MAIN INSIGHT 21
Paul Crosby Ong
DIRECTOR, TRADE SALES
In this post-pandemic period, what can organisations do differently to improve customer acquisition?
The pandemic has made us all place more emphasis on efficient processes as a way to save time and money. While embracing digital can truly help, I believe that human engagement cannot be completely replaced by technology. The first step in the acquisition process is to build a sense of trust with the customer and that can only be achieved through human interaction. So, we should keep this in mind as we try to shift things around and steer people towards becoming more “digitally savvy”.
Additionally, there is a generational gap within our audience. Millennials are pretty tech savvy, but there is a whole other part of the audience that didn’t grow up with the internet and smartphones. So, we have to find a balance and not assume that it’s intuitive for everyone.
What changes should organisations like yours make to align the digital marketing and telemarketing functions closer together?
I believe we need to utilise the benefits of technology to better align marketing and telemarketing. For example, having a helpline works great for filtering queries that don’t necessarily require a person to address them. At the same time, having this sort of data can help organisations to identify common pain points that clients face. The data can be analysed and applied in a way that allow customers to find help as efficiently as possible; rather than the frustrating experience of pressing a series of different numbers, like they usually do right now. Marketing doesn’t have to be explicit but also exist in the form of customer experience.
I believe we need to utilise the benefits of technology to better align marketing and telemarketing.
In my opinion, the key areas of investment should be the user experience itself.
In your opinion, should the future balance of digital marketing vs telemarketing spend change?
There is no doubt that we should invest more in digital marketing. The question is how we should invest. In my opinion, the key areas of investment should be the user experience itself. This is because you want your customers to feel like they matter and you won’t achieve that by investing in mailers and emails.
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