September 5, 2013
Retail Customer Experience: Keep Your Brand Message Burning When Traditional Marketing Fades
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Retail Customer Experience, a daily news portal devoted to helping retailers differentiate the shopping experience.
The world of business used to run on the model of "product, price, promotion." But the internet caused the world to wake up.
"There was a burnout from marketing promises that didn’t work out," said Micah Solomon, customer service consultant and bestselling author, during last month’s Retail Customer Experience Executive Summit in San Diego. "Customers stopped believing what your company was saying, unless it matched up to what they were actually experiencing with the brand."
The resulting, post-awakening commercial environment is no longer driven purely by carefully crafted and corporately-driven marketing messages — it’s now driven by humans, three types of them in fact.
"The three H’s that determine whether your marketing message will work in the real world are: Humans that they [the consumer] know in the real world; humans they interact with in your company; and humans they interact with online," said Mr. Solomon.
While the three-H world is a treacherous place to be, retailers have unprecedented power within it, as long as they know where to start with exemplary customer service.
Beyond beginning with a perfect product that resonates with the customer coupled with caring and friendly delivery, addressing consumer’s time urgency is another key step to delivering better customer service. Nordstrom and its personal shopper program, along with Apple Genius Bar’s personalized appointments are examples of brands valuing customer’s time.
Going even further, what Mr. Solomon calls the "Italian Mama Method" can woo deeper customer loyalty in the problem resolution process.
"You need the Italian mama — you want to channel her," he said. "If you think of a caring parent, maybe even an over-caring parent, one that kisses your ‘ouchy’ — that’s how you need to be with your customers."
A personal experience with Lego was provided.
"My daughter was two-thirds of the way through building her scale model of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural masterpiece Falling Water when she came to me and said she was missing two pieces," Mr. Solomon said. "We went on the Lego website and found that they had a no-questions policy for replacing or supplying missing pieces."
And Lego also successfully bandaged the missing piece boo-boo with a personal letter of apology.
The importance of anticipation — giving the customer something they want before they have to ask for it – was also stressed although it needs to be intricately tied to the person delivering that service. Five traits that humans should have for providing the perfect preemptive package include:
- Warmth that is genuine
- Empathic skill
- Team orientation
- Conscientiousness
- And an optimistic, upbeat attitude.
BrainTrust
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
Do you agree that the human-interaction has become even more important in helping brand’s connect in the digital age? What do you think of Mr. Solomon’s three-H view of looking at customer engagement?
Poll
In the context of interactions, yes, humans play the vital role. Arguably, social media has given humans many more opportunities to participate in the marketing and branding process. I can’t argue with Mr. Solomon’s three H’s. Of course, for retailers, the H they have the most control over is their own employees, so therefore workforce management and workforce optimization should be strong priorities moving forward.
In a Rise of the Machines world, it is still and always will be about the humans. Yes humans are messy, individual and looking to connect — and I am not talking about the employees, but your customers.
Micah is right on trend and those who feel more technology at the expense of humanity in the store is good are bound to be left behind in the new hedonism that is arising.
I hope you’ll join Phil Rubin and I when we debate the topic: “Technology or Customer Service: Which is More Personal for Customers?” at D2 in Cincinnati next Thursday, Sept 12.
I’m always amazed at those who ‘discover’ that people are human as though that’s a scientific breakthrough. Here’s leading edge thinking for all retail marketers out there: Let’s honestly care about people. Maybe someday we’ll learn to love our customers. Before we can submit our comments here we have to agree to the “Golden Rule.” That should be the starting point for marketers…and everyone else.
I agree with what Mr. Solomon has described, but also believe this has always been the case. Yes, we have added new channels (internet), but when hasn’t the customer experience been important? When times are good, retailers and brands can tend to cut costs around customer experience. It’s the brands like Apple and LEGO that always keep customer experience in the front that seem to thrive.
Let’s look at another example in men’s clothing. Jack Mitchell and his team at Mitchell’s clothing in Westport have always kept the customer experience top of mind, and over the years it has paid off. Can men find pants at other clothing stores for less? Sure, but they choose to shop at Mitchell’s because of how they are treated. No question the approach has worked. Jack and his team have opened (acquired) three more stores: Richards, Marsh’s and Wilkes Bashford.
Jack also wrote a book about his passion for Customer Experience called “Hug Your Customer.” It’s a must read if you have customers (if you don’t have customers, you may not have a business).
Human interaction has always been important, it’s the approach that evolves over time.
A key part of this article is being respectful of customers’ time, so let’s look at retailers that don’t, the ones that have lines at checkout, that expect their customers to be tolerant of out of stocks, and that pay associates so little that turnover is frequent. How rosy does their future look?
