North 6th Agency, Inc. has launched a new initiative that pays homage to exemplary customer service practices exhibited by global brands.
N6A’s “Year of the Customer” program, which rolls out in January, will introduce 12 themes — one for every month of the year — based on a dozen consumer brands known for their quality customer service, and will apply those virtues to the agency’s daily dealing with clients in the PR and marketing services sector.
Each month, N6A will highlight a brand’s noted successes in a particular customer service area, and will unveil a theme based on those achievements, relying on the use of a comparable practice within the agency that will implement those achievements as they apply to client outreach practices.
In developing the concept, the New York-based agency polled its staff on brands they appreciated most for their customer service efforts, then narrowed the list to 12 finalists and undertook research on each to determine what qualities made those brands’ customer service efforts so laudable.
“We studied brands that wrote the book on certain customer service themes … and wanted to emulate those practices in a way that was transferrable to the experience we were providing to our customers even though the nature of the service being provided is completely different,” said N6A President and CEO Matt Rizzetta. “Our goal is to give our customers a well-rounded experience without any holes, and to make sure they think of their relationship with N6A similar to how they view experiences with their favorite and most respected consumer brands.”
January’s customer service initiative will be modeled on upscale fashion retailer Nordstrom, which is known for its rapid customer response time.
“When we polled our staff members, Nordstrom came up a bunch of times,” Rizzetta told O’Dwyer’s. “I dug into what they were doing differently, and even spoke with several executives. Apparently it’s encouraged that any time a customer calls, the customer service representative should answer the phone in no more than three rings, just to show commitment that they want to respond to the customer as quickly as possible.”
September is slated as “Amazon Month,” where N6A will take a cue from the electronic commerce company’s reputation for delivering personalized recommendations. During that month, the agency will unveil a practice geared toward making the N6A client service experience as personalized as possible.
N6A posted gains of 40 percent last year — for total net fees of more than $2 million — according to O’Dwyer’s 2015 rankings of independent PR firms.
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