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“Word-of-mouth advertising is the most effective, influential and reliable tonic for business success.”
Innovation drives evolution; evolution seeds opportunities, and opportunities surface competition. The current business scenario is like a souk offering myriad choices to people. It may get extremely difficult for companies (viz. telecom, airline, hospitality, travel, etc.) to preserve their market edge and differentiation merely by price or products. A product, its features and pricing strategies could easily be mimicked and re-offered with a subtle twist by a competing brand. Although as early adopter’s the product and compelling pricing strategies could definitely solve pointed consumer problems and win customers, however insulated solutions may not be enough for fostering customer loyalty. It’s about time companies widen their lens and fine-tuned strategies beyond product user/customer experience and think about the ecosystem in entirety and how the touch-points are influencing people.
A well designed people experience impact (PEI) approach exploring the relationship between people (potential customers + customers) and brands, and how the interactions with different brand service channels influence the entire journey of people from being a potential customer to a loyal customer could reveal
the secreted recipe for preserving customers and engaging potential customers.
Shaping a quality service delivery ecosystem is about… tuning the ecosystem’s power of persuasion and inducing trust.
- look at services as they cut across touch-points in the context of peoples journey and not in isolation
- be sensitive to channels beyond digital (Web, Mobile, TV, IVR), such as human (Call-center, Channel partners, etc.) or physical (Brochure, etc.)
- study the seen (ext.) and behind the seen (int.) systems and functions
Though businesses are willingly spending billions in advertising a study shows word-of-mouth recommendations from customers with good experiences are more influential than ads.
“Word-of-mouth is the valuable currency in today’s advertising-saturated world.” — Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, authors of Creating Customer Evangelists
With growing market demands and service channels, it may be challenging for a company to sustain and upkeep the ecosystem. Slicing a fraction of the budget for continuous PEI studies (People Experience Impact) will ensure delivery of top quality experiences and services, thereby foster the customer relationship, spawn value and ensure sustainability.
“As a consumer of various services and products I value personal recommendations more than gimmicky advertising…let me know what you feel.”