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Delivering the customer service promise … or not!

Wednesday 27 February 2008 · No Comments

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I’m on a customer service kick again having just wasted the best part of a day battling with O2’s customer support.

In the Czech Republic Telefonica O2 recently acquired the once state-owned Czech Telecom and their mobile counterpart Eurotel and with them what was probably the worst customer service in the developed world.  Somehow the arrogance of public ownership had combined with a Communist appreciation of what customer service is all about, absolutely no consumer insights and zero training to create a customer service resource that had infinite flexibility to be able NOT to deliver whatever you needed.  Yes, I am sure they actually went out of their way to make life impossible!

Luckily the boys at Telefonica have risen to the challenge and in a reasonably short period have begun to respond to  current needs, anticipate future ones and even create processes for resolving them.

My problem was that as a self-confessed media junkie (integration was invented just for me) I travel the world with my lap-top set up to deliver English language TV, movies, news etc. wherever I may be.  I’m not usually at my Prague base for long periods of time but this month I appear to have outstayed my welcome (at least with Telefonica/O2) by downloading more than they think I should have (Maybe something to do with watching the entire first series of Lost!?).  The result being that I received a hefty slap on the wrist in the form of a download speed restriction that reduced my bandwidth from 4mb to 88kbps - very friendly!

Now, I could launch into one of my pet subjects here with a piece entitled “When is unlimited download not unlimited?” and turn this whole thing around into a case for revealing the “fair user policy” that some ISPs adopt for the miss-sell that it represents - to my mind if you buy unlimited download you should get unlimited download and anything short of that should be considered breach of contract.  However, I’m determined to keep to the point here, which is … why having gone to all the trouble of training and devising programmes for the resolution of customer issues anybody - and Telefonica are not alone here - should hand it over to web site developers to completely bugger up.

Why, when everyone seems to be talking about and nodding to the suggestion that you should never be more than a couple of clicks away from satisfaction on any web site, do so many organisations that I believe genuinely understand customers and want to solve their problems, have web sites with customer support that you need GPS and a native guide to find your way around? (My old English teacher would love that sentence/paragraph!)

All I wanted to do was buy a quid’s worth of extra bandwidth to see me through the week and it took four phone calls and more time on the O2 web site that I would care to recall (or add-up the cost of).  The reasons for this were firstly that this service is not available via the telephone customer service, only on line.  Secondly, web site navigation was unending, but my biggest issue is that, for some reason that I can’t fathom, Telefonica O2 insist on giving things cute names that you are supposed to instinctively relate.

Pardon me for being simple, but if I want to buy extra bandwidth I’m looking for a menu item that says something like “buy extra bandwidth”.  Unfortunately T/O2 don’t see it that way.  They think that its far more appropriate to list “Data Klik” among a never ending menu of similarly cute names at the end of a navigation challenge that goes like this.

Home>Private>Customer Care>On-line Services and applications>Log-in (this is great because you are supposed to have at your fingertips a sixteen character login and password that you won’t have used since the day you set up your modem)>My services>Data Klik (if you knew it was call this)>order>send.  Sorted!

Maybe I’m slow, but it took me conversations with four different customer service representatives to fathom that route.  Yes, I couldn’t buy the service on the phone but I had to use the phone service to find out how to use the on-line service - does that make sense? - No, of course not!  Only the last guy gave me the impression that he had ever seen the web site himself or knew that what I was looking for was “data klik”.  One thought I could buy it from a colleague over the phone, but having transferred me the colleague was as confused as I was, another cut me off and didn’t call back (I assume they have number recognition at the telephone company?) the third gave me completely the wrong instructions - Oh, and I got through to a recorded message that told me that there were no operators available, but if I left a message they would call me back, which I did.  That was two days ago now and I’m still waiting!

So, I guess at least some of the morals of this story are:

  • Never trust a web developer to create a customer service web site
  • Keep marketing speak out of it - call a spade a spade and everyone will understand.
  • If your mechanism doesn’t deliver your customer service, you have no customer service.

