Defining and delivering the branded experience in China today

Ed Dean – JETT | customer experience

China Customer Experience Conference

Wednesday 27th April 2011 – Ritz-Carlton Shanghai Pudong

Today…

1. Challenge

2. A short introduction

3. Defining customer experience

4. Why … how… more than you might think

5. Two themes & four questions

A short introduction

• Who are we?

Mission is to instil confidence and inspire leadership in the new generation of service professionals in China

What does this have to do with ‘customer experience’?

Defining ‘Customer Experience’

• “Customer experience relates to the positive and negative features and effects of a customer’s interaction with a brand and the people that represent it”

– Marketing?

– HR?

– Operations?

– Product?

– Training?

• It’s a function of all of the features of your business and how they work together

…part of a value chain & not an individual event

– In-store (people and POS)

– Online

– Advertising / communications

– Call centres

– Social networking

Customer experience…

…is not rocket science

…there is no silver bullet

Customer experience…

…little things

“If you think little things are not important, try spending the night in the same room as a mosquito”

…top down support and buy-in from the boss

Customer experience…

• If Not Excellence, What? If Not Excellence Now, When?

– Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence)

• If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that

– Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com founder and CEO)

• It’s not about luck – it’s about planning. The highs and lows don’t happen by accident – they are the tip of the iceberg

People want the same things

We all want to be:

• Respected

• Liked

• Listened to

• Understood

• Excited

• Pleasantly surprised

• Engaged

• Focus on people … both customers and employees

People…

“ The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife ”

David Ogilvy (1911 – 1999)

We are consumers too … (it’s easy to forget this)

Think of a recent ‘customer experience’ of your own

A personal customer experience

Where were you?

What happened?

Why do you think of it today?

Did we guess right?

• Hotel, restaurant, retail store or bank: Places

– airline (possibly), over the phone (possibly)

– (few B2B or online examples)

• Emphasis on Interaction: People

• Emphasis on feeling rather than thought

• Strong impression

• Lasting impression

• We generally hear more negative examples than positive examples

people and emotions

Personal experience

Intermission

• (the right) People

• Word-of-mouth

• Customer-centred approach

• (Noble) Purpose

• Empowerment

• Recognition

• EXECUTION

Brand Experience

People & the Service they deliver

Builds

Defines

“Customer experience says more about a brand than any advertising campaign…”

“Customer service … is the cheapest form of marketing”Seth Godin (small is the new big)

Two Themes & Four Key Questions

1) What is the value of customer experience, and what does it mean to today’s Chinese consumers?

2) What are some of the key techniques for maximising results and overcoming challenges in this area?

1. How can we be different?

2. How can we be better?

3. How do we execute on this?

4. How do we stay different and better?

So where does this leave us with our four questions?

1) How can we be different?

1. Focus on brand values and what they mean

2. This means what the company stands for, its mission, its values and its purpose

3. Are we just here to make money? (employees and customers see through this!)

2) How can we be better?

1. Capitalise on what’s different – and focus to those strengths

2. Innovate and create in a positive way

3) How do we execute on this?

1. Courage and belief

2. Flawless execution; systems

4) How do we stay different and better?

1. Remain true to the above

2. Create standards & procedures; measure and refine

3. Continue to innovate

To Summarise

1) Experience is the differentiator (after price and product)

2) In the ‘experience economy’ through focusing on your people (who they are, what they do, why they do it and how they do it) you will find and maintain the differentiation your brand needs

3) Your brand and your (customer-facing) people need to be completely interlinked –they are the same thing and they feed each other

4) To do this successfully:

1. Hire the right people (who will represent the brand and engage with the customer)

2. Orient them around and align them to the brand and its purpose

3. Train them to deliver to the brand promise (and sell)

4. Set standards and measure them against these

5. Keep the right people as they will perpetuate the success (through corporate culture)

----- Set all of this within the framework of the BRAND -----

5) Maintain, measure and innovate

Thank you | Questions

www.jett-asia.com