The phrase “customer is always” right is debatable these days, though social media is serving as an impetus to shift the power from producers to consumers.  Gregory Carpenter identified “political reform and digital technology” as the two key reasons why this shift is occurring, and the depicted them in his research as follows:
 


As a result of the aforementioned, companies are investing heavily to create a “customer lifecycle journey”; thereby enabling them to understand how to communicate and influence consumer behavior, at various touch points. A few key supporting insights:
·         92% of organizations that view customer experience as a differentiator offer multiple contact channels.  (Deloitte: Contact Center Survey)

·         By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator (Customers 2020 Report)

·         63% of companies expect to spend significantly more on customer experience in 2014 than they did in 2013, which is up from 54% in 2012 and 46% in 2011. (Temkin Group)

Understanding customer journey allows the brand to “humanize” an innate object by creating an emotional relationship with the consumers, leading to customer loyalty.  McKinsey & company further break down customer loyalty to two types:

1.       Active Loyalists, who commit to a brand and also recommend it.

2.       Passive Loyalists, who are non-committal to the brand and can, detract to other brands.

McKinsey also recommends that maintaining and attaining “Active Loyalists” should be focused on, for which customer journey lifecycle needs to be understood.  Aimee Millwood found that “Returning shoppers spend nearly 3x more than one-time shoppers.” 


As mentioned earlier, social media is enabling consumers to voice their approval or disapprovals of a brand.  Hence, social media becomes a critical platform that brands have to utilize to connect with the consumers.  Impact of social media can be derived from the following stats:

1.       72% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. (Source: Search Engine Journal)

2.       78% of consumers say that the posts made by companies on social media influence their purchases. (Source: Forbes)

3.       91% of people have gone into a store because of an online experience. (Source: Marketing Land)

4.       89% of consumers conduct their research using search engines. (Source: PR Newswire)

One can ascertain from these facts that brands and consumers are now in a “social relationship” – long term or short term depends on the role each plays.  Via social media platforms, brands from their perspective must:

·         Have a “congruent” message across all social media platforms they engage the consumers through.

·         Be attentive and responsive to the issues brought forth by the consumers and address them sooner than later.

·         Provide “content” that is meaningful to the consumers to keep them engaged.

·         Create a “feedback loop” to take ideas from the consumer base.

In essence, the brands have to be cognizant of the entire consumer lifecycle journey, inclusive of social media.  This will require brands to constantly stay engaged with consumers vs being a passive, non-committal partner.