In the past couple of weeks, I’ve experienced opposite ends of the brand experiences spectrum from two well-known brands.
One was Crave TV, owned by media behemoth Bell Media and the other was Dollar Shave Club, the plucky start-up that initially got noticed thanks to a viral video put together by its founder and eventually acquired for $1billion by Unilever.
Issue Settled Quickly
With Dollar Shave Club, I had a product quality concern, my handle broke. It was resolved with one online form submitted to their customer service team. Within hours, a new handle was on its way to me at no charge and with an apology to go along with it. I've been a customer of Dollar Shave Club for years and have no intention of changing that.
Issue and Customer Ignored
Then there is Crave TV. Like I suspect many people across Canada, I signed up for Crave TV just before the beginning of season 8 of Game of Thrones. I was thrilled to discover an offer where I could get the first month for free. I signed up happily and dashed out to stock up on popcorn.
Alas, Crave TV did not come through with the first month free offer and, much to my chagrin my credit card was charged full pop. Like I did with Dollar Shave Club, I decided to contact Crave TV to bring my concerns to their attention.
Not surprisingly, given what has happened since I discovered that finding any evidence of support on their web site was probably a job best left to Robert Mueller. They do, however, have an impressively lengthy FAQ section on their website that should be in the Guinness Book of World Records for most time-wasted while scrolling.
Over a week has now gone by without a peep from Crave TV. No acknowledgement, no suggested resolution and zero customer service. Their lack of response speaks volumes about how much Crave TV cares about its customers. Their ignoring customer issues also has implications for how loyal a customer I will be to Crave TV.
What kind of experiences, and at what cost is your brand delivering?
Brand Experiences and the Ultimate Costs
Using special offers like both Crave TV and Dollar Shave Club did to entice customers like me is Marketing 101. It's well known that special offers and discounts can attract customers and come at a pre-calculated cost.
When companies like Dollar Shave Club provide exceptional brand experiences, the initial cost of acquiring a customer becomes a pittance against the lifetime value of a customer. When companies treat customers like Crave TV the initial cost is not only a waste of marketing money; it harms the reputation of a brand.
