I’ve seen a variety of customer experiences from different brands during my browsing to delivery lifecycle, and there are clear winners and losers. The winners, and therefore the brands I’ll be most loyal to, are the ones who sparked an emotional connection with me through the way they engaged with me. They recognised the importance of delivering a consistent and rewarding brand experience from my very first interaction to the last. In my case, that last interaction is delivered by a courier company (excuse the pun). So having a scrappy note through my door, to tell me that my item has been left in my blue wheelie bin, is probably not part of a brand’s engagement strategy. Creating this type of negativity with consumers is damaging and it does affect a customer’s perception of a brand.
The very public collapse of one delivery firm and the public outrage at another’s treatment of 2014’s ceramic remembrance poppies highlights the importance of delivery as a final stage in the customer experience. Many retailers will be looking back at what is likely to have been their peak home-delivery period and challenging themselves to strike the right balance between protecting their brand and driving down cost efficiencies with delivery suppliers.
One of my deliveries was from a much loved retailer who I view as the king of customer service, but the delivery let them down. My boxes were dropped over a locked side gate, no call in advance and no note through the door. But after calling to complain, their customer service machine zipped into action and I received a call at 9am on Monday morning and a survey shortly after. They have retrieved a negative situation, but not all brands have the goodwill with me, that this retailer has rightly earned over the years that I’ve been a customer.
Before loyalty can be earned the customer has to feel that they have an emotional connection with a brand and these connections can only be created once outstanding customer service is in place. Every time a customer interacts with a brand, whatever channel, it must be straightforward, easy, convenient and rewarding.
Get this wrong and you could be relying on a wheelie bin to leave the last brand impression.
By Susan Binda, head of loyalty marketing and insight at The Logic Group.
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