Companies must keep promises to customers
Queries not being answered quickly, jargon-heavy communication, confusion over how long things take — all of these factors can influence a customer’s decision to remain loyal.
Most companies in Ireland are falling short. There is a growing trend of customer dissatisfaction with Irish companies that say one thing and do another.
This tendency to over-promise and under-deliver will likely continue, as consumers demand better customer experiences (CX).
This is not only an Irish phenomenon; companies in the US and UK are also struggling to keep up with customer expectations. However, the gulf between brand promises and what is delivered is particularly wide in the Irish market.
Our recent Ireland Customer Experience Report for 2016 shows that the supermarket sector is recognised by Irish consumers as the most successful in meeting, or even exceeding, their expectations, while the least successful is the insurance sector.
Among the sectors that scored highest was the credit union movement, which regards face-to-face interaction as hugely important, but is also embracing digital and social media to ensure it remains relevant to the next generation. Aldi and Lidl also score highly.
The way customers’ expectations are created has changed. It used to be that if someone was choosing a phone company, their expectations would be based upon their experience of other phone companies and that would be it.
Now, customers compare each experience they have with their last best experience. This shift in consumer culture has been driven by trailblazer brands, who have raised the bar, and by customers sharing their best (and worst) experiences, via word of mouth and digital media.
Huge pressure is on companies to deliver a consistent, personalised, and effortless customer experience across every channel.
Not so long ago, companies only had to worry about phone, face-to-face contact, and mail. This has multiplied into apps, social media, web, email, and video, giving customers huge choice in how they deal with brands.
Hence, consumers’ demand for immediate attention when something goes wrong. The world’s best CX-focused organisations recognise that no matter how well-designed and efficient their processes, occasionally things will go wrong.
They turn a potentially negative situation into a positive one by putting things right straight away, resulting in delighted customers who share their positive experience.
The report reveals that all industry sectors in Ireland are poor in resolving customer problems. Often, consumers are made to feel they are at fault when they complain.
If you want to deliver CX excellence, you have to assume that your customer is right until it is absolutely plain that they are not.
Happy customers are a brand’s strongest asset; they will stay loyal and sell your brand for you. Unhappy customers can cause untold problems.
Irish businesses need to start under-promising and over-delivering, if they are to give customers great experiences. Once commitments are made to the customer, they must be followed-through, consistently, every time. It’s the ability to do the small things brilliantly that makes the difference.
CX is the new strategic imperative, and a single-minded focus on customers will help companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors and create growth for their business.
* Cathy Summers is a director of Dialogue, the customer-experience agency. The company will be hosting a CX masterclass in Trinity College Dublin on November 9.
For full details, go to www.dialogue.ie/cxmasterclass
