Zeisler Consulting

MAY 14, 2024

By and large that’s always a great idea, even when working with a trusted and Customer-centric brand. And, after all, let’s be honest: If a brand didn’t live up to its written word, wouldn’t you hold them accountable? Of course, that’s quite the luxury brand (it doesn’t cost Schlage anywhere near that much each time).

Policies 93

Policies Hotels Course Customer Centricity 93

Zeisler Consulting

OCTOBER 6, 2021

Wise players in certain lines of business own several different brands that can appeal to various tastes: Nissan owns Infiniti, for example; and the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) includes brands ranging from Kimpton and Crowne Plaza to Holiday Inn Express and Staybridge Suites.

Hotels 93

Hotels Brands Course Customer Experience 93

Zeisler Consulting

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

Sometimes brands stiff-arm you without even giving you the courtesy of telling you why. There’s even a brand that I call rarely …maybe once or twice a year…and they’ve been using the longer-than-usual wait times idiom as long as I can remember. No brand didn’t have a disruption due to Covid. Whenever was it ‘usual’?

Wait Times 93

Wait Times Entertainment Hotels Customer Centricity 93

Zeisler Consulting

APRIL 16, 2024

Self-deprecation aside, the much-more-straight-faced point I’m making here is that we as brands need to develop our systems for the lowest-common-denominator Customer. As I consider this concept, I’m taken back to a situation I recently wrote about where I had a difference of perspective from a brand I was dealing with.

Contact Center 93

Contact Center System Policies Customer Centricity 93

Zeisler Consulting

MARCH 19, 2024

I wrote recently about how the term “representative” can take on a different meaning depending on whether you consider your front-line agents as representatives of you as a brand, or of your Customers as they navigate your systems. When dealing with a hospitality brand recently, that came to mind.

Policies 93

Policies Hospitality Brands System 93

Zeisler Consulting

DECEMBER 10, 2024

What we have here is a brand with zero incentive (at least none operationally ) to deliver on a promise to its Customers. Theyll offer some sort of attempt at a face-saving make-good, if just for the sake of their brands. Could your brand learn a lesson? But the USPS isat least on papera quasi-for-profit organization.

Government 93

Government Policies Customer Centricity Brands 93

Zeisler Consulting

JANUARY 12, 2022

In fact, I had two incidents in close succession with two different brands. One of the brands is a large well-known home-service provider that I’ll write about here. The other was a smaller, start-up brand also in the home-service field, and I’ll write about that in another article.

Effort Score 93

Effort Score Customer Centricity System Airlines 93

Zeisler Consulting

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

So why do so many brands squander that? Now, this isn’t the end of the world; surely it’s not good for your brand or your reputation, but many Customers may not even notice or care. They’re not necessarily going to bail on your brand just because they got one bum product or you were late one time for an appointment.

Chief Customer Officer 93

Chief Customer Officer Customers Brands System 93

Zeisler Consulting

JANUARY 19, 2022

Last week I wrote about an interaction I had with a large well-known brand that provides services for homeowners. It was a cautionary tale about how challenging it is to actually communicate with some brands. This is that story, which actually has some curious similarities, even though the brands are in such different places.

System 93

System Brands Feedback Customer Centricity 93

Zeisler Consulting

MAY 28, 2024

Naturally, considering my Framework , I concentrate a lot of my efforts on identifying processes and systems that are causing misalignment with a Brand Promise. Well, what works personally goes double for your brand. Well, okay, I do that a lot anyway. If you never face adversity, it’s easy to always be magnanimous or friendly.

Policies 93

Policies System Brands Customer Care 93

Zeisler Consulting

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

is to improve the alignment between what your company says it’s all about (call it mission/vision, corporate values/principles, or simply Brand Promise) and the experience your Customers have when they interact with your brand. Notice that there’s no mention in there about revenues, sales, or market share. So why even bother?

Effort Score 93

Effort Score Sales Exercises Study 93

Zeisler Consulting

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

When you gain insights about gaps between your Customers’ experiences and your Brand Promise, surely you’re feeding into the bigger CX ecosystem with direction on where to improve your processes. It isn’t often that brands crack them open and update the questions they’re asking. But surveys aren’t usually all that dynamic.

Effort Score 93

Effort Score NPS Metrics Measurement 93

Zeisler Consulting

MAY 18, 2021

There’s lots of room, for example, in the insurance industry for brands to differentiate based on, say, policy options: You can bundle home, auto, life, and umbrella liability. Heck, Mary Hart had her legs insured by Lloyds of London (if you don’t mind me dating myself with that reference). How can you still not have adjusted?

Insurance 93

Insurance Chief Customer Officer Policies Government 93

Zeisler Consulting

JANUARY 26, 2022

If you’ve read much of my stuff, you may know that, once you ground your CX strategy in your Brand Promise , the three moving operational parts of your Office of the Customer should be Insights , Process Engineering , and building a strong CX Culture. This is a pretty big lift, takes a lot of energy, curiosity, thought, and analysis.

Chief Customer Officer 93

Chief Customer Officer Culture Customer Centricity Course 93

Zeisler Consulting

JANUARY 26, 2022

If you’ve read much of my stuff, you may know that, once you ground your CX strategy in your Brand Promise , the three moving operational parts of your Office of the Customer should be Insights , Process Engineering , and building a strong CX Culture. This is a pretty big lift, takes a lot of energy, curiosity, thought, and analysis.

Chief Customer Officer 93

Chief Customer Officer Culture Customer Centricity Course 93

Zeisler Consulting

JANUARY 23, 2024

I know I rail on about VoC (truth be known, that’s not my strongest topic of expertise; I’m much more of a Process Engineer)…Sure, VoC and Customer Insights inform the work we do to improve and better align our Customers’ Experiences with our Brand Promise, but it’s really just the first step. How do you feel about our brand?

Survey 93

Survey Meeting Video Feedback 93

Zeisler Consulting

JANUARY 9, 2024

To that end, I often say that these teams have the best insight into what your Customers are experiencing (by way of the contacts they receive from your Customers), which is the first step in addressing your Brand Alignment gaps. After all, each contact with your brand is an opportunity to advance the Brand Promise.

Contact Center 93

Contact Center System Customer Care Brands 93

Zeisler Consulting

JULY 23, 2024

Customer Experience is a very important part of advancing your brand. In fact, as I like to say, CX is the delivery of your brand. When you think about your Brand Promise, your Marketing team spends a lot of time and energy developing and designing it. Everything needs to promote your Brand Promise, whatever it may be.

Touchpoint 72

Touchpoint Travel Brands System 72

Zeisler Consulting

AUGUST 17, 2021

If we appeal to the actual strategy of our organizations, we can see the vital role CX should and could be playing if we really cared to: CX should be the link between what our Customers encounter when they deal with our brand, and the Brand Promise we market and endeavor to deliver to them.

ROI 93

ROI Chief Customer Officer Leadership Return on Investment 93

Zeisler Consulting

OCTOBER 13, 2021

Many brands offer a markdown of some sort: Flash your Common Access Card (CAC, the unnecessary obviously-has-to-be-an-acronym term we use to mean, “Military ID”) at checkout, and a lot of places knock 5, 10, or even 15 percent off the total for your purchases. Now, there are two major warehouse-type home improvement brands in the US.

Loyalty Programs 93

Loyalty Programs Retail Policies System 93

Zeisler Consulting

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

There are articles all over the place and books overloading shelves in the business section of the stores having to do with strategies and branding. But your brand and your vision should likely be more than simply, “we make good/great shoes.” It has repercussions on the ground: If you make men’s shoes, that’s great.

Government 93

Government Brands Strategy Course 93

Zeisler Consulting

DECEMBER 14, 2020

And if we’re doing it right, if we’re truly curious and hungry to learn about CX broadly, we’re actually looking for the good and the bad in our experiences with brands. Since you’re constantly working to improve your organization’s CX, you may even take offense that other brands aren’t similarly working on theirs. We should chat.

Course 93

Course Consulting Customers Brands 93

Zeisler Consulting

AUGUST 6, 2024

Even if it’s not flattery, it’s pulling me into their brand as a fellow athlete. Plenty of folks talk about incentivizing participation, and what’s in it for me approaches. They’ve clearly never seen me ski!)

Fashion 93

Fashion Survey Feedback Brands 93

Zeisler Consulting

JUNE 30, 2021

The goal of your VoC program should be to identify what you can do better as an organization to improve your Customers’ experiences and bring them into alignment with your Brand Promise. (The If you’re stuck on what to ask next, try this: “Why?”. The goal of your overall CX program, of course, should be to take that action.)

Effort Score 93

Effort Score NPS ROI Case Study 93

Zeisler Consulting

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

I wrote a long time ago about an experiment I performed in trying various different channels with a few brands I use a lot. There’s a more direct application for us in the CX world as well, and it goes by the name Omnichannel.

