Companies Missing Big Opportunity to Turn Customer Pain Into Competitive Gain, Says CMO Council Report - MSNBC Wire Services - msnbc.com

Very happy to see that people are actually studying the role that experience plays in creating brand loyalty. I must admit that I'm constantly amazed how brand managers can understand this connection in their own lives, by having the experience drive where they shop, etc., but as soon as they put their corporate hat on, they completely forget it! While a few companies have added Chief Experience Officers (CXO) to their C-suite, most companies have not. They still see brand experiences in terms of experiential or guerrilla marketing programs. They don't get that if I have a bad customer experience, it will negate all of the marketing/advertising you're doing. All of it.

And yet, the role of customer experience is often relegated far down the line and I would bet that most c-level staff is completely insulated from the entire customer experience process. I mean, they never have the same problems with brands that the rest of us have. While I like his commercials, I doubt that when Dane Hesse calls Sprint customer service to fix a problem, I doubt that he gets put on hold or has to go through 10 minutes of menus to get help.

Look at these stats from the msnbc article:

In fact, 83 percent of respondents said it is either "essential" or "increasingly important" in driving brand advocacy and business performance. In addition, 84 percent said positive customer experiences and word of mouth have helped their brands and businesses grow. There were 44 percent of respondents who admitted that high-profile negative customer experiences had at some time compromised their brands.

How can 83% of the people surveyed say experience is so important and then only 31 percent rate their company's commitment to customer listening highly? We sure like to talk about the importance of customer experiences, but we're clearly not putting the effort into it that we should. Not because it's even the right thing to do. Because it's critical to the success of your company.

Currently, Circuit City is liquidating after a dismal performance during the '08 holiday season. And one of the items that's always discussed is how they decided to fire all of the knowledgeable staff in favor of less experienced, cheaper staff. So, what happened? People stopped shopping there because they couldn't get the product information that they needed to make a purchase decision. When we companies learn that staff that knows what they're doing is a really critical path t success. I bet that as they fired their experienced staff, the management of Circuit City laughed at how much Apple must spend for all of those geniuses. Yet, I remember reading somewhere that Apple stores generate $4,000/square foot in revenue. I bet the Circuit City execs wouldn't laugh at that number for their stores.

And yet despite the fact that every piece of information available, from actual research to personal anecdotes, shows that experience is the most critical part of a companies success or failure, we just don't give it the weight it deserves. Customer service is seen as something that companies are forced to do and many do it at a bear minimum. Social media folks love to point at how zappos uses Twitter or some kind of tool as part of their customer service strategy, but they fail to mention that customer service is at the core of everything they do. It's not just a tactic.

When we're doing client meetings, we always ask where "create a better customer experience" falls on the list of reasons that they do things. And quite honestly, it's not always as high as it should be. Too many companies today focus on creating value for their shareholders, when they should be focusing on their customers and employees. Yep, your employees. After all, if you can't create good experiences for your employees, how can you possibly create good guest experiences. Here's something I wrote about my own experiences doing the Electric Light Parade at Walt Disney World in Orlando back in the early 80's:

And although it's been 25 years or so since I did the parade, just hearing that music and the crowd brought all of those feelings back to me again. Sitting on my couch in West Orange, NJ, I felt the energy that I used to feel waiting to go out the gate at step-off. That performers high you get when you know you're about to bring something special to the audience that's been lining up for probably an hour just to see you. That my friends, is the hallmark of a great experience.

So, take a look at the experiences you're delivering right now and ask yourself this. 25 years from now, will one of your employees see something that brings back those memories and feel elated and excited knowing that they were part of it? Or will they be thinking I can't believe I used to do that. What a waste. We spend so much time trying to figure out how to create great experiences for our guests, but many times we don't even think about the employees. And if they're not feeling the elated and excited first, your guests never will!

When you hire, do you hire to save money or to find the best people possible to represent your brand? Would they be a great brand ambassador or are they simply a warm body that you can get on the cheap. Yea, I know money's tight, but give your employees something other then money to motivate them. Give them a passionate place to work. Give them the tools they need and let them make decisions. And don't be pissed off when you're employees don't care about the company when you cut their salaries/benefits while announcing that upper management made tens of millions in bonuses for saving the company money. If you're not going to treat them like they're important, they won't act like the company is important.

So, if the experience that the consumer has is that important to overall business success, stop screwing around. Make customer experience priority number one. Experience your company like a real consumer would and decide if you would still use your company if you weren't employed there. Go out and experience other people's brands and see what they're doing. It's not about using the right tactics, it's about really believing in what you do.

Despite overwhelming agreement on the importance of customer experience and word-of-mouth, senior marketers admit their companies are failing to take decisive, company-wide action to integrate customer voice and experience into key business and marketing processes, according to a new study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council.

Sponsored by Satmetrix, the Net Promoter Company, the study, titled "Giving Customer Voice More Volume," revealed that a surprising 58 percent of the 480 executives surveyed said their companies do not compensate any employees or executives based on customer loyalty, satisfaction improvements or analytics. Some 38 percent said their companies have no programs in place to track or propagate positive word of mouth among customers. In addition, only 29 percent said their companies rate highly in their ability handle and resolve customer problems or complaints.

-- Insufficient availability and aggregation of real-time customer experience data across touch points that should be shared across the organization

-- Poor use of customer interactions to collect insights and intelligence or maximize up-sell and advocacy opportunities

-- Lack of Internet processes and systems to track online word of mouth and drive customer advocacy

-- Intermittent or deficient monitoring of customer experience that fails to provide true and timely insights into problems and opportunities

-- Too few compensation programs tied to customer experience, loyalty and satisfaction gains

"Customer experience is one of the most critical determinants of brand strength and business growth. Yet, most organizations and senior marketers suffer from major blind spots and gaps in the way they interact, handle and respond to customer issues or problems," said CMO Council executive director Donovan Neale-May. "CMOs must assume ownership for the customer experience and establish enterprise-wide measures and disciplines to ensure continuous improvement. (Emphasis mine) We are missing a major opportunity to turn customer pain into competitive gain at every touch point through better use of web and contact center technologies and processes."

Companies Missing Big Opportunity to Turn Customer Pain Into Competitive Gain, Says CMO Council Report - MSNBC Wire Services - msnbc.com.

Riander Blog: The Chief Experience Officer.

Chief Experience Officer … it’s so much more than a title! | The Fast Company Blog | Fast Company.

Wanted: Experience Officer. Some Necessary. - New York Times.

Experience Manifesto: Shouldn't Every Employee be a Brand Ambassador?.

Experience Manifesto: WDW Electric Light Parade.

Experience Manifesto: Retailers prepare for a new, frugal future - Retail - msnbc.com.

MediaPost Publications Get Real: Hire a Chief Experience Officer 11/02/2007.

Wanted: CXO. A pdf of a London Business School survey of UK FTSE 100 companies done in 2006.

Comments

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I completely agree: a positive customer experience that leads to brand loyalty is an absolutely essential part of any business. They say that an individual who has a positive experience at a business will tell 3 others about it; however, if the experience were negative, 11 others would know! Word of mouth advertising can work both ways!