters. In fact, Dawn has helped rescue and release more than 75,000 wild animals over the past 30 years. By buying these products, consumers know they’re part of something greater because each purchase helps the brand support future efforts to protect animals in need.

Here’s one of Dawn’s most recent advertisements, in which Deborah Heritage, wildlife volunteer, demonstrates how Dawn dish soap helps her rehabilitate vulnerable ducks and sea birds:

Compelling storytelling, at its center, doesn’t aim to sell products or services by blatantly revealing the benefits. Instead, as proven above, effective stories come from the heart. Content marketers should embrace these opportunities and understand that honest emotion and authentic stories resonate more than direct marketing campaigns, thereby building brand advocates in the process.

Your 7-Step Guide to CX Design

Because companies now offer nearly limitless product options in this world of highly educated consumers, delivering consistently superior customer experiences is the only differentiator left for creating loyal and engaged customers. Overall, thought leaders agree that providing optimal customer experiences requires the right tools and processes to continuously measure and refine engagement. However, the key element that seems to be missing lies in how to actually design the customer experience.

In recent years, companies have been delivering superior customer experiences. But consumer expectations for such improved experiences have also escalated, making brand failures even more disappointing than when expectations were lower, says Allegra Burnette, principal analyst at Forrester Research. As technology continues to change rapidly, she adds, it becomes even harder for companies to design great experiences that resonate with consumers. That’s where simplification comes into the picture.

“Companies are pulling back from the default of trying to be all things to all people, and are focusing on developing a clear vision and designing great experiences for key customers instead, with the pared down approach of a mobile first mentality,” Burnette says. “Which means they’re focusing on building those experiences through cycles of research, ideation, testing, and iteration.”

Despite this trend, however, brands still struggle to formulate and execute effective customer experience (CX) design, for many spend excessive amounts of energy identifying problems, and not nearly enough time deploying the right solutions, says Bruce Temkin, CCXP, customer experience transformist and managing partner at Temkin Group. They often assume that the first thing they come up with is the correct approach, leaving customers with half-solved issues even though, in many cases, the company is mere tweaks away from great options for its customers. Brands lose sight of what’s best for the customer, often becoming consumed by the end result and disregarding the steps necessary to help them achieve their ultimate goals.

What steps should companies take on their journey to optimal CX design? Follow our outline to determine what elements are essential for creating the ideal experience for any given company:

1. Establish company goals

Companies must establish customer experience goals as part of their initial requirements definition stage, says Temkin. Brands should define goals and measurable metrics for all three elements of the customer experience: success, effort, and emotion. They must be very clear on what they’re trying to help customers accomplish, how easy interactions should be for customers, and what feelings they’re trying to elicit from customers throughout the experience. It’s essential that such strategic thinking become part of the core process, as the accompanying metrics will force organizations to seek deeper customer empathy throughout the process. Each company’s underlying goals will differ according to their desired outcome, but this core will lay the groundwork for an effective mindset in all future CX endeavors.

2. Explore customer sentiment

Customer data offers valuable insight into how CX design strategies resonate with the company’s target audience. Therefore, as organizations assess their own goals, they must also consider customer sentiment if they wish to guide their strategies in the correct direction. What companies believe their customer base wants and what these consumers truly want are often two very different things. R “Ray” Wang, principal analyst and founder of Constellation Research, Inc., suggests that organizations define detailed customer personas by using design thinking to identify potential and existing opportunities. Design thinking, at its core, empowers actual designers to collaborate during the early stages of strategy development to create concepts that better meet consumers’ needs and desires. Capturing more context will enable brands to then deliver richer relevant insights to drive more precise decisions.

Temkin also explains that companies tend to fixate on failures, mistakes, and negative customer feedback when analyzing sentiment. While this approach offers vast insight into improvement ideas, many don’t spend enough time looking at the good aspects that build brand advocacy in the first place. By replicating what’s working well with CX teams, however, companies can boost employee morale and energize them to focus even more on these positive efforts.

3. Clarify experiential inconsistencies

Wang notes that the prime customer experience gaps typically stem from inconsistencies across channels, failure to uphold brand promises, and the forced fit process approach to the customer journey. However, “choose your own adventure” experiences outrank forced fit funnels, meaning customers will go where they need to go. Therefore, as organizations attempt to navigate this omnichannel world, they must examine CX at every touchpoint to assess whether or not each interaction supports the brand’s overall promise and goals. Authenticity, continuity, trust, and transparency are table stakes, Wang adds, but are hard to deliver. But, by remaining aware of these issues or discrepancies, brands can proactively curtail any future problems that may eventually arise.

4. Expand employee engagement

Burnette emphasizes that the desire to advance CX design must come from within the company. Whether it’s from the top down, the bottom up, or somewhere in the middle, CX design requires its own champion if brands wish to meet customers’ needs efficiently and establish the three E’s of great CX: ease, emotion, and effectiveness. Wang also notes that customer experience requires both the digital and human touch, meaning staff and all touchpoints must work as one to deliver the brand promise.

To strengthen employee engagement and guarantee all players are onboard, Temkin says that brands need to master five competencies-the Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent. Treating employees as an asset will transform laggard companies into leaders, as such organizations empower staff at every level to support CX and bring loyalty to life.

5. Determine appropriate metrics

Each company has its own goals. Therefore metrics must reflect the information necessary to sustain and achieve these goals. “When you start with the desired outcomes that keep brand promises, insights aren’t too hard to measure,” Wang says.

