We’re waiting for better weather on a ship
To pass in the night
Solve all of our problems for us on a ship
To pass in the night
After a somewhat stormy 6 months to say the least, hope seems to be springing eternally this week. Back to school. Back to work. Economy climbing up the otherside of the “V”? Too early to say, but positivity is good and we like that.
Undoutedly, confidence is a fundamental driver in growth, but customer efficacy is essential for success regardless of economic conditions and it’s a prerequisite during a downturn. We all know this don’t we? You can’t scroll through LinkedIn without finding an article about the importance of “Customer Success”. Modern business is built on it.
It’s time to take stock of the past 6 months. Who has been good to us? Have you been good to your customers? Were we really all in it together ?
Well there have been some real winners and losers during the pandemic as we are about to see. The key though, is what do we learn from our own Customer Experience to make it better for those that depend on us? Are there customer experiences we can replicate to underpin our own Sales Transformation?
From a winners perspective, the usual suspects are on my list. Sainsbury’s not just because they were there for us when we needed it most, but, because their team, really at the forefront of risk, did it with a smile and good humour. During those dark days of April queuing for a sourdough loaf, a smile and a bright “hello, how are you?” set me up for the day. After the dark panic buying days of late March, most things were available, even tomato puree. (This was an “essential item” and hoarded for several weeks, who knew?)
At all times, Amazon were fabulous too, really stepping up to deliver those “non-essential essentials” at the start of lockdown in particular. (My newly acquired vinyl habit kept me sane if you are curious as to what is a “non-essential essential in my world!) If there was an issue, it was fixed quickly and seamlessly too. If the Amazon team were working from home, you really couldn’t tell. DPD were a hugely valued partner of all of the online retailers and again, deliveries were exemplary from people who genuinely didn’t know what risks they were taking at the time. Deliveries on time and with a smile and a cheery wave. Hermes stepped in for me on a number of occasions for business related deliveries when Royal Mail couldn’t or wouldn’t get stuff to me both during and after lockdown. To do it quickly, cost effectively and with tracking was a real bonus. I didn’t even have to leave the house if I didn’t want to. Hermes has now become my default courier, despite more choices opening back up again. (although not Royal Mail’s sorting office which steadfastly remains closed for pick ups except between 0700 and 0900).
An unusual entrant into the winners section has to be Avanti West Coast who provide rail services between London, the North West and Scotland. We all love to hate Rail Operating Companies apparently, but they surpassed themselves last week. My wife is a Hospital Doctor and doing some locum work to reduce waiting lists at a Trust in London. Last Tuesday evening, her train started off 45 mins late, and after a series of further incidents arrived into Euston shortly before midnight, just shy of 3 hours late. The Train Manager, genuinely mortifed by the turn of events, communicated well throughout and then organised a fleet of rather nice exec cars to take them to their destination, which in one case was…. Portsmouth! It will take a lot, I am sure, to dissuade her from a very positive brand perception thanks to exemplary Customer Service from Avanti.
Sadly though, we have had the “Customer Efficacy avoiders”. You know the ones I am referring to. The ones that hide behind Covid as though it was the excuse for abject performance. First up are the world’s least favourite airline. As expected, our summer holiday flights were cancelled as lockdown commenced. Could you speak to anybody? Noooooo of course not. Waiting times ran into hours and then when you did speak to anybody, empathy and help were in short supply. We were eventually offered vouchers (for a flight we had never taken and because it was based on avios points, the cost was for taxes only) and no refund. No amount of persuasion, highlighting of their obligations and of course compliance with consumer law, made any difference. Me and 40,000 similarly affected, hapless souls. There was a way round it of course: dispute the original credit card payment. For future flights though it will be “anybody but BA”. How to destroy an already tainted brand in just a few weeks.
We don’t care if it’s one way passage on a ship
To pass in the night
The irony of lockdown was that despite everyone being… well… locked down, we didn’t have too many issues with broadband speed, apart from the occasional Friday evening attempting to watch Amazon Prime. Even then it was sporadic and not really that disruptive. As soon as we emerge however, performance drops like a stone. My wife has had numerous patient consultations disrupted on the last few Tuesday afternoons in August and internet speed has dropped to about a fifth of what it should be. Of course BT’s Customer Service are hors de combat even now, 6 weeks after normality commenced and even the CEO’s office do not appear to have attended empathy school at any point. It has been gently highlighted to them out to them that “other brands are available” and maybe they should think how they would feel receiving a pixelated, screen freezing diagnosis, but it falls on deaf ears. Maybe lack of Customer Efficacy afflicts organisations with “British” in the title? Is this what happened to British Home Stores? We should be told.
In times of crisis, we remember those that served us well. There are commercial organisations that have really gone the extra mile in the past 6 months, our loyalty to them assured for at least the forseeable future. Some will have been on our favourites list beforehand, now they will be cemented on it. The plumbers and builders we needed to visit when things went wrong in the house equally looked after us because we treat them well. We pay our bills on time and we don’t try and reduce them by a few quid each time they do work.
Similarly, those organisations that never had Customer Efficacy at the top of their list before the world stopped have been exposed. Their approach to looking after you and I has been highlighted for what it is: lacking in empathy and cynical. When choices return I suspect that customers will switch. A cursory glance at the two examples’ social media sites and respective comments on them tells you all you need to know with respect to customer feeling.
Customer Efficacy should be at the very top of any aspiring organisations priorities if they want to succeed in even the medium term. It didn’t take a pandemic to highlight who didn’t care about this, it just magnified it. If new normal does exist in a fully formed way in the not too distant future, it will surely have in it together as a key component. There are times during the last few months when I have felt this and been genuinely humbled by the care I have been given by a variety of organisations, almost exclusively I might add, in the private sector.
In a world of choice and maybe changing priorities, making your Customers feel loved and appreciated is essential. I would proffer that at this point it’s everything. When was the last time you had a close look at yours?
Suddenly you see a mast
Approaching you pretty fast
Hope it’s not like the last
But it just sails right past
Quotes by Brian John Duffy / David Paul Greenfield / Jean Jacques Burnel / Hugh Alan Cornwell
