The Brand Value of Putting your Customers First

We have heard it over and over again, communication is no longer a one-way street between your brand and your customers. In fact, more often than not, your brand reputation lies in the hands of internet-savvy consumers who will advocate for or against your brand outside the realm of the traditional marketing mix.  Marketers must consistently engage these advocates with flexibility and understanding. 

If you handle a customer complaint poorly, it can severely hurt your reputation. On the contrary, going above and beyond to amend the situation will give your brand credibility and earn trust. For example, I recently ordered food from Domino's only to find out they don’t deliver to my house, even though they have delivered there in the past. I wrote an email complaining about their inconsistent service and expressed my disappointment. The next day I received anemail apologizing for what happened, the email included an offer for two pizza pies on them. This is an example of a brand that is putting the customer first by making the extra effort to invest in a disappointed customer to keep them loyal.

Another prime example was during the big snowstorm of 2007 that resulted in JetBlue cancelling 1000+ flights. JetBlue was a young company at the time (7 years old), and they knew one mistake could drastically hurt their reputation. The CEO, David Neeleman, decided not to hide from the problem, but address it head-on. He went straight to the press, apologized, and rolled out a “customer bill of rights” as a solution for future problems. This bill of rights gave customers monetary compensation for delayed or cancelled flights. The best part is that he allowed customers who suffered through the snowstorm to benefit from this new bill, even though it was created after the fact. This decision initially cost the company millions, but their efforts to keep their customers loyal and happy went a long way.

Safeguard your brand reputation by educating your employees on how to stay true to your brand values and company mission. Demonstrate that you can consistently be there for your customers and they will reciprocate with kind words and recommendations to friends, family, and the online community.

5 Tips to Keep Customers Coming Back For More

Creating a large pool of loyal customers is extremely important to the sustainability of a business.  Having loyal customers allows you to up-sell your products at a more successful rate.  Great products and excellent customer service are key to creating loyal customers.  No matter what industry you are in, issues always arise; it is how you deal with these issues that can really make or break your relationship with your customers.  Customers want to find that one brand they can really trust.  Once that trust is built, they’ll continue to come back for more!  Check out these 5 tips on building customer loyalty for your business:

Fine-tune Your Product: This might seem obvious, however, it is extremely important to make sure you work out every possible kink in your product or service.  Planning ahead for any possible issues that might arise is also important.  Customers want to know that they can trust you to deliver on your promises.  A positive experience with your business will keep them coming back! 

Speedy Response: As we all know, nothing is perfect.  Issues come up whether we like it or not.  However, it is how we deal with these issues that really matters.  When dealing with customers, listening to their concerns is very important.  Take the time to make sure you really understand the issue of your customer; this even may require restating the problem at hand multiple times to make sure everyone is on the same page.  Once you really understand, deal with the issue in a timely fashion.  Customers are impatient and do not enjoy waiting.   In addition, check social media constantly!  Customers are turning to social media to complain about problems.  Follow up immediately with anyone complaining about your product via social media.  Reaching out in this manner will also add a personal touch to the interaction, making the customer feel special.

Interactive Touch Points: From sales to training to implementation to providing customer service, there are many different touch points with a customer.  Break down each point of interaction and find ways to fine-tune them.  Create a plan to make sure that each of these touch points are strong and practically fool proof!  This will give the customer a sense of consistent service, which is extremely important in terms of building trust.  A negative experience at one single touch point can ruin the overall experience for the customer, regardless of how positive the experiences at other touch points may have been.

Focus On the Journey: Once you have worked on fine-tuning each point of interaction, take a step back and look at the big picture.  Focus on the overall journey of the customer and see if there is anything that can be done to make the entire experience, as a whole, better for the customer.  This may include adding or removing a step in the journey or even reorganizing the flow of interactions.  See what can be done to make the entire experience great!

Feedback: The most important step in keeping loyal customers is asking for feedback, both on your product and in customer service.  This gives you the opportunity to see how things can be improved from an outside perspective.  When changes are made based on feedback, customers feel as though they are being listened to and have a say in what is going on.  Even being able to simply contribute feedback is a nice personal touch.

Now, take a step back and see how you can improve your business process to increase customer loyalty!

Is Your Brand Ready for the Next Level of Customer Commitment?

By Taylor King, Associate Account Manager. Follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorKing_479

If most corporations were asked to describe the relationship between them and their customers, they would probably answer with a resounding, “It’s complicated.” Like any successful relationship, it takes work. And when it comes to developing and maintaining relationships with customers, it takes a lot of work. Consumers in this “social age” are complex – powerful, opinionated and more demanding than ever before. Some would simply describe them as high maintenance. And as we have come to expect, high-maintenance comes with high standards. Consumers are connected. They have access to endless amounts of information, and, most of all; they have a menu of choices when it comes to the brands they engage in. While companies are battling for attention in this digital space to claim this unique “share of voice” in their respective markets, building awareness and traffic are only half the battle. The ability to drive conversion and advocacy actually involves a much deeper level of engagement.   