Temkin explains that, while structured data is good for spotting where there might be an issue, these data sources aren’t very good at helping to identify what the problem is or how to fix it. Thus, brands must look to text analytics to examine customer comments and call center interactions if they wish to gain granular understanding of the situation that causing the issue. Burnette adds that social listening tools, interviews, and focus groups can supplement harder metrics, enabling brands to blend qualitative and quantitative research to gain a more comprehensive picture of the customer experience.

Wang argues that NPS isn’t the paramount metric. Instead, brands should look to conversion rate optimization, because if conversion rates don’t rise, nothing in CX matters. Secondary metrics, on the other hand, should monitor what drives activity to assess the effectiveness of the brand’s CX design.

6. Evaluate available technologies

Though technology solutions help organizations carry out many of their CX design goals, Wang argues that technologies should be secondary to the business goals. “If you want to conduct an audit, just study how often a piece of software is used, and the number of users,” he says. “The activity will tell you what to get rid of and what to keep or improve on.”

Temkin agrees, saying that technology is never the full answer. Brands need to decide what they want to accomplish instead, and the see if there are technologies that will help achieve these goals. Even after deciding on a technology, a company’s success typically comes from how the technology was implemented and the business processes that were deployed around it, he adds. While the tools used certainly impact operations, companies mustn’t allow technology to define their efforts. Brand success must find its center within the CX design strategy itself.

7. Evolve alongside consumers

No matter the final design, brands must be open to change. Consumer behavior will continue to evolve, as will expectations, requiring companies to alter their CX design. As with all aspects of life, change remains constant, so organizations will need to gather and analyze customer data regularly to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in their industry. Temkin emphasizes that good CX design means companies are creating experiences for their target customers that are delivering the very success, effort, and emotions for which they were aiming. No matter how brands alter their approach along the way, leaders must keep the brand promise and value proposition at the core of their overall strategy.

“Remember, customer experience is the mechanism for delivering your value proposition,” Temkin says. “If you aren’t clear on your target customers or your value proposition, then good CX can only mask the problem for a bit, but it won’t overcome the issue for long.”

Companies cannot hide behind an effective, yet superficial, design for the long-term. Wang emphasizes that brands are no longer competing for products or services. Instead, as markets shift to an on-demand, post-sale, attention economy, companies must compete based of CX to sustain their brand promise. Deep down, great CX design must be an enterprisewide initiative that flows all the way to the heart of the organization. Great CX design isn’t just strategy-it’s mindset. Companies must always have customer experience in mind, for all subsequent actions must support the loyalty and engagement upon which their survival depends.

Will We Ever Close the Gender Pay Gap?

By 2020, the U.S. Treasury expects to replace Alexander Hamilton’s spot on the $10 bill with the face of an unidentified woman. But, as The Daily Show correspondent, Jessica Williams, recently highlighted during an episode of the Comedy Central news program, this gesture seems like an ineffective, and relatively pathetic, attempt to appease female critics. “Honestly, at the end of the day, I don’t [care] about who’s on the bill. What I do care about is getting an equal share of the bill. I’d rather have 10 full Hamilton dollars than $8.45 of lady bucks,” Williams noted.But, as most understand, equal signs and dollar signs rarely align when it comes to median annual income across the country. According to one recent report by the American Association of University Women, the gender wage gap has made some strides over the last 40 years. In 1973, women made 57 cents for every man’s dollar, but as of 2013, women now make 78 cents for every man’s dollar.

While these figures illustrate significant progress, there’s still much to be done. As of 2013, male median income averaged $50,033 per year, while women earned only $39,157 per year. Younger women, ages 20-24, currently earn an average 90 cents for every man’s dollar, which also signals potential progress, but by age 35, median income growth slows considerably for female employees, as they earn only 75-80 cents for every man’s dollar until they reach retirement. Many cite educational and experiential differences as primary drivers behind such disparities, but even when both factors are comparable, the gap still persists. For women of color, these disparities are even worse.

Of course, despite society’s increasing desire to pursue gender equality, women are still tasked with much of the family and childcare responsibilities. On average, 10 years after graduation, 23 percent of mothers remain out of the workforce and 17 percent work part-time, yet only one percent of fathers remain out of the workforce and 2 percent work part-time. Thus, many critics cite “women’s choices” as an integral part of the wage disparity despite the fact that many women may have no real choice in the matter at all. And, for those mothers looking to return to the workforce after time away, many face “motherhood penalties” that seemingly punish these women for raising families. Mothers are less likely to get hired over someone who’s childless, and those who are, are offered lower starting salaries. Fathers, however, are frequently offered wage premiums, which only further perpetuates stereotypical gender roles.

However, as one recent Canadian study indicates, women may not be the only ones under attack. Instead, femininity, not gender discrimination, may be at the root of such issues. Researchers at McGill University found that gay men with partners earned about 5 percent less than coupled straight men, while lesbians with partners earned nearly 8 percent more than coupled straight women. Such discrepancies also apply in the U.S., for heterosexual men usually earn more than gay men, gay men earn more than lesbians, and lesbians earn more than heterosexual women. Transgender workers also face similar fates, as those who have transitioned to female experience sharp drops in wages, while those who’ve transitioned to male inevitably make more money. In fact, one recent segment from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver noted that the average transgender household is nearly four times more likely–15 percent versus 4 percent–to earn less than $10,000 per year compared to the general population.

