Brand Promise. Sounds good, doesn’t it? But what does it really mean to make and support these statements, and what is the cost of less-than-perfect delivery? In truth, achieving the outcomes that delivering on this can accomplish requires near-flawless execution in making, delivering, keeping, and reinforcing the brand promise.
While appropriately positioning the organization and the development of a branding and messaging platform are critical first steps, there must also be steadfast, across-the-board organizational commitment to developing and implementing the structure, systems, and staffing needed to effectively deliver on the promise.
Our experience shows us that the benefits of making and keeping a brand promise are well worth it. Here’s a quick primer on our point-of-view:
Defining (and Making) the Promise. Your promise needs to be relevant, compelling, believable and achievable – and supported by the values that drive your organization – to make a deep connection with your target audiences. To define it, you must understand your organization, your customers and your competition.
Delivering the Promise. The responsibility for delivering the promise message falls primarily on the sales and marketing team, while management and employees in the field deliver on the elements of the promise on a daily basis.
Keeping the Promise. Your success hinges on the competency and commitment of line staff, IT, call center, outsourced vendors, etc. to deliver on the promise at each Touchpoint. So much of your relationship with customers, and of your ability to keep your promises to them, will depend on the precise coordination and structure of your systems and staff. Leverage the processes, procedures and systems needed to effectively communicate with each other, and your customers will experience the positive results.
Feedback: Have we kept our promise? The only way to know that you are making, delivering, and keeping the right promises is to continually get feedback from your customers. Utilizing Customer Listening Tools – including those in MCorp’s Customer Experience Mapping toolkit – can be qualitative, or it can be a formal, quantitative process for measuring gaps between customer satisfaction, attitudes, and needs. Finally, processes must be in place for easily and systematically collecting, reviewing, and acting upon this feedback.
Those organizations that successfully connect with customers and deliver on a relevant promise reap huge, quantifiable benefits in areas such as retention, loyalty, customer NPV (“Net Present Value”) and LCV (“Lifetime Customer Value”). The flip side for those organizations which promise one thing and deliver an experience that just doesn’t match up is the cynicism, increased churn, and reduced loyalty and satisfaction which can negatively affect relationships with both internal (employees) and external (customers, analysts, partners, etc.) audiences.
Regardless of industry, shareholders (and those that influence them, such as media and analysts) are a core audience. So what are the best ways to “touch” these key stakeholders, and build a loyal shareholder following?
In the age of “what have you done for me lately?” investors are increasingly fickle. The ability to retain investors for the long term drives valuation. To help those willing, we’ve identified key Investor & Media Relations concepts that every management team (of publicly traded companies or companies that wish to become public) should understand, and address.
Create (and articulate) a strategic plan.
Long term thinking in a short term world. It is not impossible, but must be strategi¬cally coordinated across your organization, and articulated in a way that investors understand, believe and support. Investors must understand the direction your company is headed and develop reasonable expectations for determining success. If inves¬tors’ goals are met, they will provide you with the capital “runway” to execute your vision.
Invest in online.
Unsurprisingly, companies, investors and other stakeholders are now shifting their focus to the Internet. Investors need (and want) to be steered to the web when¬ever there are significant corporate events. Annual reports, recorded earnings calls, conference presenta¬tions and other investor updates should be available through the website. By keeping investors on your site, you control the interaction and can help shape investors’ perceptions.
The annual report is still your most important investor touchpoint.
Despite the preponderance of other material available to investors, the annual is still king. Take the time and effort to ensure a satisfac¬tory product that delivers the proper message to investors. Of primary importance: lay the foundation for investor expectations in the CEO’s letter. This is the bar against which investors measure fundamental execution.
Analyst coverage helps drive loyalty.
Getting analyst coverage will benefit corpo¬rations in both investor interest and market valuation. Investors need assistance with due diligence, and analysts provide this service.
Press coverage is essential to building (and maintaining) a broad investor base.
There is no better way to inform investors of your story than through unbiased local trades and national media. Seize every opportunity to present your firm to the outside world, and leverage your coverage online.
There is no such thing as too much investor communication.
