What is a “brand gap”? Simply stated, it’s when – as a corporation – who you say you are doesn’t connect with the reality of who you actually are. Most commonly, these brand gaps exist between an organization’s “vision” or “brand values” as articulated and promulgated by the executive suite, and the staffers who should be delivering on them. But did anyone bother to let the staff know what those promises actually meant, or how to interpret them in their daily interactions? If not, the customer experience isn’t going to match up to expectations, and dissatisfaction (if you’re lucky) occurs.

Over the last year we’ve had a front-row seat to a textbook example that leapt from the business section to the front page, and is now being splashed across televisions sets around the globe. It’s pretty widely acknowledged that Wall Street’s “Masters of the Universe” screwed up royally – after all, their greedy myopia nearly brought the global economy to its knees.

At the first public hearings on the crisis just a few short weeks ago, a Reuter’s article noted that “Wall Street’s chiefs acknowledged taking on ‘too much risk’ and having ‘choked’ on their own cooking, but stopped short of an apology….”

Do we wonder why financial services firms are held in such low esteem? While it may be a particularly low point for the industry, this isn’t a new thing. Nearly six years ago, a Forrester 2004 report What Satisfies Financial Services Consumers noted that, “Less than half of US consumers believe that their firm would do what’s right for the consumer without government regulation.”

Funny, because the taglines and ads of these same financial services firms – and many like them – drip with sincerity and concern; for our financial wellbeing and security, as well as more emotional pleas like “peace of mind.” On the one hand, they want us to “trust them.” On the other, they have done – and seemingly continue to do – everything in their power to prove that we can’t possibly.

The funny thing is, most of these banking and financial services executives seem to be thinking all this negative sentiment will just go away. And maybe it will. But hoping your screw-ups will get swept under the rug when you neglect to acknowledge them isn’t the way to build an enduring brand.

It’s a classic brand gap. And you don’t need a brand audit or customer experience research to figure it out. No matter the size of the company or the industry you’re in, if there’s a disconnect between what you say and how you behave, your customers are going to know it. Of course, most disconnects aren’t so blatant, nor so well publicized.

How is your organization doing with its brand promises and gaps? just because you don’t see your mistakes on CSPAN doesn’t mean that all’s well, or that disgruntled customers will sit idly by. To butcher the late John Irving, sorrow floats – and loyalty sinks. Glub glub glub.

Is your organization trying to improve satisfaction for all customers at all touchpoints? Don’t bother. (Hey, it’s nothing personal – it’s just business…)

Though this is going to sound like a self-evident truth, the implications will still confound many marketers. Here it is: all customers are NOT created equal. “Duh,” you say. For instance, a typical community bank will actually lose money on nearly 70% of its customers, yet they often still market to them all equally. (Now I’m not advocating that a customer should ever be treated less well based on the size of their account, but hey… and there’s those marketing dollars….)

Instead of trying to improve satisfaction for all customers at all touchpoints, I believe that an organization must intimately understand the financial and satisfaction metrics associated with each individual audience segment, as well as individual touchpoints.  If you don’t know which touchpoints drive loyalty, you’ll have a hard time “turning that dial.”

One reason is that less valuable customers can often be served with less expensive touchpoints that still make it easy to do business, increase overall satisfaction levels, and add value to each interaction with a customer.

To achieve a measurable return on your communications investments, your organization must intimately understand the needs and associated economics of each customer group throughout their Customer Relationship Lifecycle. This includes identifying the cost of acquisition, customer lifetime value, service and retention cost, purchase tendencies and other key metrics, for your customers.

With this data in hand, you can identify your most valuable existing and potential customers, and understand the metrics of your other customer segments as well. This will allow you to tailor appropriate offerings and service levels for each segment. If, for instance, a web-based transaction costs your organization $1, a telephone transaction $5 and an average in-person transaction $25, you can make better decisions on how to deploy resources knowledgeably, ensuring that all offerings, communications, and interactions are delivered at the highest appropriate level of quality for each audience.

Just as we believe that delivering a positive customer experience (at every touchpoint, for – almost  – every segment) is critical to broader relationship metrics, we also believe that customer experience delivery and marketing communications investments based on a given segments value is simply good business.

How well is your organization doing at understanding – and improving – customer experience?

Where does your organization fit? Maybe you have it nailed. A leader, you know who your customers are and what they want – and they love you for giving it to them.

An inspiration, you set the standards in your industry for customer experience management. Your customers experience excellence at just about every touchpoint they encounter, and outstanding talent is clamoring to work for you.  You excel in comparison to your competitors, increasing sales and boosting retention for your best customers and employees.

Maybe you’re a “fast follower”, and your organization is benefiting from being slightly ahead of the curve. While you may be doing well, you’re finding it difficult to compete with the customer service leaders in your industry.

