Back in the day, 90 per cent of branding stopped with the purchase of a product or service.
But today, the entire customer experience contributes to branding. Post-sales brand activities are every bit as important as pre-sales brand management. As Forrester Research points out, successful companies must 'consistently deliver on brand promises that resonate with customers at all customer touchpoints.'
However, many companies find it difficult to measure the effect of customer service on their brand. They are forced to guess about the best way to deliver service experiences that positively reinforce their brands image in the minds of consumers. What is needed is an ability to align the service experience with the brand in a way that is appropriate for customers, yet enables the company to effectively manage costs, compliance and other key performance indicators (KPIs).
This requires the ability to measure the effect of each service interaction on brand perception and the rest of a balanced scorecard. With the advent of evidence-based methodologies, companies now have a practical methodology that helps them measure how alterations to the service experience affect their brand. Evidence-based service leverages the lessons of evidence-based medicine, which applies data gained from scientific experimentation to predict the outcome of a medical treatment.
Using experimentation and rigorous measurement, companies should determine how customer interactions affect their brand. By deliberately changing and testing a service process and then re-measuring the impact, organisations discover the best possible processes to satisfy customers and reinforce brand while meeting company objectives for cost control, compliance and revenue generation. Evidence-based service is a practice that aligns all customer touchpoints with brand promise.
For example:
Zappos.com is an online shoe company that built itself by establishing excellent customer service. To Zappos.com, 'it's all about the experience.' Zappos.com supports its customer-friendly brand by offering free shipping and returns, no questions asked. In addition, Zappos.com views its employees as central to its brand image, and it conducts large and small experiments to understand how a little extra 'touch' can impact customer satisfaction. The results have been pretty amazing. Zappos.com has consistently grown faster than other e-tailers. This kind of growth and focus on service attracted Amazon, which recently purchased Zappos.com for $1.2 billion.
JetBlue, the low-cost U.S. airline, also successfully aligns customer service and brand, albeit in a very different way. JetBlues customer service mirrors its target audience: travelers who want low-cost flights. The company offers exhaustive Web self-service and only limited email and phone support. Customers who choose the email option are warned that a response may take up to seven days, which encourages them to use self-service. A JetBlue customer is not disappointed with the lack of white-glove service, because they would not expect it from the airline – it is not their brand promise.
Andrew Cohen is the senior director of strategy at KANA Software, Inc. He has more than 15 years of experience in strategy consulting and research, with an emphasis on customer experience modeling and knowledge management.
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