Even in these hard times when we are all keeping a tight rein on our purse strings, brand loyalty doesn’t just come down to cost and quality, but it’s also about the customer experience.

I shop at M&S because of the quality of goods that they offer and the positive experience – staff are friendly and knowledgeable, paying is quick and easy and any problems I’ve ever had are quickly resolved.

I am now a member of its Premium Club – this entitles me to a number of benefits including drinks vouchers to use in the restaurant, triple points on every purchase and free holiday insurance for the whole family.

This makes me feel like they’ve gone that extra mile to make me feel valued, which in turn makes me more likely to return and talk to others about my positive experience.

But customer service isn’t just about large corporates. My butcher not only provides me with excellent personal service and high quality meat, he also has a customer newsletter highlighting the special offers available, and gives his customers a loyalty card with rewards for frequent visits.

We all know that a bad customer experience – whether that be a refusal to refund an item, slow delivery, confusing promotions or rude staff – will make us much less likely to return and more likely to talk about the negative experience with friends and on social networks such as Twitter.

With more and more consumers heading to social networks to vent their frustrations and ask questions of the brand, it’s also vital to have a dedicated customer service presence online. Brands must reply quickly, accurately and politely to show the customer, and anyone else reading the query, that they are helpful and on the ball.

Those who get the customer service right will find it forms a solid basis for trading in 2012.

This post was written by Wendy Connolly and she’d love your feedback.

One of our favourite campaigns of 2011 from the talented teams at One Marketing Communications was the United Utilities‘ ice sculpture at Manchester Piccadilly train station.

The Get Winter Wise campaign – a drive to help North West householders beat burst pipes this winter – launched with a huge 11ft by 11ft ice lounge.

The display, which took four ice sculptors from Liverpool-based Glacial Art a whopping 60 hours to complete, included burst pipes spewing water into an everyday front room as an unsuspecting ice man sat on the sofa.

The full service campaign will also include the distribution of Winter Wise packs across the region, radio adverts, outdoor advertising and a PR campaign targeting the north west.

Wayne Silver, business development manager at One Marketing Communications, said: “The campaign will help people get ready for winter by offering lots of useful information across different channels that all lead back to the website.”

Rose Francis of United Utilities, said: “Winter weather can bring misery to people in their homes and lasts year’s extreme weather and the coldest December for 100 years resulted in our customers suffering from frozen and burst pipes across the North West.  Over Christmas and New Year we had a record 80,000 calls into our contact centre from customers reporting that they had no water due to frozen and burst pipes.

“Every year, thousands of people are caught out by the cold weather and fall victim to the misery of frozen and burst pipes which can lead to the expense and inconvenience of a flood in the home, or no water at all. Most of the time we can only give them advice, because the pipes affected belong to them, not us.

“There’s vital information on our website and we are also handing out the Get Winter Wise packs throughout the North West.”

If there is ever a time of year which reminds you of the power of emotion in advertising, it is Christmas. Whilst the vast majority of brands flood our senses with rational, information based ads, there are those few who invest in creating something a little more spectacular.

This year I think John Lewis has surpassed themselves. Don’t get me wrong, previous years’ attempts have been fantastic including their ‘Shadows’ ad back in 2007 and 2009’s ‘Sweet Child of Mine’.

However, as a proud parent this year’s ad really hit the mark. For me, it is the perfect blend of story and music, evoking emotions that feed off a surprisingly simple yet powerful insight – for gifts you can’t wait to give.

As an IPA member agency, we continue to champion the power of emotion in advertising. Research from the IPA Datamine shows that emotional campaigns are nearly twice as effective as rational campaigns across a whole host of hard and soft business measures. This is a trend that is only likely to increase, as more creative campaigns generate significantly more ‘buzz’ effects which are strongly linked to effectiveness.

The John Lewis ad is proof of this theory, with viewings on Youtube reaching 500,000 in a matter of days, considerable discussion across the social network and even reporting in the national press with regards to the music choice. It also suggests that whilst traditionally it has been the appearance of the Coke ad on our screens that herald the arrival of Christmas, John Lewis are closing fast and next year they are likely to lead the anticipation.

So, before you decide to turn the TV off in the run up to Christmas to avoid the myriad sales promotions and offers, I recommend you hold out because there are some real gems out there which bring not only your emotions to life, but Christmas as well.

Blog by Tristan Morris

Walking around my local town’s high street these days is a depressing place to be. As a youngster the same street was quite vibrant, there were no vacant outlets and it was a place you went to buy almost everything, a shopping haven. Nowadays the same street now consists of not much more than Cash Generator, Poundland and a McDonalds.

Since the advent of the internet, the only shopping people tend to do now is window shopping, they will make a note of the model code then ‘Google it’ when they get home for the best price, and also get it delivered straight to their door!

I hold my hands up, I shop in exactly the same way and it is extremely apparent to me that this culture will only continue in the future.

So how do retailers exist in this climate?

For retailers to flourish they need to offer something which isn’t available on the internet. Rather than product, which in just about every form these days, can be bought from the internet cheaper & easier, retailers need to be selling their invaluable knowledge and added benefits they offer.

If you are a retailer you will be aware that the products you sell can, and often will, be bought from the internet for a reduced price. But customers will still be willing to buy from you because of your expertise, product knowledge, design, fitting skills and confidence with your after-sales support.

Service is everything these days for retailers and as a retailer you should ask yourself the question that customers will be asking themselves “Why should I buy from you rather than the internet?”

Think from the customer’s point of view and play devil’s advocate. If you draw a blank with the answer to this question, then you should join the crowded market of internet retailing and compete on price-point only. If you do have value to add to the sale, that’s what you should be selling to your customers, let them know why buying online is not the best option.

Blog by Steve Rutter

As a designer, I am always looking at creative solutions for printing to add another dimension to the offline marketing we develop. During some recent research I stumbled upon a German company called Paperlux who have developed their own paper etching method.

Using this method, it is now possible to translate logos, images, and fonts into crisp, three-dimensional etchings on the finest papers without damaging the reverse side of the paper, something that is not only effective, but gets truly beautiful results.

It is a process which doesn’t use chemicals or solvents and is reliant on specialist papers and a laser/light technique and, in my opinion, it’s certainly one-up on commonly used embossing or laminating finishes.

Here are some examples – but I recommend having a look at the Paperlux website to see even more beautifully crafted work.

Blog by Howard Reeves