Royal Mail - The retro customer experience

Dealing with Royal Mail is an experience that seems stuck in time unprepared to step into the Digital age of the 21st century. The lack of a monopoly in mail and parcel delivery that Royal Mail used to enjoy seems to have had little impact on the customer experience that they deliver. Primary point of sale remains the shop front that has opening hours unchanged since the 70's with paper based forms to purchase most services. Even when on the receiving end of the service to accept delivery of a parcel you are left to guess at its arrival time and then in the event you miss it are welcomed by the mystery red and white paper slip which you need to take to a depot and prove who you are. Where is the online functionality, the provision of a 24/7 service, customer centric journeys, clear customer comms that allow continuous dialogue with customers. Fact is none of these are in place and seem to have little likelihood of appearing any time soon. As soon as the lack of a monopoly position matures and the competitors emerge, Royal Mail is going to struggle and emerge out of the Digital age. R.I.P. Royal Mail. 

The experience of a day at Wimbledon

After a fantastic day at Wimbledon (www.wimbledon.com) on centre court where the experience is certainly epic it leaves a lasting impression that stays with you. Yes the tennis was amazing and seeing both Brits win certainly helped but the entire experience felt very special from waking up this morning. A large sporting event often carries extra gravitas but Wimbledon achieves so much more. It has focused on the details throughout. Very careful selection of products available at the venue make a huge difference. No low rent burger vans to be seen anywhere with quality hot and cold food and drinks on offer. Surroundings littered with flowers and careful decoration give the whole day a real magical flavour. Even the staff who are dressed in keeping with the brand but with a bit more class than a McDonald's burger flipper really carry the whole epic experience. Lots could be learned from this and used elsewhere with the additional effort certainly resulting in premium ticket prices that allow Wimbledon to operate at a profit year on year with 2012 a record with £37.8m profits. Let's look to use this great British example elsewhere and deliver real pride in our customer experiences. 

Epic customer experience starts with internal customers

Delivering a robust experience to your end consumer begins with the service delivered between your internal teams. Developing a veneer of quality customer experience that masks a poor internal experience will always break down with the gaps exposed to the end consumer.  Epic customer experience needs to be part of the culture and DNA of an organisation to ensure that every aspect of an end customers journey can be satisfied. Internal customers working with SLA's on deliveries is a start but deserves more than just this zeros and ones approach to dealing with each other. Equally engagement surveys and satisfaction questionnaires don't go far enough to achieving the right level for internal customers. The problem comes from internal teams not thinking about the sell and working to win the customer, it all can come too easy. Work to win your internal customers and treat them like a new external client so you can deliver epic customer experiences throughout your organisation.  

The customer experience of business conferences

The gauntlet of working your way around a business conference is far from an epic customer experience. But are corporate attendees at these events viewed as customers or are they purely valuable assets to land businesses paying a fee for their stand?  As you dodge your way around the numerous sales pitches hoping to make some useful connections and attend insightful presentations the customer experience is strained as you feel the full force of hard selling. As a customer of the conference is this my desired experience?  Is this a fair reflection on the brand that has organised the event?  To move to a more epic experience the hard selling needs to be tuned down and the recognition that if we make one or two connections at the stands that is enough. More focus on the value of the presentations and the networking would result in a far greater experience for the attendees with better discipline of the stand holders. Lets make the business experience a more epic experience for the customer. 

How many firms have a customer experience strategy?

As the economy continues to falter few businesses are escaping the pressures of securing sales. In conjunction with the past 5 years poor economic conditions the digital world has advanced at a fierce pace connecting customers with businesses, with other customers and with independent buying expertise. All of these factors have contributed to a more discerning customer who expects more for less and is happy to share their experience with their network. Customers demand and expect a good customer experience which has become a hygiene factor and as a result makes achieving epic customer experience an even harder target to realise. This raising the bar means epic customer experience isn't going to happen by chance and isn't going to happen without budget and resources. So given this challenging task how many firms have a customer experience strategy?  Something that gives a clear statement on what the customer experience looks like on a good day and the steps planned to achieve this and monitor how closely it is being achieved?  Not enough is the answer. All firms need this as a clear agenda item with their executive teams and prioritise it as an issue as important as their bottom line. Epic customer experience needs a strategy. 

Does the Net Promoter Score give enough of an answer?

Many organisations have become increasing advocates of the Net Promoter Score which is based on asking customers one simple question "how likely is it that you would recommend (company name) to a friend or colleague?"  The calculations then deriving an overall result based on customer feedback between 0 and10.  Customer experience measurements and metrics are far less established and standardised and the NPS results don't help provide insights on the performance of the customers experience. The score may hide poor customer experience that is masked by a great product at a great price or other factors all influencing in this area. Certainly customer loyalty and advocacy form a part in the definition of customer experience scoring but we need to refine so it gives a tighter result around the specifics of the customer experience. Factors that should be in the frame as well as loyalty/advocacy include time (efficiency), quality of the communications, satisfaction in the result and delight in the experience (the x-factor). This forms a much more complex set of results but gives a more rounded result on the level of epic customer experience. 

