case study customer involvement

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• Published: 04 September 2015

Customer involvement through social media: the cases of some telecommunication firms

• Valentina Della Corte 1 ,
• Alessandra Iavazzi 1 &
• Chiara D’Andrea 1  

Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity volume  1 , Article number:  10 ( 2015 ) Cite this article

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This study highlights the contribution of the role of social media in supporting customer involvement for service innovation.

It is commonplace that many service firms and processes have characteristics that differ from manufacturing. Analyzing the literature, we note that there are many contributions on innovation in the manufacturing industry while few researches are concentrated on the service industry. Hence, we chose to deepen the analysis on marketing innovation, with specific reference to the involvement of the customer, through social media, in service firms.

One of the key aspects of many service activities is the high involvement of the client/customer/user in the production of the final service. Without this coproduction process (i.e. interactivity of service production), the service would have often not been created. This customer involvement, together with the intangibility of many service products, leads service innovation to assume characteristics that are different from those learned by studies on manufacturing innovation. Service innovation is hard to capture in traditional categories like product or process innovation: the coproduction process and the interactions between the service provider and his client originate from so many touch points that it becomes difficult to identify what is the focus of innovation in service firms.

Hence, the focus is on the role of innovation in marketing activities in favoring the customer’s involvement in the service creation process through web tools, stimulating a closer relationship between the firm and its customers.

The study develops into the following steps: we start from the objectives and the definition of the research question through the study of the literature; we try to find some assumptions that can be useful to analyze the selected case studies. Results help us to discuss the analysis and to get to some conclusions.

Background of the study and objectives

The aim of this paper is to investigate about the role of innovation in favoring the creation of a closer relationship between the firm and its customers by the use of the web and its tools, considering the importance they have gained in the latest years.

The choice of studying marketing innovation in service firms comes from the analysis of the literature, in which we found a huge number of contributions on innovation in the manufacturing industry while there are few researches that focus on the service industry. Furthermore, the studies converge on the technological dimension and do not consider that ICT can be a tool for other forms of innovation that can be deepened, here including marketing innovation. Hence, the focus is on the role of innovation in marketing activities in favoring the customer’s involvement in the service creation process, stimulating a closer relationship between the firm and its customers. Web can constitute a valid tool in supporting decision makers since it allows accelerating this process.

Theories on innovation have been developed within the huge field of contributions on innovation in the manufacturing industry (Audretsch 1995 ; Becker & Dietz 2004 ). Looking at the service industry, there is a lack of contributions on the role of innovation in enhancing firms’ offer.

The first contribution on the innovation in the service industry refers to Barras (Barras 1986 ) and his “reverse product cycle”, according to which innovation in services takes place through three main phases (Gallouj & Weinstein 1997 ):

the incremental process innovation, that aims at increasing the efficiency of delivery of existing services;

the improvement of service quality that comes from more radical process innovations;

the emergence of product innovations, which favor the creation of new services or the whole transformation of the existing ones.

This contribution sheds light on the technological dimension of innovation. Further studies on the theme open the boundaries of the research, identifying other fields of study on innovation in the service industry. Within them, the marketing and the relationship with the customers gain increasing attention from the scholars.

Our study is articulated as follows: in the first section, we analyze the literature on the issue, trying to find some assumptions that can be useful to gain evidences. In the second section, we explain the methods used to collect and analyze the data. Among the service firms, we focus on the telecommunication sector, investigating on firms’ initiatives in identifying web tools that are able to favor customer involvement. The reason why we chose to examine firms operating in this sector is that it is high-tech based and with a strong competitive need of innovation. We then conduct our analysis trying to answer to the main research question, that is:

“How and to what extent are firms able to use web tools in order to favor the customer involvement in the service creation process?”

In the third section, we describe the results that help us to answer to the research question and to get to some conclusions, explained in the fourth section. The limits we encountered during the study are discussed at the end of the article.

Theoretical framework

In order to study the innovation in the service industry and the role of this phenomenon in focusing the attention on the customer and his key role in producing new innovation, the theoretical framework is concentrated on two streams of research, that are the open and the user innovation (Fig.  1 ).

Basic assumptions of open and user innovation. Source: Our elaboration. This figure shows the basic assumptions of open and user innovation on which this work focuses

Open innovation emphasizes the role of the interactions between external and internal ideas in creating value (Chesbrough 2006 ), while user innovation focuses on the role of users (individuals as well as firms – (von Hippel 2005 )) as leading innovators since their skills and competences have a key role in the creation of innovation. The competitive scenario imposes firms to change their business models, searching for new ideas that can come from the outside world and assuming new internal processes and technologies to improve their competitive position (Chesbrough 2007 ).

Hence, firms can develop and implement innovative ideas based on the opinions and comments the costumers express using the online communities.

A community can be defined as an organization that includes individuals with diverse backgrounds and preferences: their interaction generates fresh and complementary resources, knowledge and competencies (Bossink 2002 ; Oliver & Ebers 1998 ).

