Consistency between a company’s brand and service delivery operating model is critical in the pursuit of extraordinary customer experiences. Consistency is a critical element in the successful design of any company’s operating model for service delivery.
Two simple examples of “coherence” can clarify the concept.
A luxury travel company bills itself as an expert in identifying “the best match” between your vacation desires and various properties around the world. However, when consumers inquire about specific details associated with a hotel (ie, how convenient is the hotel to the Guggenheim Bilbao?) it quickly becomes clear that service representatives are not skilled enough, nor are they knowledgeable enough. familiar with travel destinations to support a high-end clientele. There is an obvious coherence mismatch between the ‘luxury’ brand identity and the experience or training of service representatives.
In another case, a major credit card company advertises its service as world class. However, billing disputes cannot be resolved over the phone or online, but instead require written correspondence with supporting evidence collected by the consumer from the merchant. Truly world-class companies handle these same requests over the phone and intercede on behalf of the customer with merchants; require the trader to provide evidence instead of the consumer. Since the level of service has already been set extremely high, a new entrant trying to attract high-end consumers must match or exceed competitive offerings. Promising high-level service and then failing to deliver it has a more detrimental impact on loyalty than setting low expectations and consistently meeting a clear standard.
Consistency encourages self-selection among potential customers, increasing the likelihood that advertising, marketing, and sales investments will translate into revenue growth. A strong and clear brand identity lowers the cost of sales by driving away the large number of potential customers who are unlikely to become paying customers.
A clear brand identity that is married to a consistent service strategy also sets an expectation threshold that can dramatically decrease the number and intensity of customer complaints, greatly reducing the cost of exception handling. Consumers who know they’re shopping at Wal-Mart’s bargain basket will have lower expectations than fashionistas browsing Manolo Blahnik’s seconds at Century 21. Sure, they’re only paying $250 for $725 Tuccio Watersnake Pumps, but they want perfection. slipped into that discount wrapper.
Inconsistency may show up in relatively subtle ways, but these discontinuities are picked up by consumers, consciously and unconsciously, creating a barely noticeable discomfort that reduces the customer’s propensity for repeat business. Customer deviations from the norms of fair behavior create, at a minimum, excessive marketing costs; In the extreme, this lack of repeat business translates into adverse word of mouth and the eventual collapse of the business. Restaurants, bars and nightclubs are the classic Canarians in the coal mine for this phenomenon. Without a solid core of repeat business (or extremely high non-return tourist traffic), a restaurant without this word of mouth cannot generate enough traffic through advertising alone to stay open.
Consumers easily compartmentalize their expectations and are quite comfortable changing their demands as they enter different frameworks of expectations. Parents can eat at The Fat Duck in Bray (voted World’s Best Restaurant in 2005) one night and take the family to Outback Steakhouse the next; Still viewing both disparate experiences as completely satisfying. A consumer can drive his Maserati Quattroporte to Central Park for a $2 hot dog and feel no dissonance because his expectations are appropriately bifurcated. Travelers can comfortably stay at the Taj, New Delhi one night and camp under the stars in Rajasthan the next. Consumers generally do not demand the ultimate in luxury and refinement from every experience, they simply demand that every experience fit within an appropriate framework of expectations.
A company’s brand identity is one of the most powerful ways in which that framework of expectations is established. The service environment that supports the brand is the other critical factor. If the brand identity is diffuse or dissonant, and the service standards are not aligned, then the consumer is unable to settle into a framework of expectations that fits and does not establish a pattern of “loyal” behavior with respect to that company. . Repeat business is diminished and the consumer does not provide a positive response to the word-of-mouth buzz that is so critical to long-term revenue growth.
By establishing consistency between brand identity and service delivery model, companies can begin to establish a strategy that leads to extraordinary customer experiences.
Copyright © 2007, Lotus Pond Media
