The killer questions

I’ve had the pleasure of working with a lot of really good people over the years.

?

I’ve found that Leaders who recognise the importance of the totality of the customer experience tend to create lasting, profitable relationships with customers.

?

But what does that mean? The totality of customer experience?

?

It’s not just what people ‘do’ or how they behave at various interaction points, it’s more than that.

?

Successful businesses work hard to define what they want their customers to:

?

Think

Feel

Say

Do

?

at each point of engagement.

?

This edition of Lessons from the Boardroom takes learnings from a retailer, a bank, an airline and a national funeral business, and wraps them up into four key ‘think, feel, say, do’ take-outs.

?

Customers have to think you’re right for them

?

For a customer to buy from you, they have to think you’re the right brand for them. Some businesses, like banks for example, really struggle with this.

?

A gabillion years ago I was the Global Brand Director across Barclays. Great job, great team, great big challenges.

?

At the time, most of the big bank brands were trying to convince people they were their friend. But the insight I found told me something different: consumers didn’t want their bank to be their friend, they wanted a business with financial expertise.

?

So we moved the Barclays brand positioning to Fluent in Finance to connect with our target customers in a way that resonated and was more compelling than the other players in the market.

?

Here’s one of the ads I made at the time.

?

https://vimeo.com/13733754

?

ACTION: Work out how your brand needs to connect with customers. What do customers need to believe to give you their business? It’s usually not just about the product, it’s about how they think about the bigger relationship with you. With Barclays, it wasn’t the bank account, it was the expert knowledge.

?

Customers need to feel that you’re important to them

?

If you’re a funeral business, you need to make your customers feel safe and respected.

?

It’s not the actual funeral that people are buying, it’s the security that you will look after them or their loved one at that most sensitive of times.

?

And how do you do that if you’re a national business? The importance of highly personal service becomes all important and presenting evidence of how you as a business treat every single customer as unique is paramount.

?

The work I did with this business focused heavily on ensuring personal engagement every time a customer needed to talk.

?

In a world of bots, algorithms and pre-scheduled email sequences, the need to be human is everything in some businesses.

?

ACTION: I get that automation and standardisation is key, but is it hurting your relationship with customers? Take a look at what you really can hand over to tech and what absolutely needs human connections.

?

?

What customers say is hugely important in a world where peer recommendations far outweigh any other marketing strategy

?

Do you know what your customers are saying about you behind your back?

?

No? Then find out.

According to Nielsen, in its global Trust in Advertising Study in 2021, which surveyed 40,000 across 56 countries,?898% of customers said they trusted recommendations from people they know above all other forms of marketing messaging.

?

72% of people will talk about a positive experience.

?

And 46% of people will talk about a negative experience.

?

Let’s have a think about holidays. And airlines. I was so incensed at a terrible airline experience last year, I spent hours crafting a linkedin post about it. How many times have you talked about delays, lost baggage, awful food?

?

The airlines know this. And they work hard to counter negative word of mouth. Some have even appointed social network agents to ‘help’ vocal online complainers. The airline I worked with invested heavily in social listening and developed a gold standard response process.

?

The process identified key moments of ‘magic or misery’ and created fast, tailored responses.

?

What people are saying is crucial to the success of your brand. Finding out not only gives you the opportunity to fix problems, but it also allows you to talk and re-engage with people.

?

ACTION: Think about how you can find out what people are ‘really’ saying about you. Behind your back, not on a simple survey.

?

What people do and what people don’t do are equally as important

?

Some people buy from you. Tick.

?

Right? Tick?

?

Well yes, but what if they only buy a bit from you then trot off and buy loads more somewhere else?

Retailers constantly have this problem. Share of basket is a constant battle in the retail world and translates across most businesses.

?

How do you get people to buy more of what they need from you and not spread it across several suppliers?

?

The key here is missions…retailers really understand what shopping missions people are on. They know that when you pop in for a top-up you have different needs than when you do a bigger shop. They understand they have different needs to meet at different times and they go all out to build easy ways to meet your needs at any given time.

?

ACTION: Work out what your customer missions are. And what’s important to them in each one.

?

Phew, there was a lot in there wasn’t there??

?

Whatever business you’re in, your customers are your lifeblood and knowing what they think, feel, say and do is a really good way of making sure you’re connected and building strong relationships.

?

If you need help, give me a shout.

__________________________________________________________________

How you can work with me:

?? Strategy Advisor: Your guide, mentor and coach.

?? Strategy Sprints: Working together to get from zero to brilliant customer strategy in six weeks.

?? Training: Bespoke training days designed to bring focus and alignment to your business.

?? Consultancy: Just need it done? I’ll come into your business and get the strategic development and execution process up and running.

Come and start a private conversation about how I can help.

And if you liked this content please share!