Actually, this experience actually had a negative influence on my opinion of Telefonica/O2 and it is a really good example of where the inefficiencies lie in organisations like this.  They could significant and directly reduce their need for investment by fixing this problem, but it will be a drop in the ocean compared to the savings they would make if they just stopped pissing customers off by putting them through this mill. 

As the market leader by a long way they may be less driven than their competitors on issues like this and rather less concerned than they should be about achieving efficiencies and increasing ROI, but as one of their competitors has pledged to take their leadership position within two years I hardly think they can afford to hang around. 

Of course this is my old subject Integrated Marketing again and how it applies to the delivery of the brand promise - in this case the promise is “customer service”!

Categories: CRM · Full Effect · Full Efffect Marketing · O2 · Telefonica · The Full Effect Company · brand · brands · call centre · central europe · contact centre · customer service · design · efficiency · management · marketing · navigation · on-line · phil darby · purchasing · web site

Brands and architecture

Tuesday 22 January 2008 · No Comments

The Dancing Building. PragueI’ve been working with architects and planners for the past few weeks and fascinating it has been too.  I have been trying to identify the key component of the perfect urban development, which sounds simple enough, until you try to find hard facts to support ideas and theories.  Then you quickly discover that once the buildings are up and the developers have made their money nobody is too bothered to find out if the development actually worked.

There was one worthwhile project that I uncovered though.  Its called the SHE Project - SHE being the abbreviation of Sustainable Housing in Europe.  So far it is the only project I have found that actually sets out to measure the benefits of various aspects of housing design.  Its just a pity there are no results yet (although the Italian government has changed it’s policy in response to the short-term results achieved by the SHE developments that are taking place in their country, so I guess the general indications are good).  I just wish that someone had done something similar for other aspects of planning and development - like a study of the optimal socio-economic mix for a new town, or the influence that integrating less well off and disadvantaged social groups with more affluent residents has on crime and social dissatisfaction!

I met some interesting characters on this project too.  Like an apparently well thought-of world authority on the subject who just seems to swear and rant a lot, but doesn’t appear actually contribute much and a developer in Eastern Europe who seems to be able to raise limitless funds (I’m talking hundreds of millions of Euros here!) for a development before he has a plan!  No, don’t ask!

Anyway, all this brought me around to the idea of Cities as brands again.  I say again because its something that I talk about often in my Brand Discovery Programme workshops and Full Effect Marketing seminars.  The particular prompt on this occasion came as I was reading through some stuff on the shenanigans surrounding a planned new development in Adelaide.  Don’t you just love Aussie politics?  It must be one of the few Western-style democracies where politics reach such a height of verbal and sometimes physical abuse that the real issues become secondary.

Anyway, I picked up on a debate about whether the design of the new centre was, or even should be, in keeping with the Victorian and mock Gothic architecture that the State Capital is known for.  Somebody had commented that the centre should be Victorian in style because that was what Adelaide is all about.  Now we’re talking branding and that’s my subject.

On one hand maybe the brand Adelaide is about faux Victorian architecture, in which case the Victorian style shopping centre would be right on.  However, if the existing mock Victorian architecture was in its day more about being off-the-wall architecturally, that’s a different promise altogether.

Living part the time as I do in Prague I have seen how a city renown for startling architecture across the centuries maintains this reputation today (despite a short interruption by the Commies).  Prague made the decision very quickly after the fall of Communism that its new buildings would match the promise of the First Republic and before - not reproductions of a classical style mind you, but bold contemporary statements as the old buildings certainly were in their time.  The city fathers started small this time, with a building on the river, known to everyone now as the “dancing building” and over the last twenty years they have expanded their vision and encouraged architects and planners from around the word to bring their wild ideas to the city, resulting in larger stunning projects that contrast with the old, but reflect the same bold architectural statement of their forefathers - its starting to work!

I have lost count of the number of brands I have come across that have failed to recognise that it was the fact they were different rather than what made them so, that created their success in the first place and this is the same thing.  Prague could have gone the way of many British town planners and created reproduction architecture that looked like reproduction antique furniture - and we all know how tasteful that can be - NOT!  Its a lesson a lot of brand’s could use.  Instead of setting up their business to deliver the promise - a constant flow of new and different concepts - too many organisations have invested all their effort in trying to perpetuate an old idea.  What happens every time is their least imaginative competitors catch up, do the same thing and between them they turn the sector into … well, Slough (and we all know what John Betjeman made of that) until the next lighthouse brand comes along and whips their boring butts!