Social media communication has allowed relationships between brands and consumers to evolve more rapidly than ever. Now, relationships with brands are packed with PDAs (public displays of affinity), and consumers like it that way. Seriously, they can literally press a “like button” to show their affection for their beloved brands. It’s that easy. But things aren’t all packed with hash tag love and smiley emoticons. Consumers are afraid of “getting hurt” by a brand. Bad service. Bad product. Bad experiences. It happens all the time. They see it posted, tweeted and blogged about every day. Consumers don’t enter a committed relationship with a brand lightly. So what does it take for a brand to get out of the friend zone and move the relationship to the next level of commitment? Here are five traits consumers are looking for in “commitment material” brands:  

Authenticity
“My relationships with brands have been so fake, but you seem like a real genuine brand.”
In a world full of scams, spam and greed, consumers are looking for brands with an original story, a real identity and a sincere commitment to deliver what they promise. Social media marketers that rely on sweepstakes, contests and freebies just to gain fans, likes and shares are not building authentic affinity towards the brand. Authenticity, at its core, is about practicing what you preach and being totally transparent about who you are and what you bring to the table. If your social media strategy provides this kind of valuable content, the kind that actually builds trust with customers, you are more likely to build authentic fans. Those kinds of customers are more likely to stick with you for the long haul, and you better believe they are going to brag about you any chance they get. In a world filled with fakes does your brand stand out as authentic?

Reputation
“All my friends have told me what a great brand you are.”
Brand integrity is everything and the only opinion about your brand integrity that matters is the customers’. Customers are talking about their brand experiences, and it’s not in a secret diary. It is out there for the world to see on their status updates, tweets, reviews, blogs, even photos. Some companies feel like any publicity is good publicity. But to encourage loyalty and advocacy, those social mentions need to be appealing to potential customers not merely just contributing to social “noise.” Brands are quite literally one viral story/comment away from gaining or losing hundreds of customers. Why? Because customers trust other customers to tell them what a brand is “really” like (back to authenticity). Do you know what are consumers saying about your brand?

 Great Listener
“Oh brand, you’re just so easy to talk to.” 
Social media is TWO-way communication. Consumers today not only expect brands to share content that is meaningful, relevant and authentic, they also expect brands to recognize they have a voice, too. Brands that involve customers in the conversation, actively listen, and act upon the customers thoughts, goals and concerns are fostering engagement. And brands that address a negative comment or situation with an explanation and solution have the potential to recover a relationship with that customer. If a brand dominates the conversation, the customer is not going to feel valued. As a result the chances they will look to a competitor who will “hear” their concerns and feelings increases exponentially. Is your brand actively listening to its customers? 

Romance
“You make me feel so special brand. You always know just what to do to brighten my day.”
Okay maybe HR wouldn’t go for love notes, flowers and expensive chocolates, but making your customer feel special is imperative to brand loyalty and advocacy. Besides actively listening to feedback, leveraging Big & Small Data can help you customize the brand experience and drive engagement. Big Data allows your brand to spot trends and behaviors with your target customers. But Small Data may play an even more important role. It’s powerful because it provides information specific to individual customers, allowing your brand to customize its experiences for your customers. Wow your customer with surprise and delight, and you will build a loyal customer relationship. Is your brand leveraging this valuable data to deliver the meaningful experiences that create lasting customers? 

Availability  
“You’re always there for me brand. I don’t feel like most brands are available enough to be in a committed relationship.”
Today’s customers demand convenient customer service. Making it easy for customers to solve their problems and get even the most complicated questions answered quickly and efficiently is a must have for building brand advocacy. This means having a multitude of customer service channels with cross-channel integration that allows multiple channels to communicate customer information in real-time. This is the type of communication that appeals to customers. After all, nothing is worse than having to repeat the details of a problem again and again. Whether you have a mobile service app, call center or live chat feature, the ultimate focus should always be on what works best for the customer. Are you ensuring it is easy and convenient for customers to talk to your brand? 

Total Commitment
“Brand you’re the only one for me.” 
Driving conversion and advocacy through a strong social media strategy is not a nice to have it’s a must have. Ultimately, consumers want meaningful value from authentic brands that care about them as individuals, listen to what they have to say and are willing to make the extra effort to wow them. It takes work to maintain that level of engagement, but if your brand delivers, you are going to find yourself in long and healthy relationships with your customers.

Understanding the Technique Behind Successful Brands

When prompted, we can all provide a list of brands we love, or hate. As we progress throughout our day as consumers, we make choices that signal preference for one brand over another. Some of our choices are purely transactional; others however, are the result of specific brand preferences cultivated over time. David Brier shared an infographic in a recent Fast Company blog post that explains why we love some brands, and hate others. Take a look.

It comes down to three crucial elements: Help, Expectation, and observation.

1. A brand that provides great customer service shows that it cares and will put its customers first.
2. Expectation relates to a set of behaviors employees must exhibit to meet customer expectations. The more passionate your employees are, the better the customer brand experience.
3. For a brand to be observant it must remain connected and informed, and be willing to be responsive to changing customer needs or behaviors.
   Although the formula is simple, achieving it can be a challenge in a constantly changing business environment. The brands that maintain excellence in each of these categories have a strong internal brand culture, a community of employees who understand and are passionate about their role in the company, as well as its vision, mission and values. Brands that continue to be responsive to the changing environment are better able to meet or exceed customer expectations and gives your brand value. Without these important qualities, customers loose anticipation that the company listens to the consumers needs. Furthermore, a lack of initiative from the employees will negatively resonate on the brand as a whole. 

As Brier’s infographic suggests, brands that focus on providing good customer experiences, encourage employee engagement at all levels of the organization, and are responsive to the business environment position themselves for ongoing success.