Why customer service is central to building and maintaining your brand
» BrandingA recent report by Accenture sheds some very revealing light on customer service: around half of surveyed consumers say they've left at least one vendor because of poor service; more than half of those say they would have stayed loyal if they'd been rewarded for their loyalty; and nearly 70% would have stayed if a problem had been resolved with one call.
I'm guessing you can't really afford to lose between 50-70% of your consumers, but how much emphasis are you putting on customer service?
A few things to watch out for include:
- Customer rewards
People like feeling valued, so giving them rewards for their loyalty is a good way of earning it. But make the reward real. Give something of genuine value, be it tangible goods or a service. Make it something you'd love to receive and chances are your consumers will love it, too. - Be prompt, be polite
Do you enjoy being ignored or talked down to? Neither do your consumers. Remember that they're not consumers, they're people (I know that sounds trite, but it seems some people forget). Deal with them promptly, politely and correctly. If you can't answer their concern or query immediately, explain why and answer it as soon as possible. - Substance over style
As I mentioned a while ago, if the seat on your plane is coming loose, you're probably not going to be giving too much thought to the logo on the tail fin. If you've got great customer service in place to back up a great product, it'll do a great do a great deal more for your brand than a nice logo.
So while there are lots of things that you can do to make your brand successful, if you alienate your customers or don't show them the level of respect and service they deserve, you won't have a brand at all.
