#CustomerExperience – Are you getting it right?

Picture this: It’s July and you’re about to jet off on that holiday you’ve been saving for all year. Finally you’re in the airport, dreaming about stepping off the plane into the scorching sun. Everything is wonderful, until… “Flight 303 to Bali is delayed by approximately 3 hours, please remain in the waiting area until further notice”. You are now stuck, balancing on the floor between cases in an overcrowded airport scoffing your third Tesco meal deal of the day. In moments, your experience is ruined.

You’re angry, ready for World War 3. Weapon of choice? The mobile phone. It’s time to verbally attack through social media.

Being able to go online to voice our anger is great for the consumer, but not so much the brand.  It’s a tough job keeping your customers happy all the time, and the senior level executives at our NG Chief Marketing Officers Summit would definitely vouch for that.

Every other question was “How can we create a seamless customer experience for all?”, aka “How can I stop my customers tweeting mean things when they aren’t happy?”
As Sprinklr highlighted in their workshop, 89% of companies compete based on customer experience, so getting it right is fundamental.

Creating a “seamless customer experience” means keeping the customer happy and providing a service designed exclusively around them. As Senior Director of Integrated Marketing at Elsevier, Karen Jenkins said, “The consumer needs to be at the heart of everything you do”. Throughout the summit there was also an emphasis on delivering “the right content at the right time” to ensure a great customer experience. Sounds like a given I know, but you’d be surprised at how many brands get this wrong…

Rolls-Royce’s General Manager of Marketing, Marc Mielau, said brands need to be able to “engage on a one to one basis, be it physical or digital”. If your consumers are taking to Twitter then so should you – engage digitally. Apologise publicly to your customers. Why not inject a little humour? Like Sainsbury’s, who perfectly harnessed the power of social to create a great customer experience. Read their humorous conversation here…

These public Twitter responses show how brands can operate on a platform that their customers use for bad press, to build good press. Whatever you do, DON’T do it wrong.

Did you hear about the US Airways accidental porn tweet?Long story short: customer complained on Twitter, customer received apology on Twitter, customer complained again, then in a hurry to respond, US Airways accidentally attached a pornographic image to a tweet. Disaster! Really think about placing the right content at the right time, otherwise you may encounter mishaps like this again. ..

My main learnings from the CMO Summit?

1)  Your consumers use Twitter as a vocal tool, so why can’t you?

2) Have a personality, don’t just be a ‘brand’ online.

3) Get your timing right!

PS… Hopefully you’ll never get it as wrong as Susan Boyle’s PR. Remember the hashtag for ‘Susan album party?’ #susanalbumparty. Read between the lines…

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