In UnMarketing, we talked about a system to check in on customer sentiment called “Stop, Start Continue. “ We asked our current customers three questions – What would you like us to stop doing? What would you like us to start doing? What would you like us to continue doing? The answers to these three simple questions give us a good picture of where we’re sitting with our market and how we can improve. We need to be asking these questions and listening to the answers. This is the real brand statement for our business, more than any fancy framed motto we hang on our office wall.
We need to be taking the pulse of our customers - paying attention to how our actions are affecting their choices, and the way our brand is being represented in the Sales Cloud. We can do this by looking at External Pulse factors - the push and pull on the pulse line - taking customers from vulnerable, to static and ecstatic and back down again.
External factors affect the Pulse from the outside in. They pull the line up, or push it down - taking the customer on what can be a bumpy brand ride. These are controlled by the brand - product quality, customer service and public relations are all external factors affecting customer experience.
When a customer comes to us with an issue they’re having with our product or service, there are two possible reactions we can have – its our problem, or its not our problem. All too often, issues are met with each and every attempt at dismissal. You’ve called the wrong number, you’re in the wrong line, you need to do x before we can help you… As customers we hear these excuses every day. It seems like whoever we are speaking to will do just about anything to not help us.
One of the simplest ways to improve the customer service of your business and therefore the happiness of your customers, is to let their concerns be your problem. That doesn’t mean every employee needs to have a resolution for every issue – it means that every point of contact should be part of leading to the solution. Sometimes this can be as easy and connecting customers to the right department, rather than just sending them off with a new number and little hope.
Other external factors are competition. How are our competitors treating the market? What options are they providing that might affect their experience with us. Customers may be satisfied with a certain product or service, until they see there is a better one available or another pain point is being solved somewhere else.
T Mobile struck a chord with their competition’s customers when they launched a new program - the Uncarrier 4.0 initiative - offering to pay off any early termination fees for users who switched to their service. Mobile customers who are unhappy with their contracts, will often feel forced to stay in them because of the high fees for ending a contract early. T Mobile knew this and decided to make a bold step toward stealing these unhappy customers away. They saw the early termination fee as an external factor ruining customer experience and decided to provide a happy, less costly, alternative.
TMobile asks prospective customers to “write their break-up letter” to their current mobile provider and share it with others. “If you're feeling stuck in a contract with no way out, or scared to leave thanks to big ETFs, we feel you. It's OK to want out. Remember, it's them - not you.” You can even see who other’s have broken up with on the “who’s dumping who” page. The approach is perfect for the market they’re after. This isn’t the first time they’ve focused on common pain points in their industry to steal customers from the competition. They also let users upgrade their phones earlier than other plans and offer free international roaming.
Internal customer factors and AIM
In the end, as businesses we do not determine customer choices – they do. Purchasing decisions are made based on a variety of factors, not all of which we are always able to affect. What will lead one person to swear off a brand, may barely affect another and in some cases even lead to brand loyalty.
“I just felt like a change and wanted to try something new.” “We moved to a new house and needed a grocery store nearby” “We took up a new sport and need all the gear.” “My son has an allergy and we need products to help.”
These are all examples of internal, individual factors that shape the Pulse. Each will affect the experience a person has with a brand. Once the brand no longer meets these internal needs, no matter what they do, the Pulse will suffer. On the other hand, a person can become an ecstatic customers quickly when these internal factors are met.
Individual characteristics like age and location all shape our decisions. We don’t want to place our marketing efforts ahead of the customer curve. A millennial customer with an iphone is going to have different patterns than a senior who reads the newspaper every night. They may both be potential customers, but how we reach them may be different.
Proximity or convenience is a huge internal factor. We will put up with a lot of things - bad service, mediocre quality - and even ignore competitors all because a brand is close by, or easy to access. That’s why thinking about how our customers want to consume our content, or purchase our products and/or services is so important. When was the last time you tried to buy something from your own company? How was the experience? Making customers jump through unnecessary hoops is dangerous in a world where online sales are made in minutes and delivered in hours. Test out how your customers experience your store and website, even your newsletter. It shouldn’t be a work out to buy from you.
Marketers are customers. We are all customers. And in UnSelling we recognize that purchasing decisions are being affected by social voices more and more. As we’ve been talking about, there are external and internal factors affecting our customers experience all the time, moving their Pulse from vulnerable to ecstatic.