BRANDING : It's Just Too Hard!

How many of us (wearing our 'customer' hats) have thought recently, "it's just too hard". Customer frustration happens way too often. In fact we should admire just how hard many customers have to work.

Sound familiar? Ring your power company with a complaint and they're sorry they'd like to

Let's start there. Too often buying stuff is too hard. Sure many of you have big stores all over New Zealand, nice websites and armies of salespeople. But in reality you demand too much from us. It's amazing that so many of you have got away with it for so long.

Aren't we living in the age of customer service? Everybody's promising better service and 'branded' customer experiences. Yet many of us (you included probably) end up frustrated, bitter or even moderately psychotic after our 'customer experiences', be it in-store, on the phone or via the web.

As marketers you focus on communicating the offer. But there are so many contact points where your brand experience can fall apart. And when it does we don't care a jot about your hard work. We see red.

The reason is simple - perspective. Both you and us know what's at stake. But we have different takes on what the stakes are. For you, we are simply the means to earning revenue. From our perspective you should only profit from our increasingly squeezed income in return for offering real service and value. Your revenue simply reflects how happy you've made us feel.

This all comes down to ROI (return on investment). At a human level both parties are motivated by this, but each focuses on different parts of the phrase. This can lead to a fundamental disconnect. If my ROI costs too much patience and delivers disappointment I'll look elsewhere, no matter what you sell, what you spend to attract me, or how cool you are. Because brands are built on relationships, valued on outcomes and measured by experiences.

Truly great brands understand these issues and have mastered the art of delivering delight. Companies like Apple, Nike, Coke, Louis Vuitton, Virgin and Timberland live the maxim - what you earn stems from what you return. Make what you do clear. Make it easy and rewarding to get, and ensure the customer's value aligns with the value you place on it.

These companies know the key isn't what the customer pays, it's what the customer gets - and how. By delivering great ROI, smart brands encourage customers to stay with them and tell others.

By contrast many brands make it hard. The way they think and behave often creates a grudge purchase and motivation to shop elsewhere. There are many reasons why this happens, here are just four:

* Insular focus - a basic lack of appreciation and/or interest in the customers 'cost of purchase'.

* Limited vision - being so focused on beating competitors, they've forgotten the best strategy is focusing on the people that buy from the competitors. If you do it like the others, you become them.

* Rewards - not rewarding staff for paying attention to the 'true' needs of customers. In some cases not even defining what these drivers are.

* Investors - pressure to think no deeper than immediate shareholder dividend. This short-term focus can hinder growing sustainable value and relationships.

So if research is telling you customers are unhappy, ask yourself which part of the ROI equation your company is really interested in, and what you're doing to signal this organisation-wide. Or to paraphrase a late American president, "ask not what your customer is doing for your return, ask only what you are doing to keep customers returning".

In order to define your advantage you may need to redefine your motivation. Of course that's easier said than done. It might require a fundamental overhaul of your business strategy, HR, product development and/or sales approach. And that's before you tackle the really hard stuff - ingrained human attitudes across your customer facing staff. Or it may not. Sometimes just redefining success is enough to spur change.

The rationale for such a far-reaching approach is remarkably and touchingly simple - as consumers we want things to be simple and easy. And we'd rather deal with people who like and respect us. Once we've met them we look forward to seeing them again.

Nick Sampson is strategy director at DNA. nick.sampson@dna.co.nz