Omni-Channel 93

Omni-Channel Brands Customer Experience System 93

Zeisler Consulting

MAY 23, 2023

linking heated seats—which used to be a hallmark of luxury automotive brands, but like onboard communication systems have since become much more ubiquitous, present in many non-luxury cars as well—to a subscription service. This is a luxury brand. Luxury brands costing more is one thing; you’d expect as much.

Automotive 72

Automotive Loyalty Programs Brands System 72

Zeisler Consulting

AUGUST 14, 2020

Once they’ve encountered your support function and a broader experience with your brand, it may be wise to survey them on Net Promoter Score (NPS, or more specifically, s NPS, the extra ‘s’ for support) to gauge their overall loyalty and likelihood to re-purchase. Check out the aesthetics and branding while you’re at it.

Net Promoter Score 93

Net Promoter Score Effort Score Survey NPS 93

Zeisler Consulting

AUGUST 12, 2020

The way I see it, aligning your CX strategy with your corporate strategy is about ensuring that every experience your Customers have with your brand enhances your brand’s promise. Consider a luxury branded company. That’s what a luxury brand means to its Customers. Part of your brand promise comes with that understanding.

Course 72

Course Strategy Brands Customer Centricity 72

Zeisler Consulting

JULY 12, 2022

What should you do when you’ve met your Brand Promise goal? Some people want to set ‘the sky as the limit’ when it comes to delivering for their Customers, especially as pertains to their Brand Promise. And keep in mind, if you’re getting CX right , that Brand Alignment is at the heart of your efforts. Probably not.

Exercises 72

Exercises Brands System Resources 72

Zeisler Consulting

JULY 26, 2022

It’s definitely the longest I’ve ever been with any brand that I can think of off the top of my head. It’s kind of a weird thing to think about: loyalty to a brand. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that there are brands of gas or paper towels or thumb-drives that strive to be the least-cost competitor.

Loyalty 72

Loyalty Sports Airlines Course 72

Zeisler Consulting

JANUARY 11, 2021

But then again, sometimes when we interact with brands, we’re not even given a satisfactory explanation in the first place: How often are you trapped in an inescapable IVR just searching for something you need? As a result, resentment sets in and we’re left with the feeling that the brand simply doesn’t care.

Policies 93

Policies Course Brands Interaction 93

Zeisler Consulting

AUGUST 20, 2024

Why did this brand do that? The brand is making it worse. But no…I was 100% asking a question about this brand irrespective of the type or level of service I was paying for. So, the whole rigmarole was entirely useless and something imposed on me by the brand, making this experience more frustrating than it needed to be.

Policies 72

Policies System Brands Interaction 72

Zeisler Consulting

JUNE 21, 2023

Still, I couldn’t help but wonder how often Brand Promises are impacted—negatively, often—by the company we choose to keep; which is to say, our business partners. to ‘Dude in a truck’ (again, not a total jackass, but still… not that luxury brand from a few steps ago). How does this luxury brand provide consistency of service?

Consulting 72

Consulting Brands System Course 72

Zeisler Consulting

APRIL 25, 2023

A while back I was working with a brand whose Brand Promise was, basically, ease-of-use. Easy recovery is good , but easy to use without needing recovery is more on-brand for the ease-of-use image they were trying to convey. Get your Brand Promise right, right out of the gate, and at every step along the way.

System 72

System Brands Customer Care Customer Experience 72

Zeisler Consulting

OCTOBER 15, 2024

We have to learn the fundamentals (listen to your Customers to learn where you’re falling short on of Brand Promise…then fix it !). Then we have to learn how it fits in (when we drive Brand Promise Alignment, our Customers come back and spend more with us). My fellow Professors of Practice are phenomenal (Talk about learning !

Tools 93

Tools Course Brands Training 93

Zeisler Consulting

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

This is part of a series of articles about brands that are getting it right. Often we see plenty of examples of brands dropping the ball and failing to live up to their promise, but here’s a chance to highlight those who seem to have gotten it figured out. How about a little love on this Valentine’s Day?

Entertainment 72

Entertainment Retail Brands Course 72

Zeisler Consulting

DECEMBER 15, 2021

That’s word-for-word the quote on an email from quite possibly one of the most celebrated Customer-centric brands you’ve ever heard of. Ironically, the bigger (thanks to great Customer experiences and retention) a brand is, the more Customers they have, the more work it is to handle the volume of correspondence. Yep, that one.

Course 93

Course Consulting Communication Policies 93