Therefore, customers can actively contribute to firms’ innovation processes through the sharing of their opinions and ideas. The so-generated innovation can lead to a better performance and value creation, not just for the firms but for the customer as well, since the service/product is built with the purpose of answering to the needs of the demand (democratized innovation – (von Hippel 2005 )).

In the telecommunication sector, van Cuilenburg and Slaa (van Cuilenburg & Slaa 1995 ) provide a definition of process and product innovation that is useful to reach the objectives of this study, stating that process innovation refers to the improvement of efficiency in production, while product innovation refers to the availability of new choices and opportunities of information and communication for customers (product differentiation).

According to the aim of this paper, we focus on the first aspect of innovation related to the service industry, investigating on how the customer can favor the creation and the development of new products becoming part of the co-creation process.

As previously said, in order to obtain sustained advantage for a company operating in the field of telecommunications, it is important to innovate constantly service offerings, possibly up to individual customers (Kristensson et al. 2008 ). In order to achieve this goal, it is desirable to involve customers in the innovation process to make them co-creators of the value, which is provided to them in the immediate future.

In order to study the degree of innovation, recalling some works on innovation in other sectors (Della Corte 2014 ), we propose some variables that explain the level of innovation a firm can show (Fig.  2 ).

Firm’s marketing innovation. Source: Our elaboration. This figure explains the different dimensions of marketing innovation for service firms, showing the degree of customer involvement

Responsiveness to consumer

In the telecommunication industry, quality is a key factor in influencing customer satisfaction. In the field of marketing activities, firms can get a deep sense of customers’ needs and expectations in order to align their products/services quickly. The key success factor in the implementation of innovation of telecommunications services is information, with specific reference to the wishes and requirements of the customers as well as to the form of the competition offer. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) activities include the understanding of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction, matching their expectations and answering to their compliances, enhancing the service quality and the customer care (Akroush 2011 ). Innovation can be introduced both at the induced and at the organic level of the service creation process, with the purpose to reach a greater comprehension of customers’ needs and create a mutual value for firms and consumers (Vargo & Lusch 2004 ).

Customer involvement

At this second step, the costumer is directly involved in the process of service creation: the firms enquire about their necessities and preferences and incite for innovative proposal and initiatives that can improve the offer. Customer involvement in the innovation process permits the creation of more customized services that encounter the target expectations, dedicated offers and activities, which enrich the demand satisfaction and retention.

Media and social innovation

The experiential component of the service fruition makes the media and social innovation tools crucial to guarantee the consumer’s enjoyment and contentment. This dimension represents the highest degree of engagement of customers.

At the first stage - the responsiveness one - firms establish their propositions of value and receive feedback after the consumption phase.

At the second stage - the customer involvement - there is the co-creation between the firm and its customers through the participation at the production phase.

At the third stage - the media and social innovation - since the customer share his ideas, needs and suggestions, he almost becomes a “producer” and makes the firm able to create highly customized products and services. This is the case of crowdsourcing activities, in which users create network and share knowledge through the web. Firms can use this collective intelligence opening an online contest, a sort of competition between freelancer working for a specific project, product launch, etc. Hence, firms looking for intellectual capital and professionalism on the web can use the networked knowledge to carry out important marketing strategies (Della Corte et al. 2013 ).

The methodology we implement in order to conduct our research is developed in the following steps as shown in the Fig.  3 .

The methodology steps. Source: Our elaboration. This figure clarifies the different steps of the methodology, defining the method, the source of data and the web tools used during the analysis

In order to answer all the research it is suggested to conduct case study research when the research questions are how and what (Yin 2009 ).

According to Aarikka-Stenroos and Sandberg (Aarikka-Stenroos & Sandberg 2012 ) two case studies “allow rich description and comparison” as well as to proceed with a cross-case comparisons ((Eisenhardt 1989 ), 2007).

The research methodology uses a comparative case study approach and discusses about the relative qualitative results.

Furthermore, the case study methodology is in line with the exploratory nature of this paper since it is able to capture contextual richness and complexity of research issues (Yin 2003 ) and to understand the social structures ((Bonoma 1985 ), p. 204; (Riege 2003 ; Yin 2003 )).

The case study methodology is applied in order to describe the two undisputed leaders of the European telecommunication sector. Vodafone is one of the world’s most powerful telecommunication brands: it operates in 21 countries worldwide and the company covers the 72 % European 4G population and its percentage of customers in Europe has grown from the 35 % in 2012 to 52 % in the first months of 2015 (Vodafone Annual 2015 ). As regards Telecom Italia Group, the company operates in 24 countries worldwide; its 4G European population have increased from 8,677 in the first months of 2014 to 10,480 in the first months of 2015 (Telecom Italia Group – 1Q’15 Results).

