Why ordering a curry this weekend was the best brand lesson I’ve had for a long time.

It was last weekend and a curry from a new, boutique home delivery service. Word of mouth marketing is one of the most powerful forms of marketing there is and they came highly recommended. 

It was ordered well in advance, as per instructions, as it was cooked to order, the ‘personal touch’. The cold beer was opened at the alloted time, expectations were high. And then we waited, and waited, and waited. To cut a long and tawdry story short, it was the best part of two hours late, arrived in a broken bag, barely warm enough to eat. 

We had booked a meal for a specific time – was assured three times it was ‘five minutes away’ and when I asked what state a curry that had been in transit for nearly two hours would be like, I was told it would be pristine and piping hot. By the time it was probably as warm as my beer. 

And I was charged the full price: the service and product were awful and the response screamed ‘we don’t actually care, we just want you off the phone’ and as a result the  experience was overwhelmingly negative.

A cold, late meal was bad enough, but no effort whatsoever on the companies part to understand, or care about how I felt and my experience annoyed me even more. 

They could for instance have taken the hit. “Have it on us. It’s yours, accept our apology and please give us the chance to make good by trying us again.” And you know what, I would probably be inclined to do so. 

I think it’s safe to assume we’ve all had bad experiences of customer service. We’ve all got frustrated when we feel overlooked, ignored or undervalued as a customer. In fact, when we have a positive experience of customer service, it often catches us by surprise. Nobody wants to feel bad, but if it happens then an admission of fault and some token of recompense would probably be enough for me to give them another chance. 

So, why the brand lesson?

Strong brands are built on the premise of two very simple things: 
1 a good product or service and 
2 a positive customer experience. 

My experience was neither.

I was going to write a tutorial on branding for small businesses today, but as it goes, this was is as insightful a lesson in what a brand is, why they matter and the repurcussions of getting it wrong, as I could come up with. 

I’ll write that tutorial tomorrow. 

Sable&Hawkes are a creative communications company that works across print, digital and social media.

We use brand and marketing strategy, graphic design and content creation to help our clients generate attention, win more work, find and recruit the best people and engage and motivate their staff.

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