I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Solomon speak at the RCE Executive Retail Summit. He makes a very compelling case for the three-H view of engagement in an increasingly consumer centric, Omni-channel world.
However, when a consumer absolutely knows what they want to buy, Amazon and other top online retailers have created a very convenient, comfortable, confident environment that has an amazing power to engage consumers without any human interaction.
Mr. Solomon’s three-Hs become mission critical when consumers move beyond “what” to needing help with the “how”. If a retailer helps a customer solve a problem, they have created a brand connection that transcends product and price.
In the words of Maya Angelou …
People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel.
Engaging consumers to feel something different is the essence of what Mr. Solomon’s five key human traits are all about … and this is both the greatest opportunity and challenge of retail brand building today.
Yesterday I was trying to schedule a home service visit with a well-known retailer via the phone. The agent on the phone couldn’t schedule the appointment, so she had to transfer me to another department. She said she’d stay on hold with me until the other agent answers… unless it takes more than five minutes on hold. Seriously? The employee cannot wait on hold for another employee, but the customer can? Is there not technology that could help this situation?
Even when humans interact, there is not always a satisfied customer. Now I have a diminished view of that retailer brand.
I agree with Cathy.
We probably all agree that it’s always about the customer and not about the technology…but in the LEGO example, I don’t read that Mr. Solomon ever spoke with a human at LEGO. He went online, found the info he needed, and received an apology letter post facto.
When human interactions take place, they absolutely should convey the caring and urgency of the “Italian Mama” example—that’s a training issue. And when technology is utilized, the end user experience should still deliver the brand promise with caring and urgency. The devil is in the details of the technology execution.
It’s about proper human and technology execution.
It’s always been important. However, there is not much room for error any longer.
The 3H view of customer engagement should be incorporated into the 5P of marketing (i.e., people). The brand is still a product of the 5Ps—product, pricing, promotion, placement, people.
The brand experience is key; did the retailer deliver the experience/product that the brand promised? The H’s are getting hard to find though, and that brand promise is fulfilled through self service interaction for a lot of retailers, as noted above. How does a retailer deliver that experience and do so without a lot of staff? If you aren’t sure, just ask Siri….
It’s basic marketing. The brand promise has to permeate all consumer touch points—not just marketing—in order for it to be believable.
Yes, human interaction is critical to help connect, especially combined with the scaling medium provided through technology and social media. Ultimately, the human being makes the decision on how to take care of a customer on the spot better than metrics driven response. You don’t get a warm customer experience story from an automated response chat bot; at least I have never heard of one.
Zappos, WarbyParker, Panera Bread, Sneakpeeq and many other brands are monitoring social sentiment and adding the human touch to deliver feedback, answer questions, address concerns—generally speaking, each improving customer service for its customers.
The more technology dependent we become as “humans,” the greater the need to leave space in our marketing plans for the human touch.
I am not sure about segmenting consumers as “Humans that they [the consumer] know in the real world; humans they interact with in your company; and humans they interact with online.” I think we’re all one and the focus should be on identifying which channels people prefer for interaction.
In the end, people do business with people. Even if they shop online, it is still a website that was designed by people, to be used by people. All of the technology can add to the experience, but if it is missing the human touch, the company will risk losing the human connection with their customer.
Considering that one of my colleagues told me yesterday that he bought a BMW instead of an Audi because he liked the BMW dealer better than the Audi one, I would have to say that the human interaction still matters a lot. Also, look at some of the most successful brands today, those mentioned in the article and also others like Starbucks and Lululemon, and you’ll see that most of them invest more than their competitors in customer service and the ability of their employees to be brand ambassadors and build connections.
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In the context of interactions, yes, humans play the vital role. Arguably, social media has given humans many more opportunities to participate in the marketing and branding process. I can’t argue with Mr. Solomon’s three H’s. Of course, for retailers, the H they have the most control over is their own employees, so therefore workforce management and workforce optimization should be strong priorities moving forward.
In a Rise of the Machines world, it is still and always will be about the humans. Yes humans are messy, individual and looking to connect — and I am not talking about the employees, but your customers.
Micah is right on trend and those who feel more technology at the expense of humanity in the store is good are bound to be left behind in the new hedonism that is arising.
I hope you’ll join Phil Rubin and I when we debate the topic: “Technology or Customer Service: Which is More Personal for Customers?” at D2 in Cincinnati next Thursday, Sept 12.
I’m always amazed at those who ‘discover’ that people are human as though that’s a scientific breakthrough. Here’s leading edge thinking for all retail marketers out there: Let’s honestly care about people. Maybe someday we’ll learn to love our customers. Before we can submit our comments here we have to agree to the “Golden Rule.” That should be the starting point for marketers…and everyone else.
