The document discusses how professional service firms can learn from big brands by better understanding the client journey. It emphasizes that firms should view the client relationship as a holistic journey from the initial branding and expectations through delivery and retention. Firms often fail to meet branding expectations at early contact points, negatively impacting the relationship. The document advocates learning from how top brands meticulously ensure expectations are met or exceeded at every touchpoint to build trust and loyalty over the long term.
I would define ‘Customer Experience’as:
‘How customers or prospective customers perceive their interactions with your organisation’
Customer experience encompasses every aspect of an organisation’s offering - the quality of customer care, of course, but also advertising, packaging, product and service features, ease of use, and reliability.
How can you drive a consistently good and improving Customer Experience for your customers or prospects?
In this A to Z I’ll give you some of the answers and some tips from Oak Consult
Customer Experience Myth Busting
“Customer Experience” is quickly becoming a catch-all to describe anything that is remotely related to customers. This presentation will bust some of the most commonly understood myths out there and set the record straight:
- Myth 1: Customer Experience is the same as Customer Service.
- Myth 2: It’s nice to do but it’s not going to impact the bottom line.
- Myth 3: It’s only relevant to retailers.
- Myth 4: You’re sorted if you have a customer experience department.
15 Reasons Your Customers May Be Jumping ShipFivestars
Are you noticing your small business’s foot traffic beginning to dwindle? Are you losing customers who used to be regulars? We know 15 reasons why this may be happening.
8 Steps to the Ultimate Surprise & Delight Campaign Digital Roots
We can bet you've been appalled and underwhelmed by the level of customer service you've received by a company. Have you ever been pleasantly surprised and delighted by a brand's customer service?
Engineer a surprise & delight effort that will boost your reputation, leave your customers satisfied and draw your prospects in. After some observation and testing, we’ve come up with an 8-prong attack to the surprise & delight campaign. It involves big data, incredible insight, strong tools and the keen ability to pick out the perfect present.
Are you game?
Your surprise & delight campaign will put you in the history books with the likes of Albert Einstein and Constantine the Great. Or at least pump up your customer retention, revenue and brand loyalty. And probably rack up your Facebook fans & Twitter followers.
I would define ‘Customer Experience’as:
‘How customers or prospective customers perceive their interactions with your organisation’
Customer experience encompasses every aspect of an organisation’s offering - the quality of customer care, of course, but also advertising, packaging, product and service features, ease of use, and reliability.
How can you drive a consistently good and improving Customer Experience for your customers or prospects?
In this A to Z I’ll give you some of the answers and some tips from Oak Consult
Customer Experience Myth Busting
“Customer Experience” is quickly becoming a catch-all to describe anything that is remotely related to customers. This presentation will bust some of the most commonly understood myths out there and set the record straight:
- Myth 1: Customer Experience is the same as Customer Service.
- Myth 2: It’s nice to do but it’s not going to impact the bottom line.
- Myth 3: It’s only relevant to retailers.
- Myth 4: You’re sorted if you have a customer experience department.
15 Reasons Your Customers May Be Jumping ShipFivestars
Are you noticing your small business’s foot traffic beginning to dwindle? Are you losing customers who used to be regulars? We know 15 reasons why this may be happening.
8 Steps to the Ultimate Surprise & Delight Campaign Digital Roots
We can bet you've been appalled and underwhelmed by the level of customer service you've received by a company. Have you ever been pleasantly surprised and delighted by a brand's customer service?
Engineer a surprise & delight effort that will boost your reputation, leave your customers satisfied and draw your prospects in. After some observation and testing, we’ve come up with an 8-prong attack to the surprise & delight campaign. It involves big data, incredible insight, strong tools and the keen ability to pick out the perfect present.
Are you game?
Your surprise & delight campaign will put you in the history books with the likes of Albert Einstein and Constantine the Great. Or at least pump up your customer retention, revenue and brand loyalty. And probably rack up your Facebook fans & Twitter followers.
Do you know what a touchpoint really is? How about what customer experience journey mapping is all about? We tackle a few subjects in Customer Experience to educate all of us!
28 tips solicitors can use to win more work from their existing clientsDouglas McPherson
All too often for solicitors the default when it comes to marketing and business development is 'new client acquisition'. It's actually easier to win more work form your existing clients and here are 28 tips to help you get started.
28 tips patent and trade mark attorneys can use to win more work from existin...Douglas McPherson
When it comes to marketing and business development the default setting is often 'new client acquisition'. However it may be easier to win work from the clients you already have ...
Here are 28 tips to make cross-selling, up-selling and more selling a little bit easier.
Outstanding customer service - the key to successful organizations, a competitive differentiator and a facilitator of customer loyalty - synonymous with one of the nation's leading fashion specialty retailers; Nordstrom is known for providing the ultimate customer service experience. How did Nordstrom earn this reputation? How did they become the national standard of customer service? What is the Nordstrom philosophy?
This insightful webinar provides you with a personal glimpse into the inner workings of the Nordstrom culture.
Service is Your Best Marketing Strategy: 5 Quick TipsFivestars
In 2011, seven out of ten Americans said they were willing to spend more with companies that they believe provide excellent customer service. Learn 5 quick tips to make sure your small business' customer service is top notch.
Delighting your customers. By empowering your employees and cultivating happy customers, you'll be in a much stronger position to retain, to upsell and to drive success among your customers. You'll pave the way for word-of-mouth referrals and stay ahead of your competition by battling the attitude of indifference that so often drives customers away.
This presentation is part of HubSpot's complimentary Inbound Certification. Get started at: http://academy.hubspot.com/certification
Email marketing - Build loyalty and level up slidesLaura Thwaites
Join us for a special masterclass on how to boost customer loyalty in your email campaigns. We'll be joined by email marketing legend Kath Pay, Founder and CEO of Holistic Email Marketing. Kath lives and breathes email marketing and is recognized as an international email marketing thought leader. This is one session not to miss!
If you are selling a service you are selling the invisible. How do you sell that? You are selling a promise of something. As the customer, we are often nervous because before we visit a new doctor, architect or use a new accountant. You are unsure if what they are going to deliver what they appear to promise. We often doesn’t know the cost before we talk with you. There is a lot of unknowns and for us, the potential customers. Even if you sell a product that has features and benefits you usually have a service component and customer experience opportunity. There are no guarantees. However we try and reduce these risks by understanding how much we can trust the service provider and what they deliver.
Service is around building relationships. It is a why of thinking like a customer to ensure you can build a great connection and meet your customers needs.
The future of financial services marketing communicationsChristopher Brooks
Lexden's presentation made to the PROTECT (life, health and payment insurance forum) in response to FCA consultation paper. Covering how marketing communications will change to meet consumers changing needs
You’ve been trying to get new prospects to buy from you, but that doesn’t seem to be going as fast as you would like. I’ve got news for you. You’ve been going at it the wrong way.
Getting new clients is very important for any business but it is expensive and time-consuming.
With the right strategies in place, you can leverage your current customer base to increase your business’s profits.
So rather than running around trying to get MORE customers, I’m going to share with you 10 ways you can make more money from your existing clients, by offering them more value!
Small businesses will often rely on their website for consumers to find them, so this is your opportunity to make a good impression with potential leads or returning customers. Therefore, you want to make sure that the site keeps your visitors engaged and interested.
There are few brands that aren’t aware of the importance of being engaging on the web, but smaller companies often don’t believe they have the resources or time to be updating their websites on a more continuous basis with fresh and new content.
So what many small businesses do is create a Facebook page and forgo the website. There is no question that Facebook and other social media outlets are an excellent place to begin but if you want to gain the trust of your customer you need a website – it really is that important, because it shows that you have a company that is established.
Do you know what a touchpoint really is? How about what customer experience journey mapping is all about? We tackle a few subjects in Customer Experience to educate all of us!
28 tips solicitors can use to win more work from their existing clientsDouglas McPherson
All too often for solicitors the default when it comes to marketing and business development is 'new client acquisition'. It's actually easier to win more work form your existing clients and here are 28 tips to help you get started.
28 tips patent and trade mark attorneys can use to win more work from existin...Douglas McPherson
When it comes to marketing and business development the default setting is often 'new client acquisition'. However it may be easier to win work from the clients you already have ...
Here are 28 tips to make cross-selling, up-selling and more selling a little bit easier.
Outstanding customer service - the key to successful organizations, a competitive differentiator and a facilitator of customer loyalty - synonymous with one of the nation's leading fashion specialty retailers; Nordstrom is known for providing the ultimate customer service experience. How did Nordstrom earn this reputation? How did they become the national standard of customer service? What is the Nordstrom philosophy?
This insightful webinar provides you with a personal glimpse into the inner workings of the Nordstrom culture.
Service is Your Best Marketing Strategy: 5 Quick TipsFivestars
In 2011, seven out of ten Americans said they were willing to spend more with companies that they believe provide excellent customer service. Learn 5 quick tips to make sure your small business' customer service is top notch.
Delighting your customers. By empowering your employees and cultivating happy customers, you'll be in a much stronger position to retain, to upsell and to drive success among your customers. You'll pave the way for word-of-mouth referrals and stay ahead of your competition by battling the attitude of indifference that so often drives customers away.
This presentation is part of HubSpot's complimentary Inbound Certification. Get started at: http://academy.hubspot.com/certification
Email marketing - Build loyalty and level up slidesLaura Thwaites
Join us for a special masterclass on how to boost customer loyalty in your email campaigns. We'll be joined by email marketing legend Kath Pay, Founder and CEO of Holistic Email Marketing. Kath lives and breathes email marketing and is recognized as an international email marketing thought leader. This is one session not to miss!
If you are selling a service you are selling the invisible. How do you sell that? You are selling a promise of something. As the customer, we are often nervous because before we visit a new doctor, architect or use a new accountant. You are unsure if what they are going to deliver what they appear to promise. We often doesn’t know the cost before we talk with you. There is a lot of unknowns and for us, the potential customers. Even if you sell a product that has features and benefits you usually have a service component and customer experience opportunity. There are no guarantees. However we try and reduce these risks by understanding how much we can trust the service provider and what they deliver.
Service is around building relationships. It is a why of thinking like a customer to ensure you can build a great connection and meet your customers needs.
The future of financial services marketing communicationsChristopher Brooks
Lexden's presentation made to the PROTECT (life, health and payment insurance forum) in response to FCA consultation paper. Covering how marketing communications will change to meet consumers changing needs
You’ve been trying to get new prospects to buy from you, but that doesn’t seem to be going as fast as you would like. I’ve got news for you. You’ve been going at it the wrong way.
Getting new clients is very important for any business but it is expensive and time-consuming.
With the right strategies in place, you can leverage your current customer base to increase your business’s profits.
So rather than running around trying to get MORE customers, I’m going to share with you 10 ways you can make more money from your existing clients, by offering them more value!
Small businesses will often rely on their website for consumers to find them, so this is your opportunity to make a good impression with potential leads or returning customers. Therefore, you want to make sure that the site keeps your visitors engaged and interested.
There are few brands that aren’t aware of the importance of being engaging on the web, but smaller companies often don’t believe they have the resources or time to be updating their websites on a more continuous basis with fresh and new content.
So what many small businesses do is create a Facebook page and forgo the website. There is no question that Facebook and other social media outlets are an excellent place to begin but if you want to gain the trust of your customer you need a website – it really is that important, because it shows that you have a company that is established.
We have written a guide that covers all the lessons we have learnt from starting our own agency and supporting other agencies on pricing and packaging their services, get it here.
Are you struggling to create content that engages your audience? Content marketing success relies on your ability to understand and target the customer context. This guide helps you do just that.
Moving from NOW to NEXT in the Marketing of Insights FortuneCMO, LLC
Insights Marketing Day | #IMD15 | 9-21-15 | by Steven Cook
Every business vertical today is experiencing rapid disruption of business models, value propositions, products and services & customer expectations. The Market Research industry is similarly facing big changes. It is more important than ever for insights businesses to understand & use state-of-the-art marketing & brand building approaches to better engage with customers, prospects & strategic partners.
Educating The Customer – Leading To Better SaleseTailing India
People used to create brand through a process, through awareness, product proposition and then may be getting loyalty but now things are fast.Products are becoming very complex where today products are a combination of product and service. So it becomes difficult whether you educate about the product or the service.
Writing good copy entails being able to sell your reader just about anything by demonstrating it’s real benefits and utilizing key strategies in your material.
The most beneficial way to do that is to follow some different rules that are an awesome way to better your chances of selling your product. Being persuasive is your most beneficial skill when writing copy, and that's accented most by your power to showcase the advantages of whatever you're selling.
********************************************************************
THE KEY WITH CLICK AND BANK IS EVERYTHING IS AS SIMPLE AS IT POSSIBLY COULD BE ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IS DONE FOR YOU
It includes high-quality content that your customers will love and come to your site every day. Also, It comes along with DFY monetization methods. You can start to get your business on the race just by one click.
Find Out More
https://www.facebook.com/makemoneyboss.xyz
https://bit.ly/2y9UYfl
ClickBank copywriting secrets part one. Inside this
eBook, you will discover the topics about why the top is the most
important aspect, writing a powerful headline, understanding the
psychology of headlines, headlines examples and headline swipes
you can use.
5 Keys to an Amazing Value PropositionCarl Hartman
Every have someone tell you that you need a value proposition or unique selling proposition, but no definition as to how to do that. This slideshare does, with good detail.
This slideshare and the free workbook that is available will help you create the basis for your marketing strategy.
Customer Service + Branding = Added ValueMartha Brooke
Is your contact center reinforcing or degrading your company's brand?
Read about to improve customer service by adding value.
Branded customer service adds value to each customer interaction by reinforcing and demonstrating the qualities that make your company unique. It reminds customers why you’re special, shows that you care, and makes an impression that is vastly more powerful than any TV ad, web banner, or promotional piece could ever be.
Email connect@InteractionMetrics to learn more!
A power point presentation I put together on McConeell & Huba's Creating Custer Evangelists Audio book. Does not include their case studies however it's good information about creating customer evangelists & marketing.
1. 4 pm | April 2016
insight
Big brand lessons:
The client journey
I
’ve always thought the professions
could learn more from the big brands
of this world. Of course our audiences
are different, and the budgets are
certainly different. But at the end of the
day, we all need to use resources we have
available to convince others to choose our
product or service.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not
suggesting for a moment that profes-
sional services brands start investing in
off the wall prime-time advertising
campaigns. But for me there is one thing
in particular that big brands do excep-
tionally well.
They all invest significant amounts of
time and money in understanding the
client journey.
It’s one of those phrases that sounds
clichéd. And maybe it is, but really
getting to grips with what your clients
(and potential clients) experience
throughout their interactions with your
firm is the key to client retention, growth
and of course, increasing that all impor-
tant profit margin. Particularly now in
this time of intense competition.
And why wouldn’t we want to learn
from those with seemingly infinite
budgets and research departments to
rival NASA?
Moments of truth
In promoting and delivering our services
we create dozens of moments of truth
with each client (or potential client). This
Susan Pettit believes that those firms that get to
grips with the importance of the client journey will
be the ones to reap the biggest rewards – but what
can firms learn from the big brands of the world?
and values statements for professional
services firms, without investing time or
resource in ensuring the actual experi-
ence matches the expectations created.
How many clients are lost at the first
hurdle when brand expectations lovingly
crafted by the marketing department are
shattered by a bad switchboard experi-
ence or an un-returned phone call?
My favourite example when
discussing moments of truth is Apple.
The company may have some funda-
mental issues with public opinion
relating to its tax strategies, but that
aside, Apple is in my opinion an excellent
example of getting the customer journey
just right.
Their branding and positioning sets
the scene. Its shiny, slick and aspirational
– there’s the start of an emotional
connection. We already know their prod-
ucts are going to cost more than those
proffered by the competition, but that’s
OK, because we just want them (well I do
anyway). They’ve made a brand promise
that I buy into.
When you go into the store to peruse
the products, it’s also shiny and slick. I
went in to talk to one of their ‘specialists’
(aka salespeople) about the latest piece of
tech, yet the chap I spoke to went out of
his way to tell me it was OK if I didn’t buy
anything. He wasn’t on commission, he
just loved talking about the products. And
I genuinely believed him.
I bought a product and took it home.
According to
McKinsey, customer
journey led
transformations
improve satisfaction
by 20% and full
revenue growth by
between 10% and 15%.
Bingo.
is where the client’s expectations are eval-
uated against their actual experience.
We have an opportunity to meet,
exceed or fail, at each and every one of
these moments.
Yet how many firms out there have
taken the time to really understand what
each of these moments are? Many will
have invested in evaluating service
performance or satisfaction against a
particular matter, but what about the
myriad of moments of truth that the
client encountered before they reached
those stages?
Millions of pounds are spent every
year in the UK on branding, positioning
This article originally
appeared in PM magazine.