Knowing your customer

How well do companies really know and understand their customer base?  Certainly there is strong evidence of companies selecting a target market and working to deliver to meet the generic needs of this customer base but how much more than this do they really do?   Am I classified by my age, sex, job and location alone?  Does this explain that I like to do outside of these demographics?  My buying behaviour is more driven and influenced by these outside factors than the obvious ABC1 male type indicators.  Companies need to work hard using all the available "big data" floating around to understand for their customer base what are these common extra curricular behaviours that they can appeal to that really meet the hearts demands and not the minds that the basic demographic suggests. Epic customer experience means knowing me....really knowing me. 

Web stalking adverts

Internet cookies that sit in the background of your computer and then allow companies to push advertising to you as you navigate the Internet are scary to the informed and borderline witchcraft to the Internet novice. The latest EU legislation that has forced companies to be more open about their cookies policy doesn't seem to be working as all companies are doing is the bare minimum and then carrying on as before with banner advertising featuring throughout. Does this placed advertising enhance the customer experience and result in epic experiences?  Having more opportunity to buy something I looked at last week is useful if I had forgotten but for most of us that is not the case. Unusually this piece of legislation makes sense to me and stopping cookies that follow me round the Internet would lead to a more epic customer experience. 

Epic customer experiences need total customer access

Customer experience for many products extends beyond the point of sale but through the life of a contract for the services received. Achieving epic customer experience over this extended timeframe is substantially more challenging and for many businesses costly. Customers want to have full access to their service provider 24/7 and through whichever channel they favour. What this means in practical terms is that if I want to check how much my current utility bill is so far this month and look back over the previous three bills while sat in Starbucks at lunch then I need secure mobile access that is giving real time updates. If customers can't achieve this level of accessibility then they are looking around for providers who can meet this need. Is this all bad?  Some studies are indicating this need for access to customer service information anytime / anywhere is something customers view as a priority and as a result accept it warrants a premium so will pay more even where the service received itself may not be premium quality. This won't last though, customer expectation will normalise and it will become a hygiene factor all providers will need to deliver to survive. Epic customer experience needs total access to customer information and unless companies act fast they risk missing the boat. 

Small businesses delivering the magic ingredients for epic customer service

Delivering epic customer experience is often found in some form of a differentiator that makes the experience stand out. This USP or magic of customer engagement is something that comes more readily to small firms looking to go the extra mile in winning their customers loyalty and purchasing power. A small business will court a prospective buyer and consider a negative experience as potentially critical. Where they often have a smaller community of buyers or followers the voice of a single customer carries more weight and as a result means more to them. So how do they add this extra magic that results in epic experiences?  Small touches and a more personal feel are often listed as the difference, a better awareness of the customer and more empathy for their needs. No big bangs or fireworks but simply making the customer feel important to the company and making them feel valued. Big companies often lose this but maybe they should all spend a week with a start up and see how hard they work to meet their customer needs and build this into their customer journey and start giving a more epic experience. 

The unexpected gift to delight a customer

Companies struggle now to surprise customers with the customer experience. Expectation is generally very high and there and numerous forums where customers can vent about their poor and unsatisfactory service. So to surprise a customer and create an epic experience they were not expecting is becoming increasingly difficult. Amazon are trialling a new incentive for their customers by offering post purchase gifts in the form of credit on a future purchase. This goes a step beyond the lazy email offering you "10% off your next order over £57" and gives customers a free gift rewarding them for their custom. What makes this more valuable in terms of epic customer experience is that it is a surprise. It is an email that attempts to delight the customer and even if the credit is only £10 it makes a lasting impression. This could be extended into the realms of gamification where customers can win back the value of their goods in a pinball extra ball style opportunity. Surprising customers is a great way to create more epic customer experiences. 

Product comparison services

With the competition for e-commerce customers intense it is possible to buy most products from a range of suppliers. This increase in online shopping is also leading to most suppliers offering a range of products that are competing in the same space. This is especially true when it comes to purchasing technology that moves on so quickly and has so many innovative companies offering seemingly similar products be it laptops, cameras, tablets or phones. How can even the most well read customer know the difference between the latest Sony and Samsung?  Traditionally this would drive customers to a purchase in store with the opportunity to speak to an expert about the pros and cons of each product but customers want an epic experience online and they want to be able to self serve. To meet this need companies wanting to compete in this space need to offer as much product information as possible and advanced comparison services. This needs to go beyond just technical comparisons but also customer review comparisons and to really push the customer to a sale independent industry reviews and comparisons available directly next to the product. Save the customer having to search for online reviews and plant it with your comparison content if you are proud of your entire product line. Epic customer experience needs superior levels of product information and comparison tools to make an educated purchase decision. 

