Note: This article focuses on one topic discussed in a white paper, “BECAUSE I’M THE CUSTOMER!!” A Guide to Managing Your Brand & Customer Experience in the Age of the Customer by Sam Klaidman and Harry Klein. The paper was written in 2012 and has been at the top of a Google search for “Because I’m the Customer” since then. Significantly, only a few changes were required to make this relevant in 2024, which proves that the basics stand the test of time.
Introduction
When a business, either a private or public company or a government agency, embarks on a significant purchase, such as capital equipment, enterprise software, or a combination of both, it typically forms a Procurement Committee. This committee plays a crucial role in ensuring that the business secures the best product from the most reputable seller at the most favorable price.
The role of the Procurement Committee is often high-stakes, with some members feeling the weight of potential job security risks if the decision leads to an unfavorable outcome. In such situations, committee members frequently rely on their professional networks for informal reference checks, seeking reassurance in their decision-making process. Even if they consult with friends who work for a competitor, they trust the advice they receive and are confident in their honesty and integrity.
Since you have no control over who the buyer calls for a reference check, all your customer-facing channel partners must deliver a consistent customer experience and outcomes. Hence, your customers have the same memories of dealings with you and your distribution partners.
There are two types of messages and outcomes: expectations and experiences. Together, they make up your brand.
Brand (based on consistent customer experiences)
Brian Millar wrote in a FastCompany article: “If you promise something clearly, deliver on that promise, and repeat the process, you build strong emotional links to your company with certain consumers. But that’s where the value resides: in my head, your head, and your mother’s head. And the stuff inside my head is my property. If brands exist at all, they exist in the minds of consumers. I can switch my search engine brand at a moment’s notice. Bank accounts and makes of an automobile are a bit more hassle to discard, but I can still change my mind about them.”
The bottom line is that if your business doesn’t meet or exceed all your customer’s expectations, you risk having your customers churn. While customer churn is terrible enough, the defectors telling 10s to 100s or even 1,000s of potential prospects that will never become customers compound the impact even more.
Understand this clearly: discussions, comments, reviews, and opinions about your products and services and how people feel about their experiences with your business are being held, made, and shared with and without your involvement. Customers and prospects have all the tools and information they need to make a purchase decision without contacting a supplier.
Expectations and Where They Come From
- Organizational promises: Direct promises made by the business
- Software vendors promise installation by dates and costs
- The salesperson promised that we have the most comprehensive 5G network
- Competitor’s promises and performance
- If a competitor promises or does something beyond your capabilities, your customers and prospects expect your company to match or exceed their performance.
- They ship standard items with next-day delivery at no additional cost; you ship in three business days and charge extra for next-day delivery.
- Personnel promises: Your employee makes a specific promise
- Delivery in 2 business days
- Easy-to-use software
- B2C experiences: Already programmed into each of us
- Fast food will be ready in less than 5 minutes
- I don’t have to rush to doctor’s appointments – they always keep me waiting.
- Previous experiences with your business
- My last two orders were delivered in 8 business days; this order (even though it is different and complex) will also take eight business days.
- My iPad is easy to use, so setting up my new Apple computer for business will take 15 minutes.
- Comments from friends and associates
- “I asked my business associates about doing business with your company, and they all had terrible experiences and stopped buying from you – why should I even consider your company?”
- “There were tons of recommendations on your Facebook page, so I think it safe to buy from you; I will call and start the discussion.”
The expectations in your customers’ minds are the only expectations that matter. This is true whether the expectations have been set by your brand promise, your customers’ direct experiences, or the opinions of others presented through all manner of digital communications.
Customer Experience
Every action a company takes — from answering the phone at the front desk to the most complex product installation — makes a statement about how the company values customers. These actions occur when a brand comes to life and promises are kept or broken.
Jan Carlzon, former President of Scandinavian Airline Services, called these instances “moments of truth.” He defined them as “any time a customer comes into contact with any aspect of your business, however remote, the customer has an opportunity to form an impression.”
Customer experience must be designed as consistently as your marketing communications or product roadmap. Brand design and execution are equal. A consistent customer experience at every touchpoint must support the promise made or implied in your brand design.
Which department in your company is most important to aligning customer experiences and the brand promise?
As unlikely as it may seem, the contact center (which might go by a different name within your company) is at the center of your customer’s experience. Recent data indicates that the contact center agents who answer customer calls (phone, chat, and email) and interact with them until they take care of the issue or move it to another department are responsible for nearly all interactions with your company.
Others may be included in these interactions, but they all (almost) begin in the call center. If you are trying to correct alignment issues, the call center is the first place to start understanding what is going wrong.
The Impact of Channels and How you Deliver a Consistent Customer Experience
Channel impact is a universal problem. Just as BMW cannot control what its dealers say and do (but they have a strong influence capability), OEMs cannot control what its channel partners say and do. VARs, system integrators, stocking distributors, and dealers are independent businesses and will behave in ways they believe will improve their overall economic condition.
The dealer can distort the principal’s brand promises, confusing the end user or making her feel like she was lied to. In those cases, the deceived person will eliminate her frustration by trashing the manufacturer.
Many channel partners believe they know their customers best and, therefore, set their expectations about the brands they sell. These expectations may be less than 100% aligned with the OEM’s brand promises. Expectations set by the channel may be designed to do one thing and one thing only: make the sale. This misalignment creates problems for the OEM.
Channel partners compound the misalignment issue by keeping their customers close to their chests and locking out the OEM from having any direct contact or involvement. The channel partner customer feedback may be based on incorrect expectations. If so, the OEM is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
How can a company meet customer expectations if the OEM isn’t aware of the expectations set by its channel partners? How can a company modify its expectation setting based on distorted feedback? Gaps between vendors and the channel need to be eliminated where possible:
- Recognize that the channel is also a key account customer, not just a revenue conduit
- Include the channel in the strategy setting
- Solicit and act upon feedback from the channel
- Ask the channel for customer access
- What does the OEM have to do to share customer feedback/insight?
- Ask the channel if they could change ONE thing about being your channel partner; what would it be?
- Which segment causes every gap based on unmet expectations regardless of the source
- Lack of brand communication
- Disintermediation of brand message by channels
- Poor customer-facing execution
- Disengaged employees
- Poorly targeted markets/prospects
- Strategy and execution are aligned, but not what customers want
- Lack of commitment to customer centricity means that strategy and execution tactics are developed without the customer’s needs at the top of the mind.
The Key Takeaway:
The Golden Rule has been upgraded: Golden Rule 2.0 says, “Do unto others how they want to be done unto.”
This means that all customer touches, wherever they occur, must be similar and meet or exceed customer expectations.
Related articles:
- How to Adapt to Ever-changing Customer Expectations
- Being a Trusted Adviser is Not the Same as Providing a Great Customer Experience
- Expectations and Experiences are Like Yin and Yang
Sam Klaidman is the founder and principal adviser at Middlesex Consulting. He helps his B2B product manufacturing clients grow their service revenue and profitability by applying the methodologies and techniques associated with Customer Value Creation and Customer Experience professions to assist his clients in designing and commercializing new services and the associated business transformations. Contact Sam here.
Image credit: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay