Online customer service

Ryanair CMO: Digital is key for improving our customer experience

Ryanair is a unique brand. It managed to become one of Europe’s most-successful airlines despite a reputation for poor service that occasionally bordered on contempt for its own customers.

The ‘no frills’, challenger brand ethos became such an important part of Ryanair’s image and tone of voice that it ended up antagonising consumers as well as the competition.

But changing consumer expectations and mass adoption of digital technology means that Ryanair risks being left behind if it doesn’t change its ways, so new CMO Kenny Jacobs has been tasked with overhauling the customer experience and improving people’s perceptions of the brand.

The airline’s appeal comes from its low prices and massive choice of routes, so that has to remain intact if the business is to continue growing. Therefore Jacobs is focusing much of his efforts on improving the digital experience.

Why online businesses still need call centres

Driven by growing multichannel interactions with their customers, many businesses are moving away from call centres in favour of social media and virtual help centres to deal with customer complaints and queries.

The thought is that customers engaging with lower cost channels should be supported through siloed touch points and diverted away from higher cost call centres.

However, the power of the call centre shouldn’t be understated.

How are companies trying to increase customer lifetime value?

Customer lifetime value matters, so how are companies attempting to improve retention rates? 

Our recent Customer Lifetime Value: Building Loyalty and Driving Revenue in the Digital Age report (produced with the help of Sitecore) has one answer: improving customer experience.

The report finds that 64% rate customer experience as the best tactic for improving CLV, followed by better use of data and personalisation. 

Why it’s not enough to just have live chat

At the beginning of February, I read a great piece in Econsultancy called “Why do online retailers need live chat?” Live chat, combining the ease of e-mails with the immediacy of the phone, is an excellent way of communicating with customers, explained the article.

This is undoubtable. According to BoldChat, 31% of customers in the UK and US say they would be more likely to purchase after a live chat.

Also, a customer service benchmark conducted at eDigital, rated live chat as the best customer service channel at 73% (e-mail was rated at 61% while phone was at the bottom with 44%).

However, I think that just having a constant link to a live chat tool is actually not enough. You need to take it one step further. Optimization, in this, is key.

Seven ways for marketers to collaborate with IT for better customer experience

Customer experience management is fast becoming the core pillar of effective digital marketing and data has a critical role to play.  

However, it seems that many marketers do not have access to the data they need to improve customer experience. In our recent research, only 29% of marketers told us that they have access to any kind of data in real-time, which is essential for effective customer experience management. 

This move to data-focused strategies is changing the relationship that marketing professionals have with IT and, with IT professionals traditionally the owners of data, a much closer relationship betweenthe two looks to be essential. 

Does customer experience matter when the price is right?

For budget brands like Travelodge and Premier Inn, do business goals matter more than than good UX and customer experience? Or are they risking poor retention rates by failing to pay attention to the latter? 

Last week I had to cancel a booking I’d made with Travelodge. On investigating my lack of refund today I discovered that, as I’d booked a ‘saver rate’ no refund was due, even though I’d cancelled within minutes of booking. 

While the mistake was mine (I’d selected the wrong dates and only realised my mistake once I’d paid), it does leave a sour taste in the mouth and makes it less likely that I will use them in future. 

I though I’d take a look at the booking process of Travelodge and competitor Premier Inn (both of which offer these non-refundable saver rates) to see how effectively the two companies convey this information to customers. 

If you are going to offer non-refundable rooms, it seems the least you can do is make this abundantly clear to customers, so is this the case? 

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