If you make a promise you must keep it: part one

By Jennifer Kirkby, consulting editor

“We are having a cocktail reception at the Dragon Club” beamed the UK government’s international trade advisor. “One of the most prestigious bars in Hong Kong, it is very difficult to get into normally, do ask your guests.” Proud of the opportunity to offer exclusive hospitality on their China trade mission, the businesswomen invited favoured guests.

Imagine then their incredulity, when several weeks later they arrived at the Dragon Club and were let in via a side door in the British Consulate, ferried through ranks of orange plastic chairs in an empty visa application office and directed through a utilitarian door at the back of the room to a small ‘works bar’ replete with paper St Patrick’s Day shamrocks peeling with hangovers from the window glass.

The women checked in whispers with each other - had they misheard? - then angrily registered their embarrassment at being so misled. Broken promises hurt.

Everyday, businesses lose fortunes on undelivered expectations, whilst expending ‘a CEO’s bonus’ on setting them. Here’s a classic example from Tim Burrows, editor of magazine B&T, regarding Telstra, the Australian telecom giant (it could equally apply to the UK’s BT):

"Like every ad groupie I love the Big Pond rabbits ad. Except now when I see it, it just reminds me of just how much I hate Telstra. The soul-sapping, time-eating, blood pressure-elevating phone calls. The unmet promises. The sheer lack of a broadband service two months after signing up for it. God, I hate that company.

A better example of a customer service experience that must be entirely outside the marketing department’s control I’ve never come across before. Senior sales staff who don’t know the difference between broadband and dial-up (yes, really).

Refusals to call back (“I know we’re a communications company, but we can take incoming calls only”); broken promises to call back; refusals to give out an e-mail address or telephone number for complaints – rather quaint that apparently the only means of complaining to this modern telecommunications behemoth is by post; and abusive call staff when you won’t get off the line and they want to go home. It’s going to take a lot of rabbit ads to rectify that consumer experience."

(For anyone interested in the Big Pond rabbits ad you can find it on You Tube here.

Understanding customer expectations and meeting them is core to a good customer experience. Customer delight, that denizen of eastern promise, comes when you exceed them of course – but just meeting them will do as a start. Call it change management, business transformation or culture building, good brand management now depends on an integrated workforce and partner network with a ‘relentless focus on the customer’. How do you achieve it? As Hugh Macleod recently said, "selling a company to the general public is a piece of cake compared to selling it to the actual people who work for it".

The 'selling' techniques divide in three categories:
• The encouragement of brand coaching
• The empowerment of skills building
• The sanction of performance and rewards

Part two, brand coaching, click here.

jennifer.kirkby@mycustomer.com
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