November 16, 2005

Brand Mismatches: Partner Performance Ruins Brand Perception

It seems as though companies are under the mistaken impression that if they don’t provide the service to a customer, but a business partner does it, this somehow isolates them from any market damage that may be created to if the service provided by the third party does not meet customer expectations. If you pick the wrong business partner to serve your customers it’s your brand image that is going to take the hit.

Don’t believe me? Imagine going to the Ritz-Carlton Orlando and instead of having dinner at Norman’s you find that Denny’s is you fine dining option. With no offense to Denny’s and its fine Grand Slam Breakfast, there is quite a difference in consumer perception of these two brands, and the dissonance created by the differences in brand image is much more likely to hurt the Ritz-Carlton’s image than it is to help the Denny’s image.

Why? The consumers purchase decision in this wildly hypothetical example is the Ritz-Carlton. Everything that happens from that moment on is judged through the lens of the expected Ritz-Carlton customer experience. That is, high end perfection or pretty close to it. The typical Denny’s on its best day is a clean, fast, value-oriented, friendly experience. Even if our imaginary Denny’s at the Ritz is perfect, the value it delivers will not match with the expected customer experience of someone staying at the Ritz-Carlton.

So let’s take a look at a real example of a brand disconnect. Last Thursday morning I was in a hurry to get my kids to school. I hustled them into the car, got the paper from the driveway and then jumped into the car. I turned the key and nothing happened! After a few expletives, I herded everyone out of the car, called my mother to ask her to take the kids to school and then searched for my AAA card so that I could call them to get them to get my car started.

When I went to call AAA to get a jump start, I noticed my card expired on July 15th. Oops. I remembered that as part of the deal when I bought Infiniti G35 Coupe was that I was given “free” roadside assistance for as long as I owned the car. So I called Infiniti, told them about my plight, and they called Pop A Lock to rescue me from my garage.

About 45 minutes after my call (just as promised by the Infiniti operator), a young lad from Pop A Lock arrived in a late 80’s sub compact car. He proceeds to jump start the battery and tells me to leave the car running for 15 minutes to charge the battery. He then warns me that when I turn off the car, it may not start again because I could have an alternator problem, but there was no way to know that until I turn off the car and try to start it again.

Since my day was off to a slow start and my car battery was still charging, I decided to call AAA to ask them why I had not received a notice to renew my account. The rep said that they typically give people an additional 3 months to renew and that my actual expiration date was in October. He then offered to send me new cards that had the real expiration date on them. This was a very pleasant surprise and would come in handy a few hours later.

Around noon, I am leaving a restaurant and my car decides not to start again. So I call Infiniti again and I am told that they will be there in 30 minutes and they will call me 5 minutes before they arrive. Time for another cup of coffee! 25 minutes pass and I get the 5 minute warning call. I go outside to wait by my car. And I wait and wait and wait.

After 20 minutes I call Infiniti to see what happened to the service. As I am navigating their call vectoring system, I receive an automated message asking me to confirm that the service had been completed. Not exactly. I skillfully negotiate my way to get a live person who calls Pop A Lock to see what happened to the service. I am told that because of the rain (which had just started in the past 5 minutes) that things were slow and that they would be their within 60 minutes.

Sensing I was getting mad, the rep offered to cancel the Pop A Lock service and call another service provider. They could not call the alternative provider, however, until they cancelled the Pop A Lock service. This meant that they had no way to assure me that another company would get there any faster. So I told them not to cancel the service. The rep then promised that she would personally call me back to ensure that the service was completed. I am still waiting for my callback.

Another 30 minutes pass (1 hour 15 minutes total at this point) without any one from Pop A Lock showing up or calling, so I called the Infiniti rep again to see what was going on. They called Pop A Lock again and found out that they had actually been delayed at the prior job (the rain had nothing to do with it) and they would be to me in another 45 minutes—a total of 2 hours of waiting time!

After I hung up, I decided to call AAA to see if they could get to me any faster. I was told by the operator that it would take 90 minutes to get service. I figured I had nothing to lose at this point so the race was on! Could AAA beat Pop A Lock to provide service despite the rain and Pop A Lock’s 75 minute head start?

15 minutes pass and the phone rings. Finally some action! It’s Fred from AAA who tells me he is on his way and would be there in 30 minutes. A few minutes later, the phone rings again. It is AAA central dispatch calling to tell me that service is on its way. 20 minutes, two calls from AAA and radio silence from Pop A Lock and Infiniti.

15 minutes later, Fred arrives in his spanking brand new red and white Mobile Rescue Unit! He is about 45 minutes ahead of the initial time set when I first called AAA and about 15 minutes ahead of his own estimates. He charges the battery and runs a test on the battery and alternator to tell me what the problem is. I cancel the Pop A Lock service.

In the race for roadside assistance, AAA was the clear winner. They overcame a 75 minute time disadvantage to provide service first, set clear expectations and exceeded them, communicated well, and conducted a value added test to tell me what the problem was. This is exactly the type of premium service I would expect from a premium brand like Infiniti!

AAA clearly has a better process than a local company like Pop A Lock. What is curious to me is why an upper end brand like Infiniti would tie their roadside assistance to a company like Pop A Lock and not a trust brand like AAA? By attaching their emergency roadside assistance to a local provider that, in this case, did not measure up to the Infiniti brand image or service standards, the Infiniti brand ends up taking the hit.

Before this incident, I did not know of Pop A Lock nor would I have considered using them. Their poor performance means I would not try them again or recommend them to others. This is exactly where I was prior to my experience with them. So Pop A Lock is only worse off to the extent that what was an opportunity to gain a customer and referral source has been lost.

Infiniti, on the other hand, is much worse of because my perception of the value I received when I bought the car has gone down because I can’t trust their roadside assistance to deliver as promised. Secondly, because Pop A Lock is to Infiniti as Denny’s is to the Ritz-Carlton, my perception of the Infiniti brand has gone down because of their decision to choose a partner that is not of the same level of quality as they represent themselves to be. Thirdly, as an existing customer, I am less likely to buy another Infiniti in the future or recommend others to do so.

When picking your partners, choose wisely. Make sure that they have the same brand standards as you do and treat your customers the way you want them to. If you don’t, your partner’s bad performance could come back to haunt you.

Posted by Greg Robinson at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)