Customer experience is the new brand

This post first appeared in the now decommissioned STW blog, as well as the DT blog, back in July 2012.

We are living out our careers on shifting sands. But from here, in our offices and behind our desks, it’s easy to lose sight of just how big these changes are. ‘Shifting’ doesn’t quite capture it.

The seismic transfer of power and influence from large organisations to individuals is increasing at an extraordinary rate. Governments have literally fallen. Business models haven’t just been disrupted –they’ve been obliterated. Virtually every sector is undergoing reconstruction from education, sport, and politics, to commerce, finance and entertainment – the list goes on. And citizens have the power and tools to self-organise on a global scale.

It’s human nature to play down the extent of these changes, especially when our careers have been built on the status quo. Our brain is simultaneously tricking itself that it understands complex scenarios more than it actually does, and then prompting decisive action based on these assumptions. It’s a defence mechanism for trying to cope with such dramatic uncertainty. The reality is that the rate of change is, itself, increasing, further reducing our ability to predict the future – never mind understand the present.

Commentators occasionally draw parallels with the impact of movable type. There were plenty of naysayers – religious leaders, mostly – who did their best to resist the inevitable. In that case, it took several decades for the physical apparatus to spread through the cities of Europe before the impact was felt. We’re dealing with an entirely different phenomenon today, and given the proliferation of devices and technologies, and near-instant impact of innovation, we can expect to see a dizzying array of changing behaviours. The revolution is just getting started.

It’s clear that hoping things will calm down isn’t a strategy for success. So let’s face facts. Our customers have developed bullshit detectors, finely tuned to sniff out marketing messages that are style without any substance. They have (almost) complete control over the messages they receive, and can filter out unwanted distractions with ease.

But exhibiting style with substance through conventional marketing channels is fine, and helps to establish a brand identity synonymous with integrity, purpose and dependability. There are emerging tools and techniques for making sure your company still has the potential to get in front of customers and exhibit this substance. Where do you start?

The simple answer is that you start with the customer, and work backwards from there. And straight away you can see an important parallel with conventional marketing. But the key difference is where conventional marketing seeks to obfuscate the customer into easily digestible abstract chunks, ready for broadcast, the new approach cozies up to customers with all their foibles.

People are messy. They have a dizzying array of needs, wants, ambitions, drivers and motives. They have affairs, commit crimes, lie, and think they’re entitled to better customer service than everyone else. They’re also friendly, and charitable, sexy, and have lots of other great qualities too.

And if you’re not listening to them, and working with them, on their terms, then one of your competitors will do this for you.

The trick is in acknowledging that people are messy, and can interact with your brand in any multitude of ways. Not only that, they can bob and weave across literally dozens of potential touchpoints – TV adverts, word-of-mouth, twitter, facebook, web site, shop, phone, letter, eDM, banners, posters, morning TV shows, newspapers and many more.

The touchpoints which the customer trusts the most are those which you seemingly have little direct control over. If someone complains about your product on twitter, the potential reach is global and instantaneous.

And this is what I mean when I say that Customer Experience is the new brand. Word of mouth has long been trusted by customers above advertising, but now the tools of the internet have amplified word of mouth to the point where it eclipses messaging in the paid media space. All with a flick of the wrist.

As this new world order takes shape, a few things become clear. First, the companies that will be the most successful are those who share the same values as the customers they seek. This can’t just be a veneer, the companies have to actually have and care about these values, and demonstrate this across the various touchpoints. The business of developing and communicating these values internally will increase greatly in the years to come – and the challenge for larger companies is articulating how these values should be applied across every touchpoint in a way that makes sense to employees.

These values are important enough that you shouldn’t hire people who don’t exhibit them. Even the HR department needs to be customer centric. And if you’re thinking that exposing your staff to your customers is risky, it’s worth remembering that people expect human behaviour in the social space. Mistakes will be forgiven so long as you’re quick to admit them. People don’t want you to be perfect – they want you to be useful. And honest. And reliable. What’s more, given the volume of activity across the social space, giving staff support to engage on behalf of the company is one way to make sure the adventure scales.

But the truly great thing about these company values is that, once you’ve defined them, they’ll become the lights that guide every execution across all those touchpoints. You can use these values to drive consistency everywhere.

Think about it this way. To succeed in the social space, you need to earn trust. As Doc Searls and his band of Cluetrainers have said for years, first you have a conversation, then you build a relationship, and only then can you pursue transactions. You need to exhibit human qualities to get there. Empathise. Show some humility. Recognise and demonstrate that you need the customer far more than they need you.

The customer experience across every digital touchpoint – whether paid, owned or earned – should be akin to a good waiter in a top restaurant, or a concierge in a top hotel. The thought given to the customer should be evident by the ease with which they can meet their goals. They should be able to move seamlessly, joyfully through the system.

Pick your technology very, very carefully. Decide what you want the technology to do before you select it. Amazingly, the majority of companies still don’t do this. If you’ve already selected a platform before deciding what you want to do with it, you may have a big problem. Remember that an optimum customer experience is now the cost of operating in a competitive environment. Can you afford to use the wrong platform, if it delivers a sub-optimum experience? Probably not.

You might ask where advertising comes into this. David Ogilvy wrote, back in 1963, “Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image”. I would argue that this is just as true today as it’s ever been. The web has simply reasserted more transparency on the value of marketing alongside the value of a quality product or service – the former can no longer paper over the cracks of the latter (incidentally, the vast majority of Ogilvy’s advice stands true today. His books are well worth a read).

At first blush, this emerging landscape may seem rife with risks and threats. But once again you can fall back on one of your traditional marketing tools – the good old SWOT analysis. Many of these threats can be turned into opportunities. But it has to happen from the inside out.

Those readers who frequently attend conferences will be sick of the sight of comparisons with Apple. But, from a customer experience advocates’ view, they’re a godsend. Here we have a company which claimed 9% of the market share for smartphones, and 75% of the profit. 75%!! Proof positive that people are willing to pay big bucks for a premium customer experience.

But look at the other end of the market. At the time of writing, Nokia has just fired 10,000 people, and their stock fell 19%. Again, proof positive that there isn’t room in that specific market for someone not providing an amazing customer experience. Is there room in yours? If so, how long do you think that’ll last?

And if you can develop this awesome experience across every touch point, it has an all-important cumulative effect. And it turns out that you *can* influence word-of-mouth. As your great reputation gathers momentum, you’ll wonder why you ever failed to put the customer experience at the heart of your business.

Of course, there will be those among you who will say that nothing important has changed. Certain companies have always been synonymous with good service, and made a tidy profit as a result – well before the age of the internet. But my point still stands; the advent of the internet has heralded a new era of brand transparency, with much more to come. And in this emerging landscape, Customer experience will become more and more important to the point where it’s far and away the most important aspect of running a business.