Marketing's Role in the Relationship Between Expectations & Experience

In marketing, we often think about the Customer Experience after the fact. We send out surveys or request reviews; we strategize how to get people with good experiences to share their stories. We even act on those surveys, letting operations know about shipping delays or product development about quality issues. In my current role, I no longer sell direct-to-consumer, but on a daily basis I think about our partner experience and the consumer experience during claims.

Root cause analysis is commonly used in science and engineering, but if you apply those same principles to Customer Experience you often end up in Marketing. As I write this, I envision customer service representatives smiling and marketers coming for me with their pitchforks and lanterns in the comment section. Give me a minute to explain.

Consider experiences you’ve personally faced. Picture yourself waiting two hours to see a highly sought-after orthopedic surgeon. Would you be frustrated? Would you leave a bad review on Google? This scenario actually happened to me recently, and I will tell you what I did. I left a stellar review. Why? Because the surgeon fixed my son’s leg after multiple doctors could not. In my mind, the wait was worth it.

What if you waited two hours for your Starbucks mobile order? Would you leave a bad review if you had to wait two hours for the Harry Potter ride at Universal Orlando? What if you had to wait two hours to check out at Target? Sometimes the difference between a bad and good experience has nothing to do with the actual experience; it has to do with expectations. You expect to wait at a theme park, but you do not expect to wait at Starbucks. And here is where I get in trouble with my colleagues; expectations start with sales and marketing.

Let’s take a step-by-step look at how Sales & Marketing can improve the Customer Experience long before the product or service is purchased or used.

1. Branding – Consider whether your brand promise is current. How does what you tell people about your brand align with what you are delivering? Surveys, online reviews, and third-party win/loss interviews can tell you what people think about your brand. There may be a slight disconnect for brands in transition---you haven’t quite gotten to where you plan to be, but if there is a complete mismatch between what people expect and what they get, you have a problem.
2. Advertising & Outbound Marketing – How are you positioning the product? Did you work closely with the product development team on a GTM strategy? When you developed the ad campaign, was the focus to sell at all costs or to inform by accurately portraying a need and solution? It is difficult to put together a campaign when you are not the target audience, but that’s the point of market research and focus groups. Your customers will expect what you promise, so make sure you understand the market and portray the product or service accurately.
3. Point of Sale – What are you telling the consumer to expect at the point of sale? It’s critical that marketing and sales are aligned. Include marketing in sales training to ensure your sales team and marketing materials say the same thing. Is your labeling accurate? For online purchases what about the description and images? Unfortunately, I’ve had situations where there was a mismatch between what was on printed materials and what the salesperson told me. They convinced me to look past the fine print. Now if I see a disconnect between what is written and what is being said I run.

Your Customer Experience issue may very well be a product or service issue. There could be a need for additional associate training or staffing. There could be a manufacturing quality issue. There is so much more that can be said on this issue. Because even if you exceeded customer expectations, you may still have a problem. A low expectation and high experience could signal that your product or service is underpriced. The point is that sometimes the problem is a disconnect between what the customer expected and what they received, and those expectations were set in marketing.