Your strategic plan must be delivered to investors. Never catch investors by surprise. Pre-announce earnings dates, conference calls and speaking engagements. Let investors know what to expect, and when to expect it.
Focus on running your business.
Whether it is accomplished internally or out¬sourced professionally, Investor Relations is a full time job. Do not expect your CEO, CFO, or other professional to be able to compe¬tently handle both their job and IR duties. Investors expect, and deserve, the attention that an “ownership” stake implies. Of course, not all investors are created equal any more than your customers are.
Investors may be your most important customers
Without an equity valuation, your busi¬ness would disappear. Deal with investors honestly and professionally. Never ignore investor questions, but respond immediately. Creating loyalty is an important step towards achieving success as a public company.
Regardless of industry, shareholders (and those that influence them, such as media and analysts) are a core audience. So what are the best ways to “touch” these key stakeholders, and build a loyal shareholder following?
In the age of “what have you done for me lately?” investors are increasingly fickle. The ability to retain investors for the long term drives valuation. To help those willing, we’ve identified key Investor & Media Relations concepts that every management team (of publicly traded companies or companies that wish to become public) should understand, and address.
Create (and articulate) a strategic plan. Long term thinking in a short term world. It is not impossible, but must be strategically coordinated across your organization, and articulated in a way that investors understand, believe and support. Investors must understand the direction your company is headed and develop reasonable expectations for determining success. If investors’ goals are met, they will provide you with the capital “runway” to execute your vision.
Invest in online. Unsurprisingly, companies, investors and other stakeholders are now shifting their focus to the internet. Investors need (and want) to be steered to the web whenever there are significant corporate events. Annual reports, recorded earnings calls, conference presentations and other investor updates should be available through the website. By keeping investors on your site, you control the interaction and can help shape investors’ perceptions.
The annual report is still your most important investor touchpoint. Despite the preponderance of other material available to investors, the annual is still king. Take the time and effort to ensure a satisfactory product that delivers the proper message to investors. Of primary importance: lay the foundation for investor expectations in the CEO’s letter. This is the bar against which investors measure fundamental execution.
Analyst coverage helps drive loyalty. Getting analyst coverage will benefit corporations in both investor interest and market valuation. Investors need assistance with due diligence, and analysts provide this service.
Press coverage is essential to building (and maintaining) a broad investor base. There is no better way to inform investors of your story than through unbiased local trades and national media. Seize every opportunity to present your firm to the outside world, and leverage your coverage online.
There is no such thing as too much investor communication. Your strategic plan must be delivered to investors. Never catch investors by surprise. Pre-announce earnings dates, conference calls and speaking engagements. Let investors know what to expect, and when to expect it.
Focus on running your business. Whether it is accomplished internally or outsourced professionally, Investor Relations is a full time job. Do not expect your CEO, CFO, or other professional to be able to competently handle both their job and IR duties. Investors expect, and deserve, the attention that an “ownership” stake implies. Of course, not all investors are created equal, any more than your customers are.
Investors may be your most important customers. Without an equity valuation, your business would disappear. Deal with investors honestly and professionally. Never ignore investor questions, but respond immediately. Creating loyalty is an important step towards achieving success as a public company.
Four “experience investment” lenses to help you plan, measure and improve interactions with your customers, and prove significant ROI – before you invest.
Because the process of improving customer experience has the potential to be both involved and resource intensive, most businesses wonder how they can prove ROI before they start. To assist you in this initial assessment, we have developed 4 “Experience ROI Lenses” to help you begin.
Future revenue is affected—either positively or negatively—at every single touchpoint (or interaction) between your organization and your customers.
While by no means exhaustive, these “Lenses” are all examples of – and point places where you can find – real world ROI. Looking at your organization through them will help you speak the “language of investment return” and should give you ample ammunition to begin thinking about – and planning – your own experience improvements.
Experience ROI Lens No. 1: Increase loyalty (and reduce churn).
Increases in loyalty (and reductions in churn) are some of the most basic ROI models you can use. Armed with Net Promoter® (NPS) as a loyalty metric and Customer Lifetime Value to measure what a customer is worth, you can drive – literally – millions in savings for even a small to mid-size company.
