MSc Management Customer Experience Strategy for Apple

4.0 Mapping the Customer Journey

The customer journey map presents the touchpoints across the organisation through which it interacts with its customers. The customer journey is defined by the contemporary integration of touchpoints through virtual and physical channels and their respective touchpoints (Kokins, Straujuma and Lapiņa, 2021). For instance, Apple customers can interact with the brand website virtually before visiting an Apple store physically to gain a demonstration of the MacBook product on display. Through this seamless integration of touchpoints, the pain points and potential barriers to engagement are reduced, allowing customers to make more informed decisions as well as develop an intention for retaining the company. Optimising the customer journey therefore leads directly to higher sales performance, success in conversion of marketing leads into actual sales and developing a competitive edge for increasing the company’s market positioning against rivals. (Kokins, Straujuma and Lapiņa, 2021) Apple’s customer journey is a part of its CX strategy as it seeks to create the same perception of luxury in touchpoints that are accessed through Apple product consumption experiences. For instance, Apple stores are located in premium upscale localities, such as India’s first Apple store in the Bandra Kurla Complex area. Before this, Apple stores across global markets retained the same sensation of exclusivity and upscale brand association, such as Apple Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. This evidences consistency in maintaining the exclusive quality across physical touchpoints globally.

Figure 2: “Customer Journey mapping”

(Source: Self-created)

5.0 Omnichannel marketing

5.1 Definition

Omnichannel marketing is defined as the seamless integration of digital and physical marketing channels, towards creating a consistent brand messaging and communication experience for the customers (Payne, Peltier and Barger, 2017). Omnichannel marketing as it works today is possible through the digitisation of businesses and consumer lifestyles in tandem, leading to greater touchpoint creations virtually that overcome barriers of time, location and privacy as well (Payne, Peltier and Barger, 2017). For instance, traditional physical channels for marketing retained independence with the customer’s life domain, such as promoting in public spaces through billboards, newspaper advertisements and television adverts. These could be potentially avoided by the customer, with more direct measures such as cold calling advertising or print media being avoided as well. However, digital marketing channels are more invasive without creating a similar response due to the customer's tolerance for virtual stimuli in interacting virtually. Therefore, online channel approaches such as influencer marketing, third-party ads on websites, content and affiliate marketing offer different opportunities to engage with customers in a novel manner (Payne, Peltier and Barger, 2017). The seamless integration of online and offline channels therefore leads to omnichannel marketing, which enables interaction and customisation through omnichannel marketing.

5.2 Omnichannel interaction and customisation

Interaction and customisation yield more responsive behaviour from customers exposed to such marketing strategies, as it develops marketing activities through a CX strategy perspective. Taken together, interaction and customisation lead to the personalisation of marketing content to target positive responses from customers (Gitter et al., 2020). Personalising customer interactions across digital and physical channels involves interacting with customers across their preferred touchpoints; some customers may prefer digital browsing and shopping, while others might prefer physical browsing and shopping. Others may prefer a hybrid retail consumption approach involving digital browsing and physical shopping. These varieties of consumer behaviour for preference create the opportunity for customisation through interaction, leading to personalisation along the customer journey (Gitter et al., 2020).

5.3 Omnichannel Success of Apple

Apple’s success in developing an omnichannel experience is determined by its successful interactions with customers across different touchpoints (Gitter et al., 2020). The company’s use of promotional events for announcing new product launches is held through the Worldwide Developers Conference, the event functions as a keynote event for Apple primarily. From this, customers gain insights into upcoming product directions and releases, such as changes in design and price. Customers gain notifications from promotional emails, text messages and word-of-mouth discussions on popular social media websites and community platforms like Reddit, enabling customers to engage as brand enthusiasts through self-directed effort (Stein, 2019). This builds a stronger brand positioning as the self-directed pre-purchase touchpoints lead customers to make a firm purchase decision, which is also influenced by virtual peers owing to Apple's large consumer loyalty base (Stein, 2019). While Apple also markets through promotional media like television adverts and print media messages, it largely sustains itself through the participative efforts of its loyal consumer base in maintaining the brand’s positioning and omnichannel success.

Lastly, Apple’s business model of integrating product and service usage makes consumers more likely to organically purchase other Apple products (Stein, 2019). For instance, the MacBook purchase can lead to purchasing compatible Apple products and services, such as an Apple USB adapter and Apple AirPods as peripherals (Montgomerie and Roscoe, 2013). They can also buy Apple-branded software for personal use that is available on the Apple App Store virtual storefront, where free-to-use apps as well as paid apps are available for compatible use on Apple devices (Montgomerie and Roscoe, 2013). The omnichannel marketing integration benefits from the integration of product and service design, branding and consistency in sensory perception of Apple offerings as being elite and premium.

