Customer Service: Fulfilling the Lost Promise of Brands

By Andy See and Matthew Mendelsohn

For a long time, a brand was just your logo, your CEO, your brand ambassadors and your products. This was particularly true when we had to rely on mass media to send the same message through static media channels.

But in a world of Gen Zs and short video content, this definition is fast becoming obsolete. While a lack of product or message innovation can contribute to brand decay, increasingly, more tangible manifestations of your brand, and especially the interaction between your people and your customers, your customer service, often cause real erosion of trust from customers and endangering brand value.

The reason for the growing importance of customer service is simple: in a world with vastly lowered barriers of entry and a juiced competitive environment, customers rarely “need” a brand. There are always other choices out there, and consequently their loyalties gravitate to brands that delight them through amazing experiences.

Two Flights, Two Brand Experiences

In truth, we see customer service issues all around us every day. As an example, Matthew recently took a flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur on a well-known semi-budget airline. Just before take-off, the pilots flagged a mechanical issue and the plane returned to the terminal.

What followed was a 90-minute ordeal of disarray: no clear instructions, changing departure times and visibly confused staff. At one point, the passengers were told the flight would leave the next day. Then at 11:00 pm, an email was sent announcing the departure would be at 3:30 a.m. Nobody was in control, and it showed.

Contrast that with a story from a former client of ours. His plane made an emergency landing in another country. The moment it touched down, ground staff from the airline were ready. Passengers were personally escorted to transport, checked in automatically into a five-star hotel, given food vouchers and care packs, and kept regularly updated. He was so impressed that he launched a project in our own company to model that level of preparedness and care.

What’s the difference? In both cases, there was disruption. But in one, the brand promise fell apart under pressure. In the other, the brand’s values were reinforced in action when it mattered most. That’s not just customer service – that’s branding IRL (“in real life”).

Five Elements to Designing a True Brand Customer Service Proposition:

#1 – Know Yourself, Know Your Values

Know what your brand really stands for, and translate that into service principles. Don’t just aim for buzzwords like ‘fast’, ‘friendly’ or, worse still, ‘customer-first’. Tie your customer service proposition directly to your brand’s core values and know that once you define these, you’re going to need to live by them, even when it’s inconvenient or unprofitable in the short term.

#2 – Align Your Hiring & Training Practices

Orient all your hiring and people policies around your brand and the values you want to embody. Hire for character first, credentials second. Structure your recruitment, onboarding and leadership development to reinforce the behaviours you want your brand to represent.

Also be thoughtful about your managers, both at your head office and on the front lines. People take cues from their managers – make sure those cues align with your brand values.

#3 Adopt a ‘non-linear thinking’ and ‘customer up’ approach to design a brand-focused customer experience

Non-Linear Thinking is the theory that when we try to solve a problem, we don’t merely make small tweaks to what currently exists. Instead, we tear down the whole process and start from “what should the process be?” The best way to build a great customer service proposition is by taking each step of a typical customer journey (or a few variations of it) and embody your brand values into it.

This starts with a customer-up approach. Remove anything that causes unnecessary friction (e.g. SOPs that lengthen delivery times or reduce transparency) and ensure you match what customers would like the experience to feel like with your brand values. This requires real intentionality and thoughtfulness. It’s not about benchmarking to your competitors (although some may have some good ideas) but rather creating your own unique experience.

These changes may not happen in a day. Just as a marketing plan rolls out over time, think about what you can fix quickly versus what takes a bit longer, and roll out what you can with immediacy. The more a customer can “feel” a fix, the more goodwill you’re going to get.

#4. Recognise, Reinforce and Reward…Your Team

Behaviour modeling is massively important when it comes to building a brand-focused service proposition. It starts with training and placing KPIs and metrics to your managers that reinforce the key parts of your service and values that you want to instill in that experience.

Whenever a team member goes ‘above and beyond’ to demonstrate your brand values as part of your service, recognising them in the moment, and then more formally later on is necessary. Rewards don’t need to be financial; in fact, something as genuine as a call from a manager two or three levels up, a lunch with the CEO or even inclusion in a department-wide email is sufficient.

#5. Acknowledge Me…The Value of Responsiveness

Most businesses have feedback channels but sadly, many don’t take them seriously. We cannot emphasise enough the importance of making sure all feedback channels (e.g. email, hotline, social media, review sites) are monitored and responded to within 24 hours or less.

Don’t forget third party channels like Google Maps and online marketplace reviews.  Recognise that every comment by a customer, especially when they don’t have to provide feedback, is an opportunity. Acknowledge the issue, communicate clearly and follow through.

Even when customers are wrong, respond in a way that’s consistent with your brand values. Most customers don’t expect perfection. They expect to be heard and taken seriously. Do that, and they’ll often become your most vocal advocates.

Getting real

Customer service isn’t just a department. It’s your brand, live and unfiltered. The best brands today aren’t just recognised but remembered for how they made people feel during a moment that mattered.

Also remember, the customer service issue doesn’t just play itself out in a strict consumer arena or as a front-liner experience only.

It relates to how school administrators deliver services to students and parents, to investor relations departments in public-listed companies engaging their shareholders, wholesale teams dealing with B2B clients, or to pretty much any company’s People team in dealing with its employees.

Andy See is the Principal Partner and Managing Director of Perspective Strategies. He is also the immediate past president of the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN) and a former president of Public Relations & Communications Association Of Malaysia (PRCA) Malaysia.

Matthew Mendelsohn is the Director, Brands & Business Advisory, of Perspective Strategies. He heads P³, the strategic and creative arm of Perspective Strategies that provides a suite of branding services for clients to effectively reach new stakeholders.