The Customer Culture Club

January edition

So, let’s dive into the Customer Experience world and see what’s been going on in the Month of January,

Did you know?

That the well know customer review portal Trust Pilot only has a score of 4.2 out of 5 on Trust Pilot? So even the company who trumpet and support customer feedback aren’t smashing it for their customers, I wonder if they listen to the feedback?

Brand in the spotlight

Who stood out to me this month?

No big surprise here really it is the Post Office and their friends Fujitsu.

Now I don’t want to just pile on to this story, we all know that it is dreadful and just another example of how our institutions are eroding our trust. And that is the area I am going to focus on, the damage that this behaviour has on the Post Office’s customers’ trust. Organizations are judged on how they treat their employees and if people don’t want to work for you or it is believed that you are not a great employer then it gives some customers pause for thought.

Your reputation is one of the most important things you have to build trust upon, and I am sure that the Post Office is very lucky that they don’t really have a competitor and benefit from many privileges and protections that most other organisations don’t have. If they had greater competition, I am willing to bet that many customers would abandon them in favour of somebody who hasn’t trashed their reputation.?

Now for Fujitsu it will be more interesting, they do have some serious competitors and it might well impact them as more of their involvement comes out, already their public sector contracts are being reviewed. If you were looking to invest serious money in a technology solution, how would you be feeling about them as a partner right now?

Your reputation is so key, and history is littered with failed brands whose reputation was tarnished by decisions made and the consequences of losing customers as a result. With 90% of customers saying they would avoid a company with a bad reputation and 87& stating they would likely reverse a purchase decision after a company damages its reputation?

Makes sure you keep your customer reputation high

What i have been up to recently?

January has been a very busy month for existing client work but has felt very loooooong and also quite a slow start to the year for new clients looking for customer experience help & support. It feels like it might be quite a tough year with businesses under financial pressure and keeping budgets tight for now.

So, this month I have been actively talking to customers in the snacking category to understand their customer journey and the key decision making and behaviours that drive their purchasing choices and how my client can better engage new customers to drive trial of their new products. A real tempter in healthy January?

What can I do to help you?

I still have some spaces left for an early year customer experience health check.

(Link here to explore and book to chat with me).

It’s a great place to start if you are new to customer experience or unclear what to do next

Starting from ￡500 I will examine your brand’s current customer experience performance and identify what you are doing well and areas where you can focus to improve including some recommended actions that you can take.

We can also run other customised projects for you to help you to:

• Understand your customers better and develop your Connected Customer Personas to help you identify and target new customers
• Map your customers’ journeys through their interactions with your business, identify pain points and focus areas right across all of the key touchpoints where you engage your customers
• Gather and listen to your customers’ feedback to specifically understand in detail the experiences that you are delivering and to surface issues and challenges and the methods by which you can remove those barriers

I also work directly with business leaders to coach and consult on customer experience excellence and to develop long term continuous improvement programs and accountability to ensure your business is truly customer focussed and maximising growth.

What’s new in the work of customer experience:

So, at this time of year, you usually see a few lists about what 2024 trends are predicted to come to fruition and customer experience is no different

So here is my take on what’s going to be in focus for 2024

Dwindling customer trust?

– Right now it seems that there is an even greater shift towards growing scepticism and suspicion of brands and institutions and so trust is going to be a vital part to success this year

Continued increase in customer personalisation

– New technology and rising customer expectations will accelerate the need for personalised experiences and customers to be treated as individuals rather than ‘consumers’

Increased Voice Interaction in customer experiences

– ‘Smart technology’ will enable a greater use of voice interactions to enhance customer experiences and customer care and support, improving upon the current options that are not well received

Rise in Immersive customer experiences?

– Again, technology will enable a totally different way for customers and brands to interact with each other and opportunities to enhance experiences

Changing face of subscription services?

– Subscriptions models will continue to grow, but customers are getting wise to what is possible and will expect more from those relationships, going beyond a one size fits all approach

Continued race towards generative AI & automated customer service

– There is no stopping the rise of AI and more companies will race to embrace this as part of cost management exercises, but it will be important to remember that experience is still key and those who sacrifice experience for speed or cost will suffer in the long run?

