Are you still listening? Or have I forgotten what you are talking about?

3 min read

How many times have we been on a website where to read the article or download the white paper we have had to add our details in to register our interest? And how many times has the registration process taken so long that by the time we receive the confirmation email, we have forgotten what we went to the site for in the first place.

As marketers, we are told that our communications are used to converse with the customer, to build relationships and inspire to make purchase decisions with us over anyone else. With this principle in mind, it would a very tedious conversation to be had if the responses came every other day when the customer question was in the here and now. We have all got that friend that doesn’t reply for days... and you have 2 choices - you brand them as the most unreliable person ever or you accept that this is just their way and when you do see them, the time is quality time and that makes up for it. For a brand though we are very rarely categorised into the latter - why would we - it would be very hard for us to meet every individual’s expectation of quality time.

From reactive to proactive and inventive communications 

So, with the power of time on our side, we can use it to be reactive, proactive and inventive. Using external events which are ever changing such as weather, an airline for example can proactively notify you of any impact on your flight time, or perhaps your insurance company can remind you of what is covered in your policy if there is a risk of flooding in your area.

Reactive campaigns are also possible when you can converse with the customer in the here and now. If a customer leaves a positive review on your website, this could be a trigger for refer a friend campaign. Inversely, if a customer complains, a capture of that event and an inclusion of the person on a suppression file will help to control the emotive fire already burning.

In a world where organisations need to be seen to be reactive, proactive and understand the customer needs, we can no longer rely on data being fed into an organisation on a schedule and messages being communicated thereafter. The need to be informed by customer activity or by external events affecting the customer is paramount to the success of customer engagement.

How Apteco can support you here

Apteco now has the ability to react to data sitting outside the usual FastStats system. Transactional information is being processed from other internal systems such as an e-commerce platform or data which is sat externally such as weather reports or credit referencing checks that can be screened and the results used to inform communication decision making.

Apteco has integrated with Apache Kafka, an industry-recognised event streaming platform that can connect to data streams in real-time, process "events" taking place and send those events in real-time to the system which can take action. In Apteco's case, we can monitor specific events to update real-time analytics, or to communicate to customers through Apteco PeopleStage.

So, event streaming platforms can enable you to be reactive, proactive, and inventive when integrated with your campaigning or CRM platform. If you can listen for your customer's interactions, you can really get inventive in your response. No longer do these responses need to be scheduled, they can be topical, fun and play to the mood of the event.

If you would like to learn more about how you can use real-time events to optimise your campaigns, watch our latest webinar with our partner Wood for Trees on how real-time events add value in the charity sector. Click here to access the recording.