A few months ago, I wrote an opinion piece about how the actions of companies and brands during lock-down would be remembered by customers for a long time.
Under pressure, some brands threw the strategy out the window and instead used short-term tactics to try and bring in revenue. And there is nothing wrong with that – business is business and cash-flow is vital.
However, there are two ways to maintain revenue in this kind of situation – The Customer-centric way and not.
Here’s a B2B example of how ‘not’ to do it.
A large US hosting company used it’s Technical Support people to pitch a deal via live chat. After the issue had been resolved, the engineers (not sales-people) asked customers if they would be interested in a deal.
The deal was an ‘upgrade’ for a lower price. Sounds too good to be true right? Of course there is a catch. The lower price was based on paying up-front for 3 years. But they didn’t say that. It’s only because the customer has bought from them for over a decade that they knew to ask about the fine-print. From the seller’s point of view, its a great deal.
From the point of view of the customer, an SME, at a time when cash-flow is king, its a terrible deal. The hosting is already pre-paid until next year anyway and the money for the hosting for the years after that could be used for payroll.
Depending on your point of view, this promotion is either really clever, or a bit tone-deaf. It’s not the behaviour of a customer-first company.
Sometimes, being customer-centric just comes down to messaging and the customer experience.
First of all – being pitched a deal by tech-support is probably not optimal. Either the tech-support team have too much time on their hands or they are taking up time when they could be helping other customers.
It’s unlikely that the customer on the live-chat is the right buyer persona (if you are chatting with someone about upgrading to the latest version of PHP, then you probably don’t have the company credit card or be tasked with purchasing decisions.)
The seller has the data. They know that the customer could get a better deal, so why not spin it in a way that helps both parties?
‘Hey – we know that times are tough and that you need your hosting more than ever. We’ve made a ton of money from companies that have never had a website before getting domain names and hosting so we want to share some of that growth with our long-term, loyal customers. We’ve noticed that you could be saving money and getting more features. In recognition that you have been a customer for over a decade, and have recommended our service to others, we’ve added the extra features to your account at no charge – you now get… And, because you have pre-paid for the next 8 months, we will put the difference towards your next bill. If you sign up for another 2 years when you renew, we will give you a great deal.’
These kinds of subtle changes to messaging, tone of voice and prioritisation are common next steps that come out of our Customer Experience Typology Framework audits. We can identify individuals and teams that are balancing the needs of the company with customers, those who are acting out of self interest and those who are putting the company first.
Talk to us about how to reveal the true CX nature of your business.