How a simple button is changing sign-in attitudes and behaviours

Last Thursday I realised, quite by chance, that I had posted 1,002 tweets. The 1,000th one had been posted earlier that day and was a moan about not being able to attend Wimbledon because of work commitments *sigh*

It seems a long way since my first post and my doubts about communicating with such an abstract audience. The fact that the 1,000th tweet was such a mundane observation as opposed to some carefully crafted message says much about the role that Twitter now has in my life: a quotidian activity, rather than a special one.

Through this platform, I learned about the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand and about the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. That’s where I first heard that Bin Laden had been found, that Peter Falk had passed away and that Prince William was engaged to Kate Middleton. I kept in touch with @Open_Sourcing when she was stranded abroad because of Eyjafjallajökull’s eruption. I learned more about the work and interests of @admutum, @TonyPatterson and @FinolaK and I am now looking forward to catching up with them at the next Academy of Marketing conference. I never met @Ox_Bex but breathed a big sigh of relief when I learned that her son’s bullies were unlikely to cause him further trouble. This is a truly fantastic platform.

What concerns me, though, is that I may now be turning into a webtart.

What is a webtart?

Well, I will let you @felixvelarde explain it himself:

Do you recognise the symptoms? The webtart is someone who promptly signs up to websites or posts on blogs that offer the option to sign in with the user’s Twitter or Facebook account. That same person would, otherwise, (or has in the past) shy away from using e-mail sign in for that same purpose.

It is very interesting how the Twitter or FB sign in impacts on behaviour.

Maybe it is out of convenience – that is, it is easier to sign-in with Twitter or FB than with your e-mail account.

Maybe it is a halo effect – you trust Twitter or Facebook and, therefore, implicitly trust the website or blog in question.

Maybe it is the familiarity – you realise that commenting on blogs, etc… is just another facet of your online presence. Maybe it is all of them. Maybe it is something else, still.

What is your experience? Has your behaviour changed and, now, you regularly sign in with Twitter or FB? I suspect Felix and I are not alone.

What is the main reason behind your change in behaviour and attitude?

In this post, news about a research project that I am developing at the moment. But before that, apologies for the delay in posting… Contrary to common perception, an academic’s work does not stop (or, indeed, slow down) when there is no teaching. There are assignments to mark, module reports to prepare and dissertations to supervise; there is writing to do, presentations to put together, conferences to attend and meetings. Lots of them.

Exciting news!
I was awarded a small research grant to investigate the potential of social media in customer segmentation.

Put simply, segmentation consists of dividing the market in smaller, distinctive groups, with homogeneous characteristics. Once the different groups are identified, the firm can develop differentiated approaches according to the preferences and the revenue potential of each group. More information here.

Why now?
Increasingly, individuals resist disclosing information to commercial organisations. This resistance could be due to privacy concerns or simply because we are tired of answering yet another survey. At the same time, however, there is a wealth of personal information online, on social media sites, about the customers themselves or their consumption experiences and motivations. The popular press regularly reports on more and cleverer ways of using social media to reach out to customers – even law enforcement is using Social Media tools such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to identify, locate and prosecute criminals.

It is not surprising, then, that marketers are redirecting considerable portions of their marketing spend towards Social Media initiatives. In the academic literature, too, there are growing calls to integrate Social Media in research. However, the abundance of web 2.0-related data is such that, trying to make sense of it has been compared to drinking water from a fire hose (for instance, here). Therefore, it is imperative to find a way to judge whether the data available is, actually, any good.

That is the purpose of the project.

The project’s goal and next steps
The project’s goal is to assess the potential value of Social Media data in segmentation. Ultimately, the project will offer a lens for understanding information quality in Social Media.

The first stage of the research project is to develop a suitable conceptual framework. This is now well underway and I have been very lucky to engage the interest of colleagues in the UK and abroad. For instance, Jan Kietzmann and I have been discussing the suitability of a particular framework from Information Systems. This discussion led to the production and submission of a conference paper with our initial ideas.

Later, the framework will be validated with marketing managers working in segmentation, before it is applied to social media data. As soon as I get clearance from the University Research Ethics Committee and recruit a research assistant, the fieldwork can begin. If you would like to participate – or know someone who would – please let me know (comment box or e-mail).

It is a really exciting project. One that, I believe, is very relevant for both academia and practice. It is also a very challenging venture as everyday there is an important development to keep abreast of. Is there a paper that you think we should definitely consider? Please share the details in the comments box below or by e-mail.

To be kept informed about the project, subscribe to the mailing list. Mailings will be limited to one per month.

UPDATE:
I teamed up with Paul Fennemore and Moira Clark to explore how social media is challenging market segmentation strategies. Find out more about the project here.

Recently, I called my mobile phone operator to activate a service. The following day, I received a text message inviting me to complete a customer satisfaction survey.

The survey consisted of 3 questions:

That has to be good, right?

Not really.

For customer satisfaction surveys to be useful they need to ask the right questions. This one didn’t.

First things first: the customer
Customer satisfaction surveys need to focus on the drivers of satisfaction. And for that, we need to understand what the customer really values. If I call my mobile phone operator to activate a service, the key driver of satisfaction will be whether or not I get the service that I asked for.

However, the survey focused on the interaction with the adviser during the phone call – which was, indeed, satisfactory. It was what happened after the call – or rather, did not happen – that determined how happy I was with the company. Not at all, as you may have guessed.

The survey addressed what the company wanted to know, not what the customer wanted to say. It failed to adopt the customer’s viewpoint and, thus, it failed to gauge customer satisfaction levels.

Hygiene factors and motivators
We can separate customer needs into two broad categories: hygiene factors and motivators.

Hygiene factors are those things that you absolutely need to have in place if you are to remain in business. In the hotel business, this would be a good night’s sleep. In the transport business, it would be arriving at your destination. Or getting the service I called for.

Motivators are those desirable aspects, the nice to haves that contribute to the decision. For a hotel it could be location or leisure facilities, whereas for the transport company it could be on board entertainment. Maybe a warm and friendly adviser.

While companies need the ‘motivators’ to differentiate themselves from competition, appeal to particular segments, etc… they can never loose sight of the hygiene factors. Following up on the phone call to customer support with a customer service survey was definitely the right thing to do. However, it should have started with a simple question: ‘Did we solve your problem?’ This could be followed up with a question asking ‘Is there anything else we can do for you?’.

Then, and only then, should I be invited to provide feedback about the phone call.