Multiple studies have proven the value of loyalty, with benefits ranging from customer who spend more, cost less to service, and buy more over time. Both Loyalty and NPS are proven (and widely accepted) indicators of future revenue growth. Overall, the goals are to both increase retention, and reduce the cost of keeping the customer.
These are but a few of the ways that experience improvements can drive loyalty:
By establishing a line of sight between your customer experience and increased Net Promoter® (NPS) scores, you can directly boost satisfaction and loyalty.
You can pinpoint the individual touchpoints that affect loyalty, investing in those that improve it – and eliminating or modifying those that don’t.
What if better delivery of “post-purchase” experience could reduce churn by 5% a year? For some companies, this can translate to a 60%+ increase in annual profits.
Implementing a customer experience feedback loop could allowing you to deal with complaints more effectively, and improve delivery overall. In a $40M Retail Company, this could affect the $8M at risk from customers who have had a poor experience.
Experience ROI Lens No. 2: Reduce the cost of delivery.
Delivery cost can be reduced in several areas, including functional tasks, hard costs, and overhead. Ranging from reduction in marketing costs (or reallocation to more effective channels) to reductions in customer service staff or call center overhead, the potential is significant.
A few examples of the tangible benefits from reducing delivery costs can include:
Eliminating a redundant marketing tactic or program that is both costly and ineffective. For one client, eliminating a single printed touchpoint saved millions – with over $500,000 in postage alone. Or eliminate an entire series of programs that don’t drive desired results. (Eliminating an ineffective touchpoint = lower cost/higher satisfaction).
Reduce the cost of touchpoint delivery overall; by eliminating nearly 40% of all touchpoints. For another client, we were able drive up satisfaction and customer re-purchase as a result. (Fewer touchpoints = lower marketing/service costs).
Migrate customer-facing tasks from the call center to the web; Adding a series of pages to your website could have the direct effect of reducing call center volume overall, decreasing handle time, and increasing first call resolution. (Decreased volume/increased speed = lower costs).
Experience ROI Lens No. 3: Speed movement through your Customer Relationship Lifecycle.
The potential for ROI in this area is huge. By understanding where experience can be improved in the “pre-purchase” stage of your lifecycle, you could boost your pipeline and conversions by 10%, 20%, or more. Improving experience in the “post-purchase” phase boosts satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.
The benefits from measuring Relationship Lifecycle improvements include:
See which marketing channels are most effective at driving brand awareness, and which are less effective. By shifting investment to the most effective channels, you boost awareness without increasing costs. (greater awareness = more prospects).
Understand where your marketing is NOT driving desired behavior, and boost consideration. (more prospects = more sales).
See where the sales process is bogging down to close more deals. (more customers = more revenue).
Learn which individual touchpoints are most effective at driving advocacy (or influencing prospects) to boost positive Word-of-Mouth. (greater advocacy = increased awareness/improved loyalty).
Experience ROI Lens No. 4: Increase Customer Value.
Most organizations have a startling lack of knowledge when comes to the economics of individual customers. One study states that 85% of executives lack an understanding of acquisition or service costs, much less overall CLV (Customer Lifetime Value). Yet for virtually all organizations, their enterprise value springs entirely from their customers.
This value is driven by three things: 1.) The amount they spend on any given product or service; 2.) The amount of this budget that they spend with you, and; 3.) What they are willing to pay for your product or service. By looking at experience improvement as a way to boost CLV, you’ll be able to look at experience based on actual customer behavior, vs. intention.
Some of the benefits of looking at experience improvements through this lens can lead directly to increased CLV by:
Reducing the cost of sales leads: By driving down the initial cost of getting customers (lower cost through more effective marketing or sales touchpoints) you boost overall customer value.
Lowering service costs: By decreasing the cost of servicing customers (through web, call center, in-person or other touchpoints and channels) you increase CLV.
Reduced cost of acquisition: By having more leads at a lower cost, you indirectly affect the sales metric. If the cost of closing a deal can be reduced as well, you benefit twice over. More efficient contracts, environments, sales pitches and more – all designed around the experience of turning prospects into customers – reduce costs.
