Despite a few well-publicised mess-ups, I still harboured rosy images of the Queen's post being delivered by chirpy postmen and women up and down the land.
But all this has changed over the past few months. Royal Mail has decided that our company no longer merits an account manager. Instead, our account teams have to use the Royal Mail's inappropriately named Sales and Customer Support Line -- a source of erroneous and, often, conflicting information, depending on who you are unfortunate enough to get through to.
Now if I had a young, rapidly growing, client spending close to 拢100,000 with me I would ensure it had an account manager. With the forthcoming deregulation of postal services, this is exactly the type of client I would wish to keep on side. Evidently, this is not the case with Royal Mail.
Doesn't this demonstrate just how quickly one can take a customer from a comparatively neutral position to one of active hostility? I, and alas 95% of my agency, are now brand opponents of Royal Mail.
Brand opponents are the very opposite of the brand ambassadors that we all spend so much effort trying to create for our clients. They take every opportunity to diss your brand and their fervour is every bit as strong, if not more so, than the brand ambassador's.
If you're rash enough to create a brand opponent, there are broadly two strategies to follow. Either accept that inevitably you're going to piss a few people off in life -- after all, some customers are irrational and never pleased -- or try to convert them back.
I remember once flying on the now-defunct low-cost carrier Debonair. I mentioned that I had a minor complaint to the stewardess and, five minutes later, the chairman of the company came over for a chat. I went from potential opponent to big fan immediately. OK, so the company folded in the end but I think that had more to do with buying the wrong type of planes for short-haul flights than its attitude to customer service.
Given past performance, I suspect that the Royal Mail will opt for strategy one, not as an active choice but simply because no one understands that it has a problem. How sad and short-sighted. All I can say is roll on de-regulation.
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