Brands still turn to 'trusted' print to apologise and build connections with customers
NAB has followed the lead of Cambridge Analytica, Facebook, KFC UK and other high-profile brands looking to gain back customer trust and used a full-page print ad to apologise for a weekend server failure that left customers without access to bank accounts for five hours.
The outage downed ATMs, EFTPOS and online banking across the country and occurred at a time when Australian banks are already suffering serious brand damage through the Banking Royal Commission.
In an effort to ‘make it right’, NAB has promised to compensate business customers who suffered losses.
In its printed apology in News Corp newspapers today, NAB CEO, Andrew Thorburn, said sometimes things can go wrong. But, if they do, the commitment is at NAB to always make it right.
“Our promise to our customers is to be about more than money," he stated, echoing the bank's brand campaign. "Inherent in that promise is the expectation that, as your bank, we get the fundamentals [the “money” bit] right. On Saturday we failed to do that.
“Many of our services didn’t work for several hours because of a nationwide NAB outage. This affected and deeply inconvenienced many of our customers and others just trying to get their Saturday shopping done. We’re truly sorry this happened and apologise.
“To our business customers who lost money as a result of this outage, we’re committed to compensating you for your loss. We’d like you to know we’ve found the cause of our outage and have acted to prevent that particular problem happening again.”
Commenting on the choice of print advertising, Carat Media CEO, Paul Brooks, said print remains a trusted, authoritative medium with consumers. This is despite the digitisation of media and decline in despite in print readership across mastheads.
“There is a degree of finality to it that works well from a trust perspective. Once something’s printed in black and white, there’s no going back on it or changing the narrative, which shows readers – and customers – a willingness to stand by what you’ve said,” Brooks told CMO.
Brands will make mistakes, like anyone. It is how they handle those mistakes which can make or break them, Brooks continued.
“In situations like this, where trust has been compromised, people are generally looking for three things: Transparency, action, and empathy,” he explained.
“Naturally, they want to know what happened, why, and what you plan to do – or ideally are already doing – to rectify the situation. Where brands can often fall down though, is on in the final aspect – empathy. Without acknowledging the impact or ‘cost’ to the customer in a genuine way, you’ve really only gone part of the way.
“NAB has done well on that front here.”
NAB customers have been directed to visit nab.com.au/outage and lodge their complaint.
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+:google.com/+CmoAu
This year’s Cannes Lions program is packed full of data, robots, algorithms, voice technology, blockchain, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and machine creativity. But I’m just as interested in more subtle trends and insights.
Customer experience is eclipsing product as a competitive differentiator. CMOs are recognising this shift and talking the talk. But are they also walking the walk?
Much of the talk in the industry is focused on the limited amount of time that screens have left in our lives.
In this bonus last episode of this new podcast series, BrandHook MD, Pip Stocks, talks with former ANZ group general manager of marketing, Louise Eyres, talks about the importance of thinking like a customer and using intuition to solve customer painpoints.
You're suggesting that Taylor Swift is a non-brand because we don't know who she votes for, and then you suggest developing brand stories...
Brian 't Hart
Why Gartner thinks brands are too uptight about strategy
Indeed this is the great article but i will love to recommend you to read the case study of Walamrt for get the more and more customers. ...
Eva Buttler
5 steps to customer intelligence success
here is the good news now you can find the all adobe products at walmart .. read this news here at https://creditcardsfair.com/
Yasir Abbas
Adobe: Tech architecture, talent stopping companies making the experience shift
Google is more like a utility. Does a road have a brand? No. Do we use it daily? Of course! And the idea of Taylor Swift as an unbrand be...
Davy Adams
Why Gartner thinks brands are too uptight about strategy
My father had ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) for 3 years His first symptoms were weakness in his hands and losing his balance which ...
Janice Tollis
Why Gartner thinks brands are too uptight about strategy