Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2011 | Page 33

By Jack Mackey

Who Manages the
Customer Experience?
Operations, marketing—and customers

T

he customer journey is made
up of the experiences that
come from all interactions
with your brand. Some customer experiences are created directly
by marketing and some by operations.
And some, such as how customers are
exposed to your reputation, are not under your direct control. This has always
been the case. Social technologies have
dramatically amplified the importance of
a timeless fact of business life: people talk.
They talk to each other about your brand.
Within franchise organizations, marketing and operations are the primary
functions with responsibility for shaping
the customer experience. Of course, many
other teams play vital support
roles: store design, visual merchandising, and technology.
But marketing and operations drive the brand energy
in this area. The old saying
is that “Marketing gets ’em
in the door and operations
brings ’em back.” The reality is much more integrated,
interesting, and dynamic.
Customer journeys can be segmented
into predictable stages. From the franchisor and franchisee perspective, gaining awareness among an ever-growing
number of potential customers is the
foundational experience of the customer
journey. For example, think about your
own experience as a consumer surrounded
with restaurant choices. Obviously, you
can’t buy what you are not aware is available. Your introduction (awareness) to a
brand that’s new to you can begin with a
billboard along the highway, or through

a casual conversation with colleagues at
work or with friends on Facebook. (Not
your Facebook pages—theirs.)
The billboard that attracts your attention comes from marketing’s initiative. But what about the positive wordof-mouth advertising that comes from
your colleagues at work and your friends
on Facebook? That mostly comes from
proper execution by operations.
Your first purchase (trial) can begin with
a Groupon that you are enticed to buy;
or your trial can be induced by a raving
fan literally driving you to a restaurant
you never heard of to have lunch. It is not

The Customer Journey

nearly so simple as “Marketing gets ’em in
the door and operations brings ’em back.”
Through trial, operations has a chance
to create a satisfied customer. But to move
that new customer from satisfied to loyal
requires multiple satisfying experiences.
It is a losing proposition to simply get
new customers to trial. The economics
of promotion just don’t work without
repeat business and referral business
that comes from consistently delivering
the brand promise through operations.

That’s why the goal of customer experience management (for existing customers) is to move them from satisfaction
to loyalty to advocacy.
When you achieve advocacy, it can
be just as true that “Operations brings
’em in and marketing brings ’em back.”
Every successful and growing brand
has raving fans who act as an army of unpaid public relations representatives who
bring in new customers. Advocates are a
potent source of organic, profitable sales
growth. Customers who have “been to
the mountain top” and experienced how
operations delivered on marketing’s brand
promise will be convincing sales people
for your brand. Advocates are genuinely
passionate, and their enthusiasm stimulates the awareness, consideration, and
trial portions of the customer journey
for many of your first-time customers.
Marketing has an important role in
bringing cu