Right hand not talking to the left hand…
Pestered by darling daughter into getting her phone upgraded: you know, it’s a fashion thing although you’d be hard pressed to get the little tinker to admit that … ‘No, Dad – it’s got nothing to do with the look of the phone I’ve spotted, it’s just the one I’ve got doesn’t work properly and I think you can get me onto a tariff with unlimited texts for the same money’ said Pinnochio. Anyway I digress …
Step 1: had to find out whether her phone contract was eligible for upgrading the phone: “the computer, it says NO”. But sprog had received a text message saying she was. Ah, the old left hand and right hand syndrome.
So I give the customer services lot a call and they say: ‘cos you’re such a great customer, we’d be happy to upgrade the phone and change the tariff’ … OK, so obviously talking to the left hand which is turning out to be nice and friendly. Then confirm that I will also get the 4Gb memory card that they’re advertising on their site as part of the phone package: they say ‘Yes’ … happy days.
Phone arrives next day = deep joy. But no 4Gb card … an oversight, but foregiveable given previous interaction. So back onto the phone … let’s face it, little worse than Dad failing to deliver a simple thing like a phone package advertised on a site where there’s a daughter involved: especially the gobby one I’ve got.
So call up customer services …. Aaaaaaaaarrggggggghhhh or words to that effect. The right hand is back in play. Summary of conversation:
“No sir, you’re not eligible for the memory card – that’s an internet offer only” says right hand.
“But I was allowed to get it on site, I had to get it through the customer services dept” says me.
“Nothing I can do sir, it’s an internet only deal” says right hand.
Put down phone as blood and bile start to rise. Jump around the office howling at the moon. Calm down. Back onto their site … looking for customer services complaints. Send off e-mail informing asking them quite politely: “Are you mad? My darling daughter has spent about £1K in call costs over last 2 years ( I started crying with this sudden realisation) and you lot are quibbling over something that retails for £10 so presumably costing you no more than £2-£3 … and I am signing up for another 18 months”.
Not sure whether I am sending this to the left of the right hand, but off it goes. In the meantime, go and buy a memory card from T-mobile site … thinking, well I need the card and I am not waiting to see what happens – they can always rebate the cost if the left hand has got anything to do with it.
Hooray, it’s left hand sending an e-mail …”terribly sorry, you’re wonderful (OK, a bit of poetic license there), memory card in the post”. Now I have 2 memory cards with the one I bought being credited so I seem to have got a free card … so all’s well that ends well.
The lessons:
Some brands seem to think that customers only use one channel, never two … or can’t be bothered with those of us who do. Don’t make it difficult for us ‘cos you’ll lose … get some buzz metrics in place and you’ll see lots of people like me ranting, reviewing and scoring … and guess what: others are more likely to listen to me than you, Mr Brand Manager.
A single customer view would probably have helped bring left and right hand together and avoided the above. But if that’s too expensive, then for the love of God, please recognise your big spenders and get a specialist retention team in place so we can get a nice big warm feeling … after all if you’re a customer it’s all about me, me, me.
Chris
A man’s best friend is his dog (and bone?)
Year of the mobile…again. Heard that before? It just still doesn’t seem to have made the impression in marketing circles that we’ve all been hoping for.
But maybe that time is here…Some recent stats bounced around a marketing trends conference I went to announced that consumer advertising is at its lowest level of trust with 18% of consumers going so far as to dislike all forms of advertising.
And according to Nielsen Online Global Survey, 78% of people trust what others recommend, way ahead of all media channels.
Unfortunately, in that same survey, only 18% of consumers trust ads on mobiles. Mmmm, so even with the new technology like the iPhone and other smart phones approaching 25% of market share, claiming to make the user experience more engaging and enjoyable, has the damage been done?
Maybe not.
More people would go back for their mobile phone if they left it at home than they would if they left their wallet or purse there. We can’t live without it – it’s our best friend.
A lot of the discussion in mobile has been around advertising models. In effect, paid for media. Bit old school don’t you think? In a world where the consumer is in control, where they want real time solutions, where they want recognition and personalisation, shouldn’t the mobile community be focusing their attention on how mobile, the most intimate of channels, can help build brand trust and positively engage consumers.
A 2007 study by the London School of Economics, has identified brand advocacy in the UK as being on average 5 times more effective at stimulating sales than brand advertising!
How can this be quantified? I’ve been talking to a lot of people about measuring a brand’s Net Promoter Score – the % of ‘promoters’ (those who score between 8 and 10 for liking a brand) of your brand minus the % of ‘detractors’ (those who score between 0 to 6 out of 10).
The figures go that if a brand improves their NPS by 7%, they will experience an increase of 1% in revenues. And 70% of a brand’s advocacy is attributable to its ability to “Surprise & Delight” (LSE 2007).
A bigger opportunity
So is this the potentially bigger, more immediate opportunity for brands to consider using the intimate mobile channel?
The finance sector has understood this. The best personal example for me is being a First Direct customer and receiving their weekly text account balance service. I get it at the time and day I want it, with the details I want as set against my own criteria. It’s another service that makes me want to talk about First Direct and stay with them.
Another good example I heard about recently was by Amex. They recognised that towards the end of the month, consumers are a bit low on funds, so more likely to stick a few bills on their credit/charge card. The surprise and delight was a text sent in the last week of the month, offering deals and extra points at restaurants that accept Amex. Go enjoy yourself, get extra rewards. Everyone’s a winner!
So should we be asking ourselves some basic questions:
When can mobile best support another channel to drive incremental response?
When can mobile most relevantly ‘surprise & delight’ consumer to help build brand engagement?
How can mobile be used to start a conversation, not to broadcast messages?
It will be brands that leverage this opportunity, who will begin to drive greater brand engagement and build WOM through surprise & delight that will recognise the opportunity mobile has to offer. And integrated into their channel strategy – don’t bolt it on. The principle is a simple one – when is mobile fit for the purpose…when will it surprise and delight….oh, and when can it drive positive business!! (Mustn’t forget that one Mr Evangelist!)
But the evangelists don’t help matters. The mobile evangelists are all getting very excited about the emerging technologies, about the potential of 3.5G, and making wonderful predictions like one I read recently that “…the mobile internet will soon eclipse the PC Web”!
Very helpful for me over the next 12 months, to meet my brand KPIs and volume targets.
Where are the solutions, the ideas, the insight on how to maximise mobile as part of a total comms solution?
What I would encourage is for folk to ignore the evangelists. Find the pragmatists, recognise that mobile has moved on since you probably last included the channel in a campaign, that the consumer is looking for trusted sources of information and that maybe, just maybe, brands who identify ‘surprise’ touchpoints like the Amex example, will not only get consumers positively engaged in the brand, but also measurably achieve positive ROI.
And maybe, just maybe then, mobile could become marketing’s new best friend too?
Andy Snuggs, Managing Director