Making Promises, Keeping Promises: Building Brand and Loyalty through Customer Experience

Photo by paul bica

Would you be willing to pay more for a better customer experience?

According to Kerry Bodine, former VP and Principal Analyst, Customer Experience Research Practice for Forrester, most people would.

During last month's Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit, Kerry indicated that 81% of consumers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. In addition, she stated that:

• 70% of consumers stopped buying goods or services from a company after experiencing poor customer service
• 64% made future purchases from a company's competitors after experiencing poor customer service

These sobering statistics show that customers' perceptions have a profound impact on every organization's brand equity, customer loyalty and revenue. Here's how you can help successfully define, implement and manage your organization's customer experience to deliver on its promises:

• Come to terms with what your brand really stands for
• Determine how your brand is (or isn't) reflected in your customer experience
• Help employees discover the role they play
• Align your marketing with your actual customer experience

Peggy L. Bieniek, ABC is an Accredited Business Communicator specializing in corporate communication best practices. Connect with Peggy on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and on her website at www.starrybluebrilliance.com.

 

What Your Customers Say When You Don’t – or Won’t – Listen

  Photo by paul bica

 

“When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life.” – Brenda Ueland, 20^th century American author

Ideas are the foundation of success. This timeless concept was best expressed by a Deutsche Bank advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, April 2001 that proclaimed: “Ideas are capital. The rest is just money.”

Listen to your customers. They are trying to tell you how they want to be served and how they want to engage with you. Their ideas will support your organization’s continued success and will lead to increased levels of customer engagement and loyalty.

If you’re not listening to your customers, they will find someone who will. The article, "We deliberately ignore customers who contact us via Twitter” by Philip Calvert, Social Media Sales Strategist, shows how an unengaged company culture can negatively affect the trust and credibility of an organization.

This example clearly demonstrates the importance of having a company culture that empowers and engages employees, who are the “key to delivering your customer’s experience” according to Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit (TCEL) keynote speaker Peter Neill, Former Chief Customer Officer, Level 3 Communications.

To take it a step further, Kerry Bodine, VP and Principal Analyst, Customer Experience Research Practice at Forrester, will lead a TCEL session that will show how “customers’ perceptions have a profound impact on business metrics.”

Want to hear more from Peter and Kerry on customer experience in person? Join them at Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit 2014 in Miami in April. To learn more about the event and register, go to www.iirusa.com/totalcustomer

Stay connected with TCEL:

• twitter.com/TotalCustomer #TCEL14
• linkedin.com/Total Customer Experience Leaders
• facebook.com/TotalCustomer

Peggy L. Bieniek, ABC is an Accredited Business Communicator specializing in corporate communication best practices. Connect with Peggy on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and on her website at www.starrybluebrilliance.com.