Matt Meffan's presentation to the June 2014 NewMR Lecture series - A day in the life of a regional Insight Community Manager

1. 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

2. 16 Global offices.
Engaging with
consumers 2.5 million
times per month across
26 languages.
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

3. New Zealand, Indonesia, China (including Hong
Kong & Macau), Japan, India, The Philippines,
Australia, Singapore, & Malaysia
The Sydney Team
11 APAC Markets

4. WHAT’S IMPORTANT?
Research and Insight for the new age, in tune with
the digital aesthetic.
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

5. 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?
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

6. 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 Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

7. 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.
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

8. 20%
80%
MR Knowledge +
Training
Organization and
Creativity
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.
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

9. 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.

10. The Upside
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

11. Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

12. THE DAILY JUGGLE
Multi-Lingual
Delivery
Local-Market
Intricacies and
Understanding
Service Level
Expectations
& Time Zones
Software
Performance
Travel
Planning and
Itineraries
Community Management
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

13. 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
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

14. COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
A closer look
Member Newsletters
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

15. 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
Importance
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?
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

16. 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
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

17. 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.
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

18. 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
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

19. 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
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

20. 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.
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

21. 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.
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

22. 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
June Lecture Series 2014

23. Thank you
2014 Platinum Sponsor
Matt Meffan
Vision Critical
Australia
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

24. The Sponsors for this Event
If you are interested in sponsoring a future NewMR event
Email Michele.Poynter@TheFuturePlace.com
2014 Platinum Sponsor
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

25. Q & A
Ray Poynter
The Future Place
2014 Platinum Sponsor
Matt Meffan
Vision Critical
Matt Meffan, Vision Critical, Australia
June Lecture Series 2014

26. A day in the life of a regional
Insight Community Manager
Matt Meffan – Account Director, Vision Critical Sydney
Matt.Meffan@visioncritical.com
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.