HTML5 is the devil

Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited about the potential and possibilities of HTML5 - I'm just not sure if we are ready to use it to send secure documents by email.

Phishing, malware, weak ciphers and limited payloads are all serious concerns regarding the use of HTML5 as it stands today - where using HTML5 as the carrier requires sending an HTML attachment. 

HTML was used as a secure envelope for document delivery in the early days - this required Java script enabled browsers, which meant it didn't work for everyone and caused many frustrations. 

The algorithms used in the encryption process were specifically chosen for their tiny footprint - rather than strength of security.

The industry quickly moved on...

Proprietary security envelopes were required to meet the banking level security requirements, (the Striata Reader is a perfect example of this technology). 

The problem is this involves a once-off download that acts as a perceived inhibitor to customer adoption. In certain industries however, the extra security levels and configuration options are worth the extra customer experience requirement. 

Sending encrypted documents by email quickly became standard at the point where Adobe PDF provided 256 bit AES encryption. Most consumers have the Adobe Reader installed on their devices (think desktops, laptops, tablets and smart phones) which means that the encrypted PDFdocuments can be read on multiple devices without requiring different versions.

Bring on HTML5...

Bring on the Phishers...

Sending HTML attachments has been strictly avoided due to the twin evils of malware and phishing. HTML files can hide the true nature of their payload within a legitimate looking process. Most customers won't be able to tell the difference before it's too late. 

Banks currently accept that sending a PDF is a secure process (Digitally signed and DMARC authenticated). Encouraging the use of HTML5 documents however will be a bridge too far for quite some time. 

RED ALERT - Java script injections and malware

HTML5 enables dynamic statements with interactive elements, graphs and sorting (you can do most of these things in Flash in PDF anyway). I can see the value of HTML5 statements that are behind an Internet Banking firewall and login, but not when sent to the customer as an attachment - I see this almost as bad as sending a link to a customer, asking them to login. 

RED ALERT - Phishing

Is there any value in HTML5?

The real value of HTML5 will be evident when you can embed this in a safe and secure envelope such as PDF or EMC. 

You will need the sandbox ability of a proprietary program such as the Adobe Reader for PDF or the Striata Reader for EMC. The fact that these options are available across multiple devices means that 'send once and view multiple times' is a simple process. 

That’s our stance, happy to open the debate!

Mike Wright
striata.com

If you build it (properly), they will come

Is it just me, or are there new loyalty programmes being launched each month into the already cluttered loyalty space? From my local petrol station to large retail chains to my local gym, everyone wants me to sign up for their loyalty programme.

While as a wily consumer, I’m always looking to be rewarded for my business, on closer inspection it seems that some of these so called 'loyalty programmes' aren’t actually building customer loyalty at all! 

Companies need to know how to build a successful loyalty programme. This will not only save the reputation of their brand, but also ensure that their customers keep coming back... 

4 Tips for building a winner loyalty programme

1. Know your audience
   Understand your customer and send messages that are relevant and engaging. Don’t push products you want to sell, but rather what your customer wants to buy! If you can achieve true relevance, then your loyalty programme willstand out from the clutter. A ‘one size fits all’ approach doesn't work.


2. Acknowledge your VIP customers
   Know your top customers and welcome them . . . in store, online or any place they interact with you. Your loyalty members need to feel special. Acknowledge, engage and show that you understand them. Do this well and your VIP customers will find a reason to spend their hard earned cash on your brand.


3. Enrich your members
   'Discounts do not a loyalty programme make' (with a nod to the original proverb). You have to do more than just offer price discounts. Loyal customers are created on more than just price. In fact, loyal customers are most likely notto care about price but rather value personalised service, convenience, or a more pleasurable shopping experience.


4. Predict the future
   Imagine if you could make your customer’s life even more amazing by knowing what they need before they even know it - that would be awesome!
   
   Achieving this requires much thought and data analysis, but wouldn’t it feel great to be offered something you are going to need in the short to medium term future? An effective loyalty program will allow you to collect information on your customer’s buying behaviour, patterns and interests. This way you can pre-empt their need for a product or service.

Perhaps the best approach when it comes to loyalty programmes is to use them to get to know your customers …how much they spend, what kind of promotions they respond to and what they value most. This increases the likelihood of retaining them and ultimately capturing a greater share of their wallet. 

Planning a loyalty programme? We have the expertise to know, acknowledge and enrich your customers through digital messaging. Once you’ve got that right, you’re well on your way to predicting their future needs!



Ross Sibbald
striata.com

What is customer service anyway? Your share of the wallet lies in making it ‘easy’

With the UK reporting economic ‘growth’ for the first time since the recession, the economy is still 3% smaller than it was before it. In times like these, consumers are less loyal than ever before because their lack of pocket money requires them to be opportunistic.

Time to drive price down?

The demise of the loyal customer has led all too many businesses into thinking that only low prices will provide a sustainable business model. On the contrary; customers report that good customer service and loyalty mechanisms such as rewards programmes are more important than ever in times like these. 

