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29 March 2024

Good customer service vital for brand survival

In some business sectors, the employee is the main and sometimes unique brand ambassador. (DENNIS B MALLARI)

Published
By Reena Amos Dyes
In today's grim economic scenario, companies and their employees have to do more than is usually required of them to get noticed, keep their customer base and keep their heads above the water.

As the competition gets more intense and cruel, it is vital for their survival to get their employees on board to deliver a consistent brand experience for customers who are most reluctant than ever to part with their money now.

Branding industry experts told Emirates Business that 70 per cent of customer brand perception is determined by experiences with people. Additionally, 68 per cent of customers leave because of poor employee attitude and 41 per cent of customers are loyal because of a good employee attitude.

A brand delivers its experience through multiple touch points. There are a lot of opportunities to interact with customers and this is where it is key for the employees to form part of that branding experience.

According to Olivier Auroy, General Manager, Landor Associates, from the moment the customer hears about the brand to the moment he comes back to the shop there are so many ways to build a relationship and create loyalty.

"Employees deliver the brand experience in many ways. Let's take the example of the airline industry. The employee is involved in the main touch points: check-in, lounge, embarking and flight," Auroy said.

For some business sectors such as hospitality, the employee is the main and sometimes unique brand ambassador. When you check in, the reception desk is the first taste of the hotel experience. Giving a good impression from the start is critical. It will set the tone and determine the overall impression.

Customers tend to be very critical – and they are right. Good service is a given. Bad service cannot be tolerated.

Michael Hughes, Executive Director Strategy and Engagement, The Brand Union, agreed: "Brands must consider the entire customer journey, every touch point, to ensure a consistent and differentiated experience."

Aaron Shields, partner, Brandinstinct, UK, stressed: "Employee behaviour is the most outward expression of a brand, especially in service delivery."

It is simple economics. The more the customer enjoys the experience, the more he comes back and the more money the firm makes.

However, a brand is a set of beliefs and stories that must be believed by the employees if the rest of the market is asked to believe in them and form the opinion that the company wishes to create.

A brand should serve as a window into the culture of the company. A great brand defines a compelling vision and set of principles to guide behaviour of all employees. Any company that feels they can approximate a different set of values for their customers than they promote for their employees are really fooling themselves.

Shields said: "With more social networking and increased communication, any gap between internal culture and external communications are soon found out. The resulting cynicism spells out bad news for the brand. Nike and sweatshops are forever bound in a negative way just as Tylenol and genuine care are bound in a positive way."

Hughes said: "Employees are one of the most important factors in the delivery of the brand, the experience customers remember and hence the reputation of the brand. According to writer Ken Irons up to 70 per cent of customer brand perception is determined by experiences with people. The Parkington and Buxton, Study of the US Banking Sector, says 68 per cent of customers leave because of poor employee attitude. Also, 41 per cent of customers are loyal because of a good employee attitude (MCA Brand Ambassador Benchmark). With these statistics in mind, it really doesn't matter how much you spend on other forms of marketing, if you don't invest in engaging your people with the brand, you will never has a sustainable and valuable proposition."

Peter Matthews, Group Managing Director, Nucleus, said: "Brands that don't fully engage their employees in delivering a consistent brand experience generally fall short of their objectives, as customers always notice gaps between a brand's promise and reality. These gaps usually make themselves manifest through poor service, or poor product/service quality."

If a company's board of directors underestimates the importance of consistently delivering its brand promises, they will also underestimate the importance of aligning employee behaviour with the delivery of their brand proposition. And that can be disastrous.

Shields gave an example. "The British bank, Abbey National, went through a £14-million (Dh77m) re-branding effort that involved changing every retail branch, the website, advertising communications and print collateral. However, the staff were not communicated with effectively, so when the launch day came, they treated the new brand with ambivalence. The brand launch was universally perceived as a failure by the British public," he said.

