The Power of Customer Service

As a consumer's experience of customer service is such a powerful determinant of their perceptions of a brand or business, it constantly surprises me how little attention some companies pay to this.

I recently had the misfortune to deal with Energy Australia. I endured long wait times on the phone until I was finally spoken to by a disinterested voice who had no idea what they were talking about. I got cut off half way through the conversation and never got a call back. Every moment of that conversation told me that Energy Australia did not care two hoots about my custom. And if that was the case, then surely they couldn't be trusted to deal honestly with me regarding my energy options?

Completely annoyed, I took to social media to vent my displeasure and here came across a whole host of other annoyed (ex) customers, which reinforced my new perception that Energy Australia was "big energy", out there to squeeze the lifeblood out of consumers and the planet. Despite never having a problem with the actual product I get from them, I vowed to switch suppliers. All because of a couple of poorly trained and disinterested "service" staff.

Now, the truth is I didn't end up switching (yet). So, does consumer service really matter after all then?

Well, yes, because the reason I didn't quit is a result of the excellent customer service I received when I called up again to find out how much it would cost me to switch. (Nothing, as it turns out, because I don't have a contract.) Here I was fortunate enough to deal with someone who knew what he was talking about and happily gave me reams of information, was courteous and respectful and clearly was a happy little Energy Australia employee. Maybe they aren't so bad, I thought to myself. Maybe they are trying their best in a complicated world? But still, my doubt lingers and I am now more open than ever to switching providers. In fact, I find myself noticing advertising from their competitors, which would probably have gone unseen if not for this experience.

I've had the same experience with airlines, swearing blind I would never fly Qantas or Virgin again. Well, I've gone back to Virgin (on price) and been rewarded with a great experience. Qantas doesn't do itself any favours, but that is another story.

In this case it is easy to think that customer service doesn't matter. That in the scheme of things it is the last thing you might want to be considering, because overall perhaps bad customer service is not a key switching criteria. I disagree for a whole host of reasons, but primarily because of the following -

Every time your brand interacts with a consumer, it creates, reinforces or dislodges a perception about your brand. If you spend millions of dollars trying to create a brand which says to consumers, "we get you, people, we understand your needs and we can satisfy them" or "you can trust us with XYZ"... then why not take the time to ensure that message is consistently reinforced with every interaction with consumers - including at a customer service level? Surely that is just smart business sense?

Unfortunately, the bigger issue is that poor customer service is often a indication of poor corporate culture. And a bit of training is never going to solve that particular problem.

In search of authenticity

On a recent trip to Fiji, my seven year old daughter asked if she could get her hair braided. Upon completion of the rather arduous task, she remarked, "Now I am just like a real Fijian." Except of course, the only people I saw with braids were Australian kids (and the odd adult who perhaps should have known better). Another day, I overheard tour guides offering trips to a "real" Fijian village, where we could partake in a Kava Ceremony and see how life "really" unfolds in Fiji. Of course, this is "real life" on show, which is hardly "real life" at all - but still, it highlights the desire we consumers have for authenticity. And that got me thinking.

Authenticity is a much touted about word in marketing circles and there is a definite trend towards providing a sense of it to consumers. Which is kind of ironic, if you think about it, since it is probably the rampant commercialisation of everything and anything that had led to the demand for authenticity in the first place.

Authenticity, or at least a sense of it, abounds in many forms, mostly related to heritage and origins and source. But for me, authenticity is about transparency. Or better put, my desire for authenticity is due to my lack of trust in brands. I want to know the claims the brand/service is making are real, but I am increasingly suspicious of them all. Is this face cream really going to make me look younger? Is this fruit snack really healthy, or is the fruit bit just a ploy to try and make me think it is healthy? If my hairdresser says I need to use Moroccan Oil on my hair, is it because she believes that there is an authentic reason for this, or is she just getting a percentage of the up-sell.

My husband says I am unnecessarily cynical, but I wonder whether this is where all consumers will eventually end up. If everything is about profit first, then how can you trust anything marketeers say anymore? Can there ever be “real” authenticity when maximising short term profit is the over-riding driver? We always hear that consumers are getting more savvy. What does that statement mean? Does it mean that we think consumers are on to our tricks? And if so, what does that say about our business?

Idealistically, I'd like to believe there is more to our business than squeezing as much profit out of the consumer as possible. I'd like to believe that meeting a consumer need is the desire, rather than the means to the end for businesses. However, I'd settle for being able to make my choices based on real information, not spin. I'd settle for a little transparency and a lot more authenticity from my brands (and my politicians), and I'd bet most consumers would too.

Playing to the Audience

For completely unrelated reasons, I have been learning a little about book publishing, and more particularly, about how to get your book published. It should come as no surprise to any of you marketing savvy folk out there that it’s all about, well, marketing. The first step to getting a book published is pitching your idea to the publisher with a clear and concise description about the book and why the proposed audience would be interested in it. Ultimately, it is about convincing the publisher that you understand your audience well enough to create something that will interest them. And to a publisher, this means a good shot at sales, and more importantly, profit. Marketing 101, right?

Right.

Yet sometimes I think this simple truth - that the foundation of marketing success lies with knowing your audience well enough to create something that will appeal to them – gets lost amidst the flurry of branding templates, marketing processes and our seemingly pathological desire to make things more complicated than they need be.

