Latest card fraud stats from the OFT…

This week The Guardian published stats from a report by the Office of Fair trading (OFT) around card fraud.

88% of adults mistakenly believed that card fraud had risen this year.  In actual fact, the number of card owners who fell victim to card fraud has decreased for the second year in a row.

According to the releases statistics the profile of a card victim is most likely to be males, aged between 45-54 years old with an annual income of £50,000 or more.

7.8% of card owners in households with an income of £50,000 or more were a victim of plastic card fraud, compared with 3.2% of card owners in households earning under £10,000.

Great customer service is proactive not reactive…

Ashley Verrill is a market analyst a Software Advice. She has spent the last six years reporting and writing business news and strategy features.  Following our last blog around customer loyalty, Ashley has provided us with more tips around how to provide great customer service, by focusing on the proactive rather than the reactive… 

If you asked someone what they think about when you say customer service, they would likely describe an unpleasant experience – one of compounding frustration because they had a problem, then were forced to sit on hold and bounce from one agent to another to get it solved.

This scenario is even worse from the company’s perspective. This might have been the only communication since the customer purchased, and it doesn’t really sound like an experience that inspires them to come back.

There is an alternative – proactive customer service. This means reaching out to your customers before they have to call you, instead of reactively responding when they have a problem. Not only does this provide a better experience, but in one study it reduced call volumes by as much as 30 percent. In the same report, customer retention rose as much as 5 percent.

Here, my company provides six specific actions you can take to turn your service from reactive to proactive.

Want to know what your customers are thinking? Just ask

Customer service is about giving customers what they want, which means you first have to find out what that is. And there’s no better way than to ask them. By regularly reaching out to customers, businesses can easily identify areas of weakness and correct them before customers become unhappy.

PBS.org, for example, used customer feedback technology from ForeSee and found out that many of their website visitors were looking for recipes from their cooking shows – information that wasn’t available online. This frustrated many viewers that visited the website. As a result, PBS.org created a new website exclusively for recipes and other food-related resources. Their customer satisfaction levels increased dramatically.

Reach out and be transparent if there’s a known problem

It’s always better for customers to hear about a problem directly from you instead of realising the product or service doesn’t do what they need it to, when they need it. While they might still be frustrated, these customers are less apt to hold a grudge; or worse, head to social media to voice their dissatisfaction.

If your company becomes aware of a problem, you should first identify all customers that would be affected by the issue and proactively reach out and offer an apology. Additionally, you could offer a discount towards a future purchase, or a refund if your solution to the problem can’t address their needs.

If you can’t solve the problem right away, be empathetic and clear about what you’re doing to address the issue. Finally, invite them to contact you with any questions or feedback, and make sure those responding to this channel do so quickly.

Show some love for your loyal customers

Proactively reaching out to customers with offers in-between purchases provides an additional opportunity for positive interaction with customers, to strengthen their relationship with the company. It can also solve problems customers didn’t even know they had, by alerting them to something they may be missing out on, and offering a way to fix it.

Sending an email to a customer a couple months before their two-year subscription renewal is due, for example, and offering a five percent discount to thank them for their custom, would likely seal their desire to renew. It also means the customer doesn’t have to call or email to renew themselves, which prevents any lapses in their subscription and ensures their continued satisfaction.

Look for clues of unrest in online conversations, attack the problem

Use social listening technology or manual searches to find customers talking about your company on social media. If you find someone voicing a complaint, reach out and see what you can do to address their needs. If they respond positively, you might retweet or share that experience. This shows you care and respond proactively, and could solve similar issues if other customers are having the same issue.

If you find an issue repeated numerous times, it might indicate something bigger is going on. This would prompt you to reach out to similar customers in your database just to check and make sure they don’t have the same problem.

Use live chat to prevent customers from digging around to find the answer

A Forrester survey found that 44 percent of respondents believe the ability to get quick answers from a live chat representative during an online purchase is “one of the most important features a website can offer.”

Online chat assures website visitors that someone at the company is there to provide any information needed and saves them the trouble of having to search for an answer or contact the company.

