Customers need support. Orientation. Why in the age of the customer and digital transformation, the brand as an anchor and customer centricity are more important than ever
Caught! Despite our best intentions to only buy from retailers, we still order at least one Christmas present from Amazon. The reason for this? The customer-centric product development (Prime delivery service!) and the unbeatable customer experience (same-day delivery! 1-click buy!), which Jeff Bezos declared to be a company goal years ago. The disruptive success of the internet bank N26 can also be explained by customer experience innovations such as the revolutionary 8-minute online
sign-up process (instead of spending your entire lunch break at the post office for the identification process) or the transparent credit card that attracts envious glances.
customer focus
Many investments that previously went into brand building via communication israel telegram data are now being redirected into customer experience innovation. With success, as various studies show: The long-term survey of the CX Index by Forrester shows that investing in the customer experience has a direct positive effect on customer loyalty and thus on sales and company value.
And customer focus also contributes to employee motivation: 80% of the workforce enjoys working at a customer experience "leader", while only 50% of those with average CX are committed to work (Temkin Group 2016). The Dutch bank ING established customer focus as an integral part of its employee goals back in 2010. This motivates all employees to use agile, iterative processes to bring products and services closer and closer to measured customer requirements. With impressive results: Since 2014, the number of primary customers has increased by 25%.
It is important and right that experience and customer focus reach board level. But as always with such trends, there is collateral damage. The most painful: the brand, which was originally the bearer of differentiation.
Interaction as Brand and Differentiation
In the heyday of agencies, brand images were disproportionately determined by advertising: good classic campaigns could shape a brand's image almost completely. The Coke vs Pepsi test proved that the influence of images and slogans is often stronger than the product experience itself. The Internet has significantly reduced this influence: media diversity and changing user behavior make mass communication more difficult. Product information available everywhere and the exchange of experiences between users revealed (only alleged) differences in quality. Campaigns lost power (even if they were far from powerless).