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The Role Of Your Brand To Improve The Customer Experience

Your brand sets the bar for customer expectations, and your ability to deliver an exceptional customer experience hinges on exceeding those expectations. To truly excel at customer experience, it’s crucial to grasp the vital link between your brand and the customer journey. When you do, you’ll be equipped to consistently deliver an outstanding and impactful customer experience.

Brand Led Business Strategy

The most successful business leaders have their customers at the forefront of their decision-making in their business. According to Mckinsey (2016), advanced analytics tell us from organisations focused on the customer experience that by being customer-centric, we can increase our revenue by up to 10 per cent and reduce our costs by up to 25 per cent within three years by training ourselves and our team to see the world through our customer’s eyes. With customer acquisition being higher than ever, increasing our focus on the customer journey and being customer-centric in our decisions is essential.

The recurring problem is that too many businesses get so focused on working in the business they lose touch with the customer journey and experience. This is why brand and business development needs to be worked on together, creating a brand-led business strategy. I’m on a mission for business owners to look at their business from a customer perspective.

The Link Between Brand And Customer Experience

Your brand identity weaves through every touch point that a customer comes into contact with your business throughout the customer’s journey. When you grow and develop a business that is customer-centric, you have a unique advantage over your competitors with the opportunity to increase word-of-mouth growth. To do this, carefully considering the customer’s journey and ensuring it aligns with your brand purpose is vital.

Step into your potential customer’s shoes and see how they discover your business and come into contact with your business.

1. First Impression

The look and feel of your online presence or premises. Are you easy to find? What is the online user experience like? How do potential customers engage with you, or experience visiting your premises?

2. Memorable Experience

Is it straightforward to place an order online (product or service) and then consider how it is received and the experience throughout the customer journey? Do you have a high standard for the service which is experienced when visiting your premises?

3. After Care

Is there anything you have in place after a sale? Do you thank people for their purchase or visit? Do you ask for feedback?

4. Review

Spend some time reviewing how you can improve that journey. Create a questionnaire to gather data and additional intel, or set up a customer focus group. Can you see gaps or opportunities to create an amazing customer experience that people will go away and tell everyone how fantastic you are?

Go Above And Beyond

Make it easy for your customers to share how fantastic you are by surprising and delighting them in a way they haven’t experienced before. Be sure to think outside of the box; it could be a handwritten note, an unexpected freebie, a gift for high-ticket orders, an audio message, or something else you can think of.

Action:

Mentally, take yourself out of the business and instead be the customer. Consider memorable experiences you’ve had when making purchases and how they made you feel at the time. It’s important to recognise that you can still remember it now. Now, play out what experience you want your customers to have when discovering and engaging in your business and how you want them to feel when coming into contact with your brand.

Reference

Mckinsey (2016) The CEO guide to customer experience. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/the-ceo-guide-to-customer-experience (Accessed on 26.8.2024)