Collecting secondary web data from the analysis of the web and the social networks related to the two companies, we try to apply a “sentiment analysis” and to collect social media insights to support our research. In order to achieve this goal, we draw upon Social Mention, a search engine and analysis platform for social media. It works by searching content from comments and blogs to news, videos and events thereby allowing users to easily monitoring what people are talking about them, their company or their products and services.

This platform keeps track of more than 100 social media properties including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google and Digg among others. Apart from its search and analysis service, it also features daily social media alerts and API.

Social Mention also uses several tools to come up with accurate results. These include sentiment that determines whether mentions are positive, negative or neutral, top users (who is talking about the subject the most), top hashtags (popular hashtags associated with your search query), post rank which measures social engagement and sources which indicate where blog sources come from.

The empirical analysis is conducted in order to understand: the level of marketing innovation achieved by the firm using web and social media tools. The initiatives of customer involvement through web tools; the level of participation of the customer in the innovation process.

In order to evaluate the responsiveness, it is necessary to monitor what people spontaneously say about the brand or about a specific service. The information are collected according to four parameters:

strength , defined as the likelihood of a search term being mentioned;

sentiment , that is the ratio of positive to negative mentions;

passion , that means the likelihood that the people talking about a search term will do so frequently;

reach , which is the depth of a search term’s influence, in terms of the ration of unique authors referencing a brand to the number of mentions.

According to these four parameters, results allow companies to understand users’ perceptions of the brand and to monitor their comments on the web, analyzing how much they talk about an item and in which terms (positive/negative) and what is the level of commitment to the brand, seeing the “passion” and the “reach” parameters (Fig.  4 ). However, this tool has two limits: first, it is impossible to set a specific range of time to collect data; second, the method used to collect the presented information is not clear.

Social Mention’s results on TIM and Vodafone. Source: Our elaboration from Social Mention data. This figure shows the Social Mention’s results according to the different parameters considered in the analysis

For what concerns customer involvement, we analyze social media activities, in order to understand firms’ efforts in involving users. Results show that both companies are active on the social networks but users comment their posts asking for problem solving (Fig.  5 ).

Customer involvement on the social media. Source: Our elaboration from Facebook data. The figure describes the results of the analysis in terms of: customer involvement of the users per month, considering the amount of ilike, comments and sharing activities; customer involvement for the year 2014, comparing the total amount of the results for both the brands

By looking at the different categories, it is clear that the promo posts reach a great number of users that interact with them, asking for more information. On the contrary, entertainment and engagement posts do not reach a great number of users, so firms might have to strengthen these forms of interaction in order to improve the interaction with the customers (Fig.  6 ). In the case of TIM, there is the “sport” category that catches the attention of lots of users, also thanks to the company’s investments as sponsor in the last Football World Cup.

Comments per category. Source: Our elaboration from Facebook data. The figure shows the number of comments gathered into different categories: sport, promo, news, entertainment, engagement and corporate posts

For what concerns the media and social innovation, companies show a high degree of efforts in starting with high innovative activities of users’ involvement (Fig. 7). Thanks to a partnership with Crowdtech (a software house and web agency), Vodafone has developed a platform to collect customers’ views about a variety of topics. At a higher level of involvement, among the different R&D activities, Tim has developed in-house the “User experience lab”, that is a platform in which user is asked to provide ideas and design for new service or to test services they are being implemented.

Results show that TLC firms do not make a full use of the web tools to enhance their relationship with customers. For what concerns the responsiveness, the web tools represent very useful mean for firms to obtain information about customer satisfaction or evolution in their needs. Otherwise, they are used from users to express their complaints, so firms have to concentrate their efforts on managing customers’ requests.

Looking at the social activities of Telecom on Facebook, for example, it is clear that customers use the Telecom and Vodafone fan pages as customer care, asking for solutions and obtaining responses or expressing their complaints. Vodafone, in particular, received awards in the “Management of Year in a large company customer service”, “Team of the Year: Complaint Management” and the “Innovation in customer service” for Usage Control. It means that in order to improve the service quality and strategically focus their objectives, telecommunications companies can use these tools to investigate the degree of customers’ sensitivity and expectations, in order to improve responsiveness.

The companies build a constant relationship with the customers by creating entertainment activities on the social networks and in introducing innovative activities in their business models, even if at different levels of involvement.

As regards customer involvement in the innovation process, it requires commitment to the relationship from both customer and supplier. Users can be instructed to elaborate upon the provided tools in their own settings of use to meet their own needs. Telecommunication companies can use this method to create a “needs-based” and truly personalized approach in the service creation (Magnusson et al. 2003 ).

Telecom and Vodafone, in fact, build a constant relationship with the customers by creating entertainment activities on the social: funny questions and posts about customers’ everyday life create one to one relationships with the users and increase the brand attachment. Furthermore, these relationships help firms in better understanding customers’ behaviors and improving their business processes in a co-creation approach.

