The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Synergy Creative Marketing

Why Customer Experience should be at the heart of your marketing ethos

By Brooke Nolan | Marketing manager

Synergy Creative

|

The Drum Network article

This content is produced by The Drum Network, a paid-for membership club for CEOs and their agencies who want to share their expertise and grow their business.

Find out more

October 4, 2016 | 5 min read

When customer experience goes wrong, it’s comms pros that have to deal with the fall out. But when it goes right, it can present sizeable opportunities for growth, enviable reputations and PR opportunities aplenty.

Brooke Nolan of Synergy Creative.

Brooke Nolan is marketing manager at Synergy Creative.

Long gone are the days when people just want to buy a product and be done with it. Thanks to social media, people now want much more from their interaction with brands – they want to share it, talk about it, learn from it and get that all important motional connection.

Brands have responded with everything from pop up shops and experiential marketing, to design-your-own-products like Jo Malone’s perfume and Adidas’ customisable trainers.

But perhaps what’s more important than these ‘big ticket’ ideas, is those every day interactions with a brand. On the phone, in store, via email. It’s these interactions that can build advocacy, or destroy it.

All those little things

Brands that are focusing on this ‘everyday’ customer experience are flying. A recent report by KPMG Nunwood listed the top 100 brands ranked by customer experience. It surveyed 250 businesses, polling 10,000 customers.

Lush, First Direct, John Lewis, Richer Sounds and QVC ranked 1-5. Some of these will not be a surprise at all (I’m looking at you John Lewis). But, some names on the list will probably cause a head tilt or two.

But what is perhaps even more surprising is the figures behind these rankings. Those in the top 100 have double the revenue growth of the FTSE 100. And those in the top 10 added an extra £43m to sales every year compared to those positioned 11-100.

These figures are nothing to be sniffed at and clearly demonstrate that focusing on customer experience makes a big difference to the bottom line.

So how can you deliver great customer experience? Of course, product is key. So is the UX of your website, the layout of your stores, the look, feel, ethos and values of your business. And all of those other touchpoints where a customer interacts with your brand.

But what precedes all of these is your employees.

Without engaged, happy employees delivering great service the rest of your efforts can be ruined in just one interaction.

What happens when customer experience goes wrong?

This is an oldie but a goodie. Dave Carrol flew United Airlines in 2009, and the airline broke his guitar and refused to replace it. He uploaded this song to YouTube:

It went viral, with the BBC reporting a 10 per cent decrease in stock price within four weeks of the release of the video. That’s a decrease in valuation of $180 million (and one helluva lot of guitars). Not to mention the PR crisis the comms team needed to deal with.

This is perhaps one of the best-known examples, but a simple Google search throws up many more. Or, head to Trip Advisor, which is arguably the home of disgruntled customers and which impacts people’s spending decisions on a daily basis.

What happens when you get your customer experience right?

But for every bad tale of negative PR due to customer service, there’s a good one. The tale of Sainsbury’s Giraffe bread, Zappos sending flowers to customers, and perhaps one of my favorites Ritz Carlton’s Joshie the Giraffe.

All of these have one thing in common – employees who take the initiative and spot an opportunity to do something nice.

So how can you make customer experience your marketing ethos? Here are my key takeaways:

  • Create an empowered work environment for employees. I’m aware that’s easier said than done if you’re working in a company with legacy issues. But, if leadership is on board it is possible for businesses to undergo transformation. Many start-ups are already making this their culture from the get go.
  • Give employees freedom to make decisions. Let them show their personalities and give them the power and tools to solve customer issues.
  • Have a clear company mission, vision and values and embed it across all levels. If you want to focus on customer experience it has to be a real business priority, not just a token gesture.
  • Break down siloes within the organisation. Make sure that your comms team is speaking to your customer service team, managers and employees. They need to be ready to react if something goes wrong or right.

Brooke Nolan is marketing manager at brand communications agency Synergy Creative.

Synergy Creative Marketing

Content by The Drum Network member:

Synergy Creative

Hello, we’re Synergy.

We engage people with award winning creative communications.

Our inside out approach inspires your employees to be brand ambassadors and turns your customers into brand advocates.

The result is a seamless customer experience at every contact with your brand.

As a brand engagement agency, we’re helping companies engage their employees and customers with their brand through creative communications and campaigns.

Brand engagement is all about a positive and seamless employee and customer experience with your brand at every touchpoint.

Inside…

Our inside out approach starts on the inside with inspiring and motivating employee internal communications that turn your people into brand ambassadors. From the moment they join with induction and onboarding to bringing to life your vision and values, reward and recognition or launching a new direction, we know how to create that consistent employer brand.

Out…

Once we're under the skin of your brand, we then plan, design and produce brilliant creative communication campaigns that really get your customers talking, fully supported and embraced by your people.

It's a win-win situation – customers have a consistent, fantastic brand experience delivered by informed and motivated employees. The result is a seamless employee and customer experience at every contact with your brand.

But don’t just listen to us…

We’re on the Recommended Agency Register’s (RAR) list of Top 100 Agencies 2016, as well as placing in the elite tables for The Drum’s Design Census 2016 and Drum Independent Agencies Census 2015.

Other accolades in 2015/16 include Best Ongoing Commitment to Employer Brand at the Employer Brand Management Awards, Best Internal Communications Consultancy, Best Innovation and Best Internal Communications Campaign at the IC Brilliance Awards, Best Employee Engagement Campaign at the CorpComms awards and numerous other awards from the IoIC and CIPR. 

www.synergycreative.co.uk

Keep track of the latest articles, trends and events on our internal comms hub:

http://www.synergycreative.co.uk/internal-comms-hub

Find out more

More from Synergy Creative

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +