Waikato Business News January/February 2020

22 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS January/February 2020
It’s the putting right
that counts
Anyone exposed to local advertising in
Wellington a few years back is probably
familiar with the line “It’s the putting right
that counts”, made famous in the capital by
electronics retailer L V Martin and Son.
An odd position to take,
I first thought, when I
came across it 20 years
ago. Admitting you could be
wrong as a marketing claim
initially seemed like a negative
but, of course, in the context of
their company, it’s was a real
positive. Not selling their own
brands, the family business
was taking responsibility for
the quality of the products it
sold, championing the rights of
their customers.
As a marketing strategy, it
worked on us at the time. Fresh
from London and unfamiliar
with many of the brands, the
reassurance that we’d be okay
if anything went wrong gave
the promise real value.
What’s the line – “to err is
human”? Very true. In a service
industry, managing customers’
expectations and the
impact of getting things wrong
can be a different kettle of fish.
Miss 18 had a less than
favourable experience with a
hair salon recently. Fortunately
for us, she’d always been frugal
around ball season but, for
her last hurrah, she decided on
a bold hair colour.
The colour was badly done
and faded quickly. To their
The potential damage
to your brand by
not bringing your
customers along
with you can be
significant, especially
if there are plenty of
other providers for
your customers to
choose from.
credit, the salon agreed to “put
it right” when we questioned
the quality, but the colour disappeared
again as she washed
hundreds of dollars down the
drain. I messaged my disappointment
(terribly politely!)
via Messenger – not on a
public platform, because my
pet hate in the modern world
is when people rant on social
media without having raised
their issue directly first.
The message wasn’t read
for days, so we booked a
fix-up appointment elsewhere.
(Obvious tip – if you’re going
to bother having a social
media presence, be present.)
When we did get to talk it
through, their response was
neither good nor bad. They
were defensive at first, then
overly technical and, on the
whole, well, just a bit ‘meh’.
The key difference with the
second salon was the clarity
of the explanation, especially
to a young customer. They
understood their audience and
managed expectations well.
So often, we go to specialists
for a service because we’re
not experts ourselves. We
don’t understand the language
and don’t have the technical
knowledge.
The original salon implied,
intentionally or not, that it was
our responsibility to challenge
what wasn’t clearly understood.
But was it equally their
responsibility to make sure
their communication did the
job?
The potential damage to
your brand by not bringing
your customers along with you
can be significant, especially if
there are plenty of other providers
for your customers to
choose from.
In the marketing agency
game, having a client look at
their ad, video or brochure
and say “I didn’t realise it was
going to look like that in the
end” is a bit of a fail. It’s great
if it looks better than they
expected, of course! But even
then, the fact that you weren’t
all on the same page could be a
concern in terms of managing
expectations between client
and agency in the long-term.
How many of you choose
a store or a service provider
based not purely on price but
because of the experience?
If the assistant in the first
store shows good knowledge
and explains the product
well, would you pay that little
bit more to buy it from that
retailer over the second store
where the assistant couldn’t
explain his way out a paper
bag?
It probably depends on the
dollar value but, in most cases,
I imagine it would indeed be a
factor. And when you want to
TELLING YOUR STORY
> BY VICKI JONES
Vicki Jones is director of Dugmore Jones, Hamilton-based brand
management consultancy. Email vicki@dugmorejones.co.nz
buy another similar product,
the first store has put themselves
top of your list.
The days of businesses
being able to have the attitude
of “if you don’t like it,
go somewhere else” must
be fading fast. It feels like a
horribly ’80s concept that a
brand could, when business is
sufficiently buoyant, afford to
relax on customer care.
Now, business value propositions
are overloaded with
promises of “putting the customer
first”. They shouldn’t
be. It should be a given, deeply
inherent not a bullet point and
the brand guide.
The cynic in me says that
some companies feel the
need to remind themselves to
always be customer-focused
out of fear. Fear of the speed
with which negative feedback
can grow from spark to wildfire
that can burn a brand’s
reputation within days.
Yes, brands care more
about what people think now
customers can broadcast their
unhappiness through social
media before they’ve had a
chance to put things right. But
great brands care if one person
is unhappy and tells no one.
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