Employees can deliver a brand by the way they engage with customers or stakeholders. Brand engagement is the creation of intellectual connection and emotional commitment. It's used to motivate and direct behaviour, empowering employees to take action and influence change.

Auroy added: "It is proven by research: employees who manage to solve customers' issues (i.e. after sales) highly contribute to increase brand loyalty. Some brands like DHL put their best employees at the "complaint department".

Some brands put their best employees on the front line, in direct customer contact.

There is a famous legend about one of the One & Only resort. A rich customer's son had forgotten his favourite ball in the room. The father called and made a fuss about it. The hotel managed to send the ball to the boy before they come back home. His father became a loyalist and a fan – he has a lot of connections."

Companies can get their employees to become brand ambassadors through education and communication. All brands have values and principles. They must be clearly explained and detailed to the employees. That requires brand engagement and long term training plans.

Brand Engagement is closing the gap between what an organisation says it does; and what and how it delivers to enhance performance and reputation. This involves a change in thinking to put brand at the centre of everything the company does and who they are. The brand needs to drive the core philosophy of the organisation, how all employees behave, rather than something the marketing team just do.

Hughes said: "By investing in Brand Engagement programmes, firms can ensure that their employees deliver on brand all the time, and drive company performance. It is about inspiring, informing, integrating and involving employees."

Shields gave one example of this strategy. "HP is one such famous example of driving a brand from the inside of the company. David Packard wrote a book called the HP Way to identify the principles for founding the company and how they wanted their employees to act in the pursuit of business objectives. The result was creating one of the most respected brands in the world," he said.

Hughes said: "Jumeirah is one regional brand that does deliver a fairly consistent and strong brand experience. They invest heavily in their people to ensure they understand the "stay different" positioning and it shows in the way they behave, talk and deliver the brand experience across their properties."

Auroy agreed: "Some hotels in Dubai have done a wonderful job."

One of the best examples we have here in Dubai is the valet at the entrance of Al Qasr Hotel or Intercontinental. A seven-feet tall Kenyan who stands with grace and dignity for hours on end, and whom everyone wants their picture taken with.

Also, the new Aswaaq supermarket gives a good example of a successful brand experience delivery.

This was well thought from the early beginning, when we thought of how the brand experience can be different from others.

Aswaaq knew that customer interaction was critical and research showed that people here were missing the street market feel. The main characteristic of a street market is the personality, the amazing/unusual profile of the vendors/merchants.

As a consequence, Aswaaq could not afford to recruit bland individuals as they need men and women that everyone remembers and associate with the brand.

The first Aswaaq supermarket opened in Nad Al Hamar a few weeks ago and we can say that management has done a wonderful job. Staff is friendly and memorable. Engaging employees that customers will remember contributes to improve the customer experience."

Every company delivers a brand experience. The question is whether this is the experience that builds a positive reputation that they want to be known for.

Hughes said: "Many companies fail to engage their employees with the brand. In the US, disengaged employees cost the economy $300 billion a year in lost productivity costs and this figure is growing rapidly.

"Unfortunately, many brands in the region focus on basic customer service training to tell their employees to smile and be helpful to the customer but fail to engage them to deliver a true brand experience. Most employees are actually keen to help but they often just do not know how to – they are not empowered."

"Also, the UAE companies need to be credible. Some companies claim transparency and they are not transparent at all.

"Some companies claim that they are caring and they do not treat their staff properly. You need to be consistent.

"When it comes to customer service, I have a secret weapon: Humour. It can solve many issues and generate empathy."


Leading from the front

"Many senior executives are unprepared to put in the hard work to define a clear brand promise or to lead by example. It is a proven fact that internal brand programmes lacking the personal support of the CEO are certain to fail and outsourcing the effort to a brand consultancy alone, just does not work.

"For these reasons, an internal branding programme requires board engagement; starting with the definition of a clear brand promise and brand story that is both realistic and meaningful.

"The CEO needs to allocate sufficient time to engage with the programme and be prepared to sustain this support throughout," said Peter Matthews, Group Managing Director, Nucleus.