Why brands must empower customers – and how to do it
The imperative for brands to adapt to the consumer has never been greater, says Havas EHS’ Tash Whitmey – so where do they begin?
For many years the customer experience was an easy thing to focus on. If you owned a restaurant you made sure the service was good, the décor was right, the attention was timely and the food was as tasty as it could be. Similarly if you manufactured a product you focused on quality control, the sales experience, or the marketing message.
However, the majority of the time the customer was one you could see, the ways you communicated were fewer, and the interaction was very human. But then it changed and three big things developed which have completely altered the customer experience – technology, new businesses and data.
We’ve all had that much talked about experience. You visit a website, type in your details, do a search and input your preferences. Then you ring the call centre and go through the whole business all over again because the person on the other end of the line has no access to what you’ve input.
Ultimately brands need to have the ability to look at the customer experience through the lens of the customer themselves.”
Or you have a lengthy conversation with the call centre representative, and then find yourself having to repeat it yet again when you visit the store. Ironically, we clearly know what a customer wants – because we are customers. Yet we have organisations who define themselves in silos, focusing on product or operational deliverables, and still many brands lag way behind their customers’ wants, while they struggle to put a customer-first philosophy into practice.
The AA, for example, earlier this year had customers frustrated with their call centre – from automated processes through to call handlers who follow scripts, and roadside patrol technicians who follow ‘rules’ to leave customers in difficult situations. When, instead, they should be doing what is right for the individual customer.
Ultimately brands need to have the ability to look at the customer experience through the lens of the customer themselves, while being clear about which parts of the organisation are contributing to it – a two-way mirror.
It is important to create a single way of connecting all the different views of the customer, from unknown to identifiable, and work out how to manage all the interactions in-between. Marketers are then able to map a customers’ journey to deliver new and better experiences that, if tested and work, are scaled up.
This is especially true for companies like DHL in the world of logistics where it is crucial to manage customer satisfaction levels. Furthermore with technology accelerating there is no captive audience.
Customers are more demanding, more selective and more savvy. They want brands that are committed to them and take time to understand exactly what they want. If a brand fails to recognise customer priorities, then social media at every level provides a powerful platform for customers to be heard and deliver their choices.
Whilst the service industry can be one of the most difficult in which to consistently deliver great customer service, companies like DHL need to focus on the detail by listening intently to what their customers are telling them.
By introducing the context of the customer experience, we can really understand a customer’s needs.”
At the heart of world class customer experiences are personal ones; and this personalisation is something that can only be driven by insight.
Nike, for example, has been praised recently for leveraging the power of digital. They are employing new ways to engage consumers online and create communities, services, and ecommerce experiences that fuel growth strategies around the world.
Data is the glue which creates these insights and enables us to know where, when, why and how to focus on creating better customer experiences. There are so many moments when a customer “touches” a business, and we need to be able to define which we should influence and where we can have the most impact; not just what happens “at the moment”, but what we do before and after each interaction.
This is customer experience context; and Nike effectively utilises this plethora of data available to them to ensure they give their customers what they want.
Similarly, and as a result of the latest technological innovations, Gucci’s customers can now experience an interactive, immersive type of engagement that has only previously been seen with limited use in theme parks and other entertainment venues. Think life-sized screen displays at fashion shows.
By introducing the context of the customer experience, we can really understand a customer’s needs. So we look at the customer’s situation. Where are they? In a store or in the street with a mobile device? We also think about how they’re feeling. As they interact with the brand, are they excited, anxious or unhappy? What happened before the transaction? Did they try another route to getting an answer, but couldn’t find it?
The imperative for brands to adapt has never been greater – empower the customer by adopting their perspective, so the customer gets what they want and the business achieves its objectives.
Tash Whitmey is group CEO, Havas EHS