Successful brands (I mean brands that hang around for a few years) continually re-invent themselves coming up with new ideas and trading concepts that match the evolution of consumers - you are only as good as your next good idea!  Of course, nobody would deny, there’s always a chance that you’ll get it wrong, but even if you did, the worst consequence isn’t going to be as bad as the ultimate oblivion that lies in store for those who are stuck in a rut.  Besides, you can always change again and try to get it right - so you might as well just get on with it.

My foray into the world of architecture also gave me another parallel and that too resonates with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.  It goes back to the establishment of Christianinity in the West and the way that Christian churches were built on pagan religeous sites.  The idea was to symbolise the authority of the new religion.  When the Communists were in charge further East they did the same thing. Ceausescu in Romania was a master.  He virtually wiped out all evidence of history in Bucharest, replacing classical buildings with massive concrete blocks and cheap pre-fabricated high rises, but he also created a palace that was the third biggest building on earth.  Like a King rising above his subjects this dominates a grid of other Communist buildings from its raised position.  When you see it you just know what it stood for - no doubt there!  Although Prague wasn’t vandalised by the Communists like some other cities, its present day story is one of the brand reaserting its promise - pulling down the panelaks and replacing them with contemporary manifestations of the promise it always made.  There are a few commercial brands that could do with the same treatment.

Sure its tough to keep comming up with ideas, but that’s what marketing is, for Christ’s sake!  Its also why we marketers get paid (so they tell me!) so well!

Categories: Full Effect · Full Efffect Marketing · The Full Effect Company · architecture · brand · ceausescu · central europe · communist · czech · dancing building · design · ideas · innovation · marketing · pagan · phil darby · strategy · sustainable housing · tradition · urban development

So, it looks like marketing might be science after all!

Wednesday 26 December 2007 · 2 Comments

genes

With most of the human genome now discovered there are people in some quarters who would have us believe that genes drive pretty much any decision we make.  Folks have suspected for some time that things like aggression, happiness and depression could be genetic and inherited, now there’s speculation that there is a gene that determines conformity - yes, there are definitely people who like to be part of groups and those who like to express their individualism by owning niche products, apparently, its genetic! 

Maybe this makes the case for genetic testing as a part of the recruitment process?  You could identify people who think outside the box, or those who are natural leaders for management positions and others who are routine orientated who would be best suited to transactional roles.  Business success in the future could be guaranteed by the genetic make-up of your board, or even your work-force.

Just think, educational achievements could be of secondary importance on our CVs in years to come (I’ve been suggesting that for years) being relegated by your certificate of genetics, that would automatically qualify you for the top jobs regardless of what you have learned, simply because leadership is literally in your nature.

The potential is way beyond that though.  We know that brands are about membership to communities - large or niche.  Perhaps future marketers will be studying media data that identifies the genetics of their audience and planning media investment, message etc on the basis of a genuine biological propensity to purchase.  It’s well within the bounds of reason that we could identify groups of people who like to fit in and those that like to stand out and pitch brands accordingly.  Just think, there could be a gene or combination of genes that accounts for the kind of unshakable brand loyalty that we see with Harley Davidson or Apple computer purchasers or even religious zeal.

What really intrigues me though is the notion that we could implant genes to change behaviour.  In fact, its more than a notion, scientists are doing that kind of thing already.  OK so implanting genes is tricky to get right, but so was flight once and now its all too common. 

Apparently its not just about single genes, but combinations of genes.  The multitude of unique formulae that are possible with the estimated 20-25,000 genes in the human genome is represented by the different character traits we see among humankind and once you have the basics provided by the genes there’s still further scope for individualism, you can fine-tune them with social influences.  

So far I’ve only mentioned naturally occurring genes, but I’m sure someone somewhere is already working on creating entirely synthetic genes from scratch.  Just think what we can do with that idea.  A manufacturer could commission a gene that drives a tendency to purchase their product.  Then all you have to do is find a way to introduce that into a worthwhile section of the community and you are away! 

