Released on 1 February 2018, from Brand Finance: “Telstra has retained its position for the third year in a row as Australia’s most valuable brand. The Australian top 100 list, calculates that the brand value of Australia’s biggest telco rose by 13.6% to $US12.4 billion over the last year. Telstra is also reaping the benefits of its customer focused investments in the next generation of networks,”
The Top 10 brands for 2018 in Australia in order from 1-10 are as follows:
Telstra Commonwealth Bank
ANZ Woolworths Coles
National Australia Bank
Westpac BHP Billiton
Optus Rio Tinto
All very impressive. Well so it seems. As a customer in Australia, how do you feel when interacting with these brands? What impression are you left with?
While I don’t personally interact with all of them, my experience with improving communication in hundreds of organisations over 30+ years has revealed … there’s a distinct lack of quality and consistency between areas within most businesses.
‘Customer’ refers to everyone you provide a service to … including internal customers.
One of the organisations listed in the top 10 above has an extremely toxic internal customer service culture. Colleagues who worked there have shared their firsthand experiences … and moved on.
When you promote your brand, as an organisation you are making a promise to your customers about what they can expect. Your service offer and promise are all part of your brand. If your customer’s experience doesn’t match their expectations of that promise, you aren’t being true to your brand.
“Your customer experience initiatives are only as good as your weakest link.”
So what can you do to build an exceptional customer experience throughout your organisation?
Here are five questions to ask to get started:
1. Are you sure your organisation is delivering the promise that your customer has come to expect?
2. Do you have a Quality Customer Service System™ that includes every touch point … with moments and actions within the delivery of customer service, that are relevant to the customer journey?
3. Have you developed Quality Customer Service Standards for every interaction within your organisation to ensure quality and consistency?
4. Do you strategically use words and phrases that enhance the customer experience and reinforce the brand … avoiding words and phrases that don’t fit the brand?
5. Do you listen to your customer closely to identify opportunities to reinforce their understanding of the brand promise?
You can stand out from the crowd … by delivering customer service in a way that aligns with your customer’s aspirations and their understanding of the brand promise.