Yes, of course execution matters. A lousy writer with a good idea for a particular audience is not going places, most certainly not on display at your nearest Dymocks. Execution matters a great deal. But if execution is the building, then audience is the foundation. And if the execution is not flowing directly from a deep understanding of the audience, we’re going to get into trouble.

Imagine starting with your audience. Spending time up front understanding them and their needs before you do product development, and most certainly before you do advertising development. Imagine the advantage of designing your product with their specific needs in mind. Imagine the clarity such single-minded focus might bring to the creative development process?

The problem is, we tend to work back to front. We start with our brand or product and say, “Right, who will this appeal to?” And that’s understandable. After all, there are factories to fill, assets to use and brand growth targets to hit. Hopefully, though, we then seek an “insight” about that audience on which we can hang our marketing efforts. However, quite often, that insight development phase (or, consumer understanding phase) is short-lived, or worse, skipped over, as timelines tighten and the focus turns to execution. Heaven forbid, we may even find ourselves re-engineering the consumer need to fit the product or brand (or advertising idea), so that we can just get on with the creative development. Not a recipe for a smooth creative process or success, by any account.

Maybe we don’t always have the luxury of starting with our audience, but if we don’t have a very clear understanding of who our audience is and how our product meets a real and meaningful need, before we embark on our marketing development, its bound to end in confusion about what works and what doesn’t. And we end up in this creative development quagmire where we are not sure if consumers are rejecting the very basis of our offering (the insight or strategy) or the execution of that strategy.

Can you sum up your product idea in a 30 second elevator pitch that captures who its for, and why they want it, in a simple, clear and compelling sentence? If not, its probably time to learn more about your audience.

What about me, your customer, already?

It must be said that there are a lot of things that get my goat. But floating somewhere near the top is the practice of "discounting" for new customers. Pay TV is a prime culprit of this, offering a month's free viewing and free installation. I can understand the business case, but as a consumer I sit on my sofa staring at the TV in annoyance thinking, "what about me?". Here I am, your loyal customer, paying you month in and month out, and there you go rewarding the newbies. Credit cards are another culprit. Just recently I was shopping around for a new card, my decision making entirely dependent on rewards. I was offered thousands of rewards points for switching to other cards - the equivalent of a free domestic flight. Its tempting. Its nice, when you are new. But what about next year? Then I'll be last years news. I suppose there is a level of arrogance, especially in things like banks, where it is time consuming and annoying to switch and people are unlikely to bother. Or with pay TV, where you might fall into the trap of thinking (erroneously) that people don't have other options. This sort of thinking only leads people to go out and find other options. But wouldn't it be more profitable to build loyalty and commitment from those people you've already switched into your brand? Its expensive continually recruiting new customers. And if you annoy them enough that they leave you, you've just got to go out and find new customers to replace them -an endless cycle. Happy customers, surely, are more valuable? Not only do you save on recruiting costs year in and year out, they can also do a lot of newbie recruiting for you. Especially in this day and age. How about giving away some of those points to reward customers who are profitable for you? How about rewarding customers who encourage friends to switch into your brand? How about making your existing customers feel loved? Focusing on retention - maybe that's a good recruitment strategy, after all?

Insight culture or Research Culture?

Research is important - there is no doubt. But in todays fast-paced consumer centric society, are we doing the right research? To my mind, there are three types of research companies engage in - insight development (not a whole heap), knowledge development (a lot), testing (way too much). And really, the emphasis should be the other way around.

To take them in reverse order - there seems to be a propensity to test the heck out of everything before we take it to market. In some cases, this is important (like if you’re about to spend $5m on upgrading your factory) and in other cases it is, at the very least, time consuming, and at the worst, misleading. I think in particular of creative testing, where (despite what the experts say) we hardly have a handle on what makes for fantastic advertising, let alone are able to effectively determine whether it is the insight, the creative idea, the execution or the format which consumers are responding to. Of course, if that is not enough, we spend fortunes tracking our brand equity, our advertising cut-through, our reach and frequency (which alarmingly don’t appear to take into account the fact that half the audience may well be sitting on the loo instead of glued to the TV watching your carefully created ad). And all of this, of course, makes the rather big assumption, that it is TV advertising that is driving brand equity. Sometimes it seems we test because we have no faith in our own insight and understanding of our consumers. You want to know how your brand is doing? Get out there and talk to some people.

There is no doubt that research designed to increase our product and category knowledge is an important part of a brands ability to perform in the market place. How consumers shop a particular aisle, what their key drivers are in determining which brand or product variant to buy, how they read menu boards at fast food restaurants (which I think might be termed quick service restaurants by the business, but certainly not by Jo from Blacktown). It is important to have knowledge. But knowledge does not equal insight. Knowledge will tell you the rules, but not how to win, to cut through, to connect with consumers. Ask any of your creative agencies how inspired they got looking through the knowledge base you sent them last time you gave them a brief, and its likely they’ll say “not a lot”.

Insight development comes from connecting with consumers, from exploring who your target market is and what they are about. And doing it on a consistent and regular basis. Its a bit like dating. On the first date, you have no idea whether the girl sitting opposite you likes carnations or roses, Lindt Chocolate or lace underwear. Keep on dating that person, speaking with them, showing an active interest in them and you soon get to know what they like. And you know instinctively. When you have an insight culture in your place of business, then you don’t need to test everything. You know instinctively if the idea is going to fly. You can feel it. And that makes it easier to test the bits you might need to test.