For further details go to
www.pmforum.co.uk
2. pm | April 2016 5
insight
Susan Pettit is a highly
experienced marketer who
set up Client Central in 2015
to help firms take a holistic
view of the benefits of a
client journey focused
approach. Visit: www.client-
central.co.uk
relationships are far harder to shift than
the traditional supplier / buyer relation-
ship.
Let’s look at a big brand example of
how to make a customer feel important.
Lily Robinson (three and a half years
old) was confused by one of Sainsbury’s
products called tiger bread. In her eyes,
the bread didn’t resemble a tiger at all,
and in fact looked very much like a
giraffe. I have to say I agree.
With a little help from her mum and
dad, she wrote a letter to Sainsbury’s
customer service department asking why
it was called tiger bread and explaining
that she thought it should be called
giraffe bread.
To her surprise, a customer support
manager wrote back. He explained: “I
think renaming tiger bread giraffe bread
is a brilliant idea – it looks much more
like the blotches on a giraffe than the
stripes on a tiger, doesn’t it? It is called
tiger bread because the first baker who
made it a loooong time ago thought it
looked stripey like a tiger. Maybe they
were a bit silly.”
Lily’s mum naturally loved the
response, and posted a copy on her blog.
Word spread and next thing you know,
Sainsbury’s launched a campaign to
announce the change in the products
name. It’s still on the shelves now,
labelled giraffe bread. I bet Lilly and her
parents felt pretty good about that. And
that’s the sort of emotional connection we
all buy into.
What can we learn?
In my opinion, those firms that really get
to grips with the importance of the client
journey will be the ones to reap the
biggest rewards in the years to come.
Remember that brands – in their beau-
tiful shiny brilliance – create an expecta-
tion that needs to be met or exceeded
throughout the entire lifecycle of a client.
Investing in one end of the journey
(brand) or the other (client satisfaction)
only reveals a very small part of the real
opportunity.
How many times have you shared
examples of your amazing experiences
with your lawyer or accountant over
dinner? Food for thought at least.
Almost a full year later, there was a
problem with it. I’d no receipt, no proof
of purchase, but popped back into the
store to see if they could help. My details
were checked on the system, the item
taken away and immediately replaced
with a brand new one. No questions
asked. New warranty included. Guess
how many people I’ve told that story to?
I’m what you might call a brand
ambassador. Because they not only met,
but exceeded, my expectations all the way
through the buy / sell relationship. I now
trust the brand, its products and its
customer service. Next time I need a new
bit of tech, guess where I’ll be heading?
Let’s get straight to the bottom
line
All firms want increased profitability. The
vast majority of firms I have worked with
strive to gain ‘trusted advisor’ status with
their clients. Knowing that being in this
coveted position increases loyalty and
reduces price sensitivity.
But will traditional client manage-
ment techniques get you there? Probably
not.
The reason for this, is that there is
(generally speaking) no emotional
connection between the client and the
firm. The firm has its priorities and the
client has theirs. There’s a notion that
somewhere there needs to be a meeting
in the middle, but because the relation-
ship has been established on two
different sets of terms, any meeting of
minds is often grudgingly given. Not the
ideal foundation for a long term and
mutually beneficial relationship.
Understanding your client’s expecta-
tions of their experience with you, means
that you both start from the same place.
If you meet (or exceed) their expectations
as you progress through each moment of
truth, you reaffirm the relationship,
building trust along the way.
Now you’re getting closer to being a
trusted advisor.
Suddenly price is less important. This
is because you have delivered what you
promised at each and every stage of your
relationship. Taking this approach also
means that you are looking at the client
relationship as a whole, reviewing the
entire client lifecycle. This breaks down
individual practice group silos, increases
growth potential and identifies cross-
selling opportunities.
According to McKinsey, customer
journey led transformations improve
satisfaction by 20% and full revenue
growth by between 10% and 15%. Bingo.
Why does it work?
Buyers of professional services are more
savvy than ever before. They all know it’s
a competitive market, and that there are
at least a dozen suppliers vying for every
piece of work.
Give them a reason to stick with you.
To trust the trusted advisor, and not be
hoodwinked by the alternative provider
who says they can do the same job for
half the price.
People need to feel valued. That they
are important. Understanding the client
journey and delivering against your
brand and service promises, creates a
feeling of real value and importance. And
let’s not forget that embedded, trusted