Thus, as we move forward, we can’t overlook the fact that gender identity and sexual orientation play an important role with regard to wage discrimination. Masculinity reigns supreme, and all those that pose a threat to our male-dominated society get (literally) shortchanged. Equality won’t win until we treat every member of our workforce with the value and respect they deserve. But, based on the prejudices that still exist on the social front with regard to gender, race, and sexual orientation, it’s hard to imagine we will ever achieve this universal equality on the economic front, either. There are many fights to be fought, and many wars to be won, but we have the capacity to do great good. If only we’d just put our money where our mouths are…

To learn more about the evolution of the gender wage gap, watch the video below. Presented by the Pew Research Center, this animated infographic details how far women have come and how far we still need to go when it comes to achieving full equality in the eyes of our employers: For more on income inequality, read “Mind the Pay Gap: Exploring Wage Inequality” to learn what Sarah Jane Glynn, director, women’s economic policy for the Center for American Progress has to say about how such disparities impact today’s work environment and what companies must do to combat inequality.

Taking a Next Best Action Approach to Strengthening Telecom Customer Relationships

One of the biggest challenges that telecom industry executives face is customer churn. While churn rates vary by country and by provider, annual churn rates for telecom companies average between 10 percent and 67 percent, according to the Database Marketing Institute. And while there are a variety of reasons that customers disconnect from wireless providers in particular – dissatisfaction with the quality of service, cost, poor customer support – the use of customer data and analytics is providing decision-makers with new ways to identify potential triggers for churn and opportunities to strengthen customer relationships.

I had a chance to discuss these issues at Pegasystems‘ PegaWORLD conference a few weeks ago with Cretien Brandsma, managing executive of customer value management at Vodacom, a subsidiary of Vodafone and the largest telecom company in South Africa. In his role, Brandsma supervises a 50-person team comprised of data scientists and customer value management marketers who manage Vodacom’s customer relationships throughout the entire course of the customer lifecycle. Vodacom has been using Pegasystems’ software as its decisioning hub since 2010. If a Vodacom customer calls into one of its call centers for support, for example, the Pega software can analyze all of the known information about that customer, including the type of plan they’re on, the customer’s lifetime value, their support history, the most recent interactions the company has had with that customer, and other information which prompts the software to generate a “Next Best Action” to take with that customer. As Brandsma explains, the next best action isn’t always a commercial offer. It could be a recommendation for guiding a customer to a particular channel for additional information they may be interested in. Meanwhile, Vodacom’s data scientists focus on developing and analyzing churn and propensity models, evaluating customer lifetime value, determining changes in customer revenue and profitability, changes in behavioral patterns, etc. By taking a data-driven approach to better understanding the needs, behaviors, and preferences of its customers and then acting on these insights, Vodacom is forging tighter relationships with its customers – and reducing its churn rate.

For Vodacom’s fiscal year ended March 31, 2015, customer churn was reduced to 9.2 percent, one of the lowest levels in the company’s history. Fierce competition for customers is forcing wireless service providers to distinguish themselves from their rivals. While price promotions can help provide a short-term edge, wireless providers that go the last mile in delivering on customer expectations stand to reduce churn and strengthen loyalty.

Mind the Pay Gap: Exploring Wage Inequality

Despite efforts to minimize the pay gap, wage inequality still runs rampant throughout our otherwise progressive ecosystem. Protesters and equal rights advocates continue to shine light on these glaring discrepancies, yet society repeatedly neglects to implement change. Thus, frontline employees suffer from minimum wage inefficiencies, as many must work multiple jobs to earn a living wage, while women regularly fail to earn equal pay for equal work as compared to their male counterparts. Yet, while lawmakers and employers hold the power to revolutionize the employee experience, few have taken major steps to even the playing field.

Here, we speak with Sarah Jane Glynn, director, women’s economic policy at the Center for American Progress, to examine the current state of income inequality, how such disparities impact today’s work environment, and what companies must do to curtail and remedy these societal blunders:

1to1 Media: Why can’t society seem to overcome the wage gap no matter how much media attention the issue receives?

Sarah Jane Glynn: Part of the problem is that there isn’t much consensus on what the problem really is, let alone how to solve it. The wage gap is a complex issue that is caused by a variety of factors, so addressing it requires a variety of solutions. It’s important to understand what causes the wage gap if we are going to overcome it. The most commonly cited statistic-that women earn 78 cents to the man’s dollar-is calculated by comparing the average earnings of all women who work full-time, year-round to the average earnings of all men who work full-time, year-round. This statistic doesn’t control for the fact that men and women, on average, tend to work in different jobs, put in different hours, have different types of education, and different care giving responsibilities outside the home.

Some people argue that these differences are the result of “personal choices” that men and women make, claiming that the wage gap isn’t meaningful when all these differences are taken into account. I would argue that these differences are meaningful in and of themselves and that we should be seriously interrogating why they persist in an era where both men and women claim they want gender equity within their homes and their workplaces. And to be very clear, even when differences in jobs, education, years of experience, etc. are taken into account, a wage gap between men and women still persists. At least some of that difference is likely due to discrimination, although quantifying the precise impact of sexism is very difficult.

1to1: Describe the typical pay gap between minimum wage workers and executives. Why do executives allow their frontline employees to struggle when they represent the face of their company?