Proactive customer service doesn’t just help you keep the customers you have happy. By turning your customers into advocates for your brand, they become a marketing tool that drives new business. Investing a little extra in a proactive customer service approach now is a valuable strategy that can result in considerable dividends down the line.

Don’t leave customer loyalty to chance…

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think about all the different shops you buy from online. There’ll be some that you always go to – either because you particularly like the experience or simply haven’t found anything better. There’ll be some that you find for one-off purchases through search. And then there’ll be a whole bunch that you hardly ever think about and struggle to remember even when you want to purchase or re-purchase from them.

Now consider how your own customers think about your store. Which category do you fall into?

The rise of the unfaithful customer
We all want our businesses to be the default option for customers. Better still, we want to be the one they recommend without hesitation to friends and family. And many e-businesses spend an inordinate amount of time fine tuning the experience they deliver to increase their stickiness. This is particularly so for smaller e-businesses that have fewer customers to begin with.

The price of loyalty?
It is surprising then that so few of the small e-businesses who took part in this year’s e-business benchmark report use any kind of formal loyalty scheme. In fact, only 7 per cent use loyalty points as an incentive.

Importantly, loyalty schemes are a positive differentiator. When we looked at those e-businesses that out-perform the average conversion rate versus those that don’t, we found a small but significant difference. If we focus on above average performers, we see the use of loyalty schemes inrease to 8 per cent.

In today’s market, no one can take customer loyalty for granted. A competing offer is only ever a click away. So if you’re not already taking proactive steps to tie customers to your store, now’s the time to start.

Demystifying the e-commerce enigma…

Sage Pay is participating in a series of free events across the UK, hosted by the Digital Marketing Academy. Each event brings industry experts together to talk about a different area of digital business; sharing their experience and insights into developing a successful online presence. The latest event, called E-commerce Explained: 3 Basic Tools For Getting Online will focus on starting your own online sales channel.

The Rise of E-commerce

E-commerce is more than just a buzzword – it’s a phenomenon that is continuing to re-shape the retail economy of the UK. In fact, official data from the Office of National Statistics shows that more than £1 in every £10 spent by UK consumers is now spent online.

E-commerce is also proving highly-cost effective for many businesses, as the price of developing and maintaining an online shop is usually much lower than the costs associated with running a traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ presence (for example by reducing overheads like rent, staff wages, costs of utilities and hardware etc.)

… And the news is constantly filled with success stories from large retailers. For example; John Lewis’s online arm reported an outstanding 44% growth in year on year sales at the start of 2013.

But whilst we regularly read about the success of large retailers in e-commerce, smaller and medium businesses are noticeably lagging behind.  In this year’s e-Business Benchmark report, small businesses reported an average conversion rate (website visitors who end up completing a sale) of 6% whereas large businesses average 35% conversion-almost a sixfold difference!

And in a recent study by Lloyds TSB, only a third of UK SMBs have the functionality to sell their products and services online.

Why are SMBs reluctant to get online?

The prospect of developing an online sales channel can seem daunting. Some of the reasons include;

• Business owners are confronted with a wide range of technical solutions and suppliers, with extreme variations in pricing – so researching and choosing the best tools can be time-intensive.

• The world of e-commerce is filled with jargon! Acronyms like SaaS and SEO are meaningless to many business people, especially those with less technical experience.

• The lack of information surrounding security guidelines, and the ‘price tag’ linked with reaching compliance for regulations such as PCI DSS, can intimidate business owners.

• Unknown costs associated with services like card payment processing make it difficult to project the costs of running an online sales channel.

However – despite this apparent complexity, taking your business online is actually simpler than it seems. In fact, it may help you to think of it like opening a shop in a traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ model.

Imagine you’re opening a retail store for a limited company. The first thing you’d do is set up a bank account for your business (so you can receive payments). Then, you’d find a good spot on the high street for your shop, and you’d customise it to match your brand. Finally, you’d install a chip and pin machine and a cash register – to take payment from your customers.

… The process for setting up your own online shop has many parallels. In reality, you can break down e-commerce puzzle into 3 basic pieces:

• An Internet Merchant Account
• An e-commerce platform
• An Online Payment Gateway

And you’d put these pieces together in much the same way as opening your retail store: you would open your account (in this case, an Internet Merchant Account), customise your online store (on an e-commerce platform), then take card payments from your customers (via an online payment gateway).

