The Customer Experience Often Begins & Ends Online

Your prices are well researched and fair.  Your product presentation, functionality and distribution strategies are flawless.  You have very talented managers and associates who have been well trained in customer service, and your marketing team believes in the "customer is always right" philosophy.  So now you feel you've addressed all of your customer experience issues and will surely impress, convert and retain customers, right?

Hmmm...not so fast.  In today's digital world far more consumers have their first interaction with a product, service or business online.  They're visiting your website, Facebook page, mobile app, email newsletter or other digital platform before they ever step foot in your store or pick up the phone to call you.  And if they have a bad experience online, it's probably the last interaction they ever have with you. 

According to Neilson, 70% of online social network users shop online.  Digby.com says, "67% of consumers will use their smartphones to find store locations, 59% to compare prices, 51% to obtain product information, 46% to check product availability, 45% to shop online, 41% to find and use coupons, and 40% to scan bar codes".  And the figures are only growing.

Do you make it easy for customers to reach someone who can help them?  Remember, online shoppers aren't confined by brick and mortar hours of operation.  While this might seem elementary to most B2C retailers these days, many are still focused primarily on their websites, but haven't spent much time managing their social media and/or digital channels.  Additionally, more B2B consumers are using social media to research products and services as well. 

According to a recent study by Accenture, "only 8% of B2B companies would describe their social media usage as extensive. This is in contrast to the 65% of respondents who indicated that social media is extremely or very important."

Far too often, businesses still judge social media success purely by the direct and immediate impact it has on the bottom line, rather than looking at it as a customer service tool that helps ensure brand loyalty.  It is a point of direct engagement with a consumer or customer and provides a powerful and unique opportunity to show them that you appreciate and value their input and feedback.  Those who aren't viewing social media as a large part of the customer experience are still missing the boat.  But they won't be for long, because if present trends continue, they'll either be forced to adopt or forced to close shop.

So, how is your online customer experience?

PASSION! Do your customers have it?

Passion...

According to Webster's Dictionary, passion means, "an intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction".

We all experience passion from time to time.  Some of us more often and more intensely than others.  Sometimes passion is a good thing; other times...not so good.  It can cause us to act with emotion rather than logic or reason.  It can lead to unimaginable achievement, or unmitigated failure.  Whether good or bad, passion generates action.

We've all heard the phrase, "Love me or hate me, but spare me your indifference".  In business, the worst reaction you want to your brand is indifference.  It will be the death of you.  So building passion for your product should be the first step in establishing brand loyalty.

According to a recent study by SAY Media, TRU and ComScore, brands, especially those using using social media, need to find "passionate voices" more than ever.

- Consumers who identify themselves as 'very interested' [or passionate] about a category follow at least 10 "voices" [brand advocates and brand devotees] in that category.

- 83% of these followers tell friends or family about products/brands they like

But how do you build that passion within your customers?  That's a difficult question to answer because passion is driven by any number of personal and very subjective factors.  Passion can come from consumer emphasis on cost, convenience, comfort, ease, taste, quality...the list goes on and on.  However, the simple and all encompassing answer is "value", or more specifically, "significant value". 

In order to provide significant value, businesses need to place greater emphasis on the consumer end of the demand chain. Identify how your customers define significant value.  Don't just find out why they buy your product/service; find out why they LOVE your product/service (or what would result in them loving your product or service) and then give it to them in spades. 

Social media is a great tool for identifying where the passion lies with your customers and who those "passionate voices" are. Your advocates are out there.  How often do you converse with them?  Find those voices, follow them, cultivate them and support their efforts to advocate on your behalf.  Geo-social platforms like Foursquare or Places are great channels for rewarding your "passionate voices", but simple customer engagement is a passion builder as well.  Let them know their voices are being heard.  Loyalty isn't always established through rewards.  It's just as often built through appreciation and trust.  A combination can create a passionate voice that will never go silent.

What are you doing to generate passion?

Is there a limit to exceptional customer service?

A colleague of mine who works in the executive office of a luxury hotel, recently shared an internal customer service debate with me.

Like many B2C companies, this hotel had budgeted for gift certificates that it would use for VIPs, promotions, disgruntled guests, etc with the goal of enhancing the hotel's reputation by making valued customers, partners and prospects happy.

The internal debate was whether or not the hotel should assume any balance on a gift certificate used in its restaurant if the value of the gift certificate didn't cover the full cost of the meal.  In other words, if the gift certificate was worth $100, but the check came to $150, should the hotel assume the $50 balance to further enhance its brand as a five star, customer focused property?

There were some members of the team who felt absorbing the additional cost (within limits) was a small gesture that could have a big impact on the hotel's reputation, while others believed it was unnecessary, as the gift certificate itself was a generous gesture that exemplified the hotel's goodwill and hospitality. 

This debate raised an interesting question:  When does good customer service end, and being taken advantage of by a customer begin?

I remember when I was the marketing director for Clear Channel Radio and one of the radio stations I was responsible for held a contest for a trip to a couples only resort in Jamaica.  What we didn't know at the time was that the resort didn't accept same sex couples, and the winner of the trip was gay.  Needless to say he was not happy that the resort wouldn't allow him to bring his partner, and quite honestly, neither were we.  We offered to send him to another resort, but he insisted on staying at the resort promised in the prize package.  After some negotiating with the resort, they agreed to bend their rules and allow the winner to bring his partner.  However, the problem wasn't resolved yet.  The winner also wanted to travel on a holiday weekend, even though the contest rules and the airline voucher both clearly stated that holiday black out dates applied.  After having already resolved one delicate situation with the winner, we spoke to the airline and they graciously agreed to waive the black out dates.  NOW the problem was solved right?  Wrong!  The winner was upset that he had to pay for his airport transfers.  Therefore we agreed to pick up the cost.  Resolved now?  Not yet.  The winner was still angry and felt that due to the anguish we put him through we should also provide him with a cash stipend for his trip.  In an effort to provide the best possible customer service and finally resolve the matter, we agreed to give him $250 in cash.  But he demanded $500 ($250 for him and $250 for his guest).  At this point, we drew the line.  We felt we had done everything we reasonably could to make him happy, but it just wasn't enough.  We came to the realization that nothing was going to please him, and the more of an effort we made, the more he was going to demand from us.

I actually debated for quite some time about whether to draw the line; though in retrospect, the decision to do so seems clearly justified.  It is one thing to make every effort to please a customer, but another thing to sacrifice the integrity of your product/service for someone who is making unreasonable demands. In this particular case, the winner wasn't even a listener of our radio station. He won the contest by registering for it at a sponsor location.

The question still remains however:  At what point do you draw the line?  Where does a company cross over from providing excellent customer service to being taken advantage of? 

While every company should strive to provide outstanding customer service, as the vast majority of customers will never take advantage of a company's goodwill, is there a point when potentially losing a customer is the lesser of two evils?  Please feel free to share your experiences and where you believe the line should be drawn...if at all.