SJG: The average Fortune 500 CEO makes more than 800 times what a full-time minimum wage worker could expect to earn in a year. To be fair, those are very different types of jobs and I don’t know of anyone who is arguing that the two should be equally compensated. But there is absolutely no reason why one of the wealthiest nations in the world should have full-time workers living below the poverty line.

1to1: Describe the typical pay gap between female employees and their male counterparts. Why do most companies still adhere to the arcane concept of paying women less than men?

SJG: Deliberately paying women less than men for the same work is illegal, and has been since President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law in 1963. If you ask employers-even those with a wage gap-if they pay their employees equally, I am certain they would all say that they do. While overt discrimination does exist, more subtle, but still pernicious, biases and structural factors influence the pay that men and women earn. For example, consider the fact that men and women tend to have different job histories and years of experience, largely because women are more likely to have extended spells out of the labor force after having a baby or when they need to provide care to a family member. On the one hand, this can be considered a personal choice and it can be logical for an employer to pay a higher salary to someone with more experience. On the other, the United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee mothers the right to paid maternity leave, which has been proven to result in longer periods of time out of work compared to women who do have access to paid leave. So is that purely a personal choice or not? We also know that men are more likely than women to negotiate their starting salaries with a new employer, so some people have suggested that women simply need to learn stronger negotiating skills. But there are many, many studies showing that when women do negotiate they are perceived very differently than men and are less likely to be successful. Unfortunately, there is no one easy answer to closing the wage gap.

1to1: Why do so many companies fail to recognize the importance of a living wage? What prevents them from implementing this emerging standard?

SJG: Unfortunately, many businesses don’t track the ways that paying low-wages actually hurts them economically. All they see is lower payrolls and think they are saving money, but in the long run businesses with high levels of turnover due to very low-wages and lack of benefits that can help support workers maintaining employment are spending a lot on the high costs of turnover. Luckily, colleagues of mine at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Center for Law and Social Policy have created an online calculator where businesses can figure out for themselves how much more money they could be saving by creating better jobs and retaining their employees.

A number of companies have shown that paying good wages and offering common sense benefits, like access to paid leave, makes economic sense. Costco, for example, pays higher wages and offers far better benefits than its competitors and has famously low turnover amongst its team members. IKEA was also just in the news this week because their previous wage increases worked so well in reducing turnover and attracting more qualified job seekers that they are raising wages again.

1to1: Why are companies so hesitant to render equal pay for equal work? Are there any companies that defy the norm by paying men and women equally?

SJG: There are a number of companies that are committed to pay equity. Gap Inc., for example, recently ran an internal study of its nearly 130,000 employees in order to ensure that there was no wage inequality. An outside independent investigator also confirmed Gap’s pay equity.

1to1: What does the pay gap between executives and employees, as well as men and women, mean for the future of work? How does race and sexual orientation also impact the wage gap?

SJG: The wage gap is even larger for women of color than it is for white women. For example, African American women only earn, on average, 64 percent of what non-Hispanic white men earn. For Latinas, that figure is only 54 percent. Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals all earn less than straight men. Transgender women experience significant pay penalties after transitioning, and transgender people are disproportionately likely to live below the poverty line.

1to1: What steps must companies take if they hope to counterbalance this issue’s social and economic repercussions? What measures and strategies are essential for maintaining employee satisfaction and reducing overall churn?

SJG: Combating gender and caregiver pay discrimination is a real and important challenge facing our country, which is why laws such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 are so important. But according to some analyses, all the structural and social factors that drive the decisions women make about where and how long they work influences more than half of the wage gap. These factors constrain the choices that lead them to work and earn less.

The good news is that some of these issues can be addressed through public policy. Ensuring that workers have access to paid sick days would mean that they would no longer have to worry about taking a financial hit or losing their jobs if they or their children were to fall ill. A federal paid family and medical leave program that would provide wage replacement when a worker needed time off after the birth of a new child, to provide care to a seriously ill family member, or to recover from a their own serious illness, building on the job protection offered by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, would help people maintain their ties to the workforce and increase current and future earnings. Combating discrimination is important and requires ongoing work, but it is not the only driver of the wage gap and can’t be the only solution.

Taking a Customer-First Approach to Service Excellence

Organizations that deliver exceptional customer support typically have at least a few things in common. They listen closely to what customers are asking for and not only act on customer feedback but they also communicate back to customers how and whether their requests were acted on. They align their customer service processes and practices with customer-centric goals and objectives. These organizations also strive to make it easy for customer-facing employees to provide customers with seamless support to ensure that both customers and employees have exceptional experiences. In short, as evidenced by the three winners of the Innovation in Service Excellence category for the 2015 Gartner & 1to1 Media Customer Experience Excellence Awards, they provide a customer-focused approach to delivering great service.

For instance, LinkedIn, the Gold award winner for the Innovation in Service Excellence category, shifted from a product focus to a concentration around the needs of its members under its `Members First’ initiative. In fact, LinkedIn’s Members First initiative has since become one of the company’s core values after senior management recognized that in order to support the transition it needed the blending of its people, processes, and technologies to achieve its vision. This includes a member-centric support team that listens to and anticipates the needs of its members.

Customer-centric organizations are also willing to try new technologies and new techniques for providing better support experiences. For its part, the New York City Police Department, the Silver award winner for the Innovation in Service Excellence category, has developed one of the most comprehensive social media operations in law enforcement after barely having a social media presence in early 2014. The NYPD now has 106 active Twitter accounts, including one for each of its 77 precincts. Each of its precinct commanders are now actively engaged on Twitter, helping to strengthen community relations.