So: if you’re seriously considering taking your business online (or starting a new business with e-commerce at its heart) these are the three tools you need to research.  You’ll need answers to the following questions:

-        What does each tool actually do?

-        Why do you need these tools?

-        How do you get them and how long does it take?

-        Which supplier should you go to?

-        How much should you expect to pay?

E-commerce explained: 3 basic tools for getting online

To get the answers to these questions, register now for the free event being held on Wednesday 17^th April at Sage Pay’s London office, hosted by the Digital Marketing Academy.

Experts from the e-commerce industry will share their knowledge, to help ‘demystify’ the process of moving your business online.  You will come away understanding the steps you need to take to develop your own online sales channel.

It’s free to attend, and you’ll have the chance to ask each speaker questions in an informal networking session afterwards. Places are limited, so register now to avoid disappointment.

Live chat for customer service comes of age…

We recently published a blog on our e-Business Benchmark microsite and it has been a popular post  so we thought it’d be valuable to pass on:

What happens when a customer needs help on your site? Traditionally, many e-tailers have added a customer service helpline number to their homepage enabling people to speak to someone if they have a problem or need some help. Others simply offered email (though for customers, all too often it’s simply easier to go and get what they need elsewhere).

Death of the customer service helpline?
This year, however, we’ve seen the use of helplines on the homepage diminish (from 67 per cent of above-average performers in 2011 to 60 per cent this year). Yet, at the same time, everyone says that customer expectations have never been higher. So how does removing one of the key customer service channels square up against delivering better service?

One factor is just how difficult (and expensive) it is to deliver a high-quality helpline service. Most people don’t have to look much further than their own experience to find plenty of evidence for this. And the world of social media is littered with examples of cusotmer service ‘hell’ experiences.

Live chat for customer serivce – a better alternative?
While we didn’t ask about alternatives in the survey, one thing did emerge in individual people’s comments – the growth of live chat for customer service. This is supported by recent research by live chat specialists BoldChat. Back in 2009, they found the number of people who both had and had not used live chat to be about equal. In 2012, the number of people who have used live chat for customer service has increased to 65.5% versus 34.5% who haven’t. So adoption appears to be gathering pace.

More satisfied customers, a more optimised experience
But does it work? Well, when customers were asked about their satisfaction with proactive live chat sessions, 94% said they were either somewhat or very satisfied. About a fifth of customers even named live chat as their preferred method of communication with customer service teams.

Immediacy is the key – 79% (the clear leader) said they preferred live chat because they got their questions answered immediately. Ultimately this is likely to be the killer benefit – as a customer I can either spend time on the phone pressing #1, pressing #7 and waiting, waiting, waiting or I can get an answer in seconds.

Will you be adding live chat to your site?  Let us know below!

Tailored for Business…

A few weeks ago we went to visit Sage Pay customer Pinstripe and Pearls, an online retailer of workwear for women, to film a case study video around the business.

We met up with the company’s founder and CEO Emma Blake, who before starting her own business, worked for over 10 years in FTSE100 companies and as a Director in one of the City’s Big 4 firms.

Emma Blake, founder and CEO of Pinstripe and Pearls

Emma noticed how frustrated both the women in her team and her clients were on the subject of finding appropriate and high quality workwear… so she decided to do something about it.

Her solution?  Pinstripe and Pearls, an online store where professional women can shop their whole work wardrobe from a growing range of designers and boutiques, in one place.

We invited Emma along to the launch of our 2013 e-Business Benchmark report to discuss the findings in relation to what she has learnt along her journey as a business owner.  Here’s what she had to say:

Apps vs optimisation- Mobile has reached the tipping point for large businesses, with 73% having optimised their website for mobile and 22% now having a mobile app

Emma: “Mobile is now an important part of our lives and at Pinstripe & Pearls we are seeing a rapidly growing number of mobile visits from our customers – the technology is perfect for business women on the go, with little time to shop.  We find that our customers are using their mobiles to shop during their commute to and from work, and using iPads in the late evening to browse our business wear range.  Ensuring that we offer a mobile optimised website is critical for us in 2013.  We did consider an App initially but concluded that if we were to have one, it needed to be a functional tool – something really useful, rather than just another portal to a website.  So we are simply focused on mobile optimisation as a priority this year’.

