What is a Brand and How it Starts with Customer Experiences?
A brand is what a customer says about your business when you’re not in the room. Your brand is the sum of all the experiences customers have with a company. Customers perceive and build a brand impression of your company based on their interactions with it, which will either make them come back for more or run away.
A Customer Journey has Multiple Touchpoints
Customer experience starts from the moment a customer interacts with a company and continues throughout their journey. It includes every touchpoint such as entering your brick-and-mortar location or office, customer service, product or service delivery, and post-purchase support.
Creating an unforgettable customer experience is key to building a strong brand identity that will make customers loyal to your business and recommend it to others. This can be done by providing personalized services, listening to feedback, and responding quickly to any issues or queries.
Proctor and Gamble (P&G) and Starbucks are two companies that are well known for providing exceptional customer experience. P&G conducts frequent customer surveys and focus groups to discover how customers are using their vast product line.
They often find their customers are using their products in new and creative ways, which they often incorporate into their commercials. P&G’s commitment to customer engagement allows them to more effectively market and build customer trust.
Starbucks puts considerable effort into creating a customer experience that keeps customers coming back for another Grande. Coffee houses or cafes across the globe, but few have the brand loyalty or recognition that Starbucks does.
Howard Shultz used Italian coffeehouses as an inspiration for Starbucks stores, he wanted customers to come in and gather to chat while drinking their lattes. When a customer walks into their local Starbucks, they will see the store design, decor, and music support the company’s mission of creating an inviting gathering spot.
Not every business can have the same level of commitment as Starbucks or P&G, but they can see what successful implementation looks like.
The Basics of Building a Brand That Starts with Customer Experience
Brand building starts with designing a customer experience. This is a unique and memorable journey for customers that will help them connect with your brand and its offerings. The key to an effective journey is to customize it to meet the needs and expectations of each customer, as well as to keep the experience consistent across all touchpoints.
By focusing on customer experience design, companies can create a brand that stands out from the competition. Additionally, leveraging data-driven insights to understand how customers interact with the brand and make sure they have a positive experience every time they engage with it.
5 Strategies to Deliver Exceptional Customer Service And Enhance Your Brand Image
The key to providing exceptional customer service is to customize the journey for each customer and design an experience that meets their needs. Here are five strategies that can help your business deliver exceptional customer service and enhance your brand image:
1) Invest in Customer Experience Design
Creating an engaging and effective customer experience is not built overnight. It takes time and total adoption in your company; and possibly incorporate multiple departments or team members. The first step is to analyze the journey your customers take, and all touchpoints.
Typically, there are both intentional and unintentional touchpoints, ones that are created by the company (which you have control over) and touchpoints the company will not be aware of or have little control over. As a company, you can only account for the touchpoints you can actively control, which coincide with the customer journey. Intentional touchpoints include customers reading your website or social media posts, visiting your brick-and-mortar location, calling customer service, and engaging in trials. Companies have direct control over these points so it can be changed to improve customer experience.
Touchpoints the company does not have control over include the times your customer is surfing you the internet, searching for reviews online, or asking for referrals from their friends. A company can take steps to impact these touchpoints but cannot control them.
Do not speed through this step. This discovery will help you better define a customer experience strategy and an accurate marketing strategy. Pull in different departments and team members for review meetings. Go into this discovery as a newbie who knows nothing about your company, customers, or offerings.
Upon completion, you should have a detailed map of the multiple ways a customer engages with your business. But note, the steps may not be linear, there will likely be more than one entry point.
2) Utilize Technology for Automation
Once you understand your customer’s buyer journey, this forms the base of your customer experience roadmap. Review your buyer journey to see how technology and automation can support engaging your buyer. For example, adding a chat function on your website to answer questions from prospective and customer customers so they feel supported. Some tools you can use for automation include chat tools, email messages, CRM triggers to prompt a call, and more.
3) Offer Personalized Support
How can you tailor your support to each customer, both offline and online? To offer personalized support, you need to be able to have data on customer engagement and purchase history. For example, can you track purchases and add triggers for customer support to contact customers to make sure they are enjoying their product or service? Video tutorials? Or coupons for related products?
4) Focus on Quality Assurance
Offering a top-notch product or service is very important to building a strong brand and a strong customer experience, this work is worthless without a quality product or service. Implementing a quality assurance program will help reduce unhappy customers and may help reduce negative word of mouth or reviews.
5) Leverage Customer Feedback
Ask customers for feedback on their experience, negative or positive feedback will help you refine your customer experience and product quality. Feedback can lead you to areas that can be improved, what is currently successful, improve product quality, and highlight areas for customer engagement.
By implementing these strategies, companies can create a positive customer experience and build a strong brand image.
Create A Remarkable Brand with A Remarkable Customer Experience
With the right technology and strategies, businesses can create a unique customer experience that is tailored to their customers’ needs. By customizing the journey, you can ensure that they are providing the best possible experience for their customers.
The key to successful brand building is creating an experience that resonates with your target audience. This means understanding who they are, what they need, and how you can provide it. By leveraging technology and strategies today, businesses can start building a remarkable brand that will stand out from the competition.