Define Delight - Then Get It Right
Shaun is a great presenter, very energised and engaging - and he won maximum brownie points by promising the audience that he wouldn't keep them from the drinks reception for too long!
Shaun kicked off by looking at how the market has changed in terms of it's sophistication. What once were differentiators are now simply tickets to the party. In order to improve retention and growth, functional performance is not enough. You need to create an emotional connection.
To understand how to define delight, Shaun introduced the following equation:
Value = (Product Quality + Service Quality) / (Price and Hassle) - delighting customers means that you have to go above and beyond customer expectations.
So be very careful with the way in which you communicate your brand promise. To live up to customer expectation and go beyond it, you need to ensure that your customer experience at every touchpoint delivers on the brand promise; design with care!
Remember though, that customer experience depends on your people - your people are your brand. Shaun mentioned that from research done on correlations between Employee NPS and Customer NPS - this reaches as high as 85%. Internal communication is key.
As is external communication. Marketing messages need to change - there's too much noise out there and consumers are switching off. Above the line marketing could soon be a thing of the past - don't we need more experience marketing?
Experience marketing means that you know what your customers are doing and saying and you are communicating with them in a way that makes most sense to them.
The best companies are doing all of this - they often set high expectations, but continue to deliver against and above them. And guess who the examples included? Apple, First Direct, Virgin Atlantic, Zapos...
And O2 - time for Simon to take over!
O2 have put customer experience into the marketing department - because it's all a part of living the brand. Which probably explains why O2 are the leading mobile operators in the UK.
Upon de-merge from BT Cellnet, O2 focused on:
- 2002-2005: Building foundations
- A fresh start and new opportunity
- A desire to deliver the best customer experience
- Focus on the basics
- Have formal governance of a distinct program to measure customer experience
- Adopt clear success measures
Having achieved success in the first set of goals:
- 2005-2006: Breaking through
- There was realisation that customers were being attracted but were not staying - there was nothing different being offered
- They saw the opportunity for disruptive change
- Challenge the customer perception
- Change the investment in the industry to what counts to customers
- Change the operational patterns internally
- Put customers at the heart of what O2 do
And this has driven the customer promise and the customer plan:
- 2006 onwards: Sustained leadership
- Reward loyalty
- Invest in the front line and sales experience
- Best products for the right target markets
- Engage employees
- Embrace efficiencies
And it has worked - brand perceptions of O2 outstrip the other main operators, and have been the only operator to grow in a difficult economic environment. O2 have created the emotional link with their customers and are fulfilling on the brand promise.
They defined delight - and do seem to be getting it right