Where’s all this heading?  Well maybe the marketing consultancy of the future will be identifying markets for their clients by genetic analysis.  Brand strategies would be less about ensuring that your brand appealed to a worthwhile consumer segment and more about introducing genes into food products to create loyalty among those who ate them.  You would only have to organise tastings in supermarkets and it would just be a matter of sampling enough people to represent a worthwhile market - once they had tasted they would be hooked!  Sales would be assured!  Once that’s possible, food products will become the media with food manufacturers providing the opportunity to producers of non-food items and luxury goods to introduce their “buy” gene via the food chain.  Hey, you could polish off a plate of fish-fingers and immediately develop an irresistible desire to own a Ferrari, financed by some financial services group whose gene you had also consumed as a part of the media package!

When you consider the plan that the UK government had to add folic acid to bread to reduce spina bifida you have at least some of the ingredients for a society where the introduction of genes in this way is socially acceptable.  It would probably start with governments introducing behaviour modifying genes to control law and order, the next step might be religious groups working to convert non-believers and from there its just a small step to full-blown commercialisation!  And if you think that people wouldn’t stand for it, don’t forget that resistance could be reduced or eradicated by adding compliant genes to the water supply!

Then again, maybe it would just take the fun out of marketing!?

Categories: Full Effect · Full Efffect Marketing · The Full Effect Company · advertising · brand · brands · consulting · design · gene · genetic · ideas · innovation · management · marketing · phil darby · purchasing · recruitment · religion · sales · strategy

Organic Managers - The reason for the lack of contact centre initiatives

Tuesday 11 December 2007 · No Comments

dreamstime_1456833editjpg.jpgIn recent months I have been exploring the world of call centres, or “contact” centres as it seems they like to be called these days.  This is like design groups wanting to be called “brand consultancies” or advertising agencies who fancy they are “integrated marketing agencies”. 

The thing is, with the ever-widening range of contact routes available at the “sharp end” of marketing communications who can blame the phone jockeys for getting a little ahead of themselves.  But while you can fax, SMS, e-mail, mail, carrier pigeon or whatever your customers, calling yourself a “contact centre” doesn’t change the fact that nine out of ten of these places still only use a telephone to call you in the middle of dinner to sell you broadband; just like most advertising agencies are still selling advertising and very few design groups at all would recognise brand strategy if it bit them on the arse!  Anyway, that isn’t what I want to talk about.

What I have found particularly interesting about the phone world has been the culture - its like a village, everyone knows each other and they all seem to have been each other’s boss at some time in the past.  Its also a sector where managers often arrive at positions of authority via the phone rather than the management college.  Nothing wrong in that of course, but if all your managers have this kind of pedigree it does sort of limit your potential.

This leads me to my first question, which is “Is it this cultrure of organically grown managers, or something to do with the fact that call-centre life is lived exclusively on the front line that produces businesses that are purely tactically focused with no strategy whatsoever?”  Raise the matter with a call centre hard-liner and they will probably tell you, as I was told a number of times “… that’s how it is in call centres”.

This short-termism is most noticeable when you take a look at the marcoms in the sector.  I’m sorry, but the evidence clearly suggests that whatever their delusions, call or contact centres are still a long way from being marcoms professionals - in fact I took the top ten UK-owned concerns and checked out their web pages and there wasn’t a single proposition there - no, honest, I mean it!  At least there’s no danger of them failing to deliver their promises, they aren’t making any!

The thing is, as a basis for an integrated offering, a call centre has a lot going for it.  Not just the incoming and outgoing option or choices in media routes - SMS, e-mail, web, chat, telephone, etc. there’s the data - just think what an analyst could do with that!  And then there’s print and direct mail (OK so call me a Luddite!) and the many revenue-generating areas that emerge when you deliver great customer service - strategy and script writing, and of course there’s plenty of scope for internationalisation.

I’ve heard a lot recently from call centre operators who think the sector has laid its last golden egg.  This may be so, but there’s still plenty of scope for serious business in the real world of marketing - and as long as nobody out there really looks like they are trying there isn’t a whole lot of competition.  I guess the obstacle has to be management.