Increased purchase activity: A more efficient experience can be targeted towards getting existing customers to either spend more at each purchase, or purchase more often. The result? You guessed it. Increases in overall revenue (and value) per customer.
Improved retention: As discussed in Experience ROI Lens No. 1, above, increases in loyalty boost retention. The longer a customer stays with you, the greater their value.
Once you’ve developed a hypothesis around prospective ROI on customer experience, what next? In Part 3 of Proving ROI on Customer Experience we talk about ways to identify the touchpoints you have, and create a map of where you are today – helping you find out which touchpoints work, which don’t, and why. Then, improving them… (Continue to Part 3…)
Customer Experience: The perfect framework to begin thinking about ways to plan, measure and improve customer interactions with your organization.
Even before the “Four Ps” of marketing (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) expanded in the 1980s to reflect the impending shift to a knowledge-based economy (People, Process and Physical Evidence), there was widespread recognition that how someone feels about an organization is driven in large part by how they’ve been treated.
Customer experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with an organization, over the duration of their relationship with that organization.
Introduced in the late 1990s, the concept of “customer experience” was the perfect framework to begin thinking about ways to plan, measure and improve these. An organization’s ability to cost-effectively deliver an experience that positively differentiates it from the competition in the eyes of its customers boosts top- and bottom-line revenue through increased customer spending, greater loyalty, and reduced costs for service and acquisition. What’s not to love?
Customer experience: The next competitive battleground.
There’s no argument that understanding customer experience is critical. In fact, 95% of senior business leaders identify customer experience as the next competitive battleground. At the same time, over half state that “Lack of measurement is a significant obstacle to improving Customer Experience.”
ROI on improvements to customer experience can be elusive; oftentimes, the discipline and data required to measure and understand what works is short-cut, and investments are made without a clear understanding of return. One executive perspective is shaped by talk about “soft” metrics such as satisfaction and brand preference; another – the financial view – is rooted in profit and loss, short-term expense and cost containment.
That’s why assessment is so critical. Only by looking at experience through the lens of ROI can organizations reach the consensus needed to drive the top-down initiatives critical for driving customer experience change.
Measuring customer experience
At MCorp Consulting, we call this assessment process Customer Experience Mapping. Essentially, we track aspects of the experiential “journey” your customers take through the Customer Relationship Lifecycle unique to your business, and the touchpoints and interactions encountered along the way.
Experiences are defined at those the places where companies interact with and “touch” customers. Their touchpoints.
Future revenue is affected – either positively or negatively – at every single touchpoint (or interaction) between your organization and your customers.
Assessments are typically done through a variety of research and analytical methodologies, including in-person and phone interviews, surveys, and driver analysis to tie experience to actual and desired behaviors. This level rigor of also means that the process has the potential to be both involved and resource intensive.
So how can you assess and prove ROI before you start? In Part 2 of Proving ROI on Customer Experience we present four “experience investment” lenses to help you plan, measure and improve interactions with your customers, and prove significant ROI – before you invest. (Continue to Part 2…)
The connection between actual brand experience and customer expectations is crucial to the perceptions of your brand.
A deep understanding of the importance of alignment between the customer experience and brand promise is evidenced by the nearly one-hundred percent of customers who responded in a recent MCorp Consulting survey who – through a series of research methodologies, across retail customer segments – stated that this relationship strongly affected their perception of an organization.
At the same time, just over half of the organizations we’ve worked with feel that they are performing extremely well in this regard. In short, the more accurately aligned the customer experience is with the brand promise (and their expectations of the brand that your promise implies) the greater the positive influence your brand will have on your customer relationships.
How well aligned are your brand and customer touchpoints?
Taking a look at your own company, how closely aligned do you think experience and brand are? If you deliver what you promise across all your touchpoints, then you’re part of a thriving minority. Congratulations! But maybe there’s some discontinuity. Or perhaps you don’t know. If that’s the case, there are questions to ask to help you find the answers.
Does your brand accurately reflect the relationship your customers feel they have with you?
Do your employees deliver your brand in the same way customers feel about it?
Does management “buy into” your brand?
Does your market perception and brand promise match the brand experience across all your touchpoints?
What do your customers think of you vs. your competition?