Sainsbury's mile long receipts

The Sainsbury's shopping experience appears to now be augmented by a receipt that comprises a wealth of add-ons. I welcome the additional opportunity to provide useful information but is it helping me to offer 12p off something if I first spend £40 on something else?  The complexity of offers devalues their proposition and if anything leads to frustration over the concept. With the sophistication now in place to do customer profiling Sainsbury's feel this permits the receipt explosion. Epic customer experience is always driven by simplicity and by understanding what the customer wants, this receipt bundling is missing the point by a long way and needs to be stripped back or stripped out. 

Monthly billing emails

Many suppliers will now steer customers to online paperless communications which delivers real cost savings. It also provides companies with the opportunity to augment their billing communications with more than just "Monthly bill = £43.21". There is scope to give better customer service information such as a report on the level of service received or the stability during the period. Unfortunately most companies use this opportunity purely to cross-sell and try to market new products. This fails to hit epic customer experience. Worse than this companies are making the billing amount almost anonymous by merely listing a value which may be different to what was expected. Why not give me a breakdown?  Why drive me to call you up and query this?  Virgin media are a good example of this sending out monthly bills with no explanation just a random number. Do they want a phone call every month?  Companies need to work on giving better information and cut back on the marketing new products if they want to reach epic customer experience. 

Hotel rooms - the affects of the aggregators

Recently I stayed at a hotel in London where the overnight rate was over £200 and had been organised for me. The hotel had all the facilities and services you would expect from a top class venue and staff focused on ensuring my customer experience was a positive one worthy of the price. But have hotels created a new problem by competing via the various travel aggregators?  When I looked out of curiosity at sites such as www.laterooms.com I found I could book the same room for much less. What did this then do to my customer experience?  Even though I wasn't paying for the room the fact it was available at a lower price I felt unfair and that the hotel should be providing me with the most affordable price and not take advantage of the fact I hadn't used a travel aggregator site. Hotels should drive for fair pricing and offer customers the best price whoever they are and drive an epic customer experience that is fair and builds their brand. 

Epic customer experience - a motivating driver

How much of a driver is the customer experience in a sale?  How much extra would I be prepared to pay to realise the better customer experience?  Putting a tangible value on customer service is difficult and requires a strong relationship with your customer base but there are many examples where people will pay more to achieve a better customer experience.  While it is difficult to quantify it is clearly a more sustainable long term business model. Competing on price and undercutting rivals is fierce and hard to sustain but building a culture where customer experience is paramount and aligned to pricing is a long term strategy that works. Investing more in the right people and developing them to maintain a level of customer service ultimately delivers greater reward and be more satisfying. Epic customer experience does not mean lower profits or lack of ambition but the opposite and done correctly creates great brands with pride in their identity. 

Online payment solutions - my choice

The world of e-commerce has developed rapidly over the past 20 years and fraudulent activity has moved as quickly adapting to this. So when we conduct business over the web we want assurance that this is going to be a secure transaction and that the company will protect your details so we trust them. This doesn't deliver epic customer experience though, this is what we expect as standard. The hygiene factor of security now needs to be supplemented with customer choice. Many of us conduct our web experiences on mobile devices (I am writing this blog from my mobile now) and because of this, payment methods need to be simple enough to do regardless of how fat your thumbs are. So when I complete a purchase on my mobile I want it to be secure but I also want to choose which payment method I use. Certainly I may wish to key in my card details each time and not have any retained data about my payment method but I may also wish to use PayPal or new technologies such as Barclays PingIt. For epic customer experience companies need to offer me all these options and more so that I can select the solution that I am most comfortable with and trust. Give me the choice and make it epic. 

Simple log in process

If you want me to log in make it easy. If I need a user name make it my email address as a default don't make me magic up a new name fitting your criteria that I will no doubt forget before I log out. Help me with my password but let me decide what it is. If I want to use "password" then let me but tell me what level of protection this gives me and suggest ways to improve - but let ME decide. Make it easy for me to reset my password because even if you are my bank when I go on holiday and abandon all things technology when I get home chances are I have forgotten. Give me choice as well for logging in, if I feel comfortable with you having access to my Facebook account let me authenticate through that but give me the choice. Make the customer experience fit my needs and make it as pain free as possible. Epic not complicated. My choice not yours. 