6.0 CX performance metrics

6.1 Four CX metrics

The Net Promoter Score is the foremost CX metric for describing the CX performance outcome on inspiring brand loyalty with the consumer (Baquero, 2022). The NPS score determines the capacity of the customer to act through self-direction in promoting the brand to their associates, such as peers and friends. The NPS is gauged by assessing customer opinion through a survey method, where the survey instrument denotes a scale of 1 to 10. Customers rating their intention for brand promotion between 1 and 6 are considered brand detractors, as their intention for brand advocacy is identified as being limited due to the low score. Customers rating between 7 and 8 are considered brand passives, as their intention for brand promotion is marginally ahead of the highest point of the brand detractors. Customers who self-rate between 9 and 10 are considered brand promoters or advocates, whose agency leads to self-promotion of the brand to their peers as well as broader recommendations through online reviews.

The Customer Satisfaction Score is a similar method of CX metric performance, which evaluates customer satisfaction and happiness by using the brand's consumer offerings (Baquero, 2022). This CSAT score is calculated through the survey method where customers self-respond on a scale of 1 to 5. The scale is binary at the extremes, as a score of 1 indicates deep dissatisfaction whereas a score of 5 indicates a highly satisfactory experience with the brand. Similarly, a score of 3 indicates passiveness whereas 2 or 4 indicates greater room for improvement as well.

The third CX metric for consideration is the Customer Churn Rate metric, which calculates the number of customers that stop active consumption exchanges with the company (Baquero, 2022). The churn rate or turnover rate of customers is calculated across a period by subtracting total customers at the beginning of the period from the total customers at the end of the period; a decline in net engagement with customers would indicate a churn rate percentage.

Lastly, the Customer Lifetime Value metric is used to determine the value generation potential from individual customers across their lifetime of consumption experiences with the company (Baquero, 2022). This is a predictive or forecasted ability and is not as concrete in developing assumptions on future consumer behaviour, as it utilises different sources of consumer data to determine the lifetime value potential. For instance, past purchasing habits and records are used to understand the capability for repeated future consumption practices.

6.2 Recommending two CX metrics

Apple's market positioning can be affected in the long term due to unpredictability in future customer demand. Therefore, the NPS and Customer Churn Rate metrics are recommended for Apple’s consideration; the NPS score can be used to maintain awareness of customer retention abilities through their brand advocacy behaviour. The churn rate calculation will ensure any dips in customer participation across Apple’s ecosystem of products and services are similarly identified to prepare strategic interventions for recovering from the churn position.

7.0 CX CSF processes in different industries

7.1 Five CX CSF processes and comparisons

Pricing

Companies like Apple and Xiaomi must be considerate in determining their pricing strategy, as the pricing selection will act as a CSF due to the differences in brand perception and quality (Xie, Jin and Guo, 2022). Apple’s premium pricing strategy is supported and accepted by consumers due to their expectation of high-quality of products and services being equally high priced to assure quality through expensive pricing. However, Xiaomi’s value-oriented brand identity makes it a challenging value proposition to price their equivalent products at a similar price point, as Xiaomi targets different price range brackets compared to Apple’s singular focus on premium pricing.

Accessibility

Both brands have achieved success in ensuring their products are accessible to consumers. Apple products are sold through direct websites, third-party retailers like Amazon, as well as partnerships with retailers such as John Lewis (Xie, Jin and Guo, 2022). Xiaomi is similarly proactive in its e-commerce channel presence, with a comparatively limited physical presence. Xiaomi products are also often region-restricted, such as exclusive variants launched for the domestic Chinese market. In comparison, no such accessibility issues affect the global availability of Apple products (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2018).

Service

Apple gains the advantage in customer service after-sales support practices compared to Xiaomi. Apple's brand strategy ensures that after-sales services are accessible for customers, including pick-up services for repairing products outside of the warranty period (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2018). This focused approach to customer service and satisfaction differentiates Apple from Xiaomi, as Xiaomi has a larger portfolio of products for different price ranges and markets, making such personalised after-sales support challenging (Xie, Jin and Guo, 2022).

Learning

Apple also functions more successfully as a learning organisation in its ability to develop internal competencies for being continuously relevant in the market. However, Xiaomi is also capable of learning from market response as it managed to grow as one of the largest consumer electronic brands.

Innovation

Innovation is another CSF as it complements the teamwork and coordination of effort among the workforce as well as the managers and executives. The scope for innovation is determined by variables such as knowledge-sharing, tolerance for failure, learning from failure, lateral thinking to identify opportunities, and many other methods designed to promote a creative and energised environment (Xiong, Wang and Wu, 2021).

Lastly, the performance of innovation internally is differentiated across both companies. Apple’s innovations lead towards profit maximisation by leveraging its brand identity to make radical changes, such as removing chargers from smartphones and audio ports from various devices (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2018). In comparison, Xiaomi’s innovations are more product-centric in terms of innovations, such as folding smartphones.

8.0 Conclusion

Apple is among the leading consumer brands that have gained an industry-leading positioning due to its emphasis on marketing and branding of products. The company’s growth of consumer technology to ensure mainstream adoption was streamlined by the positive impact of marketing and branding on the consumer consciousness, thereby making Apple an effective user of CX strategies for targeting various online and offline touchpoints across the customer journey. The report’s findings also showed the use of omnichannel marketing by Apple to create a positive brand impact due to the uniformity in using Apple products and services within the Apple ecosystem.

References

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