For those organziations who get this connection, the threads that drive success are a combination of direction and obsession. Top-down direction from a leadership team that both understands and values the customer experience. And obsession on the part of everyone in an organization when it comes to delivering a consistent, branded customer experience.
From back-office operations and the call center to front-line, customer-facing staff, obsession with experience delivery and “expectation management” across touchpoints and interactions is a hallmark of customer experience leaders, across industries.
By now, many of us are familiar with State Farm Insurance’s commercial featuring emotional scenarios set to the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There.”
The message stands out against commercials that attempt to hammer viewers over the head with products and services or annoy with bouncy jingles. We’ve learned to tune those out, and just wish they would go away.
However, State Farm Insurance breaks through the noise with a simple, classic song, using a series of images featuring people just like us – “helping each other” – receiving care from the “real people” at State Farm.
On many levels, State Farm gets it right with this spot. Emotionally appealing, great soundtrack and a great job showing product benefits – where many financial services marketers hit the wall. From a branding perspective, they nail it. “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.”
1) Supporting retention, existing customers are reassured: “If something terrible happens, State Farm will ‘be there’ for me. I’m glad this is my insurance company.”
2) Boosting acquisition, potential customers may find the emotional plea of this commercial irresistible: “Real people, just like me, will take care of me and my family – State Farm is real people. I’m going to call them, or check them out on the web.”
3) And when it comes brand awareness and relevance, all viewers see that State Farm Insurance is for people of all ages, all colors, and provides support across a wide variety of situations: “I’m not planning to switch insurance companies, but if I did, I think this is a ‘human’ company and I would consider State Farm.”
Our only complaints? First, why do they wait to get to the sponsor ‘till the last frames? I don’t think folks are sitting in front of their HDs wondering to themselves who this is… “Let’s wait and see, honey – I wonder what these guys are selling? We might want to buy some…”
Second – and more troubling – is that on the website featured in the spot (the main State Farm site) the brand promise-slash-tagline so powerfully supported by this spot is conspicuous by its absence. No tie-in at all. Why walk away from such a powerfully differentiated position? State Farm could benefit from a little integrated marketing and cross-channel brand strategy help…
What do you think? Does this State Farm Insurance commercial stir your emotions? Or is it just another emotionally touching :90 spot that leaves most viewers wondering what’s being sold?
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are tons of sushi bars. Most of them are pretty good. So how could a sushi bar hope to stand out in this environment?
Well, there’s a colleague of mine who will tell you that the sushi bar experience has to be “highly personalized” in order to be worthwhile. Apparently, after experimenting with several establishments, she now frequents a particular sushi bar every Friday night, and the bill quickly reaches $150 on a regular basis. And she expects the experience to be “a certain way.”
“Look, this is the Bay Area. Alot of places have access to high-quality fish. So it’s a no-brainer that the fish has to be exceptional.”
OK, I’ll bite: It takes more than exceptional fish to create this “highly personalized” customer experience. It would be reasonable to think that the service also needs to be “outstanding.”
However, if you are thinking this means “faster” service, you would be wrong. Very wrong, in fact.
My sushi-eating colleague happily tells me that during peak times, when the place is packed, the service is really slow. In fact, she says, people who come in after her often get served more quickly.
I thought about this for a moment. Why would anyone go to a restaurant with slow service?
“But aren’t you hungry and impatient?” I ask, thinking how I would feel watching everyone else getting their food before me.
She admits that yes, she is hungry and impatient. But, what happens next that makes it all worthwhile – what she describes as the “highly personalized” experience:
“When it starts to slow down, the chefs start making special dishes for us – stuff that’s not on the menu. And never will be.” Sometimes, it’s a cut of sashimi in limited supply. Or a roll that contains “unusual” ingredients. Maybe they “ran out” of oysters, but have set some aside.
She confesses: “Once, it was smoked baby octopus. I couldn’t eat it because the babies were too cute. So my husband ate them all, but admitted afterwards that he ‘felt bad’ for the babies, and only did it to be polite.”
Baby octopus images aside, I learned something: Customers who desire a highly personalized experience will endure waiting for “their” experience, rather than have an “outstanding” customer experience quickly.