Continued increase in social and environmental concerns

– Customers will continue to care more about the ethics behind the brands they engage with and whilst we are not yet at a tipping point, brands who manage this well will see future benefits

Data security and privacy?

– Lastly, with so much emphasis on technology as experience enablers the inevitable concerns of data privacy and security will be at the forefront of how customers feel about the brands they choose to engage with.

Looking after your Customers:

Building trust for customers is always a critical part of a great customer experience and essential to building loyalty and increasing the lifetime value of your customers.

With public trust in institutions and brands being put to the test more and more, it is going to needs a great focus in the coming years to ensure that you keep your reputation high and keep customers coming back for more.

So here are a few things to consider and utilise in your experiences to build and maintain customer trust

1. Help customers to solve a problem or fill a need they have
2. Display your values in everything you do
3. Make connections with your customers, show empathy and appreciation for them as a customer
4. Create a dialogue with your customers, seek feedback and communicate with them beyond just offers and sales messages
5. Make sure you offer consistently excellent customer service
6. Highlight reviews and recommendations to promote the excellent experiences you deliver and how you solve any problems that arise

Tips for your marketing: - Valentines based obviously which is coming soon

If you want to be reminded of the date, it is Wednesday 14th February!

Create a fictional "Love Potion" product as part of your Valentine's Day marketing. Playfully suggest that using this potion will make people irresistibly charming or magically increase their chances of finding love. Use humorous testimonials and before-and-after scenarios to highlight the supposed effects. Of course, make it clear that it's all in good fun, and the product is just for laughs.

As an example here is ours at Intelligent purpose:?

Magic Damian’s Customer Cocktail

Cool a champagne glass in the fridge.? Once temperature of the glass has dropped, add a little fruit puree (peach / apricot / raspberry) to the bottom of the glass & mix a little bit of prosecco, top with a juicy strawberry and round off with a bit of Damian’s magic Customer Experience?

…. the price of this - cost of bubbles and fruit, opinions and magic dust free,?

Free experience hints and tips available to download here .

Valentine's Day Survival Kit - we all know the dates coming up, so position your product or service as the ultimate Valentine's Day Survival Kit. Create a humorous video or infographic featuring a "survival guide" for the day.? For example, talk about how you’re going to ask your PA to organise flowers and dinner or how you’re going to cook up a storm of chicken nuggets and chips for your significant other!? If you don’t like that - maybe share your worst experience of Valentines day and how you survived it…. this will help others resonate with you and look at what you do.

Anti-Valentine's Day Campaign - you could go one further and cater to the singles or those who find the valentines drama too much. Develop an "Anti-Valentine's Day" campaign that humorously embraces the single life or pokes fun at traditional romantic clichés. Organise a no date zoom coffee meeting for example to share fun banter online you can later repurpose with your audience - ask your fellow meeting folks to share their stories and views on valentines….

The Undercover customer - Kevin's been mastering the supermarkets on our high streets, here are the findings - raw, honest and relatable i'm sure.

So this month Kevin The Undercover Customer has been up and down the high street unearthing experiences, both good and bad along the way…

“So, this week i’ve been into 3 different highstreet stores for groceries…. don’t get me started, who knew so many places had so many offers on and obviously watching the pennies like everyone else.

Lidl - whilst in here a lady had her handbag stolen, no one in here seemed to know what to do or how to help the lady in distress and the chicken went off a day before the use by date - so not a great experience in here.

Tesco - who knew the clubcard deals would count up to so much.? I was a savvy buyer and got everything on offer for the snacks cupboard, the saving at the till was over ￡14 which is a lot for a family, I have to say Tesco this is the best offer around and beats the others hands down in my opinion.

Waitrose - always friendly, I could find what I wanted quickly from shop staff, they knew their products and they were on hand at those pesky ‘self help’ checkouts - which most stores don’t have.

All in all - quite positive, but I have to say the food in Lidl really wasn’t up to scratch which is so disappointing and the staff were the least helpful and least friendly - so to me it wasn’t worth the saving!

As always, I hope the longer than usual Newsletter has been a fun, informative but great read!

If there is a brand you want to throw into the spotlight or Kevin's hot seat - send them over.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Damian