Richer Experiences Make Richer Brands
Smith Co Blog
by Smith Co
1y ago
How a UK brand dominates a tough sector with purpose, passion & a kick-ass culture There’s no such thing as the perfect brand. However, our decades working with leading brands to help them with their brand experience, have shown us that there are clear winners across every market and in every sector. These are the brands who stand up, stand out and stand firm. And with a full trophy cabinet and a much-studied business model, Richer Sounds is undeniably one of these brands.  EX = CX Earlier this month in his regular Sunday Times article, Julian Richer, founder of Richer Sounds (UK’s bi ..read more
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What Matters Most
Smith Co Blog
by Smith Co
1y ago
Helping businesses to understand what matters most to their customers and employees is what inspires our work. Distilling what matters most into actionable brand strategy and using it to deliver distinctive customer and employee experiences helps our clients to attract and retain both happy customers and engaged employees – making our clients happy too. The demands of customers and employees have never been higher or more aligned. We are increasingly working on engagements targeted at both internal and external stakeholders. It makes sense, as what often matters most to your customers (e.g., f ..read more
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‘There are no customers in the office’ – the benefits of talking to strangers.
Smith Co Blog
by Smith Co
1y ago
My first job began with crushing disappointment when I realised that the sound of the phone ringing was not my cue to lean back in my chair, put my feet up on the desk and remove my massive clip-on earring before putting the receiver to my ear. I would not be settling into intense conversations uttering, “Yes?” and, “Uh-huh” and, “Be right there” before slamming the phone down, dashing out the door and hailing a cab which would immediately screech to a halt at my feet. Turns out I was not Mrs. Robinson meets Cagney and Lacey working in the Hawaii 5-0 office. Instead, I was a junior account exe ..read more
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Being human will be at the heart of brand purpose
Smith Co Blog
by Smith Co
1y ago
We are entering a new era, one that will require new approaches to marketing and customer experience, but it will go way beyond that. It will challenge the very way we think about brands and corporations. Covid-19 is a trigger for this change, but the cause is even more profound. Humanity In the 1920’s a maverick Russian economist, Nikolai Kondratieff, ‘discovered’ a series of 40-60 year ‘boom and bust’ cycles. He hypothesised each cycle had four ‘seasons’: Spring (boom), Summer (expansion), Autumn (stagnation) and Winter (depression). His adherents say we are ending the Winter phase of the 5t ..read more
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Why COVID is not a valid excuse (and other musings from a crazy year) Part Two
Smith Co Blog
by Smith Co
1y ago
In my last blog I reflected on how customer experience has been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis and which brands are succeeding in spite of it. One of the hardest hit sectors in the is the hospitality industry. Smith+Co has worked with a number of leading hotel brands over the years, from luxury to budget, and so we were fascinated to see how they are coping given that the experience in staying at a hotel is so dependent on the emotional engagement. So, we recently decided to have a short staycation in the UK to see how hospitality was faring post-lockdown. We stayed at three of the best-known ..read more
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“We’re just about delivering happiness” Tony Hsieh
Smith Co Blog
by Smith Co
1y ago
Tony Hsieh, 46, the former CEO of Zappos, died on Friday from head injuries sustained during a house fire whilst he was visiting friends in Connecticut. He was an inspirational thinker who will be sadly missed. We were privileged to interview Tony in 2010 for our book, ‘Bold-how to be brave in business and win’. He epitomised the principles behind our book and lived by the mantra ‘Delivering happiness’. The company that he made famous, Zappos, became a household name for delivering a branded customer experience whilst at the same time delivering a branded employee experience.  As he said ..read more
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Why COVID is not a valid excuse (and other musings from a crazy year) Part One
Smith Co Blog
by Smith Co
1y ago
It has been a crazy year. Smith+Co were honoured by being awarded ‘UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2020’ following independent research by Statista. That was a great start! We followed it up by merging with Caffeine, the brand agency led by my co-author, Andy Milligan. Together, we can now help our joint clients do what we wrote about in our last book ‘On Purpose, delivering a branded customer experience people love’; to ‘Stand Up’ through having a clear brand purpose, to ‘Stand Out’ by delivering a distinctive customer experience, and to ‘Stand Firm’ thorough creating a distinctive employ ..read more
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Estée Lauder Strengthens Customer Experience Across Brands
Smith Co Blog
by Brace IT
2y ago
In February 2015 the UK arm of global luxury cosmetics giant, Estée Lauder, began work on strengthening the customer experience across its brands. Partnering with Smith+Co, leading brands such as Clinique and MAC set out The post Estée Lauder Strengthens Customer Experience Across Brands appeared first on Smith+Co ..read more
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Corona Energy Re-energises The Customer Experience for B2B Markets
Smith Co Blog
by Brace IT
2y ago
Corona Energy had already defined their purpose – Helping our customers’ business to thrive. What they needed was to deliver this through their people and the customer experience. Smith+Co worked with Corona to provide them with real insight into the current customer experience and define where they should create value for their customers and differentiate against their competitors. Like most markets the B2B energy sector is competitive and dominated by large established players. The opportunity for Corona was to really stand out through the brand and customer experience against a sea of samen ..read more
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B2B Customer Experience Excellence Pays Off For eNett
Smith Co Blog
by Brace IT
2y ago
eNett are a fast growing global financial technology company, specialising in B2B payments in the travel sector.  Working with some of the world's largest travel agents, including Booking.com, they provide an efficient and cost effective The post B2B Customer Experience Excellence Pays Off For eNett appeared first on Smith+Co ..read more
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