Loyalty is based on real interactions between consumers, and even more importantly with returning customers, and company representatives. By representative I mean any level of employees, in any kind or size of company. Like the experience Jake McKee is sharing speaking of his conversation with the American Airlines desk employee about his request for an upgrade. In this case, whatever a company does the deal is set at the desk (in real life or virtually, or over the phone). First impression is essential, but reliability is key when speaking of loyalty.
I had another kind of experience. I had to book a seat for a flight to Asia (Singapore and Korea) and I wasn't able to find anything from the website of Singapore Airlines. Since the recommendation was coming from one of my friend, I push the experience and call the French Office to get information. Over the phone I was able to book and pay in less than 4 minutes a multi city flight with a great discount compared to the website. Website from where I wasn't able to use the multi city feature, confirmed by the representative I had over the phone. If not going over the phone, I would have kept a negative opinion of the company and be sure I would never have bought anything from then. Same thing happened when I tried to book a room in Palo Alto for next month. I tried over the website, but wasn't able to book more than 15 nights in a row. I had to find the email and request help, which occured over the phone the day after the email was sent. If not done so, I wouldn't be able to have a fine room for 18 nights and a fine discount, and eventually book somewhere else, though they had available rooms.
The conclusion of the 2 experiences? the brand manager is the representative you put in front of your customers. Those people are your brand image, your first milestones to loyalty and word of mouth. Word of mouth I did for both companies, and purchase I generated for both, plus the fact I did become loyal to them. Willing to create corporate branding, generate loyalty, and leverage social media marketing? think offline to go and leverage online. Never cut costs on the points of contacts with your customers. That's your image you're cutting otherwise.
Photo Credit: Dewispace
To read more on that topic:
- Social Media + purchase = Leveraging social media to close the deal?
- Fast.Fwd.Innovation Weekly Takeaway
- Ideas + Social Media = Free Marketing leading to engagement and product purchase
- Ad Networks + Agencies + Companies = Doing poor advertising by being lazy
- Online Videos + Viral = Ideas to generate interest and lead to your products
By Romain Péchard
Fast.Fwd.Innov@tion
