|
Archive for the ‘Thursday Night Insight’ Category
Friday, June 13th, 2008
Bhavika Hira, Operations Manager of B2B International’s medical market research division, considers the future of GP surgeries as we know them.
‘What next?’ is what I would say. We all understand how difficult it is to get an appointment with a GP, especially when you need it at a time which is relatively non-disruptive to your working hours, i.e. 9am to 5pm.
However, imagine if we could just walk into Tesco or ASDA to do a local shop, see a GP and get a prescription on a Saturday or even Sunday. With such stores now selling non-food items like TVs, fridges, clothing, etc., are we looking at a one-stop-shop for everything?
I then read a report which mentioned that GP surgeries ‘could be run by Tesco or Virgin’. GP surgeries in the centre of England’s second largest city will be scrapped and replaced by franchised health centres run by private companies such as Tesco or Virgin under proposals published by its primary care trust. The health trust’s corporate franchising strategy has been presented to the board and already approved by its professional executive committee. The trust aims to have the first ’super-surgery’ open within the year.
The plans, described as “the most frightening document I’ve ever read” by a senior GP, include abolishing the 76 existing practices in Birmingham and replacing them with 24 branded primary care units, each predicted to see up to 15,000 patients a year.
So, therefore, the question arises as to whether primary care trusts have forgotten the fundamentals of general practice and appear to be more interested in marketing, image and developing brand loyalty, or whether they are copying the franchised expertise of fast food restaurants and high street stores in the hope of making the NHS more effective and efficient.
Obviously marketing, image and brand loyalty are all things we advocate strongly, but when you’re dealing with such sensitive issues as taxpayers’ money and the public’s health and wellbeing, it should come as no surprise that the public will have an opinion as to what should be a priority.
I went to the supermarket with a friend the other day to try to pick up a prescription. The lady at the pharmacy counter was completely out of her depth and it took her at least 30 minutes of shuffling around to deal with us satisfactorily. This made me think about whether we want more specialists who really know their jobs or supermarkets who do a bit of everything?
Posted in
Bhavika Hira, Thursday Night Insight, Medical Research |
Comments:
None Yet »
Friday, June 6th, 2008
Faster, better, cheaper. It is the mantra of today’s business. In her latest contribution to Thursday Night Insight, Julia Cupman asks: Is there anybody out there who doesn’t want it faster, better and cheaper?
The problem is that there is a tension between these improvements. Is it possible to have something better as well as cheaper and faster? It seems that we can. Food is in our supermarkets faster and cheaper than ever before and in the main it is fresh and tasty. Clothes, cars and computers are all faster, better and cheaper. And once consumers become accustomed to these improvements, they want more.
Faster is, of course, an important offering to many customers in business. They want speedy delivery, they want the instant resolution of problems, they want 24 hour support etc. These used to be the means by which a company could differentiate itself, but as one company offers it and others follow suit, in no time at all they become the norm.
I am now working out of B2B International’s New York office and it has hit me how important the faster, better, cheaper mantra is in the States. American businesses work at an impressive speed. Their days start early and are highly structured. BlackBerries are ubiquitous and it is not unusual to receive instantaneous replies to e-mails sent as early as 7am or as late as 11pm – at the weekend as well as on weekdays.
Technology does not only act as a conduit to improved productivity however. Many companies believe that technology can replace employees and cut costs, plus generate more revenue through increased, automated efficiency. This is evident with the growing number of self-service check-outs, online transactions and automated phone systems. In wanting faster, better, cheaper, we are guilty of favouring technology over human interaction. In many years to come, will there reach a stage when we have no human contact throughout the day, when everything will be managed and automated from our homes?
I wonder how much faster business can become. We were all impressed at how computers and mobile phones enabled us to be more productive, and most of us never expected to be able to speed up even more with technologies allowing immediate access to e-mails and the internet too. So what is around the corner to feed our insatiable desire to go faster? And more to the point, do we actually want to go faster, given the saying that “speed kills” and the possible implications this may have on business?
Indeed speed may be attractive, but if businesses focus too much on becoming faster, this may be to the detriment of quality and service. For instance, Starbucks attempted to speed up customer service by introducing a high-tech hand-held ordering system to reduce congestion at the counter. Using a techno gadget, staff would take orders from customers and wirelessly beam each customer’s order through to the espresso bar. Although the high-tech ordering system improved the speed of service, customers did not appreciate the mechanised ordering process, claiming it was impersonal and blackened the overall experience.
As so many of us strive to serve our customers according to the bigger, faster, better paradigm, it would nevertheless seem that there is some truth in the adage ”the best things in life come to those who wait”.
Posted in
Market Research USA, Julia Cupman, Thursday Night Insight, Customer Satisfaction |
Comments:
None Yet »
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Like many people, B2B director Carol-Ann Morgan believes that satisfied employees lead to satisfied customers. So, in this, her second Thursday Night Insight blog post, she assesses whether we should be doing more to understand what really motivates our colleagues.
New figures released in April by the Office of National Statistics reveal that three quarters of the UK population of working age are in work. This amounts to almost 30 million people; a record high. And of these, almost 8 million are over the age of 50.
The modern workplace has changed over time, and with it, the expectations of both employers and employees. The link between satisfied staff and satisfied customers has been around for some time. However, a newer, different, paradigm is now in circulation; one which identifies the need for employees who are engaged with the organisation and want to be aligned to the values of the companies they work for.
