Overcoming trust anxiety is a central part of mapping out the customer journey and in this episode I share what I learnt from how one company fixed a broken MacBook Air. The company is e-Fix and frankly I recommend both their practice and their service.
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We all talk about the customer journey, but how many of us have mapped out our customer journey so that those people that we would like to do business with us. Would find us. And get to like us and to trust us and eventually to give us their money. Now, this may not seem like PR, but actually it's all around trust. And public relations creates trust. With people that may or may not have ever have met you. And when you're making a purchase online. Trust, whether it's a consumer or a B2B element. Is a central part of any transaction. So I want to just share with you what I learned by fixing my daughter's Mac book pro may seem a little bit of a strange subject, but. I learned a lot from this company because they have, for me, Mapped out my customer journey really well. So much so that I was willing to send a 1000 pound piece of technology. To a company that I've never heard of before. In the hope that I would get it a fixed and B get it back. And in this age of scams, We know that's not always going to be the case. When I first went online to look for someone to fix my problem, which is this broken. Mac. I have to say that I was a little bit nervous because. When you go online, you never know whether you're going to get what you were looking for. We went to the apple shop and they quoted me 900 pounds to fix my daughter's computer. And that would then be frankly, more than the replacement costs. So we had to take a view. And find an alternative. Now I looked online. And it was both an ad, but also top of the search rankings. Mac book. Dash repairs.co.uk and came up. With very simple and easy to read. Open for mail-in repairs as normal, no fix, no fee free. 1000 pound insured drop off label and return courier 12 month warranty and a phone number. A really straightforward call to action. Straight away. And very focused. And what I noticed then is that they have over 900 positive reviews across Google. So here's a company that is really focusing on reassuring me on the first part of my customer journey. Which is my research. Now I'm already interested. And I'm thinking, is this company for real, because I'm going to send the product. A Mac book air away. To someone that I don't know. And can't see. And it's not obvious where they are. Am I ever going to get my device back again? Sure enough on the front, it says here. Have you ever spilled liquid on your Mac book? the answer is I haven't, but my daughter. Absolutely had so straight away. They had answered what was going on in my mind for me. So it's great in terms of using a hook. they'd already discussed with me online, what I was going to be doing. They have an online chat. So I had a quick chat with them and I sent them a picture of the computer. And then they replied back to me straight away. With an estimate that was in writing. Now through the period of this. Process a chap called Reese wrote back to me. And before I had sent it, I wanted to just have a bit more of a check so I checked out their postal address. Now. The. Whole process. In which I had written to them. was starting on the 17th of May. All the way through to the 31st, when I got my device back again, I only had 10 emails. Over that period. Of just over 10 days. And those emails were a combination of automated. And written. when I had asked them about evidence that my computer was going to be okay. Reese sent me a video. Of the computer now, turning on. showing me the screen with my daughter's login and ID. And playing the speakers and showing the track pad. So the reason I'm sharing this is because at each stage in my customer journey, This company. e-Fix limited. Had got. A response to reassure me. To inform me to invoice me. For the fixing of this computer. Now The reason I'm sharing. This is because how many of us run a business where. A main part of the objection to working with us is an anxiety. Is a concern. that person has not seen me. Hasn't seen anyone else. I can't see a physical office or a physical shop. And on that customer journey that avatar. That person that we have profiled to be our customer. Gets lost. They drop on and off. And what I liked about the e-fix people was I send them an inquiry and I got a written. Quote. Very detailed. Explaining to me what was going to be happening. Then once I'd committed, they sent me a label to print off. And I was able to box up my computer and send it away. And then they were able to let me know they'd received it and they let me know. That they were fixing it. Then they sent me a quote to say, this is the piece that actually we need to fix. And then they sent me a note to say it was fixed and then a video to show me how it was fixed. And then another. invoice that I had to pay. And once that was paid. That was a nervous moment because I'd paid it. They had a fixed computer. Was I actually going to get my computer back again? And I think that's where the involvement of a human Reese writing to me to give me reassurance. Got me. Across the line, of course, at that stage. I was already committed. Because I sent them the computer and I'd sent them the money. So if they wanted to. They could have walked away. And this is where the 900 plus testimonials. Had been the reassurance to me. On my own website at east west PR, where I've served over 500 clients. I don't have any testimonials. Working with e-fix r eminded me that I am missing. A key part. of my own customer journey. And I immediately reached out to some clients to start to ask them, to send me some testimonials. I used to have testimonials on my website in fact. And then when we replaced the website, In the interest of having a clean website. We left out. What is one of the essential parts of customer trust, especially now that we don't see one another. Which is social proof. So as we're looking at our own website, Social proof can be these testimonials. They can also be media coverage, for example, that we can put onto the website, embed links, embed the actual articles. We have for our clients and our website, we have case studies. Which are great and that's great for our clients, but actually it's demonstrating that we've done the work, but it's not necessarily saying how grateful. Or how appreciative our own clients are of us. I started a trust pilot. A review site, but for the business to business, we get so few. I think I'm going to be better off just having reviews that I ask clients to send me and I'll just embed them. Into my WordPress site through the gallery thing would be easier. Cause I don't have a huge volume. But the customer journey. Is really what I wanted to share today. This idea that whether it's a company or it's an individual. the number of stages we go through from looking for the solution to finding a potential solution. To being reassured that. The company we're looking at understands our problem. To taking that leap of faith to engage that company and getting reassured that was well taken. Then entering into the engagement itself and. To have all these emails coming in. Over a 10 day period at each. Critical stage. Of the work. Show to me, this is a company that had process and also understood the need for my reassurance. How many of us have businesses where. We don't communicate with customers. Until the product is delivered. And the customer may or may not be waiting for. Details about how the project is going. Is there any way that we can improve that through using tools? Is there any way that we can improve that by using tools, for example, Like click send, which we've now embedded into our Zoho CRM. And we use that now to send people a message to say that we've sent them, for example, important briefing book. So as we've moved away from one another. And we don't see each other as much. The customer journey. And understanding that is. A key part of what we need to do for our businesses. And how can we do that? One is just a very simply. Write it down. The other one. Is there's a company called creatley for example. Which has a nice way of making your customer journey map. And that is. Free to use. And I'll put a link to that in the show notes. You can also use one called totango.com. miro.com. Also some of the bigger ones, like SEMrush. I have got customer. Journey mapping tools. So we need to think about how we can map our customer. And then have the messaging. Throughout the buying cycle be represented on all the touch points, whether it's on our website. Whether it's on the emails that we send the SMS is that we send, I've been just looking at my YouTube account, for example, and realizing that there isn't any detail about the company within the YouTube account. So really doing an audit. And finding that all the touch points that we have for the company. Would reinforce what we're saying about our company. When the customer is on their journey of discovery. And engagement and fulfillment. Now I got the laptop back. It works wonderfully well. And I left our friends at e-fix review when I got the Mac book back. Inside the packaging was a nice note. And also thinking that. These devices would go home to students. They put a cup of candies in just for good measure. A really nice way to round out the whole customer experience and to realize that the customer journey. Has many different stages. And there are many different places at which we can lose a customer. And as it's so hard to find them in the first place. Keeping them on the path and reassuring them throughout the path. Is a key part of anybody's PR activities. So thank you for listening to this episode of the unnoticed show bit shorter than normal, because I decided that every now and again, without having a guest. I'm just going to share some tools and some insights that I've got from running a PR business for over 25 years. Thank you for listening to this episode of the unnoticed show. Hope it helps you.