I agree with what Mr. Solomon has described, but also believe this has always been the case. Yes, we have added new channels (internet), but when hasn’t the customer experience been important? When times are good, retailers and brands can tend to cut costs around customer experience. It’s the brands like Apple and LEGO that always keep customer experience in the front that seem to thrive.
Let’s look at another example in men’s clothing. Jack Mitchell and his team at Mitchell’s clothing in Westport have always kept the customer experience top of mind, and over the years it has paid off. Can men find pants at other clothing stores for less? Sure, but they choose to shop at Mitchell’s because of how they are treated. No question the approach has worked. Jack and his team have opened (acquired) three more stores: Richards, Marsh’s and Wilkes Bashford.
Jack also wrote a book about his passion for Customer Experience called “Hug Your Customer.” It’s a must read if you have customers (if you don’t have customers, you may not have a business).
Human interaction has always been important, it’s the approach that evolves over time.
A key part of this article is being respectful of customers’ time, so let’s look at retailers that don’t, the ones that have lines at checkout, that expect their customers to be tolerant of out of stocks, and that pay associates so little that turnover is frequent. How rosy does their future look?
I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Solomon speak at the RCE Executive Retail Summit. He makes a very compelling case for the three-H view of engagement in an increasingly consumer centric, Omni-channel world.
However, when a consumer absolutely knows what they want to buy, Amazon and other top online retailers have created a very convenient, comfortable, confident environment that has an amazing power to engage consumers without any human interaction.
Mr. Solomon’s three-Hs become mission critical when consumers move beyond “what” to needing help with the “how”. If a retailer helps a customer solve a problem, they have created a brand connection that transcends product and price.
In the words of Maya Angelou …
People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel.
Engaging consumers to feel something different is the essence of what Mr. Solomon’s five key human traits are all about … and this is both the greatest opportunity and challenge of retail brand building today.
Yesterday I was trying to schedule a home service visit with a well-known retailer via the phone. The agent on the phone couldn’t schedule the appointment, so she had to transfer me to another department. She said she’d stay on hold with me until the other agent answers… unless it takes more than five minutes on hold. Seriously? The employee cannot wait on hold for another employee, but the customer can? Is there not technology that could help this situation?
Even when humans interact, there is not always a satisfied customer. Now I have a diminished view of that retailer brand.
I agree with Cathy.
We probably all agree that it’s always about the customer and not about the technology…but in the LEGO example, I don’t read that Mr. Solomon ever spoke with a human at LEGO. He went online, found the info he needed, and received an apology letter post facto.
When human interactions take place, they absolutely should convey the caring and urgency of the “Italian Mama” example—that’s a training issue. And when technology is utilized, the end user experience should still deliver the brand promise with caring and urgency. The devil is in the details of the technology execution.
It’s about proper human and technology execution.
It’s always been important. However, there is not much room for error any longer.
The 3H view of customer engagement should be incorporated into the 5P of marketing (i.e., people). The brand is still a product of the 5Ps—product, pricing, promotion, placement, people.
The brand experience is key; did the retailer deliver the experience/product that the brand promised? The H’s are getting hard to find though, and that brand promise is fulfilled through self service interaction for a lot of retailers, as noted above. How does a retailer deliver that experience and do so without a lot of staff? If you aren’t sure, just ask Siri….
It’s basic marketing. The brand promise has to permeate all consumer touch points—not just marketing—in order for it to be believable.
Yes, human interaction is critical to help connect, especially combined with the scaling medium provided through technology and social media. Ultimately, the human being makes the decision on how to take care of a customer on the spot better than metrics driven response. You don’t get a warm customer experience story from an automated response chat bot; at least I have never heard of one.
Zappos, WarbyParker, Panera Bread, Sneakpeeq and many other brands are monitoring social sentiment and adding the human touch to deliver feedback, answer questions, address concerns—generally speaking, each improving customer service for its customers.
The more technology dependent we become as “humans,” the greater the need to leave space in our marketing plans for the human touch.
I am not sure about segmenting consumers as “Humans that they [the consumer] know in the real world; humans they interact with in your company; and humans they interact with online.” I think we’re all one and the focus should be on identifying which channels people prefer for interaction.
In the end, people do business with people. Even if they shop online, it is still a website that was designed by people, to be used by people. All of the technology can add to the experience, but if it is missing the human touch, the company will risk losing the human connection with their customer.
Considering that one of my colleagues told me yesterday that he bought a BMW instead of an Audi because he liked the BMW dealer better than the Audi one, I would have to say that the human interaction still matters a lot. Also, look at some of the most successful brands today, those mentioned in the article and also others like Starbucks and Lululemon, and you’ll see that most of them invest more than their competitors in customer service and the ability of their employees to be brand ambassadors and build connections.