Strategy News, Features, and Interviews

The COVID-19 crisis forced thousands of businesses across Australia to either fundamentally re-evaluate their business model or risk shutting up shop for good. But at Vision Personal Training, it’s served to stimulate digital transition that could have long-term benefits.

Chatbots are increasingly deployed by brands as another important channel of customer contact. BT’s Autonomous Customer 2020 research found chatbots are one of the new tech tools, along with phone and email, plus real human agents, that customers want when contacting a company.​

Providing a free or lower cost trial of a paid version of a service for a short period helps the take-up of the paid version. But freemium models aren't quite so successful, a new paper, Experience Effect in the Impact of Free Trial Promotions, published in Management Science, claims.

Customers want phone, email and online help, plus new tools like messaging and chat bots with help from real human agents, according to BT’s Autonomous Customer 2020 research. The report said, while technologies come and go, the message from customers is unchanged: Make it easy, make it secure and we will reward you.

The launch of IGA’s online grocery delivery service is a lesson in developing minimum viable product that responds quickly to the needs of customers during a rapidly evolving crisis, its shopper engagement leader says.

In times of crisis, Australians turn to their homes, focusing on food and maintenance, according to the results from a Roy Morgan survey. It’s revealed that at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Australians nominated Bunnings and Woolworths as their most trusted brands.

Looking to create a point of difference on customer service, health fund, Bupa, has launched a WhatsApp messaging channel that customers can use instead of waiting on hold.

Inundated with requests to help struggling cafes and restaurants hit hard by COVID-related shutdowns, two-year-old hospitality startup, HungryHungry, went from a two-week to two-hour turnaround to develop digital ordering sites for venues.

Thousands of WW’s (formerly Weight Watchers) A/NZ members have made the switch from face-to-face studio engagement to virtual workshops after the company translated its physical engagement offering to digital globally in just five days.

​A virtual agent going by the name of ‘Zoe’ has been launched by the South Australian health department in response to a surge in COVID-19-related queries to the state’s hospital switchboards and the 000 line.

Greencross CEO, George Wahby, is a great believer in focusing all your organisational energy on providing the best customer experience you can. Which is exactly what the company has been doing to navigate its Petbarn and Greencross Vet clinics and hospitals through the COVID-19 crisis.

In times of crisis, uncertainty and complexity, we all seek reassurance from the businesses and institutions supporting us. And as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, one channel customers sought such reassurance from is the humble call centre.

Grill’d’s managing director says the fast-tracked launch of its branded delivery service is another necessary innovation effort to survive through the COVID-19 crisis and set itself up in a position of strength for recovery.

It’s brands that can balance resiliency with innovation that will be better off when we come out of the COVID-19 crisis, Greater Bank’s marketing chief says.

An ecommerce marketplace isn’t the first thing you’d expect an airport to create in a time of COVID-19 crisis. But that’s exactly what Brisbane Airport has done in 16 days in order to support its retail tenants and end customers.

Customer loyalty programs have become a ubiquitous aspect of brand marketing, adopted as much for their efficiency in harvesting customer data as for their ability to keep customers buying. So what value does a loyalty program hold when a customer can no longer transact? And how can a brand ensure its loyal customers are still loyal once restrictions are lifted?

Eight in 10 consumers believes brands have an important role to play through the COVID-19 crisis according to a new survey undertaken by Havas Agency. And the survey is proving one of many indicators highlighting the need for brands to focus on their usefulness and value to consumers in their everyday lives during this time.

Ever heard that saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention”? Well, the COVID-19 crisis is the very mother of situations organisations and marketers must innovate their way through right now.

As physical cards and coupons are becoming obsolete, new technology like mobile wallets, are changing the way customers are interacting with brands. City Tattersalls Club, a 120-year-old social club located in Sydney’s CBD, saw the limitations of using traditional vouchers and cards and decided it was time to embrace customer loyalty in the digital realm.

It’s a situation many brand marketers want to get to: A healthy and highly engaged customer loyalty program delivering potentially millions in sales and value to business and customers alike. And for iced bubble tea franchise outlet, Chatime, efforts to deliver just that will not only help build long-term brand equity, but provide some tools to help cope with the current COVID-19 crisis.

For a new streaming service in a competitive environment, Kayo has gone from 25 per cent prompted awareness to 80 per cent in just 12 months – something it puts down to the Aussie love of sport, plus some exceptional marketing by the Kayo team.