Matt Meffan - NewMR lecture june 2014

A day in the life of a regional Insight Community Manager

Matt Meffan

Vision Critical

Australia

2014 Platinum Sponsor

Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia

June Lecture Series 2014

16 Global offices.

Engaging with

consumers 2.5 million

times per month across

26 languages.



New Zealand, Indonesia, China (including Hong

Kong & Macau), Japan, India, The Philippines,

Australia, Singapore, & Malaysia

The Sydney Team

11 APAC Markets

WHAT’S IMPORTANT?

Research and Insight for the new age, in tune with the digital aesthetic.



Company NEEDS insight &

ideas

I GIVE the company insights

& ideas

The company MAKES

decisions ?

Company NEEDS insight & ideas

I GIVE the company insight & ideas

The company MAKES decisions

The company GIVES ME feedback on how

my insight is used

Our role is to close the feedback loop:

Traditional research is one-way:

Community

Management

Community managers

help clients create an authentic

member experience so that

their insight community is an

ongoing and reliable resource

for consumer insights.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT?



Community Managers are a vital quality control link in the value chain. We act as gatekeepers and we act as advocates.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT?



MATT’S MAXIMS – Four Rules of conduct

1. Silence Kills - Insight Community’s should never go a month without contact.

2. Short and Sweet - Your survey is over ten minutes? Too long. We will work with you on ways to meet the research objective in a less burdensome way.

3. The Fun Part - With every activity we make a point to challenge you, where is the fun part?

4. Share – In every activity incorporate something that you can share back. Constant feedback is the fuel that keeps a community healthy.



20%

80%

MR Knowledge +Training

Organization andCreativity

THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS

Results in Happy Clients,

Which Results in

Happy Days.

Employ people with initiative, personality,

and creativity above all else.

When people are motivated to find a

solution they are empowered to do so in

this environment.



Eat Toast, Check Email & Walk Dog

Run – You’re Late for the Ferry

Fuel up with Coffee

Finance Call with North America

Creative Briefing Call with Australia

Survey Walk-Through with Singapore

Go for a Run, Lunch at Desk

Teleconference with Shanghai

Infographic walk-through Shanzhen

Skype Interview with Hong Kong

Project Discussion with Macau

Client Testimonial - Jakarta

Regional Leadership Meeting

New Client Kick-off Call with Delhi

Software Training with Manila

Sort Inbox, Pack Laptop & Run to Ferry

Wine, Work, Wind-down

The Downside:

Don’t plan to have

too much structure to

your day.

The Upside





THE DAILY JUGGLE

Multi-Lingual

Delivery

Local-Market

Intricacies and

Understanding

Service Level

Expectations

& Time Zones

Software

Performance

Travel

Planning and

Itineraries

Community Management



COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT

A comprehensive and proactive

approach to Community Management

is the Secret Sauce in delivering value.

• Monthly Dashboard Report

• Member Newsletters

• Restage Refresh

• Effective Incentives

• Community Engagement Plan

• Community Health Review

• Member Satisfaction Study



COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT A closer look

Member Newsletters



COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT Member Satisfaction Survey

the survey topics

the frequency you are invited to participate in

surveys

the survey invites

the number of survey reminders

the amount of survey reminders

you receive

the quality of surveys you

receive (i.e. do they make sense,

are they well-crafted?)

the length of individual surveys

the amount of time given to respond

to surveys

the look and feel of surveys

-3.0

-2.0

-1.0

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

-3.0 -2.0 -1.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0

Imp

ort

an

ce

Performance

CLIENT

“I have absolutely no negative comments to report,

which is very much a plus in today's society when

dealing with large corporations including banks,

considering what I've had to deal with in the last

few months (treatment from a large corporation) I

am please to say [BANK] is very reliable and looks

after their customers.”

• Why did you join?

• What did you hope for?

• What are you most enjoying?

• What could we do to improve?

• Any other comments?



MULTI-LINGUAL DELIVERY

Community communication must seem authentic.

• Don’t google translate and don’t half-do it. It undermines the whole philosophy of what a community should achieve.

• Invests heavily in the right people to ensure your communications are seen as genuine in this area.

• Building multi-Lingual teams has been

critical to success here



SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE

Software being software it doesn’t always behave in a consistent way in every market or situation.

Browsers | Operating Systems | Devices

• How do we handle this: 1. Oh Sh!t. Drop everything engage technical support.

2. Together determine scale of issue and inform client if they aren’t aware.

3. Diagnose the problem and suggest potential solutions [band aids].

4. Our systems document everything as we diagnose the root cause.

5. Alter the initial fix is put in place we either update our process or update the software in it’s next release [or a hot-fix]. SaaS is a continual evolution.



LOCAL-MARKET INTRICACIES AND UNDERSTANDING A Meeting Agenda is a global requirement.

Important training:

• Dispute handling and negotiation

• Geography and linguistics

• Business communications

My personal observations: • It’s not as extreme as they’ll tell you at University

• Meetings are fun the in-between’s aren’t

• Face-to-face is king

• Silences. It’s often what you don’t say

• Appropriateness of lateness

• Too much food – use gyms

• Neck pillows > Sleeping pills



You are only as good as your Ops leader(s). If you’re exploring employers or roles in the industry please make this a key line of enquiry.

• Good Ops leaders ensure: • Accountability

• Transparency

• Solid systems and processes

• Motivated ops staff

• Finding effective ways to share information with your sales teams is a very worthwhile investment

• Finance - Familiarity and Forecasting • Predictable revenue builds business cases



TRAVEL PLANNING AND ITINERARIES

You should always be planning your next trip

• Keep your laptop charged for the flight! • Golden time in being uninterrupted and productive

(https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/tripcase)

(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sabre.tripcase.android)

• Your Out of office is a courtesy not an excuse. Have an escalation point.

• Don’t expect clients to drop everything because you are in town. Respect their schedules as you are typically a very small part of their day.



https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/tripcase

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/tripcase

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sabre.tripcase.android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sabre.tripcase.android

SERVICE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS & TIME ZONES

To be successful be prepared to work late, and work from wherever you are.

• You need to have a thick skin and don’t take criticism to heart. Eastern expectations really are very high, but the caliber of clients is also incredibly high.

• Imported labour is comparitively very expensive (particularly in India, SE Asia). Offer something over and above to justify it.

• Be prepared to work with large teams and partners. Decision making is distributed quite widely.



SIX QUICK TIPS FOR SUCCESS

1. Check tomorrow’s calendar the night before.

2. Set expectations that are reasonably exceed-able.

3. Always show up on time.

4. Offer energy and enthusiasm, particularly on Mondays.

5. Get to know your clients, then you can better appreciate and understand what drives them. But DON’T over do it.

6. Document and archive everything. Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia


Thank you


Matt Meffan

Vision Critical

Australia



The Sponsors for this Event

If you are interested in sponsoring a future NewMR event Email [email protected]




mailto:[email protected]

Q & A

Ray Poynter The Future Place


Matt Meffan Vision Critical



A day in the life of a regional Insight Community Manager

Matt Meffan – Account Director, Vision Critical Sydney

[email protected]

M: +61.407.568.622

Vision Critical

We power Insight Communities allowing our clients to invite

customers, and engage them in meaningful conversations that

place them at the centre of business decisions.

mailto:[email protected]

Marketing

Matt Meffan - NewMR lecture june 2014