Maybe you’re a laggard –  you wish you could establish yourselves as customer service leaders… but are having troubles getting your hands around what this means (much less how to accomplish this). All the places where it interacts with customers? (“Touchpoints”)

Wherever you are on this continuum, there are some basic questions you can ask to help figure out where you stand.  Without getting too complex, answer these questions honestly on the 5 point scale (see below) and see how you’re doing.

Recognize that if your average score is 4 or better, you’re doing great by any measure. And if you’re not doing so well, know that if you focus on improving your performance on these questions, you’ll be a leader in no time.

The 6-Question Customer Experience Audit

How well is your organization doing at understanding…

1. Which customers are your most valuable, and why?
2. Which interactions (or “touchpoints”) these key customers most value, and why?
3. Your key customers’ needs, in each lifecycle stage with your organization?
4. The most common sequence of “pre-purchase” touchpoints, as prospects (or repeat purchasers) progress from awareness of your offerings to selection?
5. The influence of “post-purchase” touchpoints on satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy?
6. Whether your key customers are dissatisfied, satisfied, or loyal? And who your advocates are?

You can answer the 6-Question Customer Experience Audit using this scale

5 = Extremely Well (We have it nailed.)

4 = Moderately Well

3 = Just OK

2 = Not that well

1 = Not well at all (We have no idea!)

Ensure that you have more accurate data upon which to base key brand, customer experience and marketing decisions.

It seems self-evident that access to more accurate customer opinion, experience, and needs information will help make improvements to your customer experience, marketing and branding programs. After all, customer insights are a key decision-making factor for virtually all aspects of your business, from product development, acquisition and retention to market strategy.

Here are a few of the questions you can ask, to help you determine if you already have some of the answers…

• Do you have customer listening tools in place?
• Do you where (and why) your prospects and customers engage?
• Do you know what a loyal customer looks like?
• Do you know why customers choose you (or a competitor)?
• Do you know why you lose customers?
• Do you lose any customers you want to keep?

Answering these questions – and others like them – will help inform your strategies. The insights they drive can help focus messaging, address real customer needs, and remove barriers to relationship building – increasing brand loyalty and return on your customers as a result.

Of course, as with any program, the ability to leverage data is based on the systems you have for gathering and analyzing it. And as critical as this data is, the systems can be relatively simple. When it comes to gathering customer insights, the first step is the most important of all.

Better understand how to derive the greatest return from your customer experience investments.

Just as with financial performance, measurement is critical to customer experience improvement. Creating a culture of measurement-driven customer experience initatives will help executives better understand how to derive the greatest return from their investments.

And moving past the fundamental first step of understanding that customers do have inherent value, a measurement-driven customer culture will maximize the effect on tangible business results in critical areas including brand awareness and preference, customer retention, loyalty, profitability and value.

Moving into these areas in an incremental manner will begin to provide marketers with the baseline data needed to pursue key management support as well. For example, the ability to quantify gaps in organizational alignment behind your brand, or discontinuity in the customer experience, can have a profound impact at the executive level.

This is the kind of data that your “C Suite” can see, understand and react to.  More importantly, it has the potential to drive the types of improvements that can markedly improve your investments, and your overall business performance.

After all, virtually all enterprise value flows from the same source – your customers. Measuring and improving their experience can only benefit your top (and bottom) lines.

How your organization can learn to be more responsive by listening to—and changing—the stories their customers tell themselves, and their families and friends.

These points are part of the summary findings and recomemndations of our recently published white paper titled “Changing the Stories Bank Customers Tell Themselves: Why They Leave, and How to Keep Them.” As our talented staff quickly realized – bank or not – these are valuable insights for ANY organization interested in changing their customer’s perceptions for the better.

1. Segment Your Customers
By viewing your customers through the lens of profitability and relationship potential, you can focus on those that are most important to your organization.

2. Ask Them What They Think
When’s the last time you polled your customers in any meaningful way? Do you know what they think about you? What they like, what they don’t and why? Ask, and they’ll tell you.

3. Measure Satisfaction and Loyalty, and Understand the Drivers of Positive Experience
How satisfied are your customers? How loyal? By understanding these metrics—and tying experience to them—you’ll have a roadmap for experience improvement.

4. Understand Current Experience
What is it like to do business with you? By auditing your brand and mapping interactions, you can see where gaps exist and take steps to close them.

5. Ask This Question: How Should We Deliver On It?
Once you quantify customer perceptions, worlds of possibility open up. By organizing service around the needs of your customers, you’ll radically improve the experiences they have, and the stories they’ll tell.

6. Focus on Experience Delivery
For many organizations, customer experience is a primary differentiator. By standing out in an otherwise commoditized world, and doing so based on the needs and wants of YOUR customers, the stories they tell will be music to your ears.