How could you create a highly personalized experience for your best customers – one that is worth the wait?
Book: Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today’s Cluttered Marketplace
Author: Noah Kerner, Gene Pressman, Andrew Essex
Summary:Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today’s Cluttered Marketplace is a book about authenticity. While the book’s examples are from design and culture-related industries, the message is clear for any organization, be it a bank or an automobile manufacturer: Cool is the ultimate point of difference.
You’ll love this book if: You believe you can learn a business lesson from looking outside the traditional boundaries of your current industry.
You’ll hate this book if: You think the word “cool” is only for kids.
Words of Wisdom:
The only way to build a true communion with an audience – to a point where they might deem you or your work “cool” – is to follow a personal vision and stay true to that vision no matter what. And if your completely off-the-wall idea gets old, come up with another one.
Why we think this book is important: Cool = authentic. Customers cannot be fooled: Ensure that your touchpoints are authentic.
I was skeptical at first of a book called Chasing Cool co-authored by a guy who used to be a DJ.
But it was the subhead of the book that made me buy it: Standing Out in Today’s Cluttered Marketplace.
I mean, who doesn’t want to stand out in today’s cluttered marketplace, right?
It turns out that Chasing Cool is a book about authenticity. And you won’t find – or become – cool by chasing it.
Music, architecture, design, film, Internet, consumer brands, art, fashion, advertising, and nightlife … All that time yielded one common thread: none of these people chased anything. They trusted their guts, put their names on the line, and followed their personal passions … They pursued a vision and, then, somewhere down the road, cool found them.
The world’s best …
One of my favorite examples in the book is about a famous ultra-premium vodka.
Grey Goose’s tagline: “The World’s Best Tasting Vodka” is simply … a “positioning statement.” Yet Goose is synonymous with “ultra-premium” vodka.
Is Goose really the world’s best-tasting vodka? Well, according to the now-infamous Times vodka taste test in 2005, Smirnoff was actually the best-tasting: “Pure, clean, and ultra smooth, with pleasing texture and classic vodka aroma.”
The idea behind Goose? Genius. And definitely cool.
Rock stars who … aren’t
As mentioned above, the music industry played a part in this book. (Makes sense; most of us think rock stars are cool.) What was interesting, however, was that apparently (some) record companies use software to help decide what artists to sign.
It becomes less about a gut decision to sign someone who seems genuinely talented than it is about the arc on a spreadsheet.
(Doesn’t sound very cool, does it?)
There’s even a program … which helps record companies determine the chart potential of a song before deciding whether to invest in promoting it. The company claims that they can find mathematical patterns in music and that hit songs are concentrated into a tiny number of trait clusters.
Bottom line: Your customers will know it when they see it
You can’t fool your customers. And why would you want to try? Strive to ensure all touchpoints are authentic. Your customers will know (and appreciate) you for it.
And that’s pretty cool.
PS – that guy who used to be a DJ? He’s the CEO of noise, based in NYC.
A strength, as defined here, is a capacity for near-perfect performance on a consistent basis. To fully grasp the significance of this, you are well-advised take the companion online assessment, StrengthsFinder. A unique ID number is located on the inside cover of the book and you will use it to complete your own StrengthsFinder assessment.
StrengthFinder measures the presence of talent within the thirty-four themes we have discovered are most indicative of success.
Discover your Sales Strengths does a beautiful job of debunking the prevailing sales training and sales management techniques:
The myth that we grow fastest by paying attention to our weaknesses is incredibly damaging. Sadly, some company development programs are build around this destructive myth, which usually comes disguised as career help.
Ouch! But wait, there’s more:
“What did I do wrong?” This is the curse of the average performer, always trying to improve a weakness. It is a never-ending task. Great performers follow a different tack. They figure out what they do right – and do more of it!
In the section entitled The Manager Effect, the Q12 concept is presented. The Q12 is a list of twelve key questions that affect on important business outcomes, including customer loyalty.
I will divulge only one of the Q12 items:
At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, your sales force is a crucial touchpoint.
Your assignment
Read Discover your Sales Strengths .
Give a copy to each of your sales people so they can take the StrengthsFinder assessment.
