It sounds like the worst kind of complacent pap to say that every bad experience for a customer is an opportunity for a brand, but a quote in the Chicago Tribune this week from American Airlines managing director of customer experience Mark Mitchell suggests that’s exactly the case.

Cited in an article examining the role of the ‘professional apologizers’ – aka specialist customer service staff – employed by the airlines, Mark said:

“We know how our customers score us on a routine flight, and we also know how they score us when we handle a delay situation very poorly or very well. When we handle a delay situation well, they score us about 14 to 16 points higher than they do for just a regular old on-time flight.”

Does your brand leave your customers feeling like Mr Grumpy or Mr Happy?

Staff at Southwest Airlines, meanwhile, aim to contact every passenger affected by delays or other problems within 24 hours of their experience to apologise, offer a brief explanation and a small gift - usually a discount voucher for a future flight. The result is that Southwest had the lowest consumer complaint rate of the 19 airlines ranked by the US Department of Transportation in 2009.

There are at least two differing schools of thought as to why the successful recovery of a poor experience can do wonders for brand perception. The first (and somewhat depressing) view is that consumers have come to expect certain industries to perform badly and provide poor service - a perception for which Ryanair is surely the poster child. A brand that makes an effort to repair some of the damage done, therefore, accrues bonus points above and beyond the norm.

The alternative, more encouraging possibility is that consumers understand that no brand can be perfect one hundred percent of the time, and respect those brands which acknowledge that fact and act appropriately.

Interestingly, the latter view agrees with the findings of some qualitative research we conducted recently among brand loyalists of another service provider. When talking to those most loyal to the brand, we found that they were capable of transforming even a strongly negative experience into a reason to support and believe in that brand. Thus a wrongly charged fee subsequently refunded became an  example of excellent customer relations, while stories of oustanding service from competitor brands were ignored or dismissed as ’salesman’s tactics’.

It’s often difficult for marketers to persuade senior management that the best thing a brand can do when it gets something wrong is metaphorically to throw up its hands and admit it. No organisation likes to open up a vulnerable area to attack. The alternative, however, may be to log in one  morning to find your brand immersed in a stream of vitriol from unhappy customers – particularly in this age of social media and blogging.

So the next time you find yourself in a situation when the ordure has just headed skywards, take a deep breath, tell the truth and say you’re sorry. As your mother always told you, it’s the right thing to do…

My team and I were recently travelling to mainland Europe on a business trip, as you do. Shortly after crossing the Channel an operator message started to pop up on my (personal) mobile phone:

“Don’t forget, using data on your iPhone while abroad for things like web browsing, Google maps, and Apps can use 1MB/min. To monitor how much you use, go to Settings/General/Usage. It’s £3/MB in the EU and £6/MB outside the EU.”

Not only was the message persistent, it was also missing a trick. What a wasted opportunity to make me happy and get some money off me at the same time – I thought. European Commission regulation states that customers travelling to another Member State must receive an automated message of the charges that apply for data roaming services.

All fine, except, in their eagerness to satisfy the authorities, the operators, in this case O2, forgot that their primary objective should be to satisfy their customers and please their shareholders. Is it really that difficult to dream up a bolt-on data plan for a one day trip and put a ‘YES PLEASE’ link / button at the end of this horrible and mildly threatening message? I think not.

Customers demand nothing less than seamless experiences these days, particularly if they are prepared to shell out on their all-singing, all-dancing smartphones. One would think this should particularly be the case if those same customers are travelling within the integrated market of the European Union. This looks to me like a big wasted opportunity not only to create positive outcome for the customer but also to make the operators some money. The irony is that we were travelling on a project that addresses customer experiences and ways of making them more joined-up, more satisfying and more profitable.

We’ve been running a lot of interactive workshops recently for clients investigating the brand engagement, experience and communications opportunities presented by social media and smartphones, so maybe it was this that was on my mind when I made the digital world shaking discovery that one of my favourite brands does not (yet?) have an app…

I work in branding. I follow brands. I like to hear from Marmite about what’s going on in their world. I enjoy the daily eye candy offered by Australian underwear and swimwear brand AussieBum on Facebook. On Twitter I keep track of when the next Les Mills exercise classes will be released. I use the Amazon app to check prices and save my window shopping don’t-need-but-really-wants for later. I’ve welcomed these brands into my day-to-day life and love the content they provide… so imagine my horror when I found out that my favourite branded coffee shop, Caffe Nero, did not have an app that would help me find their nearest cafe. Why, marketing Gods, why?

Starbucks has a nice little app that uses your location to find the nearest store. You can customise the search to only see stores on the map if they have wireless or serve oven warmed food etc. This is simple, practical and intuitive. When driving to a far off meeting an app like this is almost life-saving to a caffeine addict.

For me, and for customers like me, apps are rapidly becoming part of our lives. I was initially delighted when I found the Starbucks app, but realise, now that the surprise has passed, that apps like this are now almost a hygiene feature in my brand experience. I’ve seen it from one brand, then I expect it from another and become peeved when it isn’t available. Makes me sound horribly spoiled… but I guess that’s the point about delighting factors becoming expectations.

Whilst it won’t stop me visiting and loving Nero, I do feel differently about them, as well as differently about Starbucks. Must remember to use myself as a case study in the next workshop…! Now, where’s my app dammit?!