MICROSOFT VOC-DRIVEN SMALL BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP MARKETING PROGRAM
Situation Overview
- The 20 million Small Midsize Business (SMB) firms represent substantial growth opportunity.
- Market and competitive landscape raising stakes to increase need to serve the SMB market.
- Customers have increasing comfort with transacting online (64% broadband and 36% with websites).
- A majority of Microsoft product sales in Small and Medium size business segment come through a channel partner (e.g. Value Added Reseller, Retailer, Original Equipment Manufacturer).
- Customers feel they have no relationship with Microsoft.
- SMB customers are mostly transactional (gather information, trial, purchase and disengage).
- Past Small Business Voice of Customer (VoC) Research indicated that most customers would welcome a relationship with Microsoft.
Hence the need for a relationship program.
As a result of the first Small Business VoC we developed the SB+ Relationship Program. And we learned:
*Source: AMI Tracker Panel Study Average 2008 - 2009
How to Approach the Diverse SMB Segment?
But then we needed to scale to Midmarket (size: 100-500 employee) companies. Our key questions were:
- Will the online resource appeal to midmarket IT and business decision makers? Will they Opt-In?
- What are key enhancements that can help deepen customer engagement?
- Can we continue to exceed results of house file?
SMB Relationship Program Goals
Our SMB Customer Relationship Program Goals were:
- Increase customer satisfaction scores.
- Increase licensing renewal rate.
- Improve customer engagement.
- Deliver the most relevant content and communications.
- Improve marketing efficiencies.
Pillars of the Online Relationship Program
Voice of Customer Helped Answer Key Questions
From 1 – 500 employees, what type of training, support, community and communication can drive deeper engagement?
- How to improve the value and usage of training.
- How to improve the support offerings to provide greater value.
- How customers define a value added community.
- How the communications strategy should be improved.
Was there anything else?
We listened and learned…
Relationship Program Value Must be Obvious and Differentiated
Make it easy
Must provide easy site navigation.
Use lay terms / user friendly (non-tech) key word searches.
Provide access to information and business solutions from every part of Relationship Program.
Keep it focused
Online Resource Center value:
One stop, convenient resource for SMB customers.
Clearly different from other resources.
Every facet of the user experience must prove this.
Deliver ‘wins’
Make the initial interactions engaging by offering a ‘quick training.’
Help users by providing industry, business and technology info.
Partner with non-MSFT experts for valuable content.
We listened and learned…
Personalize the Experience per Business Needs,
User Level, Size, Industry and Products
Focus on Needs
Develop from the user’s perspective, not MSFT.
Request user feedback at every touch point.
Use feedback to evolve the experience, provide relevant content / communication.
Support
Alleviate pain by using simple terms as self-help key words.
Highlight common problems and provide quick access to solutions.
Leverage peers for additional support.
Satisfy Diff. Needs
Target content based on start-up, segment, business needs and user level.
Offer ways for 3 different user types (Learners, Connectors, Collaborators) to engage.
We listened and learned…
Tie Training, Support and Community into a
Differentiating Relationship
Training
As a key benefit, users should be introduced to training early on.
Follow-up training to encourage the next ORC interaction.
Offer user-defined categories for easy access.
Make training easy to share.
Support
Alleviate pain by using simple terms as self-help key words.
Highlight common problems and provide quick access to solutions.
Leverage peers for additional support.
Community
Peer interaction must be facilitated across a variety of demographic and businesses areas. Points of interaction include:
Level of knowledge.
Common Problems.
Forums.
SMEs / Moderators.
The Value of Opt-In
- Customers actively engage expecting something of equal value in return.
- Your Opt-In list will help you achieve greater relevancy, marketing efficiency, and ultimately customer lifetime value.
- FUTURE: Apply a progressive profiling strategy, reducing the need to ask all questions at once. And enhance the relevancy of the questions and the value exchange.
Opt-In Relationship
- We ask approx. 14 questions, such as:
- Name
- Email
- Primary role in company (i.e., sales, marketing, finance)
- Microsoft software usage/ownership
- Number of employees
- Industry
- Primary customer business need
- What is the biggest challenge facing your organization today?
- Number of PC’s
- Number of servers.
SMB Relationship Program At-a-Glance
Relevancy
Microsoft Business Resource Center Overview
Personalized Experience
- Telephone Customer Service (Tier 1 & 2 only).
- Support.
- Free online chat tech support.
- Training.
- Software training and computer based training is key.
- Community.
- Library (info).
- Dashboard. VoC Objectives
Customized Communications
- Personalized Communications based on Opt-in Data.
- Welcome e-mail.
- Monthly personalized e-newsletter.
- Ongoing e-mails.
Results
- Opt-in rates up to 95%.
- Open rates greater than 50%.
- Response rates performing in the double-digits.
- Receiving very positive customer feedback.
- RM Customer volume license renewal rate is 8 points higher than non RM customers.
- Revenue of those in the program generating 2X more in volume license revenue.
Benefits of the Value Exchange
Customer Benefits
- Personalized Service
- Customized Communication and Information
- Ease of Use?
- Relevancy
|
Microsoft Benefits
- Opt-in Profile information to drive relevancy in web site content and communications
- Ability to analyze click and usage behavior
- Marketing efficacy
- Cross sell/upsell opportunities
|
Key Findings – The
Good
- VoC research and behavioral analysis are
critical to program development.
- Delivering what customers have asked for and
offering real solutions to help them succeed drives engagement and sales.
- Educating customers on how to obtain more value
from their software builds positive relationships and keeps you relevant.
- Profile-based personalization drives high open
and click-through rates; fuels engagement.
Key Findings – The
Challenging
- External
- Changing customer interactions from transactional info gathering and purchase to deeper
engagement.
- Keep evolving the value proposition to provide on-going value over time.
- Internal
- Long-term program in short-term environment.
- Partner integration is complex.
- Systems and cross organizational dependencies.
- Community strategy is challenging with so many types of products and customers.
In summary…
What we heard
- Program Value Obvious and Differentiated
- Personalize based on business needs, user
level, size, industry and products
- Tie Training, support and community into
differentiating relationship
What we did
- Deliver targeted, personalized Training,
Support and Community content
- Targeted to small or midsize business people
- Improved navigational experience from general
- Improved partner connection
What's next
- Quick engaging interactions third party
training
- Additional online modules such as renewals,
community forums,
- Continue to improve partner integration