Looking at the media and social innovation, these two companies make strong efforts in introducing innovative activities in their business models (Fig.  7 ): Vodafone has activated a collaboration with Crowdtech in setting up a Panel Community for its customers, obtaining useful information about users’ perceptions and feelings on a variety of topics. At a higher level of involvement, among the different R&D activities, Tim has developed in-house the “User experience lab”, that is a platform in which user is asked to provide ideas and design for new service or to test services they are realizing. This process results in new, customer-centric products and services – under the motto “from customers for customers”.

Media and social innovation activities. Source: Our elaboration. The figure clarifies the Media and social innovation activities launched by Vodafone and TIM with specific reference to initiatives with high degree of involvement

Conclusions and limits

To conclude, we find that the empirical analysis demonstrates that improving marketing innovation activities by the web tools can favor the customer’s involvement in the service creation process. The analyzed cases actually contemplate the use of web tools in their business models and recognize the importance of these tools in creating a closer and more valuable relationship with the customer and involving him in the service creation process.

The companies use web tools, such as social networks, blogs and online communication platforms to enhance the relationship with the customers through entertainment activities that see different levels of involvement of the customers.

For what concern the responsiveness, the web tools can allow obtaining information about customer satisfaction and their needs’ evolution. In some cases, customers use these tools to express their complaints, so cultural firms have to be able to manage them in order to avoid situations in which customers’ comments could negatively influence the brand reputation. As regards customer involvement, the firm-customer relationship helps firms better understanding customers’ behaviors and improving their service creation processes in a co-creation approach. In this way, cultural firms can also understand customers’ expectations before the service provision, thus creating fit offers able to determine customer satisfaction. Social and media innovation allows getting to customer-centric services. Hence, they can really help creating high-personalized offers that positively affect customer satisfaction.

One of the main criticism is that the higher is the involvement of the customer in the service creation process, the higher will be the customer’s expectations, but these findings can inspire telecommunication firms, as well as service firms, to improve their relationships with customers through the opportunities offered by the web.

Obviously, these reflections conduct to some limits. The research should be extended to other cases, in order to identify clear parameters able to compare firm-specific situations.

There are several tools for customer involvement that have not been contemplated in this study but that can favor the understanding of customer behaviors and their actual role in the service creation process. The application of the cited tools can generate higher expectations in the customer and consequently require more and more sophisticated tools.

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Authors’ contributions

All authors made substantial contributions to the conception and design, acquisition and analysis of data and their interpretation. They all partecipated in drafting the article and revising it critically.

In particular, VD wrote the paragraphs “Background of the studies and objectives” and “Theoretical framework”; AI and CD wrote the paragraphs “Methods” and “Results”. VD, AI and CD wrote the paragraph “Discussion”. VD wrote the paragraph “Conclusions and limits”. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Della Corte, V., Iavazzi, A. & D’Andrea, C. Customer involvement through social media: the cases of some telecommunication firms. J. open innov. 1 , 10 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40852-015-0011-y

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Received : 16 April 2015

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Published : 04 September 2015

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40852-015-0011-y

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Customer Involvement: Definition, Importance + Types

Involvement is how much time, effort, and thought a customer puts into choosing a product or service and how much fun they have doing it. Like motivation, involvement is a customer’s feeling on the inside. It makes a person think about and explain his or her choice. External sources and agencies can encourage customer involvement.

The involvement theory says there are two kinds of purchases: low and high. How involved a customer is in a purchase depends on how involved he or she is in the purchase.

For example, when people buy a loaf of bread, they don’t feel like they’re doing much. It’s because the product doesn’t last very long. Once it’s been used up, it’s gone. If the customer is unhappy with a certain brand of bread, he will buy a different one next time.

When a person buys something that will last a long time, like a laptop, refrigerator, couch, or two-wheeler, he or she has a lot of say in the decision. Customers choose to give it a lot of thought. The effects of these products last for a long time. Before they buy products with a high level of involvement, customers ask many questions. Based on the type of product or service, the table below shows different levels of involvement.

In this blog, Customer involvement will be defined along with its importance and types. 

Definition of customer involvement

Customer involvement is the active involvement of customers in different parts of a company’s business, such as product development, marketing, and customer service. It involves talking to customers to learn about their needs, preferences, and expectations so that products and services can be made that better meet their needs.

Customer involvement can take many forms, such as giving feedback on products and services, participating in focus groups or surveys, or even co-creating or co-designing products with the company. By fostering a sense of partnership and ownership between the customer and the business, the main goal of customer involvement is to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Through customer involvement, businesses can better understand their customers’ needs, predict them, and make products and services that meet their expectations.

Importance of customer involvement

Customer participation is important for businesses in a number of ways. Here are some of the most important reasons why customer involvement is important:

• Better understanding of customer needs: Businesses can better understand their customers’ needs and preferences by involving them in different parts of their operations. This can help businesses make products and services that better meet customer needs.
• Improved customer satisfaction and loyalty: Customers are likelier to be happy with the products and services they receive when they feel their opinions are being heard and valued. Increased loyalty and retention may result from this.
• Increased innovation: Customer involvement can spur innovation by giving businesses new ideas and insights they might not have thought of otherwise. This can lead to the customer development of new products and services that better meet the needs of customers.
• Improved brand reputation: Businesses that actively involve customers in their operations are often seen as more customer-centric and innovative, boosting their reputation and attracting new customers.
• Reduced risk of product failure: Companies can reduce the risk of product failures and expensive recalls by involving customers in product development and testing. In the long run, this can save businesses time and money.