Buying online - the final mystery purchasing step

When using a company website to purchase products you hope for epic customer experience but the reality is you are prepared to settle for straight forward. One of the ultimate fails on this is when you have been through all the pain of buying a product to complete the purchase then unsure if it worked. Did they take my purchase request?  Have they taken the money?  Did they get my size details correct?  By using the website in the first place you are making the lives of companies easier. They don't need a big flashy shop. They don't even need a team of experts on standby in a call centre. So when the online experience is so bad you don't even know it has finished the company has failed and it is lazy in wanting your business. The customer journey should be clearly sign posted with progress tracking. Completion should result in a succinct email with all the right details and the website should leave you in no doubt that you have done everything right and your products will be on their way. Make sure the customer journey ends well otherwise you are just driving traffic to the phone or worse to a competitor.  

Promotional emails with symbols

As Spam filtering in emails becomes increasingly efficient the promotional space in an inbox is critical to grab the attention of the recipient.  This is increased on a mobile where there are a limited number of emails at any given time and attention is reduced further.  Some companies are now resorting to using images such as stars in the title banner to stand out from the crowd and ensure they don't make their way into the waste basket.  But do I want this, is this aiding my customer experience and my perception of your brand and your proposition?  If this becomes mainstream my inbox will become overwhelmed with this imagery.  Presumably it is only a step before I have sneering meerkats animated in my inbox next to talking bulldogs.  My customer experience is challenged enough by poorly crafted emails with incorrectly targeted content it does not now need a visual assault in the process making matters worse.  Stop using the symbols and keep emails to the point minimising wasting any of my time.

Nectar points customer proposition

The loyalty card concept delivers huge value for retailers in customer information. The Big Data opportunities of loyalty card usage are huge in understanding customer behaviour to aid targeted marketing and trends in demand of specific products. There is a fear within the consumer community that this is very Big Brother and a company knowing how much I spend on what is a step too far so resist the opportunity. For those prepared to engage on this then what are the benefits to the customer and how does it aid my customer experience. Tesco seem to be good at promoting what your points can be used for but are the nectar points so well understood?  Could more be done so I know my 5,200 points means I could have bought myself a new iPad?  Beyond this increase in awareness though there is the need for all companies to do more at the point of sale and think through how they can deliver epic customer experience that has been enhanced by the loyalty card. Gamification opportunities are here but as yet untapped. Customer awareness of how much they have and what this could mean are untapped. How about offering the advice that my shopping could be free because I have enough points?  Or pointing out there is a great deal on flights and I have enough right now to go to Italy. More could be done and the opportunities are there if companies consider how these cards could aid the purchase as well and not just a later event when they are at home. 

Priority moments in customer experience

When is it most important to get my customer experience right?  To exceed my expectations as a customer and wow me at that critical moment so I not only become a return customer but a champion of the brand?  At point of sale? At point of complaint should there be a problem?  Browsing before I have decided I want to purchase your goods? Key is to consider at each stage where the experience could be strengthened and deliver that added ingredient. If my product is being delivered I see the delivery agent as an extension of your brand so flexibility and professional service are essential. Wherever the customer touch point is it is a priority and any dip in standards will wipe out all the other good that may have been achieved. Make it count from the first moment to the last and make me into a sales person for you. 

Is there ever too much choice

When searching for a product on a website is having a wealth of choice always best?  Websites such as Amazon provide search facilities and filtering options for results but do we really want a shop front for everything that means even the most unique item delivers 3,567 results?  Even including customer reviews only increases this and leads to further procrastination. A tight well selected product selection certainly has some strong selling points. Epic customer experience can more readily be achieved where stock is closely managed in terms of the range of items. Imagine searching through the 3,567 results and then reading and comparing the customer reviews to then find the colour / size is out of stock. Painful and irritating. Promote what you can sell and make it smarter and faster for customers to find products. Product segmentation with specific "stores" makes shopping simpler. 

Passionate workforce

How does the UK compare globally on our delivery of customer experience?  Epic customer experience?  A true reflection on the UK?  From recent trips to our European neighbours I was struck by how impressive the customer service in other countries is.  In Italy as an example you see passionate people in customer service roles in all sorts of trades, not just premium quality hotels but everywhere. Is the same being felt by tourists flooding to London where a customer facing role seems to be of lower merit?  I see some very passionate people working in customer facing roles as you work your way away from the capital in the UK but how many visitors to the UK see this and how many of them build their opinions based solely on a stay in London?  The passion and energy for these roles is missing and we sell ourselves short. We need to raise the profile of these roles and the importance it has in selling tourism in the UK. 

Are the Marks & Spencer BP Petrol Station branches damaging the brand of their customer experience

With the rapid expansion of the M&S Simply Food Petrol Station proposition they have introduced a 24/7 retail outlet model but has this damaged their positive brand for customer experience.  Sure when you enter your local petrol station branded "M&S" you can find the quality food products you would find in the high street branches but is the customer experience the same.  Petrol station staff rarely understand the products and don't have the same association with the company being a more transient workforce.  So does this expansion risk damaging the reputation of M&S and is the model working?  Epic customer experience appears to no longer be top of the agenda for the company with expansion their primary focus.

M&S Simply Food at BP Connect