Customer + Brand Experience
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Customer + Brand Experience
The customer’s perception is your reality.– Kate Zabriskie
Siblings share DNA, but they also have uniquely individual variations. Sometimes the DNA is the stronger, and familial cooperation and like-mindedness prevail. But we all know families in which the differences dominate, in which individuals don’t apply the same weighting of importance to the family’s beliefs or goals—whether about the big things (views on debt and borrowing, for example) or the small things (like being home for Sunday lunch).
In a similar vein, most companies have siloed, albeit closely related, functions that focus on either a brand- driven approach to marketing or a sales and customer experience function. Although, much like siblings, they share the same DNA, the overarching culture determines which function is dominant, and sometimes the result is a brand experience and customer experience that is less than the sum of the parts not least because customers don’t separate their brand and customer experience in the same way.
1. Customer experience is brand experience; people don’t separate the brand’s identity and promise from the experience they have.
2. People assess brands by what they do and how they simplify life. They measure the success of their experience by the degree of e ort required to achieve their goal, the emotional reward.
3. Effort is made up of achievement (did I get what I wanted?), ease (how easy was it?) and reward or satisfaction (how emotionally satisfying was it?).
4. Being customer-centric is not about looking at what you do and seeing how you can make it better for customers. It’s about walking in the customers’ shoes on their journeys.
5. Research can deliver customer experience insight, but companies need to find different ways to activate the insights. People in behavioural change roles can do this, whereas operational groups struggle to let go of their touchpoint processes.
6. Behavioural science is a powerful tool with which to enhance customer experience while improving profitability. Marketers can change behaviour, presenting choices in the most effective way to make the customer experience feel effortless.
7. Loyalty programmes have a valuable role in tailor-making communications and product offers, but the main value is the ability to gather and use customer and behavioural analytics. Nevertheless, when they are in place they become part of the total brand experience.