Customer Experience Design

Brand

One of my colleagues has spent a chunk of time lately trying to get some post-cards produced for staff to send to customers. The basic idea is that it’s a way for people inside the company to connect in a human way with customers outside the company. Staff can send the postcards to whoever they like – customers who they’ve really enjoyed talking to on the telephone; customers who we’ve let down for some reason and just want to say sorry to; customers who are just having a bad day.

The point is that it’s designed to show that we’re not a faceless bureaucracy and that we want to connect with our customers.

In its own small way it’s a great idea.

But it’s not going to happen.

The brand police have stepped in and objected to the draft postcard design because it’s a cartoon image. Apparently cartoon images are not consistent with our brand image. They’ve suggested that we involve our local marketing agency and ask them to source some imagery and design the card. Estimated cost for this not including printing is £3,000.

Because we don’t have £3,000 of the company’s money just sitting around doing nothing, my colleague found a different image. It’s the one at the top of this post. Personally I think that it’s pretty cool. It’s colourful. It has personality. It’s entirely appropriate to the idea of recognising other human beings.

But the brand police have rejected this image as well. Apparently it too is inconsistent with the brand.

I must be really thick.

I thought our brand was the experience that customers have of doing business with us.

I thought that our brand was how customers perceive us and think about us

I thought our brand was how our staff treats our customers

But apparently not. Apparently it’s an arbitrary judgement of whether an image is allowed to be used or not.

Man, we’re a company going places.

Do you speak fluent marketing

• How we say hello is marketing
• How we say listen to us is marketing
• How we say welcome is marketing
• How we say thank you is marketing
• How we say no is marketing
• How we say goodbye is marketing
• How we say sorry is marketing
• How we don’t say anything is marketing
• How we say things badly is marketing
• How we say things well is marketing
• How we say you is marketing
• How we say us is marketing

Everything we say is marketing.

Before, during and after the sale

This is an interesting story.

GM dealers offer Toyota test drives

“If you want to test drive a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, you'll be able to do it at a Saturn dealership. General Motors is asking Saturn dealers to have one or more of the competing models in the showroom so customers can look at it, sit in it and drive it.”

This is half of a really great idea. Give customers the opportunity to inspect and test out the competitions offering. It’s something that very few organisations do. It’s likely to make many customers think you’ve got their interests at heart (at least a little bit). It enables a timely comparison of products when the experience of using them is fresh, not days or weeks later when it’s maybe a bit hard to remember just what the other one felt like.

And providing that you don’t rubbish the competition during your sales pitch then the chances are that you’re definitely going to convert some fence sitters into proper customers.

But here’s why it’s only half of a good idea.

What about afterwards? What about the service experience that each customer can look forward to once they leave the showroom with their new car? What if you let them down in some way? And what if they hear from a friend that their experience from one of your competitors has been fantastic? Do you think that customer will come back to you when it’s time to replace the product? Or do you think they might go visit your competitor and check them out?

In the insurance industry there’s been lots of talk of providing comparisons with competitor products and prices since Progressive began doing it a few years back. It was a bold and positive step and all the evidence is that Progressive have done well out it. It’s created value for them and their customers.

(click to enlarge)

s

s

s

s

But how much better it would be if your potential customers came to you not because you are an organisation selling X and offering comparisons with your competitors, but because you are the organisation selling X that’s been recommended to them by someone they trust. Then show them your products alongside those of your competitors. You’re going to convert far more potential customers into real customers that way.

And the only way in which you’re going to create strong advocacy is by creating and delivering the kinds of experiences before, during and after the sale which make people trust you and want to come back to you. Chasing the sale will only get you so far.

Chasing the relationship based on experience will win you a much, much bigger prize.

Me, me me me me!

Spent a bit of time last night surfing the web across a whole bunch of ‘design sites’ and blogs. How depressing. Some really useful and insightful bits. Lots more dross centred on design and designing. Didn’t find much mention of the customer in a lot of this stuff.

In many ways it’s just like the same kind of professional masturbation that takes place in the marketing industry. So much of it is about the 'professional' and their ego and their self interest and their jostling for position and their ‘integrity’. There may be a place for all this stuff – but it shouldn’t be the dominant voice. And in truth, there really shouldn’t be a place for it at all.

As with most things, the businesses and individuals who demonstrate genuine and enthusiastic desire to understand their customer needs and deliver opportunities for them based on uniqueness and energy and sustainability and authenticity will be the ones that stand out from the crowd.