Waikato Business News October/November 2020

Jack Ninnes
‘For me it’s all about job satisfaction’
WEL Networks business development manager Jack Ninnes has
spent his entire working life - 50 years - at WEL Networks. Ninnes
started as an electrical apprentice at the Central Waikato Electric
Power Board in 1970. He talks about his 50 year tenure at WEL
Networks, where he’s held a variety of roles.
“In those days, the power
board did everything. It
was like a manufacturing
site that built things from the
ground up, right through to the
end product. We’d build the
cross arms, drill them all, make
the brackets that held the transformers
on the poles - we had a
complete operational setup.
The CWEPB had a head
office in town that housed the
administration, engineering
and customer service teams.
Our customers would come
into the office to pay their
power accounts and we sold
a variety of products including
electric ranges. Customers
would put the price of the
products onto their power bill
and as part of the service we’d
deliver and install them. It
really was a one-stop shop.
Once I’d finished my
apprenticeship I elected to
stay in the office. I ended up
in the advisory and development
department, initially
designing heating systems for
houses and small commercial
buildings. I enjoyed looking at
new technologies, particularly
We’ve seen a lot
of change. That’s
why I’ve stayed. It’s
been a never-ending
conversion of new
technology into real
time applications.
the effects these were going to
have on our future. As part of
this, we were heavily involved
in demonstrating these new
technologies to the public so
we’d have large stands at the
Winter Shows and the Fieldays.
We’ve seen a lot of change.
That’s why I’ve stayed. It’s
been a never-ending conversion
of new technology into
real time applications. It’s
given me great opportunities
to grow with the new technologies,
experience them and sell
the concept to the marketplace.
WEL has always been
nationally recognised as an
innovative power company
who were always on the leading
edge of technology - the
trendsetters. The projects we
were involved with were years
ahead of their time in terms of
being rolled out commercially.
My days at WEL are almost
finished but it’s been good fun
- seriously good fun. For me
it’s all about job satisfaction.
It’s what you make of it. The
company had a policy that supported
you to do other things,
particularly in the sporting
environment.
I was fortunate enough to
be able to pursue my passion
of sailing and became part
of the New Zealand Sailing
team. I attended international
events. They really supported
people well including their
apprentices which they still
do today.”
The messy middle of online buyer journeys
The journey people take
when researching and
buying products online
is growing increasingly complex.
New research from Google
sheds light on what businesses
can do to reach these
customers.
A few months ago, I
bought a new tripod online for
my DSLR camera. It’s likely
you can relate to the journey
I went on to research and purchase
the tripod.
Often when looking for a
product we start with a Google
search. On this occasion
though, I headed straight to
a specialist e-commerce website
that has great deals on
photography gear.
I navigated to their tripods
section and filtered the products
to suit my price range.
There were lots of different
products to choose from. I
explored a number of the
THE DIGITAL WORLD
> BY JOSH MOORE
Josh Moore runs Duoplus, a Hamilton-based digital marketing
agency that helps businesses get better results through highly
measurable online marketing. www.duoplus.nz
options and then went to Google
to research more about the
specific models that looked
appealing. I found the manufacturers’
websites and read
more information about their
range of models and the specific
features of each. From
there I headed back to Google
to research the differences
between a few of the models
I was considering. I narrowed
down my options to two
models and then did another
Google search to find reviews
for those. This led me to You-
Tube where I watched some
unboxing videos of those tripods
followed by a handful of
YouTube reviews. Finally, I
decided which tripod I wanted
to select. But the process
wasn’t over.
Now I searched for that
specific tripod model to see
price comparisons from online
stores. I looked at both NZ and
international stores. I found a
couple of websites that were
fractionally cheaper than my
original website; however,
one of them didn’t ship to
NZ, and the other didn’t seem
quite as reputable as the store
I had already visited, who I
knew provided outstanding
service and fast shipping. So,
after this winding journey,
I placed the order with the
original store.
Can you relate to this
journey?
We often think online
buyers have a linear journey
– they search, click and
buy. But the reality is there
are often many more touch
points in the journey. This
journey, between when someone
is first triggered to start
looking for a solution and
when they order a product,
is affectionately called “The
Messy Middle”.
For the past two years,
Google has studied over
250,000 online shopping
journeys across 25 categories.
They drew on decades
of behavioural science
research and have shared
some surprising findings in
their report “Decoding Decisions
- Making sense of the
messy middle”.
One of the key findings is
that, for many product categories,
the buying journey
contains an increasingly large
number of touch points in no
clearly defined order. There
are no typical journeys. Buyers
go back and forth between
many sites in their journey
including search engines,
review sites, online videos,
social media, comparison
sites, forums, retailer sites,
brand sites, voucher/coupon
sites, aggregators and more!
This behaviour often occurs
across multiple tabs and multiple
devices.
In one example, an anonymised
shopper’s journey for
buying headphones took 375
touch points before purchasing!
Another shopper looking
for a kitchen table took 85
touch points to buy.
If you’re a retailer or
manufacturer, this new way of
shopping has big implications
for your marketing.
For product brands you’ll
want to show up early in the
shopper’s journey for your
product to be considered.
This can include running
Google Ads for the initial
search terms that are early in
the buying journey – such as
“best tripods” or “best tripods
under $500” for the tripod
example. You can send your
products to YouTube channels
for unboxings and reviews. It
is also important to be responsive
to complaints or negative
reviews on third-party review
websites because consumers
search for reviews before purchasing
your product. You’ll
also want to find ways to
connect with the purchasers
of your products and encourage
happy customers to write
reviews. You want to look
across the messy middle of
the buyer journey and aim to
show up multiple times along
the way.
If you’re an online retailer
you can benefit from the
research-based exploratory
questions people search for.
Sticking with the tripods
example, your site can have
content like, “3 Best Tripods
Under $500”, “Photography
vs Video Tripods – Key Differences
to Consider”, and
comparison articles. You can
create YouTube videos of
reviews and unboxing for top
selling products – or provide
an affiliate programme where
you pay a commission to You-
Tubers who send buyers your
way, after watching their You-
Tube review (Amazon do this
very well).
Once you have a potential
buyer on your site, remember
that they have lots of questions
in their shopping journey,
so think about how you
can answer as many questions
as possible while they’re on
your site. If you can provide
answers to their questions,
you can decrease their need to
look elsewhere and increase
the likelihood they buy from
you. Google’s research also
found that well-crafted product
pages including the use of
easily digestible key features,
testimonials from perceived
experts, reviews and more,
significantly influenced buyer
behaviour.
So, if you sell consumer-facing
products, embrace
the messy middle with your
marketing and make sure you
show up multiple times along
their journey.