Opportunities for Action

R E P R I N T C O N S U M E R M A R K E T S

Creating a Flawless lost sale. In fact, when managers look at total

sales for that particular Saturday, they may very
Brand Experience well conclude that the toy offering was a success.

The Total Brand Experience

I’m waiting in line with my five-year-old son,
Charlie, at a fast-food restaurant. It’s 1:30 on a
Saturday afternoon, and we’ve “forgotten” to eat A handful of innovative companies are pioneer-
lunch. Charlie’s hungry and tired from running ing a different way of going to market. They are
errands with me. It’s been raining all day, and focusing on customers’ experience with their brand
we’re both soaked. Now we’ve been waiting ten and on building a reputation for pleasing them
minutes to place our order—seven minutes with flawless products or services. They are
beyond the industry standard. Finally, I order training their sales associates to understand that
for Charlie. “Sorry, sir,” the salesperson says. nothing less than impeccable performance is
“We can give him his meal, but there are no acceptable and that bonuses, promotions, and
more toys.” Five-year-olds understand “no toys,” shared profits will be based on rigorously quanti-
and Charlie begins to wail. For him, this restau- fied results.
rant is about trinkets, not food. In his eyes, its
failure to supply the toy has condemned the These pioneers understand that their brand’s
brand. perceived value hinges on what happens before
and after the purchase. They realize that word-
of-mouth advocacy is worth more than millions
It happens every day. Customers are disappoint-
of dollars in advertising. They are teaching their
ed and even mistreated. Most companies fail to
organizations that the brand experience begins
quantify the cost of poor service or to replace it
with the customer’s awareness, grows in discus-
with what we consultants call a “flawless value-
sions with friends, blossoms when the customer
delivery system.”
visits the store and goes through the inform-
compare-and-purchase cycle, and persists
Now Charlie doesn’t want to go back to that through use, disposal, and repurchase.
restaurant. Like many dissatisfied customers, he
won’t risk another disappointment. He is the Consider, for example, the fish section of a spe-
principal decision-maker in this meal occasion— cialty food store where I shop. Although the
fast-food lunch—and his preference carries the supermarkets in the neighborhood all sell good
rest of the family. Moreover, with a life expectan- fish for considerably less, this store’s fish depart-
cy of more than 70 years, Charlie is worth at ment has a large and loyal following. The attrac-
least $15,000 in discounted revenues to this tion is in the shopping experience, and it begins
restaurant chain—and even more if he grows up with the man behind the counter, who lives,
to become a “group influencer” or the head of a breathes, and eats fish.
large household.
Every morning, he boasts, he gets to the market
Unfortunately, like most companies that disap- before his competitors to select the freshest fish
point customers, this restaurant chain will never and the largest variety. Back in the store, he
ask Charlie about his visit. Nor will it log the doesn’t simply push whatever he needs to sell.
ten-minute wait. Or the out-of-stock toy. Or the When customers ask for advice, he questions

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Opportunities for Action
R E P R I N T C O N S U M E R M A R K E T S

… C R E A T I N G A F L A W L E S S B R A N D E X P E R I E N C E

them on their taste, cooking skill, and the asking standard questions but by experiencing
occasion for the meal. Then he helps them the product along with your customers. That
choose the right fish, cuts it to order, and means shopping with them and paying attention
describes how to prepare it. Often he recom- to what they look at, consider, and touch. It
mends a private-label marinade that the store means listening to the questions they ask sales-
sells at an 80 percent profit margin. Finally, he people and seeing how they react to the answers.
tells customers what to serve with the fish, Even better, it means meeting them in their
including wine, salad, and dessert. homes and offices to understand who they are
and how they live.
Most fish sections in supermarkets lose money
or break even at best. But our fish expert drives I recently accompanied the head of a major food
the specialty store’s profitability. The lines are manufacturer on a visit to a customer’s home.
long and the fish isn’t cheap, but customers The homeowner at first claimed that she had
know they’re getting a high-quality product, only one or two packages of the manufacturer’s
good advice, and excellent service for their product in her kitchen. But when she hunted
money. down all the packages in her home, she discov-
ered—much to her surprise—that she had dozens
This store has discovered what all successful stashed away in cupboards all over the house.
retailers understand: you must know your cus- Why, I asked, was she unaware of how much
tomers as well as you know your products. she actually had? At first she was baffled. But
Managers of large stores who assume that this after some probing, I discovered that although
level of service can be found only in small shops she and her family liked the product, she rarely
are making a costly mistake. With technology, found the occasion to serve it. It didn’t come to
training, and dedication, salespeople in depart- mind when she thought of the traditional food
ment and chain stores could treat all customers categories for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
as if they were carriage trade.
That insight, which was confirmed in visits to
What Do Customers Really Think? several other homes, led the manufacturer to
realize that it needed to do more than make and
Unfortunately, most of the research tools and sell the product. It needed to change how cus-
satisfaction surveys that managers use to under- tomers perceive the product and to educate them
stand how customers rate their brand focus on on how and when to use it.
what managers consider important, not on how
customers experience a product. Most large-scale Do It Yourself
surveys measure frequency of use and ask broad
questions about service, sales help, and value, Senior managers can’t delegate this kind of
but they can’t capture the nuances of customers’ insight gathering. It takes firsthand experience to
feelings. Nor are they detailed enough to pin- understand the interaction between the cus-
point problems, which usually go unidentified tomer, the product, and the environment; to see
until long after they’ve eroded market share. how customers’ impressions inform their deci-
sions; and to recognize moments of truth. If you
To get to the heart of how customers experience know where and when decisions are made, you
your brand, you need to elicit fleeting impres- can offer customers new information to enhance
sions and inchoate feelings. You don’t do that by their perceptions of your brand.

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Opportunities for Action
R E P R I N T C O N S U M E R M A R K E T S

… C R E A T I N G A F L A W L E S S B R A N D E X P E R I E N C E

The economics of retaining your best customers Almost a century ago, Frederick Winslow
over a lifetime are compelling. The Boston Taylor, the father of operational effectiveness,
Consulting Group’s research into purchasing asked his hourly iron workers whether they
patterns suggests that acquiring new customers were satisfied with $1.15 per day or whether
generally costs four to ten times the margin of they aspired to make more money. Taylor was
their first purchase. And, of course, not all cus- offering them $1.85 for a 300 percent increase in
tomers stay. Those who do, however, usually productivity. To get that increase, he gave his
become “apostles”—word-of-mouth champions workers step-by-step instructions on how to
who can drive hundreds of units at the highest deliver 47 tons per day. These included exacting
profit levels. specifications, continuous advice, daily feedback,
and encouragement for achieving the goal.
To create a flawless brand experience, you have Now Taylor’s operational challenge has moved
to tear down the barriers between your organiza- from the factory floor to the consumer front line.
tion and your customers. This means you must Today’s productivity measure has become cus-
tomer satisfaction and intent to repurchase.
• map your customers’ current purchase/use Getting close to customers takes time and effort,
cycles but the lifetime value of a customer who is
always delighted and never disappointed is well
• identify areas for improvement worth it—to you, your organization, and your
customers.
• design a better process, including specific steps
to make every contact flawless Michael Silverstein

Mr. Silverstein is a senior vice president in the Chicago

• measure performance customer by customer office of The Boston Consulting Group and head of the
firm’s global Consumer and Retail practice.
• instill your vision of perfection in all your
associates and reward excellent performance © The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. 1998

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