At the core of a voice of the customer initiative that’s aimed at providing a closed-loop process for responding to customer feedback, 1-800-CONTACTS, the Bronze award winner for the Innovation in Service Excellence category, has focused on making each customer experience both special and memorable. One of the ways it has done this is by adding the following open-ended question to its revamped customer experience survey: “Is there anything we can do to make your experience better?” One loyal customer who requested a candy bar was immediately sent a box of candy bars. Another customer requested a pizza which was delivered to his home that same night. A different customer requested a blanket for a surgery patient which was also promptly delivered.

As LinkedIn, NYPD, and 1-800-CONTACTS demonstrate, organizations that deliver exceptional customer service develop a well-designed strategy for delivering on customer expectations.

Bridging the Customer Service Gap

The way we communicate is rapidly changing. Texting is becoming the preferred means of mobile conversation and some companies are abandoning voice mail. Organizations are under pressure to keep up with these changes while also providing fast and reliable service across multiple channels. And while progress is being made in understanding customer needs through speech analytics and other solutions, many organizations still struggle to close the gap between consumer expectations and services.

“There’s a new breed of consumers today,” noted Elan Moriah, corporate officer and president of Verint Systems’ enterprise intelligence solutions, during a keynote speech at the company’s Global Customer Conference in Las Vegas this week. “Consumers expect choices and they use numerous channels like chat, the phone, email, and social networks.” Speech analytics offers companies an opportunity to understand customers and spot opportunities to improve service and product experiences, noted Brian Miller, a workforce operations administrator for Thomson Reuters. “While speech analytics doesn’t create innovation [per se], it’s the vehicle for it,” Miller said. “It causes people to realize that this is the voice of the customer telling us what they need and that causes us to make changes quickly.” As an example, Miller told me about a software product that first-time customers were having difficulty downloading. Through speech analytics, the company determined that the download process was not going smoothly and customers were becoming increasingly frustrated. Miller’s team shared these insights with other departments including technical communications, marketing, and development. The various teams then worked together to build a smoother and simpler installation process which led to 5,000 fewer calls about the software in two months. “When calls about downloads normally peak, they actually went down,” Miller said. “This was a great example of how speech analytics helped us understand what needed to be fixed.” Indeed, speech analytics is gaining traction as the technology advances, maintained Nancy Treaster, senior VP and general manager of strategic operations for Verint enterprise intelligence solutions. “Speech analytics started as a broad brush to get a basic understanding of your customers but now it has become more focused and targeted, which helps companies even more,” Treaster said.

Many organizations, however, are still a long way from providing optimal customer service. In a survey of 1,000 consumers sponsored by Mattersight, which offers predictive behavioral analytics software, 75 percent of the respondents said they felt frustrated after speaking with a customer service agent, even if their problem was solved. This suggests that other problems occurred or the solution was short-sighted. And besides long wait times, the number one thing that annoys customer when contacting a call center is reaching customer service reps that don’t understand their needs. There could also be a disconnect between the customer experiences companies are focused on and what customers expect. A speaker representing a financial services company at Verint’s conference, for example, mentioned that the company was experimenting with letting callers choose the music they listen to while on hold. Instead of spending resources on music selections, I imagine customers would prefer to have their calls quickly answered.

5 Do’s and Don’ts for Effective Native Advertising

Native, sponsored, branded-no matter the name, paid content has become an indisputable force within the media space.

Altimeter Group defines native advertising (see also: sponsored or branded content) as a form of converged media that combines paid and owned media into a form of commercial messaging that is fully integrated into, and often unique to, a specific delivery platform. Simply stated, this practice allows publishers and advertisers to establish interdependent relationships that enable both parties to boost the bottom line and advance audience engagement.

But, as behaviors change, media brands must establish one solid definition on which to build an enduring foundation. “As the digital ad industry continually evolves, sometimes the definition of native is changed or altered from moment to moment,” says Mark Yackanich, CEO of Genesis Media. “It can be in-feed, sponsored content with multiple distribution strategies, non-traditional ad forms, and more, all under this one umbrella term. As we refine what constitutes native advertising and add more ad formats to the mix, it’s important for everyone to be on the same page so that we can have quality conversations about the best ways to approach each.”

Thus, as native advertising becomes more common throughout the media industry, publishers and brands must understand the best practices behind successful content creation and strategic execution. Here, we outline the five biggest mistakes made within the space and how collaborators can realign their approaches to avoid such missteps moving forward:

DON’T: Become consumed by this new flow of income.

Because media companies often struggle financially, native advertising provides an additional income that aligns with the overall publication, while increasing revenue simultaneously. But, when blinded by dollar signs, publishers frequently lose sight of what’s truly important-maintaining editorial integrity.

“If content isn’t properly vetted, and publications are simply blinded by the money, the advertisements will hurt the brand’s credibility in the eyes of the consumer,” explains Austin Paley, corporate marketing communications manager for Blue Fountain Media. “If the outlet is approving anything just because they want the money, it’s compromising the integrity of the publication, which in turn, hurts the quality and quantity of their readership. Not only will the publication lose its brand loyalty-it will eventually lose the sponsors, as well.” Thus, publishers must blend native advertising with editorial content in ways that add value both figuratively and financially.

