I get this a lot: “We need to improve our customer loyalty and the quality of our customer relationships. Michael, we need a campaign that will get this right.”
My answer is always the same: “If you want to get this right you must start a movement, not a campaign.” I am always asked what the difference is.
Well, here are 15 differences between a campaign and a movement and why you need to start one right now:
I enjoyed my time at university. While I was not the most studious of students, I did learn a thing or two. And like most graduates I came out of varsity feeling as though I had been equipped to answer the world’s questions.
I was there to solve any problem and nothing was beyond me. I was the perfect customer experience solution. Hey, I was the graduate.
As I progressed through my career, and my life, it slowly dawned on me that I really knew very little. The answers that I thought I had were irrelevant, outdated or just plain fiction.
Customer experience are about feelings and emotions just as much as they are about logical process and systems. What this did was make me realise that I had learnt two very important lessons while studying.
The traditional media eco-system is going through a major metamorphosis. At first glance it would seem that this is largely driven by the changes of an evolving internet platform and mobile media — something where I think many marketers are taking huge strain just to manage the effects it is having on their brand and media strategies.
Personally, I think this strain is more about the change in how our consumer are making decisions today. And I think this is the flaw where most media strategies fail.
There is no doubt that there is a symbiotic relationship between the evolving multimedia platforms and consumer behaviour. How consumers make decisions and what influences these decisions has radically evolved from the first TV commercial and marketer’s ability to refine the advertising process.
Today, TV commercials do not have the credibility that they used to. As consumers, we no longer dogmatically believe what a brand says about itself to be true. Now we believe what other consumers say and we the ability to find information in different ways and validate what we want through a peer review system.
All I have to do is go online validate if I am making the right choice about a product I want. Lets say its a new printer that I am about to buy. It looks like a good product and I know it has a good brand name.
What happens when I use my Blackberry, click through amazon to see what other people say and find 10 bad reviews? I replace the product with one that has good reviews.
For the brand that could mean millions of dollars of advertising investment and years of brand building down the tube. Ouch. And if your consumer believes that you are not being upfront and honest you will pay a severe price.
Those that are different stand out, attract attention and if the customer experience is authentic - trust.
This is what creates brand leaders. Yet many fail to get this right and the reason is a very simple:
It’s sad but we are taught to comply rather than dare.
Your customer is not asking you for what they can get from someone else or for conformity. They are looking for something different, a customer experience that blows their socks off – all you need to do is dare.
This is why most marketers are no longer marketers. They lost the dream a long time ago and become highly adept marketing technicians. They have assimilated and perfected the traditional marketing models as their own.
They have become adept at buying media space, creating TV commercials, and worrying about the bleed on the front page of the magazine commercial.
It is the marketers who have dared that are great today. They are the rebels of our society and have created brands that are – well – mind-blowing to say the least. The customer experience really rocks. And to get this right they did one of two things really well:
And then they created RaveTopia - a community which they are a member of. These are brands like:
There’s nothing like them in the world. They stand apart. They dared to be different do something that wasn’t taught in business school. Our challenge to you is to create a brand that stands alone because it dared to be different. It fought to overcome mediocrity. To be part a community where your customers are your source of inspiration.
You just need to focus on three things
Go and create a mindblowing customer experience
Customer service often comes across as patronising; arrogant; disinterested; rude; indifferent; bored; and a general lack of care. This creates a really bad customer experience and damages customer loyalty.
In South Africa the chances are this is how you are treated when phoning a large company. Their customer service message is simple:
We have so many clients that you don’t count. And yes, we can afford to lose you.
You have no loyalty to this company (and their customer loyalty score sucks) and your motive now becomes destructive – you will tell everyone you know how bad the company is. You will also move to a new service provider when it suits you.
Yet we are all customers of someone. Ironically the same staff get the same treatment they dish out. Perhaps the easiest way to solve poor customer service is to ask those staff:
How would you like to be treated?
I can guarantee no-one wants a patronising; arrogant; disinterested; rude; indifferent; bored; and a general lack of care customer service person dealing with their problem.
When we say business is about relationships maybe it’s time to be human again. To really focus on the relationship and ask a very simple question:
Treat others as you want to be treated.
Make this your golden rule when it comes to creating customer loyalty and you can’t go wrong. I am sure that this may have a spin off effect of appealing to your staffs deeper desires and aspirations. You may just be very surprised to see what happens.
Walter Pike makes two very good points in his 2010 Bizcommunity.com trend report about the two assumptions that traditional marketing is built on:
It’s a point well made. As a consumer you know you’re not ignorant, you don’t believe what you are told. But as marketers we forget this and believe we need to build customer loyalty by trying to control the conversation. We believe that our marketing research defined marketing strategy is spot-on. Hogwash — and customer loyalty pays the price.
Here’s the truth about today’s marketing:
I can only wonder how much advertising money has been flushed down the toilet as these marketers attempt to push past the clatter to try and develop brand awareness as opposed to customer loyalty.
I know when I was at university I was taught this product driven approach to marketing. This system belief was supported by the large multinational companies are work for is the brand manager. The truth is the product driven marketing strategies are no longer relevant. Today’s marketing strategies have to be…
One my favourite marketing authors is Seth Godin. Like most people I love his books. His ideas are expressed simply and clearly. If there are two things that I have learned from these books it is this
So what are the implications of this change? I see…
I think the point that I’m making here is that it’s time to turn your business into a marketing department. It’s easy for your customer to see through the bull and they are looking for value for themselves — not you.
After if all you have is a product and no customers, you don’t have a business. And if you do have customer’s that are not stick around and buying more from you, you are far less profitable than you could be.
This year make your marketing goal to create a real customer experience and build customer loyalty.
Picture Credit: httpf://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
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