Deliver on brand promise via Customer Experience
October 7, 2014
Deliver on brand promise via Customer Experience
You pulled out all the stops with a smart and savvy digital marketing campaign to acquire your latest customers. You impressed them with an offer they couldn’t resist and you connected with them on their favorite social platforms. Your playful SMS campaign really garnered the most attention. They made the purchase and now they have some questions. Your new customers want to text you like they did during the campaign but the customer service team doesn’t have the technology or capacity to handle SMS.
A brand promise is delivered to customers in the demand generation phase and it is critically important that customers’ expectations are met long after the initial purchase has been made. Managing the consumer experience is a long term and ongoing process and it can sometimes be overwhelming to decide where to focus efforts first. Here are a few considerations.
Get started identifying customer experience improvements
The hand off – Think about the transition from the initial marketing pitch to the first few touch points once they become a customer. The style and methods of communication used in the acquisition phase set an initial tone for customer interactions and there is an opportunity to strengthen the relationship with each new interaction. If there is a huge gap, consider leveraging some of the budget and technology allocated for the next marketing campaign to improve the first customer touch points.
The first 30-60-90 days- Consider the interactions your customers have with you in the first 30 days after their purchase decision. Map out what a members current journey looks like. What should the experience look like?
The skeletons– Despite all your best efforts there are things that are not working well in your company already. Your customer service team likely already gets an earful. Customer service issue reporting could be a great starting place, accounts payable, etc.
The ask– If you still haven’t uncovered any room for improvement you can always ask your customers how you could serve them better. You should do this anyway but that is a whole new blog post.
And finally once you decide on some of the biggest opportunities from a customer standpoint work your way through the list based on those that will also have a large financial return for your business.
7 Comments
Kristen Watts
Angela – I find this especially important while shopping on Amazon. The product can be amazing – but if there is negative feedback about the company, whether it be a slow ship time or bad customer service, I would prefer to purchase my items from a vendor that I count on if there is a problem.
Good Read.
KW
Linda Espinosa
Excellent points about following up the customer experience after a marketing campaign. I find this to be true more so on social media marketing as campaigns are so “short”. Sometimes companies get so involved in the details of a month/week long campaign and then forget to plan how to follow up with the same experience in the day to day. Thanks for the blog!
Angela Ritcey (Author)
Thank you Linda! SMM Certificates CHECK for both of us:) Agreed, long term planning is so important but has a whole new meaning in the social space.
Andrea Ward
When I see brilliant and innovative marketing campaigns driving awareness and trial, only to see repeat purchase nosedive because of poor customer maintenance, I weep. I’m a big fan your 30, 60, 90 day approach of trying to anticipate as much of the customer journey as possible. You may not anticipate everything, but you’ll at least look like you tried – which is all most of us really want. Lovely article.
Angela Ritcey (Author)
Thanks Andrea! You are so right, acquiring with no plans for retention is a sad state of affairs.
Laura Miller
Interesting how closely connected the customer experience is with the marketing campaign. Figuring out those “skeletons” and delivering on “The Ask” really allows a marketing department to bring customer perspective back to the company. Excellent blog, and very practical advice.
Angela Ritcey (Author)
Yes it is all connected from a customer standpoint. Thanks Laura!