According to LoyaltyLeaders.org: 

Good customer service (34%) was the single aspect most likely to encourage people to spend more, followed by personalised rewards they felt were relevant to them (30%) 

And before you think that’s only for those who are down and out: 

Seventy percent of persons from higher-income households ($125,000 +) are more loyal to companies that offer rewards programs. (Maritz) 

So price is not king. And yet, good customer service is not disassociated from price. Now, instead of a bank teller knowing my dog’s name or my butcher giving me an extra steak because he knows it’s my birthday, I want digital and automated channels to replace that personalisation and ease. I want them to make it easy to save money, easy to see what book I should buy next and easy to access information that will keep me in good financial stead.

Make it easy = good customer service

This is why the Customer Effort Score (CES) has largely replaced other tools like the Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a way of assessing customer loyalty. In pedestrian terms, asking your customer how hard it was to do business (CES) vs. asking how likely they are to recommend your company (NPS) has proven to be more effective in preventing attrition. 

3 Ways to make it easy with email...

1. Ease of Transaction: Push your communications. For example - push customers’ eBills and eStatements to their inboxes. This way, they don't have to fetch them and remember more usernames and passwords. Make it easy and offer one click payment from within a secure eBill.
2. Ease of Engagement: Don’t ask customers to stuff their wallets with yet another loyalty card or voucher. Push perks within an email and use barcodes and QR codes to allow use from their Smartphones. And use your data to send highly targeted offers as well.
3. Ease of Information: Using portals is a 'Customer Effort Score' no-no. Time and again customers report that passwords require too much effort. Push eStatements, eBills, ePolicies, Terms and Conditions, notifications… any and all high security documents can be attached directly to an email and set with a default password to open. These documents can be highly interactive and double as an engagement tool - allowing customers to update details, set payment reminders or even top up their phone credits!

If you are easy to do business with, your customers may not be loyal, but they will come back for more. 

Chat to us if you are looking for ways to unlock the ‘easy’ of email.



Sarah Appleby
striata.com

Keeping tabs on Gmail Tabs

For the last few months I’ve been monitoring the online “chatter”, blogs and news articles around the Gmail tab changes and recently wrote an article on how to get your time critical messages into the primary Gmail inbox tab.

The online community’s response to these changes range from wide-eyed fear that marketing messages will not be read, to resignation that the tabs actually do work and do not affect open rates too dramatically. 

For now, I’m sitting in the second group. After using the new tabs for a few months, I believe that the new interface candramatically improve the organisation of your mailbox. It certainly supports my aspiration to achieve the magical “inbox zero”. 

What is Gmail's ultimate goal with tabs?

I’ve come across a few stories that support the theory that Gmail’s ultimate goal with tabs is to grow their ad serving strategy. After all, about 97% of Google’s revenue comes from advertising. 

Although the guise of the launch is to improve usability and to help you organise your mailbox, I suspect this change is to support a corporate goal. With this in mind, I ask if the “engine” that applies the rules is mature enough for us to feel comfortable? 

The Gmail test

For context, when we did our study (mentioned in my article), we tested a variety of emails and found dramatically inconsistent results. 

In our small test, we sent a sample of emails across financial services senders to see what would happen in Gmail. The objective was to see if there were obvious steps a sender should take to ensure their message is delivered to the Primary tab.

More detail on the methodology:

• We sent the mails from various environments to check if the servers would influence the delivery statuses (i.e. if you send a majority of marketing messages from a server, would Gmail consider your mail more likely to be a marketing message?)
• We checked content for obvious copy like “statement, newsletter or promotion”, however some mails that landed in the Primary tab for one person, landed in the Promotions tab for another. There were no obvious differences in the setup of these mailboxes (starred messages, previous conversations or saved contact details, among others) to indicate why the mails were being treated differently.
• We made assumptions that if the mail contained copy like ‘promotion’ or ‘statement’ they would be automatically moved to the updates or promotions tabs as per those tabs definitions – Theseassumptions proved fruitless as messages were not treated consistently.

Our small test revealed no conclusive ‘rules’ that we could determine would assist in getting an email into the Primary tab. The same email landed in different tabs for different recipients with no obvious difference in mailbox setup.

The results of the tests we conducted only led me to ask more questions:

• As the current solution stands, with no consistency in the results, how can you as a marketer/billing sender guarantee that your messages will land in the tab that you require? (See my previous article for some helpful tips)
• Will Gmail users adapt their behaviour to treat the folders in the way they were intended – as a filter device, not simply ignore or delay viewing emails that don’t land in Primary? (I have found that I check my Primary tab regularly and only look at the other tabs occasionally and briefly. If I find anything of interest in those tabs I immediately move them to my Primary tab)
• Is Gmail starting off lenient and aiming to get stricter with the classification of inbound emails into tabs? Will the algorithm change?

It's evident that Gmail is evolving - ensure your emails don't get left behind. Talk to us about how to increase the chances of your email messages landing in the right tab. 



Michelle van den Berg
striata.com