It’s Not Okay to be Okay at Customer Service

The Retail Bulletin held its 9th annual Customer Engagement Summit yesterday.
What has been clear from recent conferences, and the TRB CE Summit was no different, we have moved into a space somewhere between the ‘trough of disillusionment and the plateau of reality’ where technology is concerned. Gone were the demos, the new acronyms and the technobabble. In their place was a renewed and refreshed focus on the value to a brand of delivering exceptional customer experience.
Host for the day, Darren Williams, set the scene with a broad analysis of the state of the retail sector in 2018. Standout for me was his statement that the Government doesn’t get retail. Darren has had first-hand experience of working with government departments that attest to their lack of grasp of even the basic realities that need to be addressed. Citing the Great British High Street competition run by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as an example, we learned that the award was won in 2016 and 2015 but not run in 2017 or 2018. At a time when showrooming, the technology skills gaps, and employee engagement challenges are key, he is right to argue that there is much more to supporting the sector.
Fundamental is digital and the big opportunity it presents. Darren pressed delegates to forget omnichannel and multichannel, because customers don’t care – they just ‘expect’ to get what they need, when they need it in whichever way is most convenient at the time or appropriate to the requirement. He also had no truck with Brexit as a critical factor for retail woes. Rather he cited boring brand websites, boring shops, and not understanding what customers really want were the principal factors undermining many headline brands. For example, the 92 shops that will close at Carphone Warehouse, and the 100 stores that will shut at M&S probably needed to shut years ago. M&S he pointed out is an example of a brand that extols ‘transformation’ and has arguably been in a process of constant transformation for almost 20 years but has delivered no real change. This in his view was an example of ‘glacial-paced’ business decision-making that is a brand-killer in the 21st century.
Putting real meat on the bones of Darren’s overview, Jo Causon CEO at the Institute of Customer Service pointed out that retail is at a pivotal moment. From the ICS research Jo is able to demonstrate that those who keep focused on the service agenda and importantly the employee engagement will succeed. Yes, there is political, economic and regulatory uncertainty and yes, customers have more power than ever, but with 70% of the UK’s workforce in customer-facing roles, and 80% of UK GDP generated from the service sector, poor customer service is the single biggest issue, costing the economy £28BN in 2017.
Jo’s mission at ICS is to get the Government and brands to understand that customer service is a hard, economic factor. There is a direct link to the financial well-being of a brand and its success in delivering great customer experiences. The stats are the proof. Every brand that scores one point or more above the sector average outperforms all other brands. The most recent stats show almost a 10% year on year improvement in turnover. And the stats over the last 5 – 8 years average show the EBITDA of the best brands enjoying a 24.7% increase vs. 14.5% for those that score one point or less below the sector average, and similar results for margin. 
At the same time, UK retail is still deemed no.1 across Europe for customer service – so there is much to be excited about. But it is clearly important to outperform over time. Customer service is a hard-nosed economic factor and can’t be a knee-jerk reaction to an isolated challenge.
Today’s customer wants to move through different experiences with a brand – sometimes light touch, sometimes in depth, and the brands that do this well are the ones that win and retain customer loyalty. It’s not okay therefore Jo states to be okay at customer service – it has to be exceptional: “great brands care about my world” and has serious financial ramifications.
Joanna Jensen, founder and CEO of Childsfarm.com picked up on the theme – customers are buying into the brand promise, that means the vision, values and engagement of the business must be lived throughout the entire company, and all the time, to be successful. With 124% growth in 2016, 160% in 2017 and tracking 360% in 2018 YTD, Joanna is acutely aware of getting this balance right along with ongoing employee engagement in a rapidly expanding business. But without consumers, not one single retail business has a brand and therefore earning trust externally and internally is critical because with trust comes forgiveness. For Childsfarm.com the focus is on “where we are going, and not getting distracted” there are already enough real hurdles out there in business, so don’t create new ones internally. Most important for Joanna is to “always keep in mind who the consumer is and ensure everyone in the business is going for their ‘personal best.”
Rawdon Glover, Global Customer Service Director at Jaguar Landrover crystallised in his first slide what the day had been about: ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ For JLR “customer first principles are truths” not just internal marketing. Like Childsfarm.com but on an international scale, they constantly hold ‘immersion workshops’ on their customer first principles across 40K internal and 60K external staff to ensure everyone, even those not directly in customer-facing roles, understand them.
Looking ahead I have no doubt in 2019 technology will be back. I expect augmented reality and its sister VR will play a big role in the next TRB Customer Engagement Summit but these core truths discussed in 2018’s event will remain – exceptional customer experiences deliver real economic benefits to those brands who drive relentlessly to achieve their personal best.