DO: Put quality content creation ahead of bottom-line results.

Andrew Graham, co-founder of Clear, explains, “The objective of native content is to own the area where what’s newsworthy overlaps with what advances the sponsor’s business interest. In recent decades, the ad business has focused on persuasion, and journalism has always been about publishing the truth as it presents itself. For native ads to work in news outlets, it has to resemble real news. So one definitive element has to be articulating traditional news values in a way that conveniently benefits the sponsor in some tangible way.”

However, Paley notes that many traditional journalists see native advertising as selling out because the publication is displaying an advertisement that appears to be editorial content in exchange for money. But, because most media brands have editorial control over what runs and what doesn’t, they can ensure everything is done as authentically as possible. For instance, 90 percent of all online news audiences cite relevancy as the top factor in sparking interest with regard to in-feed sponsored content. Consumers want to engage with content that educates no matter the underlying motives. Thus, publishers and advertisers must collaborate to develop content creation methods that allow the publication to retain its tone and integrity, while also supporting the advertiser’s goals.

DON’T: Position native advertisements as editorial content.

Publishers often sabotage native advertising strategies by failing to label content as such, as 81 percent of readers believe brand familiarity and trust are crucial for sponsored content success. Audiences are more receptive to such advertisements that appear in publications they already trust.

“Failing to clearly label native content can result in disappointment, frustration, and lack of trust from the audience,” explains Mike Kisseberth, chief revenue officer for Purch. “Media companies often treat native content as second class to editorial, but since it should be labeled clearly, it needs to exceed expectations and value. Native content should be held to the highest bar on quality.” Consequently, the more skeptical readers become with regard to the content they consume, the more likely publishers risk compromising or losing audience trust.

DO: Set forth specific guidelines for sponsored content creation.

Substandard content can trigger loss of readership, thereby significantly hurting the brand and publisher. Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, recommends that publishers implement rigorous review processes to guarantee content aligns with editorial quality throughout the publication. Publishers should establish creative guidelines or adopt the suggested steps below:

Designate separate editorial and native content development teams.
Establish specific editorial standards for sponsored content.
Sell sponsored content as ongoing programs, not short campaigns.
Refuse to publish content that fails to meet the standards of the publication.

DON’T: Focus on selling the given product or service.

Sponsored content customarily goes beyond classic advertising methods to generate added value that ties back to both the overarching mission of both the brand and the publication. Therefore, content that fails to meet such standards typically falls flat, as this content appears self-serving in the eyes of the audience. Marco Hansell, CEO of Speakr, emphasizes that brands can’t just sell because, if the audience doesn’t gain anything from reading this sponsored content, all energies to educate consumers will have gone to waste. Sponsors, henceforth, should focus on creating content that provides information and facilitates dialogue, for audiences are no longer as receptive to one-way selling propositions.

DO: Provide added value that drives loyalty and brand advocacy.

Beyond all else, sponsored content must be relevant, transparent, trustworthy, and valuable. Only then will paid media transcend old and new ways of advertising. Paley highlights that publishers must consider their target audience when accepting native advertisements. Publishers have every right to refuse offers that fail to meet their criteria. Ideally, publishers will only accept content from brands that share the same core values as their audience. Publishers should also limit the amount of native content that appears each week or month to avoid alienating audiences, for consumers want to know they can depend on the given publication for genuine value, not just paid promotions.

DON’T: Create content that fails to resonate with the given audience.

When native content doesn’t align with the publication’s usual voice, readers defect, for they lose trust in the publication and lack interest in the content. For instance, The Atlantic‘s infamous sponsored ad for the Church of Scientology (which has since been pulled from the site itself) stands as the prime example of misaligned content, as this native advertisement failed to match up with the publication’s usual editorial. Paley adds, “The controversial topic was praised in an article that wasn’t parallel whatsoever with the typical guidelines and subject matter that the team produces on a regular basis.”

The Economist also missed its target audience by teaming up with BuzzFeed in an unlikely partnership to share top stories from the year in question. While BuzzFeed typically caters to more playful topics, this list abandons The Economist‘s more serious approach to news in an attempt to disseminate information in an unexpected, yet awkward fashion that fails to resonate.

DO: Align native advertisements with the publication’s voice and overall promise.

Sponsored content that does align, on the other hand, allows the sponsor to spread brand awareness and provide valuable content that educates and enlightens. Netflix recently ran an ad in The New York Times, for example, that promoted “Orange is the New Black.” However, this content went beyond promotional by offering fresh information on women in the prison system and even included video interviews thereby remaining true to the publication and boosting awareness simultaneously.

Starbucks also partnered with The Onion to promote its Doubleshot Espresso by publishing an article that captured the comical essence of the site perfectly. This native ad maintains the satirical vibe The Onion is famous for, while also spreading the word about the brand’s newest product.

Both examples demonstrate an integral understanding of the publication and how, through content, both can establish symbiotic relationships that foster collaboration and growth.

DON’T: Assume that native advertising will further brand awareness.

Rebecca Lieb, vice president, content marketing at Teradata Applications, notes that, native advertising is one tactic that may not be right for every brand or publisher. Sponsors, in particular, must assess whether or not their values align with that of the publication, as well as determine which channels would be best when attracting their desired audience. Native advertising only succeeds when consumers embrace the content, as paid media operates under an “opt-in” mentality. Audiences must obtain value that they could not gain elsewhere. Therefore, instead of producing sponsored content with the intention of increasing brand engagement and awareness, advertisers must first verify the KPIs that will drive desired actions so they may achieve their end goals.

