The news cycle seems to have boiled over and we’re still cleaning up the kitchen. So today’s QT is an exercise getting to the point – editing, as it were. Lots to cover in the big world of customer engagement and lots to digest. Here is what we’re following:
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT 
Customer engagement as the new currency for customer relevance
NOTABLE: Largely triggered by emergency responses to COVID, Buy Online, Pick-up In Store and curbside pick-up have seen a 56% increase year-on-year, for example. And the firm points to 3.4 million new customers that it says have used
online channels over the past three months, a 145% increase year-on-year.
Dynamic Customer Engagement Is a Business Imperative
NOTABLE: “We have consistently found that a one-point increase in (customer engagement) metrics has major implications on customer loyalty, boosting retention, wallet share, and positive word of mouth,”
LOYALTY
Best hotel loyalty programs, according to readers
NOTABLE: 1. Wyndham Rewards. The Wyndham Rewards program honors stays at some 8,000 participating hotels worldwide, including brands like Hawthorn Suites, Ramada, Howard Johnson and Super 8. Members can also choose to earn miles with partner airlines (including American and United) or on car rentals through Avis and Budget.
AIRLINES
Airlines set sights on digital passports for COVID-19 vaccine
NOTABLE: The digital health pass would include a passenger’s testing and vaccine information and would manage and verify information among governments, airlines, laboratories and travelers.
United to Offer COVID-19 Testing
NOTABLE: In addition to adding another key element to its layered approach to safety, United has also seen a positive impact on travel demand and significant increases in customer load factors and revenue when testing options are available.
TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft patents tech to score meetings using body language, facial expressions
NOTABLE: Newly surfaced Microsoft patent filings describe a system for deriving and predicting “overall quality scores” for meetings using data such as body language, facial expressions, room temperature, time of day, and number of people in the meeting. The system uses cameras, sensors, and software tools to determine, for example, “how much a participant contributes to a meeting vs performing other tasks (e.g., texting, checking email, browsing the Internet).”
When A.I. falls in love
NOTABLE: By 2020, the first generation of chatbots will be able to chat with people on a wide variety of topics. By 2025, self-driving cars will be mainstream, and so will electric vehicles, which will account for a majority of the market. By 2030, A.I. will have become much smarter and will be able to do things that we cannot even imagine. This is a great time to be alive.
CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY
St. Regis project in Rye reflects value of branding during crises
NOTABLE: It found that brands that alleviate fears are trusted four times as much as others and that 75% of consumers who highly trust a brand are loyal to that brand.“It is time for brands to lead, answering fears with facts, trauma with truths, anxiety with action.”
How brands have changed their communication after the lockdown
NOTABLE: Suddenly there was a redefinition of ROI from ‘Return On Investment’ to ‘Return On Integrity’. The communication now changed from highlighting the USPs to touching human emotions through generosity, positivity, and a sense of belonging.
In a Pandemic, We Buy What We Know
NOTABLE: Specifically, our empirical analyses found that households bought more of all the products we studied when disease was more present in their area, but they bought more familiar products at disproportionately higher rates. These findings can help to explain recent purchasing trends.
CX
Only customer experience can make a brand stand out in the crowd
NOTABLE: Companies are really good at investing in technology and very bad in investing in people’s ability to maximise the value and potential of that technology. 50-70% of technology investments go underutilised because firms aren’t making the investment towards employee and employee capability to unleash the power and potential of the experience
Customer Experience Improvements Require Data Context
NOTABLE: 45% of customer experience professionals cited lack of cooperation across organizations as the biggest obstacle to transforming the customer experience according to Forrester Research report.
Almost Half Of Firms Increase Their Digital Customer Experience Budgets
NOTABLE: 71% cite authenticity as the main driver of digital CX excellence. Second was personalization, listed by 64%, followed by positive emotions (59%), 24/7 real-time assistance (41%), message consistency (40%) and human interaction (34%).
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
5 Things Learned From 5 Years of Digital Transformation
NOTABLE: Transformation is all about change, and change is all about people. With digital transformation, employees are on a journey, adapting the way they work and using new tools. Of course, it’s not just about adoption.
The Martech Divide
NOTABLE: With 72% of respondents surveyed viewing marketing talent as more essential than technology, but 53% spending more money on the tech, the findings reveal a disparity between companies’ skills and capabilities and the technology they maintain.
HUH?
The Strange Language of Modern Marketing
NOTABLE: “Humaning is a unique, consumer-centric approach to marketing that creates real, human connections with purpose, moving Mondelez beyond cautious, data-driven tactics, and uncovering what unites us all,” the company announced in a news release. “We are no longer marketing to consumers, but creating connections with humans.”
PEOPLE
The Leadership and Artistry of Tony Hsieh
NOTABLE: Tony understood that you can’t build something special in the marketplace unless you also built something powerful in the workplace. To create a passion brand for customers — and to this day, I am struck by the passion of Zappos customers — Tony had to sustain a passionate culture among his colleagues.
