It's all about the customer experience

As we contemplate the age of consumer control, I have become increasingly aware of my own personal experience with brands and how they effect my purchasing decision. Here are a few stories. I share them as illustrations on the ROI of investing in the customer experience. I believe that all companies should invest in understanding the customer's experience when interacting with your organization. It will make a bigger impact than the new ad campaign or lead generation program you are planning to invest in.

Story #1: Resort at Squaw Creek vs. Hyatt Regency Incline Village
Earlier this month my daughter and I went on a road trip to Lake Tahoe. We had no itinerary, just pointed in the direction of Tahoe and used various online sources to book hotels along the way. One night we booked the Resort at Squaw Creek for $210/night and another the Hyatt Regency in Incline Village for $385/night. Expensive hotel rooms are not unusual for us as we enjoy the finer things in life, but when you pay that much (remember this is not midtown NY), you expect "an experience".

Long story short, we had an amazing experience at the Resort at Squaw Creek and an equally negative experience at Hyatt Regency. This was the exact opposite of what the rates would have indicated. The accommodations, service, staff, food and quality of the Resort at Squaw Creek was equal to many quality hotels I have stayed in such as the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay. At the Hyatt Regency, the rooms where more like a Holiday Inn and the service at the Lone Eagle restaurant was horrible! I ended up checking out early and while the front desk personnel tried hard to make up for our experience, I have been left with a negative experience that will effect my choice of Hyatt resorts and guaranteed never to return to this particular hotel.

Story #2: Cingular vs. Verizon
I have been a cell phone user for 20 years, had the same carrier even though my carrier had gone through 2 acquisitions. First it was Pactel Infosystems, then AT&T Wireless and now Cingular. Every couple years I have renewed my contract, got a new phone and paid my bills regularly. About 2 weeks ago I went to the Cingular store to upgrade my phone to an integrated PDA. I planned to buy the Treo and sign up for another 2 year contract. I had the Treo in my hand, the service agent was ready to ring me up and when he pulled up my record he found that I had a payment due in 3 days and could not transfer me from AT&T Wireless to Cingular (same company that has sent me a bill for the past 2 years!) unless I paid the outstanding balance. My husband pays the bills and after contacting him I found that the payment had already been entered to pay through our online banking and could not be stopped. So Cingular gave me 2 choices; pay the bill in the store and when the other payment was received I could submit for a refund, OR leave the store. Out of complete frustration and disbelief I left the store.

The irony is that this is a company that can easily see my track record of paying my bills. However, I could walk down the street to Verizon who knows nothing about me and get what I wanted now without fighting for a refund later. Which is what I did. Several days later I found myself parked in front of the Verizon store in Palo Alto with my old cell phone hanging on to it's last days. I walked in, got served by a knowledgeable representative that showed me the Treo and the Motorola Q. She was able to tell me the pros and cons of each of the phone/pdas and help me decide on the Motorola Q. I walked out with my new phone AND a new carrier. Sorry Cingular, I've moved to Verizon Wireless where they never stop working for you!

Story #3: Bloomingdales credit vs. American Express
My last story is one of call centers. My husband had a bad bill paying day and accidentally overpaid a couple of my credit cards and I found myself with $1100 credit on my Bloomingdales card. I had a smaller balance on my American Express card. I decided to clean this up and have get checks sent to me from both of the creditors. I tried to do it over the Internet, but couldn't, so I called the call center. American Express helped me in a reasonable amount of time with some woman in India who spoke reasonable English, overall a reasonable experience. In contrast Bloomingdales automated call routing system took me 2 or 3 entries to hear the words "you have a credit balance, would you like us to send you a check?" I just about fell over in my chair! I hate those automated call routing systems because typically you type in a bunch of stuff and you still have to talk to an agent and give them the same information again! If all automated systems were as efficient and helpful as the Bloomingdales credit card line, I would value automation more as helpful to me, the consumer, and a cost savings for the provider. A win-win.

It's these experiences that will determine my brand preference, not the obnoxious ads I have to watch multiple times during a TV show or that jump up and down on my screen while surfing the Internet.

Marketers today have to tackle the customer experience. If Marketing has no control over the organizations ability to deliver the brand promise, marketing will struggle in effecting the revenues of the business. You may be able to get the buyers to the party, but if their experience is not positive, it would have been better not to have them come at all.

I would be very interested in hearing stories from Marketing leaders that have found ways to affect the overall customer experience. It's not always part of the marketing role, but it's critical in impacting loyalty and word of mouth marketing. Are marketing leaders given enough organizational clout to drive the change required to service today's consumer controlled market?

Here are a couple of related blogs/articles that share similar prospective.
Customer Feedback, or What I Learned on My Summer Vacation, by Heidi Cohen

Reinventing the Marketing Organization by Peter Kim