DO: Establish content creation strategies that boost consumer engagement.

Ultimately, as consumer behaviors change, sponsors and publishers will have to alter their strategies in order to sustain relevancy and engagement. “Advertisers will be forced to find better ways to integrate their advertising into the natural workflow of a consumer,” Hansell emphasizes. “This does not mean just shoving a display ad in the same real estate as a consumer’s normal content. This means actually adjusting their advertisement strategy to include well thought out native advertising plans that seek not just to advertise, but also add value to the consumers they are reaching.” Sponsors will need to monitor audience preferences and behaviors in order to provide content that continuously educates and delights.

Telecoms Dial into Digital Marketing

The days when telecom providers held a monopoly over voice and data services are quickly eroding. New entrants like Netflix, Google, and Internet TV providers are rapidly changing the telco business. Poor customer service and complicated pricing plans are risky practices.

And even though telco companies sit on a mountain of data points, other companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google are also amassing huge amounts of customer data. To compete, telcos must deliver innovative products and services and connect with customers on a personalized level.

The Personalization Conundrum
Digital marketing and providing better customer experiences is a priority for the telecom sector, according to a survey of more than 200 telecom executives conducted by Econsultancy and Adobe. In terms of providing consistent, personalized experiences, 73 percent of the respondents say their marketing activities are integrated to some extent, but two in five (44 percent) say the ability to fully utilize marketing technology is still a key challenge.

“Telecoms are personalizing at very different levels of sophistication,” observes Stefan Tornquist, vice president of research at Econsultancy. “Much of that variation is related to where they stand in terms of unifying their disparate proprietary systems, databases, and marketing applications.”

And when it comes to sharing data with third parties, telecoms are “sharing everything they can that isn’t restricted PII [personally identifiable information] like call histories,” Tornquist adds. “The more specific the data, the more valuable it is, and in the case of telecoms, it can be very specific indeed, especially as our phones are increasingly our main conduit to the digital and wider world.”

But even though telco companies have access to a bevy of rich data points, they face numerous obstacles in leveraging that data, notes Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. “People will say they don’t want their data collected but they still expect brands to know them, so telcos, like other industries, have to walk a fine line between both demands,” McQuivey says.

The pressure is also rising for telcos to keep up with the innovative ways that companies are collecting ad revenue, including those outside of the telecommunications industry like Netflix and Amazon. “There comes a point where if you’re not using your data, someone else will figure it out,” McQuivey adds. “I think telco companies need to test their level of risk tolerance.”

Searching for New Revenue
Indeed, companies like Verizon and AT&T are experimenting with new revenue streams through partnerships with brand advertisers and app developers. In 2013, AT&T introduced a two-tiered price plan when it launched “GigaPower,” a broadband service that is designed to operate at the same speed as Google Fiber. Subscribers can pay $70 for the broadband service if they agree to receive targeted ads from AT&T and its partners versus the ad-free version, which costs $99.

Verizon is also offering incentives for customers to receive targeted ads. Customers who sign up for Verizon Selects, a program for tracking Web browsing and mobile-app behavior, can win rewards like gift cards and dining or entertainment discounts.

Verizon’s data marketing arm, Precision Market Insights, recently came under fire though, when Jonathan Mayer, a lawyer and computer science graduate student at Stanford University, reported that a unique identifier was being used to power a “zombie cookie”that continued to track users even after they’d opted out. Verizon has since said that it will allow subscribers to opt out of being tagged with the persistent tracking code.

U.S. telcos are not the only companies being squeezed by new competitors. Etisalat Misr, the Egyptian arm of mobile telco giant Etisalat, which operates across 19 countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, is also searching for fresh revenue.

“As a telecom operator, our revenue is declining as more players enter the market,” saysKhaled Almansouri, chief information officer at Etisalat Misr Egypt. “And so we’re looking into new revenue streams beyond our legacy services.”

Etisalat chose Teradata’s Integrated Marketing Cloud platform to help it consolidate its customer service and marketing data as it pursued new markets. One of those areas included B2B customers. Etisalat credits the Marketing Cloud platform with helping it attract B2B mobile advertisers who are interested in targeting against the carrier’s data profiles. In 2013, within a few months after launching the platform, Etisalat expanded its customer outreach to more than 1 million customers.

The company is also looking for other ways to monetize its data as customer intelligence. “We have to capitalize on the rich data that we have,” Almansouri says. “For example, if a petrol station wants to open in a certain area, we can tell them when traffic is busiest because we know the movement of our subscribers.”

Additionally, the company is looking into expanding its offerings with cloud services and machine-to-machine learning. “By 2020 we’ll have about 50 billion connected devices,” Almansouri adds. “As more things become digitally connected, it will be important for us to help our subscribers stay connected across their different devices.”

Enabling Trust
Carl Boeing, global head of sales, customer engagement, and commerce at Hybris Software, agrees that telco companies have to find more ways to leverage their data profiles while maintaining the customers’ trust. As an enterprise ecommerce platform provider, Hybris helps telco companies like Vodafone and Telmore created personalized messages for subscribers. “But increasingly we’re seeing telecoms become brokers or enablers of additional connections and play matchmaker between customers and brands whose products might interest them,” Boeing says.