Yet as I look around our offices, and talk to my friends, I am reminded that one man’s meat can certainly be another man’s poison. It is apparent that motivations vary from individual to individual and are influenced by the life context of the employee. I can recognise groups of workers who come to work purely for the money, to survive; others who are looking for the social element and the pay is less important; others who are seeking challenging activities and have a strong desire to be involved in the strategic development of the organisation or company they work for.
The requirement to understand the needs of the customer base, and to segment these in order to serve them better is well understood. However, it is not so commonplace to apply the same strategy to our staff. By understanding what employees needs are from the workplace, are we more likely to meet these needs and build a loyal “engaged” staff, at whatever level it is that they are seeking?
Posted in
Carol Ann Morgan, Thursday Night Insight, Employee Satisfaction, Customer Satisfaction |
Comments:
None Yet »
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
In his first Thursday Night Insight article, B2B International China general manager, Alaric Fairbanks, assesses the impact that differing expectation levels have on how satisfied customers will be with any product or service they receive.
When was the last time you were delighted by your experience as a customer? Will you get the same experience next time? If so, will you be merely satisfied rather than delighted?
In a post a few weeks ago my colleague, Matthew Harrison, talked about customer service in China, in particular in the restaurant trade. I have to agree that in Beijing this sector is outstanding, but when it comes to expressing my levels of satisfaction, myself, along with almost everyone I know, would expect this to be the norm, so outstanding food, good service and reasonable price, would, say on a scale of 1-5, get a 3. Prior to moving back to Beijing, a scale of 1-5 would barely have been enough to contain my levels of delight with what I now consider normal.
When looking at a single market, be it food in Beijing or Liquid Chromatography in Chinese research laboratories, the weight of experience and expectations is not a major issue, and indeed is useful benchmarking. If, however, as frequently occurs, we are asked to “find out how satisfied our customers are in Hong Kong, Mainland China, across Asia Pacific, etc” the differing levels of background noise from customers’ past experience and hence expectations can make such comparisons problematic.
On multi-country studies, it is quite common to find satisfaction levels in emerging markets for some products to appear higher than in mature markets. Does this mean that customers are easier to please than their “sophisticated” counterparts? Definitely not. Let’s go back to the restaurant industry in Beijing: these same customers, myself included, can be demanding, or stingy even, in their assessments; however, take me to a bank in Beijing, and if I have a wait of less than half an hour and am able to complete my transaction in one visit, I would leave feeling extremely satisfied. We certainly need to be aware of experience and the expectations or weighting that it brings to expressing satisfaction, and make sure that we are able to account for these in our findings.
Finally, even though we have to bear in mind what customers may have experienced previously in different markets, and this may help us gauge what will satisfy them, we cannot overlook local requirements. Recently we had a client producing some very expensive and technical equipment for the health care sector – probably the leader in terms of quality in their particular product range. Despite ranking very highly on all factors they considered important, they scored surprisingly low on overall satisfaction, simply because the technical manuals were only in English.
Posted in
Alaric Fairbanks, Thursday Night Insight, Market Research China, Customer Satisfaction |
Comments:
None Yet »
Friday, May 16th, 2008
Director Nick Hague’s second Thursday Night Insight post takes a look at what the colours we adopt in both our personal and business lives really say about us.
If you want to get ahead, wear red.
Well I would say that wouldn’t I, being an avid Manchester United supporter, especially in the aftermath of their winning the English Premier League last weekend. However, it appears it might not be all down to the tantalizing skills of Ronaldo and Rooney but have something to do with the colour of United’s home kit. So say academics anyway who have analysed all the English Football League results since 1945. It seems that red is a testosterone-fuelled colour that exudes strength, aggressiveness and passion.
It must be said that my view might be slightly biased, but has the colour chosen for Manchester United’s home kit played a significant part in the club’s success; especially when viewed against their city rivals, Manchester City? And can the same be said when looking at other derby rivals? What about Liverpool and Everton or even Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur – has colour influenced the historical path that these clubs have trodden? Even when looking further afield to the USA, attempting to determine who the best all-time NBA basketball team isn’t easy, but surely the 1995 Chicago Bulls team would come close, especially if viewed on the most games won in a single season.
Of course, there isn’t one deciding factor in success but colour does play a part and the same should be said within business. Branding is all about communicating the essence of your company, your products and your services to your own personnel and to the wider world. It is about letting existing and potential customers, and your staff, know what sort of company you are and what they can expect from you. It is an intricate process of combining visual communication with behaviour to create an image in the public’s mind of who you are.
Far too often, companies approach their marketing and logo creation in a very simplistic way. Many companies spend so much time focusing on second guessing their target market and don’t put enough resource behind market research to find out the market’s view on a brand, what it stands for and the brand personality. Branding research can deliver a wide range of colours that can be used differently to deliver consistency and powerful positioning in logos, corporate marketing, packaging and even uniforms. Take a look at the colours below and what they stand for:
- Red – strength, aggressive, passion, boldness
- Blue – regal, authority, dignity, security, faithful
- Orange - fun, cheeriness, warmth, positivity but can also look cheap if used on its own
- Green – environment, tranquility, health, freshness
- Pink - femininity, innocence, softness, health
- Yellow – optimism, motivated, energy, cheerful
- Purple - sophistication, spirituality, royalty, mystery
- Brown - earthiness and subtle richness
- White - purity, truthfulness, contemporary, refined
- Black – somber, serious, distinctive, bold, classic
- Grey - authority, practical, conservative
What does your corporate brand say to you and your market?
For more information about how B2B International and market research can help you and your company please visit our pages on branding and corportate positioning, or take a look at our white papers for information on branding in b2b markets.
Posted in
Thursday Night Insight, Nick Hague, Branding |
Comments:
None Yet »
|
