Brussels 2011: Exploring key digital issues

The meteoric rise of e-commerce, and customer communication in the digital age, were hot topics on the second morning of the World Mail & Express Europe conference in Brussels (19 May). A packed conference room at the Conrad Hotel listened to a number of leading figures deliver presentations under the session banner: “The Customer and Product Proposition”. With constant Internet access now available at your fingertips, customer communication is now a key element for the mail and express industry’s bid to deliver growth and address decline.

John Modd – director mail at event organiser Triangle Management Services – opened the session, claiming that the industry is “becoming more customer centric”, where the needs of the receiver are just as important, if not now more so, than the needs of the sender.

Carl W Asmus, vice president international market development, FedEx Services, took to the stage to provide an insight into partnering for growth in a volatile market – exploring key alliances between Posts and Integrators, and the opportunities for cross-border e-commerce expansion.

With global Internet revenues expected to peak at $500bn in 2012, Asmus said there is a “tremendous opportunity to grow international revenue by offering products and services that will enable retailers to sell products online to the global consumer base”.

“By 2012, US, ASPAC, and EMEA will have 39%, 30%, and 29% of the global Internet Retail market, respectively,” he added.

Asmus said that “Cross-Border Internet Retail is still in the infancy stage as significant barriers (international payments, duty & tax calculations, fraud, visibility, trade barriers, etc) still exist”.

Despite of this, Asmus confirmed that cross-border e-commerce can drive new parcel volumes for operators in the postal industry. “Partnering provides key advantages, including: expanded value proposition, large sales channel, unmatched access to retailers in other countries, and a full service offering,” he said, adding that Posts have “a critical role to play”.

Industry evangelist Pat McGrew explored communicating with the next generation of postal customers.

Working in hand with traditional lines of customer communication (Post Office displays, mass media advertising, direct mail, word of mouth), McGrew pinpointed the importance of developing key communication channels that have emerged since the social media revolution. These included: managed community outreach, managed Twitter presence, blogs, live casting, and curated networks.

McGrew said: “Through the Internet, the people in your markets are discovering and inventing new ways to converse. They’re talking about your business. They’re telling one another the truth, in very human voices.

“Intranets are enabling your best people to hyperlink themselves together, outside the org chart. They’re incredibly productive and innovative. They’re telling one another the truth, in very human voices.

“There’s a new conversation between and among your market and your workers. It’s making them smarter and it’s enabling them to discover their human voices. You have two choices. You can continue to lock yourself behind facile corporate words and happy talk brochures. Or you can join the conversation.”

In order to set their own social media path, operators must: Audit social media marketing skills; identify team members with the best social media skills and interest; decide ahead what role social media will play (customer care, customer acquisition, brand building); and set internal and external expectations.

However McGrew warned: “If you don’t pay attention to your social media interaction it is not safe for your brand. You have to communicate and rally your customers through these channels. It can be detrimental to your brand if you don’t use social media properly – it can come back and bite you.”

In addition, Bill Shannon, vice president product line management, Pitney Bowes, offered some interesting thoughts on customer communication management. He claimed that “every connection is an opportunity”, before adding: “Customer communication should not be just digital, it should not be just physical – it needs to be multi-channel.”