Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and it makes us wonder here at CX Dive: What engenders love for a brand, and what breaks it?
There are some green flags and red flags companies wave when they’re courting a customer. As in love, not all are apparent right away. (Who knew your boyfriend would forget your birthday, or that a brand would send you irrelevant offers?) And some are there from the get-go. (Your partner bringing you food after a rough day, or a company promptly answering your questions before you buy a product.)
We asked CX experts and a practitioner for the biggest signs of a brand showing healthy behavior in a relationship, and the warning signs that a brand is about to fumble a connection. The answers span from building trust through simplicity to admitting mistakes and ghosting and inconsistency.
Green flag: Demonstrating relevance and value
A significant other wants to feel seen, and so too, does your customer. Customers want a brand to understand what they want out of the relationship and for the brand to provide it.
“Consumers want two things from their interactions with organizations: relevance and value,” Forrester Principal Analyst Jessica Liu said in an email. “As consumers, we've all experienced messaging, service, offers, etc. that are irrelevant to us — and that's a waste of our time.”
If brands show that they understand what a customer wants, they’re more likely to enter that relationship faster. Nearly 4 in 5 consumers say brands that send “fewer but more targeted messages” gain their loyalty faster, according to a recent Optimove survey.
Brand interactions need to be valuable across one of four dimensions of customer value: economic, functional, experiential or symbolic, according to Liu. If a bank customer wants help saving money, that bank could help by offering them budgeting tools.
Red flag: Ghosting
No one likes to be ghosted. Being left in the dark makes a person wonder if their love interest or brand ever truly cared.
Take a customer trying to solve a problem through self service.
“The worst case is the one where you get ghosted because the AI bot didn't respond correctly, or something like that, and then all of a sudden you're in a breakup scenario because of the behavior, not because of the actual product or service,” Crisler said.
Or perhaps a customer has an issue and raises it with customer service.
“Silence kills trust,” Bailey said. “When customers speak up for help or to provide feedback and no one listens, that’s the beginning of the end.”
Green flag: Keeping it simple
Feeling seen combined with simplicity is a true recipe for customer love, according to Steven Bailey, EY Americas commercial excellence leader.
“You know it’s working when the experience seems effortless, like reordering your favorite skincare item with one click or checking out in-store with zero friction,” Bailey said in an email. “Simplicity builds trust.”
Customers are more likely to return when brands provide an easy, predictable experience.
“You feel seen and cared for, making you much more likely to buy from that brand than a competitor, even if the price is higher or the product is somehow not quite as exceptional,” Bailey said.
Red flag: Pursuing profit above all else
We all know that businesses are looking to make a profit. But when that comes at the customer’s expense, they feel taken advantage of and are ready to head for the exit.
“Organizations that focus on achieving business goals over customer goals will inevitably create friction between business and customer,” Liu said. “What's good for the business isn't always good for the customer.”
Breakdowns occur when customers become frustrated with a perceived lack of relevance and value, according to Liu. Perhaps a business has continued price increases, a product, service or process breaks, or brand values change and no longer align.
Green flag: Admitting mistakes and learning from them
People make mistakes, but how one comes back from it can show real dedication. The same is true for brands.
SupportNinja CEO Craig Crisler recently observed this in a fitness training company. When a customer decides to pause their membership, the brand immediately reaches out.
“It wasn't a hard pitch,” Crisler said. “It was saying, ‘You obviously had a bad experience. What can we do better the next time for the next person?’”
While the goal may be to improve the experience, reaching out and asking for feedback can also save a relationship.
“You could potentially retain the customer, because then now, you're owning up to a problem that you could potentially have, but then also you're guiding yourself and them towards a place where we can be better together, and pushing them towards that.”
