Today I read in Marketing Week that US brands are outperforming their UK counterparts on customer experience in nearly every industry.

Yikes.

You may not be in immediate danger of losing customers to US brands – it would be hard to eat in a restaurant in New York instead – but that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to sit up and take notice.

Brand loyalty is incredible important in a highly competitive marketplace. We all know that it’s a lot easier to sell something to one of your existing customers than it is to sell to a brand-new one. Customer experience is an integral part to building loyalty and trust, and of course, for repeat business.

Apparently, UK customers don’t seem to expect as much in terms of customer experience, but when times are tough and disposable income is harder to come by, it becomes increasingly important that brands treat their customers well and reinforce that they made the right purchase decision.

Middle ground brands are the brands struggling the most to make improvements. How do you distinguish yourself from your competitors?

The first thing that comes to mind is increasing your level of interaction in a way that’s beneficial and appropriate to your customer – often, through digital channels. Marketers can make a huge difference to how your brand is perceived by existing customers through messaging, optimising each interaction. This also means that your strategy needs to be integrated in a way that appears seamless and offers clarity for your customer.

It’s worrying that UK brands scored lower in areas like Integrity, Empathy and Problem Resolution – this is well within our control to improve by examining how, what, where and why brands are expressing themselves.

 

Chantal Yeung Dresner is the Digital Marketing Manager at Sans Frontiere. You can contact her at chantal@sansfrontiere.co.uk or call 01273 487800.