Why customer service is central to building and maintaining your brand

» Branding

A 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.


Design in a nutshell: the Open University

» Architecture, Culture, Design

The Open University has made a brilliant set of animated shorts on six key design movements: Gothic Revival, Arts and Crafts, Bauhaus (above), Modernism, American Industrial Design, and Postmodernism.

The collection is called Design in a Nutshell, and you can also take a short quiz to find out who your design alter-ego is.

 

Via The Kid Should See This


Supercell video

» Blog

A stunning supercell video by photographer Mike Oblinski.


IBM Smarter Cities urban furniture

» Creativity, Design

IBM-smarter-cities

As part of its Smarter Cities project, IBM has launched a number of brilliant advertisements which double as urban furniture.

IBM-smarter-cities-rain

Produced in collaboration with Ogilvy Paris, the inspired billboards incorporate seats, ramps and a shelter from the rain.


The libraries gave us power

» Books

The Libraries Gave us Power

Just yesterday I was in a library with my partner, saying how much I loved libraries. A room full of digital reading devices just doesn't feel, or smell, the same. If you love libraries, you'll probably like this: http://www.thelibraries.co.uk/


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I'm a writer, designer and educator living in Tokyo and working with lovely people all over the world.

 

Contact me: richard@storm-from-the-east.com

My books (available on the Kindle store):

» The art of creating attention-grabbing press releases
» Web Clean: a guide to creating simple, stylish, intuitive websites