If a business wants to stay competitive in today’s market, it must involve its customers. By talking to customers and getting them involved in different parts of their business, companies can learn useful things, make customers happier, and come up with new products and services that better meet their needs.

Types of customer involvement

There are various forms of customer participation, including:

• Co-creation: 

Co-creation entails working with customers to create novel goods and services. This kind of customer participation is frequently used in sectors like technology, where customer feedback is crucial to developing novel products.

• Co-design: 

Customers are included in the design process to ensure the final product satisfies their requirements. This kind of customer involvement is frequently used in sectors like the fashion industry, where consumer feedback is crucial to developing fashionable and useful goods.

• Co-production: 

In order to increase the quality of the finished product, co-production entails involving customers in the manufacturing process. In industries like food service, where customers can offer insightful feedback on the flavor and quality of the food, this type of customer participation is frequently used.

• Customer feedback: 

Gather customer feedback on their interactions with goods and services in order to better future offerings. This kind of customer participation is frequently used in businesses like retail, where customer input can be used to enhance store layouts, product displays, and customer service.

• Crowdsourcing: 

Crowdsourcing is the practice of soliciting input and suggestions from a large number of people via online platforms. This kind of customer participation is frequently used in sectors like advertising and marketing, where businesses can use customer feedback to develop successful campaigns and promotions.

Depending on their sector, products, and customers, businesses may choose to use one or more types of customer involvement.

LEARN ABOUT: Consumer Decision Journey

Consumer involvement is crucial for every company that wants to thrive in today’s cutthroat economy. Involving customers in the product development process can result in the development of creative solutions that satisfy their wants and preferences.

Businesses can boost customer satisfaction and repeat business by including customers in decision-making. This fosters a sense of loyalty and trust among customers. Customer involvement can also produce insightful data that can be used to enhance product development, advertising campaigns, and customer support.

Businesses that put a high priority on customer engagement ultimately have a better chance of long-term success because they develop a solid brand reputation and cultivate customer loyalty.

QuestionPro is a great tool that businesses can use to get customers involved in many different ways. QuestionPro gives businesses the tools they need to get feedback from customers, analyze data, and take action to improve customer experiences. This can be done by conducting surveys or making online communities.

By utilizing QuestionPro’s different features, businesses can build customer loyalty, improve customer satisfaction, and succeed in the long run. Customer involvement is essential to the success of any business, and QuestionPro gives businesses the tools they need to get customers involved and foster a customer-centric culture. 

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5 mini case studies about understanding and serving the customer

This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter .

Mini Case Study #1: 34% increase in conversion for powdered health drink company by helping customers come to their own conclusions

A single-product company that sells high-quality, all-natural, powdered health drinks engaged MECLABS Institute to help better understand their potential customers and increase the conversion rate of prospects reaching the homepage.

The original homepage took a claims-driven approach – it provided several bold statements about what the product would do for a customer with no information about the product to help the customer understand why it would work for them. Here is a look at the upper left of the original homepage.

Creative Sample #1: Upper left of original homepage for health drink company

The MECLABS team created a version of the homepage that took a conclusion-driven approach – instead only trying to convince potential customers with only bold claims about the product, the homepage copy included information about the product to help customers understand why the product would help them.

Creative Sample #2: Upper left of treatment homepage for health drink company

The team tested this version as the treatment against the original homepage (the control) to help better understand what communication style customers would respond to.

The treatment generated a 34% increase in conversion rate.

This experiment highlights a classic disconnect between customers and marketers. If you work in a company or with a client, you have intimate knowledge of the product and believe in its effectiveness. You spend all day thinking about it. You personally know some of the people who designed it. Your paycheck depends on the success of the product.

A customer does not have this same understanding or belief in the product. They have a significant gap in their knowledge about your product. Bold claims alone are not enough to close that gap. They have to understand why the product will work and come to their own conclusions about the company’s ability to deliver on its promises.

You can learn more about this experiment in The Conversion Heuristic Analysis: Overcoming the prospect’s perception gap from MarketingExperiments (MarketingSherpa’s sister publication).

Mini Case Study #2: Bags company increases conversion 191% by adding clarity to homepage

“I'm the CEO of Doubletake , a tennis and pickleball bag company, but I spent the majority of my career focused on messaging and research, consulting as a strategist for top brands for the last 10 plus years, and in-house prior to that. I'm almost embarrassed that I have this example to share, but I thankfully came to my senses!,” Shawna Gwin Krasts told me.