Categories: Full Effect · Full Efffect Marketing · The Full Effect Company · brand · brands · call centre · consulting · contact centre · customer service · design · efficiency · internal marketing · management · marketing · phil darby · strategy

Brand Consultancy - The blind leading the blind

Tuesday 11 December 2007 · No Comments

I’ve recently been taking a closer look at the world of “Brand Consultancies” and I now understand why brand management is generally so pitiful, not just in the UK , but pretty much everywhere?”

Before you jump up and down in disagreement with my premise please bear in mind that our perspective on this matter is very much clouded by the very few companies indeed who get it right.  So spectacular is their branding against the mediocre backdrop provided by the vast majority of organisations that we can be fooled into thinking that their’s is the mean standard, but its not, which is why most organisations can make massive performance improvements very simply, usually without increased investment once they have the know-how.  And there’s the rub, because, from what I have discovered recently the very companies who profess to have that know-how don’t in fact have the first clue about what a brand is, let alone what you have to do to develop one.

I’ve been introduced to the approach to “brand development” of a good many “consultancies” in the course of my explorations and this is what I have found:

Nearly all of the organisations that call themselves “brand consultancies” are nothing more than design groups jumping on the latest bandwagon in search of business development - which is all well and good if you are serious about your subject and not just ripping people off.

Their idea of brand development is usually just corporate identity - which as we all know is an important, but very small corner indeed of the brand development picture.  I’m not saying that all of the organisations that don’t “get it” are rip-off merchants.  Most of them simply don’t seem to know what “brand development” is, but while it may make their deficiencies a little less exploitative it doesn’t help their clients who are being sucked into this very expensive world of smoke and mirrors.

The saddest discovery I made though is that even when its pointed out to them that what they are offering isn’t brand development many of these designers aren’t committed enough to want to even try to get their act together.  I guess that’s because they can’t see the business case for investing early in developing real skills while there remain organisations around who will fall for the miss-sell, but lack of business acumen on this scale make them inappropriate for the role of brand developer anyway.  Frankly, I can’t wait to see what they do when the bubble bursts.

So its clear to me that at least one reason brand management is so poor is that the people who organisations rely to advise them on this are rarely qualified to do so and frankly talk complete bollocks most of the time.  But the question remains, how do you tell the real thing?  Well, here are a few pointers:

The starting point in any brand development programme HAS to be the creation of a brand model.  This will define your business vision and mission, brand character, point-of-difference (your cause), positioning and promise.  This is every organisation’s bible, it will influence everything you do in every corner of your business so if your “brand consultancy” don’t ask you for it or help you produce one they simply aren’t the real thing.

The term “brand development” is synonymous with “business development” - brands drive business and they are influencing every function at every level of your organisation.  This is not about “dressing to kill”, its about genuineness, how you behave, delivering your promise, being true to your cause.  So if your “brand consultancy” doesn’t start by introducing you to the principles of internal marketing (because this is what brand development is really about) then they are imposters.

If you are approaching marketing in anything like the right way, you’ll be making a realistic investment in marketing already.  One of the founding principles of Full Effect Marketing is that before you increase your marketing budget you should strive to optimise the efficiency of the investment you already make, whch for most businesses isn’t difficult.  In this context this usually means diverting a proprtion of investment away from external communication (making the promise) to internal marketing (delivering the promise).  If you don’t adjust your focus in this way you will be, like many organisations, just papering over the cracks, which may have worked in the past for many, but it’s no longer a sustainable practise.  Research of all kinds from all over the world supports this kind of redirecion of investment and those organisations who have taken this route have been vindicated by their subsequent business performance.  So, if your “brand consultancy” starts by explaining what the cost of entry to the world of brand development is show them the exit.

Judging by the hit-rate I achieved in my search for “brand consultancies” worthy of the title, I can understand that this whole subject is a minefield for most businesses.  I hope that I have introduced a few key pointers to those who may be looking for advice in this area, but if you want to know more you know where I am.   

Categories: Full Effect · Full Efffect Marketing · The Full Effect Company · brand · brands · consulting · design · efficiency · internal marketing · marketing · phil darby · strategy