Social media overtakes traditional marketing tools

Emma: ‘Social media has been a bit of a revelation for us!  To be quite honest I was very skeptical about it to begin with and had to be convinced by my team, particularly on Pinterest… I gave them an afternoon to “see what they could do”.  We are now on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest with a growing fan base and this month Pinterest actually overtook all of our other social media channels in terms of conversions.   It’s great because our Pinterest following absolutely love the business looks we put together and share them all the time, plus you can also see which Boards they have pinned the looks too. You get genuine insight into your customers perception of your products and their specific interests.  For growing businesses like ours where every resource decision matters, there can be an opportunity cost involved with social media.  e.g. if you spend that time on facebook, what else aren’t you doing?  So despite the tools themselves being free, you do need to be focused in your social media activities and content planning to make it work.  It really has been a worthwhile investment for our specific customer base because it’s acted just like a form of “word of mouth” advertising.’

Businesses put innovation over legislation as 58% of small businesses admit to not fully understanding PCI DSS regulations

Emma: ‘Innovation and an ability to move quickly is key to standing out from the crowd but compliance with the rules and regulations of online trading is still really important.   You have to make time to understand it and get underneath what it all really means for your team and your business.  By understanding the regulations of your industry you demonstrate a level of trust and competence to your customer.  They are the people who matter.  If they don’t feel that their data is secure and their transaction protected they won’t shop with you – it’s as simple as that.’

  We love Pinstripe and Pearls because as a growing business, they’re really savvy about the latest trends and make sure they keep up-to-date in a way that suits them and their customer-base.  They also constantly look to expand and evolve  their offering and have recently launched a range of innovative gift experiences, exclusively designed for business women. You can now get business image style advice via skype, enjoy a business portrait photography experience (ladies, ditch that dodgy LinkedIn photo today!) or for something really special, a Made 2 Measure suit in partnership with Savile Row tailor NOOSHIN.

Making “power of the lunch hour” their mantra, the Pinstripe & Pearls team are delivering Made 2 Measure fittings in handy 2 x 30 minute slots to fit in with hectic schedules.   Finally everything a business woman could wish for in one place!

Congratulations Pinstripe and Pearls for being awarded as our Business of the Month!

Download a free copy of the 2013 e-Business Benchmark Report

New government regulation bans excessive surcharging for credit and debit card acceptance…

In the next few days a new government policy is coming into effect to make sure consumers are being treated fairly in terms of last minute fees added during the purchase process.  Read on to find out more…

What’s it all about?
It is common industry practice for online retailers to add a small additional charge or ‘surcharge’ onto their customers payment total during the check-out process.  This fee is levied to help businesses cover the cost of accepting credit or debit cards.

So what’s the problem?
The issue occurs when online businesses add excessive charges, considerably more than they actually incur to process the payment, in order to raise their profit margins.

As these charges are added right at the end of the buying process, it makes comparison shopping very difficult.  A common example is the booking fee charged by low-cost airlines when booking flights.

What’s going to be done about it?
From 6^th April 2013*, excessive surcharges will be stopped under the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations so traders will be banned from charging consumers ‘above-cost’ surcharges to pay by credit or debit card.

Who is affected?
The regulations apply to all consumer contracts for goods, services, digital content and most utilities, although there are various exclusions (including certain financial services contracts).  Micro-businesses and start-ups are excluded from the regulations until 13th June 2014.

What do I need to do?
All online retailers are allowed to levy a small charge for the cost of payment processing. The recommendations are between 10-20p for a debit card and around 2% on a credit card.  You can charge the full cost of accepting the payment type.  But if you’re currently charging more than this, you’ll need to adjust the amounts to ensure you’re adhering to the new rules.

You can read more about the changing regulations in the below guide from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills:

*At the time of publishing, this date had been confirmed by the Office of Fair Trading