“It is interesting that crafting messaging/copy for products that aren't ‘your baby’ is so much easier – there is just more distance to see it for what it is. If this wasn't so near and dear to my heart, I would have caught it in a second.”

The team launched its homepage with only the headline “Sports Meets Style” over a photo of a bag. The headline was meant to differentiate the brand from competitors that were either only sporty or fashionable. Below the headline was a call-to-action (CTA) button with the word “shop.”

Creative Sample #3: Previous homepage copy for bag company

Internally it seemed obvious that the company sells tennis and pickleball bags since a bag was in the photo.

But they came to realize that it might not be as clear to website visitors. So the team added the subhead “Gorgeous Yet Functional Tennis and Pickleball Bags.” They also added the word “bags” to the CTA so it read “shop bags.”

Creative Sample #4: New homepage copy for bag company

These simple changes increased the website's conversion rate by 191%.

“It is so important for marketers to get out of their own heads,” Krasts said. “I suppose this is why I struggle with messaging so much for Doubletake. I am the target customer – I have the answers in my head and I suppose my natural curiosity isn't as strong. But clearly, I also have to remember that I've seen my homepage 10,000 more times than my customers, which means things that seem obvious to me, like the fact that Doubletake is a tennis brand not a reseller, might not be obvious.”

Mini Case Study #3: Online motorcycle gear retailer doubles conversion with personalized emails

There are ways to better tap into what customers perceive as valuable built into certain marketing channels. Email marketing is a great example. Marketers can build off information they have on the customer to send more relevant emails with information and products the customer is more likely to value.

"Very early in my marketing career I was taught, 'You are not the target audience' and told to try to see things from my customer's perspective. Empathizing with customers is a good start towards seeing products from the customers' perspective, but marketers really need to focus on quantifiable actions that can help identify customers' needs. That means continuous testing across messaging, price points, packaging, and every other aspect of a product. This is where personalization can really shine. Every time a marketer personalizes a message, it brings them closer to their customer and closes that gap," said Gretchen Scheiman, VP of Marketing, Sailthru.

For example, 80% of the email messages RevZilla sent were generic. But the website sells motorcycle parts and gear to a wide range of riders, each with their own preference in brand and riding style. The online motorcycle gear retailer partnered with Sailthru to better connect with customer motivations. The team started by upgrading the welcome series for new customers by personalizing the email messages based on the customers’ purchases and preferences.

The company has tested and added many new triggers to the site, and now has 177 different automation journeys that include triggers for browse and cart abandonment as well as automations for different product preferences, riding styles and manufacturer preferences.

The conversion rate from personalized email is double what RevZilla was getting for generic batch-and-blast sends. Automated experiences now account for 40% of email revenue. Triggered revenue is up 22% year-over-year and site traffic from triggers has increased 128% year-over-year.

"Customizing the buyer journey isn't about one long flow, but about lots of little trigger points and tests along the way. For any marketer that is intimidated about getting started with personalization, it's important to realize that it's more like a lot of small building blocks that create a whole experience. We started with a custom welcome series using testing and built from there. We're still adding new tests and new trigger points, but it's with the same concept that we started with,” said Andrew Lim, Director of Retention Marketing, RevZilla.

Mini Case Study #4: Pet protection network increases revenue 53% thanks to survey feedback

Huan makes smart tags for pets to help owners find their pets if they go missing. Initially, the company focused on the technical features in its homepage copy. For example, the tags don’t emit harmful radiation, are water-resistant and have a replaceable one-year battery.

From customer feedback surveys, the team discovered that customers purchased the product because they were worried they wouldn’t be able to find their pet if the pet went missing. This discovery prompted the team to change its messaging.

The new messaging on the homepage read, “Keep your pet safe and prevent heartbreak. Huan Smart Tags help you find your missing pet automatically.”

Revenue increased 53% increase following the change in messaging. “We immediately saw an increase in engagement on our website, with a lower bounce rate, higher click-through rate and a higher conversion rate. There were also a few people who messaged us on social media saying how our new message resonated with them,” said Gilad Rom, Founder, Huan.

Mini Case Study #5: Talking to new customers leads SaaS to change strategy, increase sales 18%

When Chanty launched, the marketing messages focused on pricing since the Saas company is 50% less expensive than the best-known competitor. However, when the team started talking to customers, they discovered most people had switched from the competitor for different reasons – ease of use, better functionalities in the free plan, better experience with the customer support team, and a better mobile app.

The team changed its marketing to focus around these product attributes and only listed pricing in the end as an additional benefit.

“It turned out that this was the way to go because we attracted people who wanted a better experience, rather than just customers who wanted to save money. After six months of implementing this new marketing and sales strategy, our sales grew by 18%,” said Jane Kovalkova, Chief Marketing Officer, Chanty.

Related resources

The Prospect’s Perception Gap: How to bridge the dangerous gap between the results we want and the results we have

Customer-First Marketing: Understanding customer pain and responding with action

Marketing Research Chart: How customer understanding impacts satisfaction

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Seven customer experience case studies that generated loyalty and ROI

Delighting the consumer is the number one priority for all customer-facing companies.

