It’s the customer experience that counts

George Aveling is Group CEO and International Partner of TMI, TACK International in Malaysia and digital learning consultancy, Elementrix. He is a mentor to senior leaders, an organisational leader, writer and a well-respected consultant. 

Last week, we learned from the sandwich store Pret a Manger that building company brands is just one part of the story.

The other part is following through to make sure that your company delivers on the branded customer experience through your people, product, environment, and processes.

Companies spend millions but that investment can be eroded in seconds at the moment of service delivery.
Take the example below.
I was on an internal flight to the US. I pointed to a meal choice and asked the flight attendant, “Is it nice?” 

She looked at me and said “I don’t know. I don’t eat airline food” with a hint of disdain. My heart sank. Going back to 36,000 feet above the earth, the flight attendant could have said something honest like, “I’ve observed our passengers heartily eating this dish – why don’t you try it?”

In the language of the branded customer experience, this response was Off-Brand. I found myself focusing my attention on the flight attendant as she moved around the cabin and interacted with passengers. She did not smile.

She did not show any level of human touch to the people that she was serving. People on the plane were treated as objects to be served, and she was just providing the arms and legs to do the serving.
Through it all, there was one thing missing in each task she was doing – her heart.

But why do you think she behaved in such a manner? We will never know for certain whether our interaction was the result of an attitude, a boss, or an emotional resilience issue.

All we do know is that this person was engaging in Off-Brand behaviours. She was not building customer loyalty one passenger at a time.

Rather, she was catching the attention of people like me – for the wrong reasons. It’s not that they are not nice people. It’s just that they are not suited to jobs requiring intensive contact with people.

Delivering positive customer experiences rely on the people delivering them. The starting point is in the hiring process.

Hire people for brand fit.The missing link is to build a culture that delivers your branded customer experience. And how do you build your branded customer experience?

This practical workshop, led by George Aveling, a seasoned customer experience practitioner, who will give you the practical steps to build trust in your brand through your Branded Customer Experience.

You’ll be given a model to help you move forward, as well as examples from overseas, case studies of success, and the root causes of some failures.

By the end of this workshop, you will be armed with the ideas to further strengthen your brand from inside out.

Date: 26th March 2018
Venue: Sime Darby Convention Centre, Bukit Kiara
To register: Call Ruby 03 7726 2588 or email [email protected]
Download PDF program here


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