As an example, Boeing points to a capability Hybris is developing in which mobile subscribers create “wish lists” of products that interest them on an app and allow carriers to share that list with retailers. When the consumer walks into a store equipped with beacon technology and opts into sharing his or her profile information like a photo and name, a sales associate can offer the item to the customer, perhaps at a discount. “

“The telco can make both customers happy by giving retailers a qualified lead and consumers get the product they wanted,” Boeing explains. “It’s a win for everyone.” But for such a situation to work, the carrier must have the customer’s explicit consent, Boeing adds. “The customer has to see value in this notion of sharing information so making that connection between the consumer and brand at the right time is critical.”

Trust and transparency are key drivers of customer relationships, notes Natalie Petouhoff, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research. “The key to privacy is to have services that are opt-in and companies need to explicitly say how the customer’s information will be used,” Petouhoff maintains.

Companies should also let customers choose what information about them can be shared. “Customers might want to allow a telecommunications provider to use their preference for sports-related information to provide content or promotions,” Petouhoff notes. “But they might not want marketers to use information on their general browsing history because it could be considered too intrusive.”

Leveraging real-time analytics is one way telcos can add value to their services while still offering products and services, she adds. For example, customers can be alerted to various data and application plan options during roaming periods. On the backend, telcos should also analyze real-time network traffic from large users to manage capacity more efficiently and minimize network slowdowns.

As the mobile and telco space becomes increasingly fragmented with new competitors eating up market share, telcos must focus on delivering relevant, flexible, and reliable experiences to their customers or risk disruption.

Who Needs Customer Experience Certifications?

We have entered the age of the customer – when companies only win by being customer-obsessed and delivering exceptional experiences. This is great news for customer experience professionals. Their skills and expertise are in demand, and at Forrester Research, we expect customer experience to continue its maturation into a full-fledged profession.

Unfortunately, the lack of university degree programs or even rigorous training for customer experience hinders that maturation process, and contributes to a shortage of qualified CX professionals. That makes it harder for CX leaders to build high-functioning teams that can drive business transformations.

According to data from a recent Forrester survey, while 73 percent of companies aim to be CX leaders in their industry or across all industries, only 25 percent say their CX programs actually improve customer experiences. What holds them back? One culprit: They don’t have the right people with the right skills. Only 21 percent of companies we interviewed said that their firm’s CX program had effectively improved internal CX capabilities.

In my latest report for Forrester, “Who Needs CX Certifications?“, I look at the CX certification programs created by vendors and the Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA) that try to fill the education and training void in CX. The programs fall into two categories:

– Voice of the customer (VoC) certifications. These offerings cater to CX professionals who specialize in collecting and analyzing feedback from VoC programs. They train and test on topics like selecting listening posts, turning insights into action, and creating closed-loop follow-up processes. Think of MaritzCX (formerly Allegiance), Medallia, and Satmetrix.

– Customer experience certifications. These programs certify that participants understand the competencies underlying the six disciplines of customer experience — customer understanding, strategy, design, measurement, governance, and culture — and provide an overview of core skills like journey mapping. The providers here include ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business, Beyond Philosophy, the CXPA, Global CEM, Senteo, and Strativity. While today’s CX certifications are not without merit (my CCXP signals I have an interest in CX and am versed in the related skills) they are no substitute for the rigor of an executive degree program, nor do they emulate the learning that comes with years of on-the-job experience. Why not? Because the current crop of certifications are:

– Insufficient. Of the certification programs we reviewed, none provide more than a week’s worth of training or classroom time. That is not enough time to cover the content in sufficient depth, let alone mold a CX professional.

– Incomplete. Some programs train participants in basics like mapping customer journeys, but, overall, their curricula lack sufficient CX skills training. None of the programs offer enough training in design processes, research techniques, or how to map CX ecosystems that support customer journeys.

– Informal. Many of the certification tests are open book — and virtually all certification candidates pass the tests. As a point of contrast, more than 80,000 aspiring lawyers took the Bar Examination in 2013, and just 68 percent passed. The vast majority that passed had completed three years of law school before taking the test. Even though existing certifications are not perfect, they are not devoid of value either. CX pros still need to sharpen their skills, train their teams, and develop new sources of talent. And so I recommend that CX teams look closely at the certification programs and determine if any meet their needs.

Besides the two categories of certifications–VoC & general CX–the certifications also vary in the amount of training they offer, whether they’re more appropriate for novices or more seasoned CX pros, and whether they are conducted virtually or in-person. And I think CX pros have an opportunity–an obligation even–to encourage providers to create more rigorous certification programs. Beyond Philosophy, Satmetrix Systems, and Senteo have created more advanced certifications. And the CXPA is about to announce an authorized resource and training. That’s a good start. Companies should develop or source more comprehensive training that teaches deeper expertise as well. For example, several companies have worked with Strativity to create customized training curricula. And companies like BMO Financial Group, Cleveland Clinic, and Nationwide Mutual Insurance have created their own CX curricula and are developing their own certifications. Ultimately, I believe that universities will start to offer coursework, certificates and even degree program in customer experience. It’s just a matter of time. For now though, head on over to Forrester to read the rest of my report on how to make the most of the existing CX certification programs.

About the Author: Sam Stern is a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research serving Customer Experience professionals, serving Customer Experience professionals. Learn more about Forrester’s customer experience practice at forrester.com/customerexperience.