Creating, building and monetising Customer Loyalty.

I read some research  a few days ago from
www.researchandmarkets.com which I reposted on Twitter yesterday. It
talked about critical lessons in delivering a great customer
experience, with one of them being that our brands are only as strong
as their weakest link. Customer loyalty can disappear quickly with a
single negative experience.

The research showed that consumers/customers may not frequently
visit your brand’s web site, but once they do, a frustrating
interaction can lead to a lost customer. Perhaps even more frightening
is the opportunity to lose a customer at the call center, where too
many companies in the study saw their experience ratings drop compared
to other touch points. Yet the opportunity to strengthen the customer
relationship exists along every step of the brand value chain,
particularly when one step leads to another.

The study by researchandmarkets.com  showed that a positive call
center interaction that includes an introduction to valuable online
services can leave the consumer satisfied after that one call, but more
engaged with the brand over time. A web site that helps customers
navigate the instore shopping experience can pay brand dividends far
beyond a satisfying online interaction.

The biggest challenge facing service organisations today is
delivering a consistent customer experience. The amount of ways a
customer can interface with the organisation has rapidly increased.
There’s no system to ensure front line employees deliver the right
experience every time. There is no skillset and toolset designed to
efficiently deliver new and better services.

You may have the greatest product or service in the world, but if
your customers are let down at any point in the chain, it’s all
academic. Most companies I work with are extremely confused. They’ve
tried everything they know, but it’s not working. Using a Service
Design firm helps them figure out what it takes to succeed in
profitably delivering a great customer experience.

This research by researchandmarkets.com piqued my interest and
reinforced for me the value of Service Design and it’s contribution to
ensuring that companies deliver a seamless and consistent customer
experience for the purpose of creating, building and monetising
Customer Loyalty. There are other types of companies that look to 
create a “great customer experience”,  but more often than not, it is
one or two isolated “customer experiences”. The more I examine
successful Service Design case studies (both our own and others) I
realise that it is the ability to deliver consistency across every
touch-point  is the true and unique value that Service Design provides
service based companies.