Right now, consumers have never had more choice, but when there’s an endless array of businesses offering similar products and services, how does any company stand out from the crowd?

By offering a personalised, relevant and completely human relationship that goes far beyond a single ecommerce transaction. 

A whole lifetime relationship between a customer and a company can be fostered under the customer experience (CX) banner, but this kind of loyalty can’t exist without first shaping a sustainable consumer-centric culture and delivering them compelling experiences.

Join us at our  Festival of Marketing , a two-day celebration of the modern marketing industry held in November, where we have an entire stage devoted to CX so you can learn how successful marketers optimise experiences to increase satisfaction and loyalty.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at some other useful case studies.

Coca-Cola uses  experiential marketing  to create a closer bond between itself and the consumer by immersing them in fun and memorable experiences.

The Coca-Cola Beat Generator was a custom music app which enabled consumers to mix their own music. It formed the core of a 70-day brand experience celebrating Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.

The objective was to create an experience for the general public focusing on the fusion of music, sport and its brand. During an experiential roadshow users could create music using the sounds of sporting events, with additional beats and samples. The software ensured virtually any combination would fit harmoniously together.

Once a tune had been created users could pick up an MP3 recording or share via Facebook, Twitter or email. The music would also be played on a large screen during the roadshow. The Beat Generator was also used by Coca-Cola’s on-stage MC/DJ at each evening celebration and as part of a live performance in five major city celebrations.

9,000 pieces of music were created onsite with 2,500 retrieved online. There were 16,500 sessions on the Coca-Cola Beat Generator website and 1.78m Facebook impressions were delivered.

Cadbury launched its first Google+ community, ‘Cakes & Baking – The Cadbury Kitchen’, with a view to generating regular, authentic content for use on other platforms and drive engagement on its original Google+ page.

Communities not only provide a forum for discussion, but also create an opportunity to gather content for use outside of the community. It can be costly to develop, test and photograph new recipes, but a community can provide a source of regular and authentic content, which could be used to drive engagement elsewhere.

Cadbury is now one of the top 100 communities on Google+ with over 20,000 members. More than 2,500 recipes have been posted and there are an average of 20 interactions per post.

Homebase wanted to engage customers with personalised targeted emails to boost  email open and click-trough rates (CTR)  to drive campaign ROI.

Its email marketing previously concentrated on driving conversions with voucher code offers. However Homebase needed to shift its focus from converting prospective customers to encouraging people to consider Homebase prior to making a purchase.

It did this by identifying newsletter subscribers who had specifically shown an interest in kitchen products and, once identified, target those customers with a series of triggered follow-up emails with clear calls-to-action (CTAs).

The ‘Kitchen Trigger’ programme saw open and click-through metrics up to 20% higher than typical email campaign results.

Overall 48% of recipients booked in-store appointments, with an average conversion from appointment to final purchase of approximately 40%.

ASDA’s objective when building its app was to make shopping quicker and more convenient for busy customers.

In order succeed in this, the customer’s point of view had to be brought in right from the app’s development. ASDA’s customer research found the need for convenience, ease of use and also something that wasn’t filled with cutting edge technology they couldn’t get to grips with.

The customer experience was allowed to drive the technology, rather than visa versa.

Mobile now accounts for 18% of all grocery home shopping sales and 90% of this is from the app. ASDA App shoppers are twice as likely to become loyal, repeat customers. Shopping frequency for mobile is 1.8 times higher than desktop. The app had achieved more than 2m downloads by March 2013.

O2 uses customer data to provide many of its services. Prompted by new government legislation regarding transparency it needed to communicate to customers just how it relies on data to provide these services.

Customers are only going to share data with a company if it trusts it, and a company will only achieve trust if it’s entirely honest with consumers how that data is used.

If the use of data provides more relevant and improved customer experiences, outside of marketing, than this will only benefit the consumer.

O2 began by pulling together a cross-discipline team before working on creating personas and carrying out roleplay to tease out important issues. Key to this approach was involving customers early in order to inform its thinking and design.

O2 created wireframes explaining data control and how it relates to different services, and held customer workshops to see how customers responded to the idea of providing additional data. Finally, the company trialled the app with a group of customers, whose feedback it incorporated throughout the build phase.

This process informed ideas for new services, with O2 creating prototypes to test with users. The preferred concept was developed into a final prototype that was then tested with more than 1,000 customers, with 80% confirming that they would use it. This is now being rolled out in the UK and across Europe.

Because lingerie is not a product people always wish to try on, shoppers are in constant ‘browse mode’ where they find it difficult to make decisions.

Triumph created an interactive retail environment to solve that problem for them within the lingerie department of Selfridges store. The ‘Triumph Essence Fantasy Mirror’, housed in a specially designed ‘Fantasy Booth’.

