Marketing Whims
Whim: 1. An idea, vision, passing thought, or fool notion. 2. What It Means.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
The Stories That Loyal Customers Tell
The following are true stories:
#1: A man in his mid-50s, when asked by his bank in a focus group interview why he was a loyal customer, said “it’s because of Jenny, the branch manager where I bank.” When asked what made Jenny so special, he replied, “I don’t know. But one time I came into the branch to make a deposit, and the pen at the counter was out of ink. Jenny’s office is around the corner from the counter, and although she had a customer in with her, she somehow knew that pen was out of ink, and came out with a batch of new pens. That’s Jenny for you.”
#2: A trade magazine reporter and her partner were trying to adopt a child, and they had received word from the adoption agency that a child was available for adoption, but that they needed a short term loan in order to make the trip to China to pick up the baby. According to the reporter, her bank “bent over backwards to approve the loan and get her the money in 24 hours” and for that she would “never leave them.”
#3: An IT executive at a large financial services firm (not USAA) traces his loyalty to USAA back to a single phone call. He called the firm to cancel a credit card and insurance policy. The rep said “I hope I’m not overstepping my boundaries, but may I ask you if you’re going through a divorce?” Surprised, he said he was. The rep replied “We have a department that can help you with this process, and if you’d like, I can transfer you to someone in that department now, and everything we’ve discussed so far will be passed on to them.”
There are three lessons marketers should learn from these stories. The first is that product quality is table stakes. No where in any of these stories did anyone mention whether or not they got better rates, fees, or investment performance from their providers.
The second lesson is that service quality only goes so far. The added convenience of late branch hours and faster call handling time are important, but they don’t produce the stories that customers tell. Instead, it’s the exceptional interactions -- often, the highly emotional ones -- that leave lasting impressions.
The third lesson is that while loyalty programs -- for example, rewarding customers who invest more assets with the bank with better rates or lower fees -- can buy a customer’s loyalty, forming an emotional bond with customers earns their loyalty.
High-emotion interactions are cues for special treatment. For example, processing a mortgage app through the standard process is fine, but a loan to be used for adopting a child should get higher priority -- and handled with extreme sensitivity.
Identifying these interactions -- and when they’ve been successfully handled -- won’t be easy, but it’s critical. Why? Because a successful high-emotion interaction -- one that produces a story that loyal customers tell -- is a signal that a firm has earned the right to cross-sell additional products and that a customer is open to broadening the relationship.
What stories do your customers tell about your firm?
For more on this topic, please go to Marketing ROI: Whims From Ron Shevlin
#1: A man in his mid-50s, when asked by his bank in a focus group interview why he was a loyal customer, said “it’s because of Jenny, the branch manager where I bank.” When asked what made Jenny so special, he replied, “I don’t know. But one time I came into the branch to make a deposit, and the pen at the counter was out of ink. Jenny’s office is around the corner from the counter, and although she had a customer in with her, she somehow knew that pen was out of ink, and came out with a batch of new pens. That’s Jenny for you.”
#2: A trade magazine reporter and her partner were trying to adopt a child, and they had received word from the adoption agency that a child was available for adoption, but that they needed a short term loan in order to make the trip to China to pick up the baby. According to the reporter, her bank “bent over backwards to approve the loan and get her the money in 24 hours” and for that she would “never leave them.”
#3: An IT executive at a large financial services firm (not USAA) traces his loyalty to USAA back to a single phone call. He called the firm to cancel a credit card and insurance policy. The rep said “I hope I’m not overstepping my boundaries, but may I ask you if you’re going through a divorce?” Surprised, he said he was. The rep replied “We have a department that can help you with this process, and if you’d like, I can transfer you to someone in that department now, and everything we’ve discussed so far will be passed on to them.”
There are three lessons marketers should learn from these stories. The first is that product quality is table stakes. No where in any of these stories did anyone mention whether or not they got better rates, fees, or investment performance from their providers.
The second lesson is that service quality only goes so far. The added convenience of late branch hours and faster call handling time are important, but they don’t produce the stories that customers tell. Instead, it’s the exceptional interactions -- often, the highly emotional ones -- that leave lasting impressions.
The third lesson is that while loyalty programs -- for example, rewarding customers who invest more assets with the bank with better rates or lower fees -- can buy a customer’s loyalty, forming an emotional bond with customers earns their loyalty.
Whim: Marketers must use CRM apps to identify high-emotion interactions, and gauge whether or not they’ve been successfully completed.
High-emotion interactions are cues for special treatment. For example, processing a mortgage app through the standard process is fine, but a loan to be used for adopting a child should get higher priority -- and handled with extreme sensitivity.
Identifying these interactions -- and when they’ve been successfully handled -- won’t be easy, but it’s critical. Why? Because a successful high-emotion interaction -- one that produces a story that loyal customers tell -- is a signal that a firm has earned the right to cross-sell additional products and that a customer is open to broadening the relationship.
What stories do your customers tell about your firm?
For more on this topic, please go to Marketing ROI: Whims From Ron Shevlin
Ron Shevlin, 8:14 AM
1 Comments:
When you reward customers, the chances of them going back for your products and services would be higher. Another key factor would be the way you interact with the customers. These rewards can either be tangible (freebies), or intangible (loyalty points).
Philip Jackson, at 6:33 AM