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.

Golden Expectations

I've been thinking a lot about expectations recently. Must have been brought on by the dearth of gold for Australia and the subsequent sense of crushing disappointment that pervaded our nation. Well, our media outlets, anyway. Granted, we were beaten by Korea (13) and Italy and Hungary (8 each), which you hardly can imagine had the same budgets as Australia. But still, it is not the position (10th) on the Gold Medal Podium that is the problem, it is that we expected to have done better. It suddenly occurred to me that "expectation" pervades every part of our lives. How many relationships stumble because expectations are not being met? And of course, brands really are just a sum of "expectations". We set up those expectations in our communication activities and we work hard to make sure the brand can deliver on those expectations. Well, I hope we do, anyway. And we should, because a brand is not just the communication we thrust at people. Every time we interact with that brand, our expectations are either met or not, and our opinion of that brand adjusts accordingly. Brands are not, no matter how much we may wish they were, entities in their own right, created and maintained in the sterile environment of an advertising agency. They are living, breathing relationships. And like all relationships, when expectations aren't met, they begin to founder. The very concept of "value" is also entirely dependent on expectation. In the modern marketing environment, the economical model of setting price based purely on supply and demand has long been superseded by the idea that the ideal price is set based on what people would expect to pay. Value for money is determined by the difference between what people expect and what they get. When their experience with the brand is better than they expected, you get perceptions of excellent value. Conversely, when the brand experience is worse than they expected it is considered poor value. And in both these cases, this is regardless of the price people pay in the first place. Managing brands, then, must surely be a matter of managing expectations? When we take time to understand the gap between our consumer's expectation (which of course can be vastly different from our own) and their experience with our product, we may well be able to better deliver brands that people love to keep on using.

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?

Brand versus Product Advertising - does it matter?

There is a debate raging in our house at the moment, about the relative merits of brand versus product advertising. From how you define the difference, to how effective either option is. But, despite the multitude of examples supporting either strategy, it is, in truth, nothing more than a theoretical discussion which is irrelevant in the context of the consumer.

Because, at the end of the day, from a consumer perspective, there is no difference. From a consumer perspective, every piece of communication, however, we define it, is a brand ad. It tells consumers something about your brand, and leaves them (if you are lucky) with a perception of your brand. Advertising that we, as marketers, might define as “product ads” build brands too. And if you want those sort of ads to build rather than detract from your brand, its probably important to ensure the branding is clear, the personality and tone is authentic and the offer and product is in keeping with the overall strategic direction.

All too often we think and act in silos of marketing activity. We segment our actions and plans into innovation or core, into brand advertising or product advertising. We separate our budgets into communication or promotion, into above the line or digital. But consumers, in essence, don’t make those distinctions. Consumers just hear a piece of information, followed by another piece of information, followed by another... and that is, of course, if your creative is good enough to be heard. All the bits add up, and create an overall picture in their heads about what the brand is about.

Of course, it is not just communication that builds brands. This is merely the start point. Brands are equally created by the experience consumers (and their friends) have with the products and services those brands sell. And perhaps more importantly, brands can only be sustained and further built if there is a cohesiveness between the communication and the experience. Do these two touch points resonate and thus build a stronger more robust brand in line with our strategy? Or is there a disconnect between the promise and bluster of an ad, and the delivery of a service or product? In the case of the latter, all the hard work done by good communication is undermined.

Qantas can shout as loudly and as beautifully as it likes about still calling Australia home, but every time a consumer meets a grumpy ground crew member or is mistreated by belligerent stewards, that wonderful brand-ad is undermined by the experience of the product/service.

The key, is not to think in terms of “branding” as a job for a piece of communication. The brand should be the ethos by which the whole organisation operates. That way, brand values are authentic and it is easy to ensure that the consumer experience of the brand, whether through product usage or communication or engagement, is in line with the brand promise. And thus, all activity becomes brand building.