CLEAR CORRELATION
There’s a clear correlation between brands who don’t put hashtag#customersfirst and their results.
Imagine a brand, which was once so focused on their customer they even promised to remove any need to shop around.
The brand dropped some key touchpoints, and suddenly it seemed to be in not a very good place at all. Maybe it dropped the touchpoints because they were already not in a good place – trading conditions were rocky, Covid was rife, the world was changing, but the customer should surely be the last person to feel things were going wrong.
I order everything from this brand – clothes, cosmetics and electricals (and most of the furniture and stuff in my house.)
SOMETHING CHANGES
But something has changed. The last 2 times (and 2 times recently before) I’ve paid £8 for next day delivery, I’ve waited an extra day, with no explanation and no update. This time the lady at customer services told me “I had no choice but to wait in all day”, when my parcel went MIA again.
When I’ve requested a refund, I’ve been told that the refund for delivery I’ve paid in cash, can only be refunded by giftcard. And when I pushed further to explain this was no longer good enough, was told I could have the cash refund, but had to call a number to arrange it.
The delivery company themselves may be the party at fault here but I’m paying the brand not the delivery company and my relationship sits with them.
This brand also has a lovely new website – on which it’s borderline impossible to find anything. Search for something using clear terms and get thousands of totally irrelevant results. A website whose UX does not put the customer first.
FORGOTTEN TO PUT THE CUSTOMER FIRST
Someone somewhere in this business has forgotten the very people they seek to serve.
Will I stop shopping with this brand? No. Will I stop rooting for them (and the promise to make sure I never have to shop around that has recently returned), again, no.
But have I lost a little bit of love for them? Yes. Have I lost a bit of trust in them? Yes. And will that continue to erode as long as the stuff which shows a lack of care continues? Absolutely.
BELIEVE IN CUSTOMER FIRST
If you believe in Customer First, join my new community. And if you’d like to start putting YOUR customers first, to transform the results you get from your marketing, let’s arrange a coffee.
