Amalgamation of the customer experience is a vital part of businesses in the 21st Century. This is everything from buying right through to after-sales support and is a big part of my consultation process.
I'm really big on amalgamation in business right now. Despite the ".com" boom there are still companies out there with websites which bare no resemblance to their business. More pertinently now, there are businesses out there with either an atrocious social presence which also bares no resemblance to their website or business, or even no presence at all.
There are businesses with fantastic e-mail based customer service but terrible telephone, or even face to face customer service. Their customer service strategy is not amalgamated. As a consequence of this, customers will begin to understand that one particular element of the company are bad. Then 2 things happen:
Taking a wider view of amalgamation outside of just the customer service space, we have business amalgamation. Chains of shops are generally successful because the customer knows what to expect when they're in there. Go to a Starbucks in London and you'll find the same experience in New York or Paris. Customers look for that reassurance between businesses - that the quality they expect wont change between premises.
These shops are successful partly because they build customer experience into their strategy.
So how do we do that? Think of your business as a story. Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end with a good amount of back story to settle the reader in. Some might even have an epilogue. Let's not forget as well that the most important perspective to view this in is that of your customer. So how does this apply to your business?
a·mal·ga·mate/əˈmalgəˌmāt/
Verb:
- Combine or unite to form one organization or structure: "he amalgamated his company with another".
I'm really big on amalgamation in business right now. Despite the ".com" boom there are still companies out there with websites which bare no resemblance to their business. More pertinently now, there are businesses out there with either an atrocious social presence which also bares no resemblance to their website or business, or even no presence at all.
There are businesses with fantastic e-mail based customer service but terrible telephone, or even face to face customer service. Their customer service strategy is not amalgamated. As a consequence of this, customers will begin to understand that one particular element of the company are bad. Then 2 things happen:
- The customer gives up with that line of communication.
- The money you've put into supplying the customer with these avenues of communication gets wasted because the customer simply doesn't want to deal via that method.
Taking a wider view of amalgamation outside of just the customer service space, we have business amalgamation. Chains of shops are generally successful because the customer knows what to expect when they're in there. Go to a Starbucks in London and you'll find the same experience in New York or Paris. Customers look for that reassurance between businesses - that the quality they expect wont change between premises.
These shops are successful partly because they build customer experience into their strategy.
So how do we do that? Think of your business as a story. Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end with a good amount of back story to settle the reader in. Some might even have an epilogue. Let's not forget as well that the most important perspective to view this in is that of your customer. So how does this apply to your business?
- The beginning - The customer hears about your business, sees your advert, walks past your shop, clicks on your website.
- The middle - They're in your shop/business/place of work. They're browsing, experiencing, seeing if the shop fits.
- The end - They decide whether to buy or not
- The epilogue - Ongoing service and support post sale
Every step of the story should be enforcing one thing, not X number of things. That "one thing" should be decided by you. Is it trust? Is it safety? Is it "awesome"? Is it "the future"? Once you've made your decision you need to look at every step of the customer journey and, perhaps with a friend who's removed from the business in as many ways as possible, then run some ideas by them.
If you decide that you want your thing to be Cleanliness then you need to look at each stage of the customer journey. What are the sensations surrounding cleanliness? Are those sensations echoed in your advertising, shop frontage, social media pages, web pages, establishment? How would you describe cleanliness? Are those adjectives defined in your customer journey?
Don't forget, as is the title of the series, this is all about an experience. Encourage your customers to think on your wave length by stage managing your business. Uniforms are a way of amalgamation, but why stop there? Why even go there in the first place? Would uniforms be a way to get across your thing? Uniforms represent efficiency, consistency, pride, commitment as well as being a great reminder to your customers that they're dealing with your brand, not a gaggle of employees. Be careful though. A uniform removes the individuality of the wearer. Your whole company and brand will get sucked into their bad customer service - so make sure they are well trained and share your company mantra.
Some brands thrive on the individuality of their businesses premises. A great example of this would be entertainment venues. But they are amalgamated under a different banner - Uniqueness. Each night club may look unique and may attract entirely different customers but underneath their goal will be to build the customers trust that the brand will deliver quality entertainment. Amalgamation doesn't mean stripping your business of individuality.
At every stage where your company deals with the public there should be consistency with the utmost care. Every time you speak, the company speaks. Make sure that when the company speaks it's always in one voice.
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