Not too long ago, the phrase “customer service” generated a feeling of comfort that a caring someone at a company would personally handle a client concern. The responding representative usually made you feel that your issue was of paramount importance and needed to be resolved to your satisfaction as soon as possible.
Mention the same phrase today and it will likely elicit a groan, an eye-roll, or an unpleasant story about weaving through a phone tree for 20 minutes, desperately trying to find a human. Many times, customers end up frustrated and feeling as if the company couldn’t care less about the issue or the person needing help.
The approach a brand takes in regards to customer service evokes real feelings in the end-user – feelings that have a great deal of influence on purchasing decisions, both positive and negative. Brands that enjoy wild success create much more than a positive customer experience; they execute a contract of client-specific expectations on which they continually deliver.
There are the four elements to creating a memorable client experience contract:
1) Curiosity as a Mindset – Brands that deepen relationships through the client experience think differently. Their vision, mission, and values revolve around serving others – both externally and internally. Brands that seek to connect through client experiences are continually curious. That curiosity drives these companies to experiment with new and different ways of delivering value to the end-users which allow them to anticipate areas of friction and find solutions to challenges that have yet to exist.
2) Culture of Client – Each touch point – from sales to marketing to billing to collections to customer service – is opportunity to reinforce your client contract. Brands that are focused on executing a client-specific contract create a culture where the organizational messaging is completely in sync and where everyone is a brand ambassador. When things go wrong (and they will go wrong), the simple act of empowering associates at every level to make independent decisions with the overall experience in mind will yield dramatic and positive feelings with the client. Everything begins with culture because the culture creates the environment where ideas, innovation, and accountability can flourish.
3) Seek Honest Feedback – Some organizations tolerate feedback; brands that consider feedback a gift are the ones that create a truly magical client experience. A recent Pivot study showed that 76 percent of companies feel they know what their customers want, but only 34 percent have asked them what they want. Leverage online surveys to collect direct feedback, randomly call clients after delivery to ask them about their experience with your company, or have a meeting to have an honest conversation about what they want from their provider. Stop assuming that you know what your clients want – you don’t. Ask them and learn from the answers.
4) Agility through Empowerment – The promotional products landscape is rapidly and continually evolving. Mobile technology, the ease of information, and increasing influence of social platforms are shaping buying behaviors. Customers are empowered with more information than ever and brands are struggling to keep up with the pace of change. Brands that seek to create a client experience contract must empower their employees. Empowered associates are far more likely to collaborate and share insights learned from client interactions which allows them to be more nimble and flexible when responding to rapidly shifting client needs.
Creating a culture where every employee is focused on executing a client-centric contract at every touch point requires leadership and investment. Investing in a memorable client experience contract allows a brand to separate from the competition and build their business around the element that matters most: loyalty.
Bill is president of PromoCorner, the leading digital marketing service provider to the promotional products industry, and has over 17 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. In 2014, he launched brandivate – the first executive outsourcing company solely focused on helping small and medium sized-promotional products enterprises responsibly grow their business. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, president of the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, developing operational policies and procedures, creating and developing winning RFP responses, and presenting winning promotional products solutions to Fortune 500 clients. He can be reached at bill@PromoCorner.com.