A videocard invitation was sent out to consumers and on the day itself digital escalator panels in tube stations set the ‘Fantasy Forest’ scene, while window displays at Selfridges revealed the range on live models rotating slowly on music-box style plinths.

The windows also acted as a digital gateway to the Fantasy Mirror, with QR codes weaved into the lace design enabling shoppers to download the app to receive exclusive content, see the collection that would be featured in the window the next day and book an appointment in the Fantasy Booth.

The Fantasy Booth enabled shoppers to experience the collection without removing any clothing and merged the offline and online worlds.

Around 125 consumers attended the launch event and a 50% uplift sales was achieved in the first week after campaign launched as well as more than 1,600 app downloads during launch period.

Irish Books Direct

Irish Books Direct is designed to encourage a personalised community experience celebrating Irish literature and culture.

As a family business with limited resources Irish Books Direct had to grow organically with a minimum of investment. The key to any potential growth would be the adoption of various social elements that helped create a conversational online environment.

When customers sign up, they create a public member profile which allows them to interact with the site owners and other members. Books are promoted via personal blogs and customers are encouraged to join the debate via comments.

The growth for the first two years of its existence (2011 – 2012) averaged 400%. The third year of the business saw monthly growth of around 300%.

Join us at our Festival of Marketing  event in November, a two-day celebration of the modern marketing industry, featuring speakers from brands including LEGO, Tesco, Barclays, FT.com and more.

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Article Contents

Diagnostic delays are associated with spinal involvement in human brucellosis: a retrospective case–control study.

Zhongshu Pu, Yiwen Liu, Manling Bai, and Tong Lin contributed equally to this work.

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Zhongshu Pu, Yiwen Liu, Manling Bai, Tong Ling, Jing Pan, Dengrong Xu, Peijun Dai, Yongping Yan, Diagnostic Delays are Associated with Spinal Involvement in Human Brucellosis: A Retrospective Case–Control Study, Open Forum Infectious Diseases , 2024;, ofae357, https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofae357

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Spinal involvement is a common but serious complication of human brucellosis. However, information on the risk factors associated with spinal involvement in individuals with brucellosis is limited.

This retrospective case–control study aimed to determine the potential risk factors associated with spinal complications in inpatients with brucellosis.

During the study period, 377 patients were diagnosed with brucellosis, of whom 108 (28.64%) showed spinal involvement. Those with spinal involvement were significantly older than patients in the control group (53.25 ± 10.48 years vs. 43.12 ± 13.84 years, P < 0.001). The mean diagnostic delays were significantly longer in patients with spinal involvement than in the control group (11.17 ± 13.55 weeks vs. 6.03 ± 8.02 weeks, P = 0.001). Age of >40 years (odds ratio: 5.42, 95% confidence interval: 2.65–11.05, P < 0.001) and diagnostic delay of >4 weeks (odds ratios: 2.94, 95% confidence interval: 1.62–5.35, P < 0.001) were independently associated with spinal involvement in brucellosis. The lumbar spine at the L3–L5 level was the most affected (152/249, 61.04%). Back pain (92/108 vs 21/108, P < 0.001) and splenomegaly (23/108 vs 42/108, P = 0.005) significantly differed between the two groups.

Age > 40 years and diagnostic delay > 4 weeks increased the risk of spinal involvement in brucellosis. Therefore, the time from symptom onset to diagnosis should be shortened using effective measures to reduce spinal involvement risk.

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, the effects of customer involvement on perceived service performance and word-of-mouth: the mediating role of service co-creation.

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

ISSN : 1355-5855

Article publication date: 28 August 2020

Issue publication date: 18 March 2021

This study aims to use the framework of customer dominant logic to explore the mediating role of service co-creation on the relationships between customer involvement and perceived service performance and between customer involvement and word-of-mouth (WOM). It also investigates the moderating role of customer relational-motivational orientation on the relationship between customer involvement and service co-creation.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect responses from 289 Hong Kong's customers in different service settings. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed research model.

The results of structural equation modeling showed that the freedom of co-creation and the degree of collaboration fully mediated the effect of customer involvement on perceived service performance and WOM. Additionally, relational-motivational orientation moderated the relationships between customer involvement and the freedom of co-creation and between customer involvement and the degree of collaboration.

Practical implications

This research provides implications to managers on how to facilitate an environment that stimulates customer co-creation. Customer-contact employees must be trained with the necessary interpersonal skills to serve customers with different levels of relational-motivational orientation.

Originality/value

The study is one of the first to identify customer involvement as a key antecedent of service co-creation attributes and the moderating role of relational-motivational orientation on the relationships between customer involvement and service co-creation attributes.

• Customer-dominant logic
• Customer involvement
• Service co-creation
• Perceived service performance
• Word-of-mouth

Cheung, M.F.Y. and To, W.M. (2021), "The effects of customer involvement on perceived service performance and word-of-mouth: the mediating role of service co-creation", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics , Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 1014-1032. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-04-2020-0221

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Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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