Delivering great customer experiences: three steps to business transformation
Horror stories of poor service have long been headline grabbers. Nowadays, the rise of social media means one bad customer experience can be shared around the world in a matter of hours. And that matters; in Ipsos’s annual Sustainable Business Monitor, customer service is the most frequently mentioned factor that the British public looks for when judging a company’s reputation1. That places it ahead of quality of products and services and honesty and integrity, a pattern that has emerged over the last decade.
Around the world, consumers are telling us that poor experiences really do make a difference to what they do. In our recent Global Trends Survey, four in ten British consumers say they have avoided a company or brand because of a bad experience2. In 18 of the 20 countries covered it varies between one-third and two-thirds. That’s an awful lot of work that could be going the way of your competitors if you don’t get it right. Yet it could be so different – globally, four in ten say they have chosen a brand because of a positive experience.
Many of our clients have been working hard at the front line to ensure that these problems don’t arise; that their customers experience great service day after day. Yet Britain’s business leaders recognise that there is still more to be done. According to our latest Captains of Industry survey, when asked to rate their organisation’s performance, only a fifth of board directors at Britain’s biggest companies give their businesses top marks on consistently delivering high quality service – by top marks, we mean giving themselves a nine or ten out of ten. The majority, 61%, see themselves as doing only ‘moderately’ well at 7 or 83.
It is a similar picture when looking at two fundamentals of great customer service - understanding customers’ needs and acting on their feedback. Particularly striking is the fifth who rate themselves as no more than a six when it comes to acting on feedback from customers.
Perhaps this is just old-fashioned British modesty? But we think it is more than that. Business leaders are acutely aware of the challenge of competition, whether from low cost entrants based on the other side of the world or technology-driven disruptors. Despite what many people think, they are also often the most critical of their own organisation, even while they are also its greatest ambassador. So a more reassuring interpretation is an absence of complacency in Britain’s boardroom and a recognition that that ‘we need to do better!’.
Where should they focus their efforts? The companies that are leading the way are engaging in three complementary activities:
- First, they are taking nothing for granted and forcing themselves to look with fresh eyes at what customers want. They are spending significant time with them to understand the context in which they interact with the brand, finding out what the moments of truth are and how they feel about them now – and how they want to feel about them.
- Second, they are giving front line employees the tools to make a difference for customers. Technology is a key enabler, giving employees the ability to listen and respond rapidly.
- Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they are using story-telling to win hearts and minds from the boardroom to the front line. Only by creating rich and compelling narratives about great experiences can companies really put the customers at the centre of what they do.
Technical note: 1 Ipsos Sustainable Business Monitor, 1,011 interviews were conducted face to face via Capibus among GB adults 16+. Fieldwork 1-10 August 2014. Data has been weighted to reflect the adult population (16+) in terms of age, gender, region, social grade, ethnicity, housing tenure and working status. 2 Global Trends Survey: 16,039 adults aged 16-64 interviewed online using Ipsos’ Global @dvisor panel. Fieldwork 3-17 September 2013. Data weighted. 3 Captains of Industry: 108 executive board-level directors and chairmen from the top 500 industrials by turnover; top 100 financial companies by capital employed. Fieldwork conducted face-to-face or by telephone between September and December 2014.
