Building Brands - Every Touch Counts
Overheard the other day from a cashier at my local grocery store (a large chain, by the way): “Can I get a bagger over here? You aren’t paying me enough to have me bag the groceries, too!” I heard this as I was coming up to the check-out counter with my purchases (which were only a few items).
Wow, what does that do to the brand’s marketing messages?
Who Speaks Louder?
The issue here is this: a customer doesn’t differentiate between what marketing is saying and what they hear from customer service personnel. All messages, regardless of medium or origin, add up to communicate the brand’s image to the customer.
Yet too often, marketing and customer service are managed separately in a company or organization, they don’t speak to each other, and they don’t have common metrics (you know, those things that drive the behaviors?).
When we look at it from the company’s perspective, we see silo-thinking, each department focused on their own area. When we look at it from the customer’s perspective, what do we see? One brand, with everyone working together for a great customer experience? Or many experiences, looking like many brands, with the experience differing based on how customer service personnel are asked to behave? A strong coordination between marketing and other customer-facing parts of the organization is critical to put our best foot forward for our customers. It means we should view our customers as one of the most important assets that we have; therefore, we should plan each step of how we are going to get, keep, and grow these assets.
Empowered Consumers
This gets even more tricky when we think about a brand's presence online. Now the places that a brand can impact a customer are multiplied many-fold. They include a brand's website, any branded social media properties, as well as consumer-generated content (ratings, reviews, blogs, videos). Customers may agree or disagree with the branding that a company is doing, but in a digital world, they now have a very fast and easy way to share their thoughts. Thousands or millions of others can see, hear, and experience multiple customer perceptions of most brands, regardless of whether that brand has a strong online presence.
In the digital world, other customers (the community) may be a stronger influence on the company’s brand than the company itself.
Questions to Consider
Who is speaking the loudest to customers at your organization? Do you need to bring those messages into alignment? How can you work with those who are the most influential voices, rather than against them, to strengthen your brand and the loyalty of your customer? What do customers think about your brand, from all perspectives?
These are all critical questions to answer as companies consider how to weather the current economic storms and build stronger customer relationships.
As Director of Social Media for the San-Diego based start-up Brickfish, Becky Carroll is responsible for all aspects of social media marketing, including audience engagement and loyalty, social media outreach, and thought leadership. The author of the business blog Customers Rock!, she also teaches the class “Marketing via New Media” at UC San Diego Extension. Becky is a regular personality on the Big Biz Talk Radio show, a nationally-syndicated program, a contributing author on the recently-released business books Age of Conversation and Age of Conversation 2, and a sought-after speaker on social media and customer loyalty.
Wow, what does that do to the brand’s marketing messages?
Who Speaks Louder?
The issue here is this: a customer doesn’t differentiate between what marketing is saying and what they hear from customer service personnel. All messages, regardless of medium or origin, add up to communicate the brand’s image to the customer.
Yet too often, marketing and customer service are managed separately in a company or organization, they don’t speak to each other, and they don’t have common metrics (you know, those things that drive the behaviors?).
When we look at it from the company’s perspective, we see silo-thinking, each department focused on their own area. When we look at it from the customer’s perspective, what do we see? One brand, with everyone working together for a great customer experience? Or many experiences, looking like many brands, with the experience differing based on how customer service personnel are asked to behave? A strong coordination between marketing and other customer-facing parts of the organization is critical to put our best foot forward for our customers. It means we should view our customers as one of the most important assets that we have; therefore, we should plan each step of how we are going to get, keep, and grow these assets.
Empowered Consumers
This gets even more tricky when we think about a brand's presence online. Now the places that a brand can impact a customer are multiplied many-fold. They include a brand's website, any branded social media properties, as well as consumer-generated content (ratings, reviews, blogs, videos). Customers may agree or disagree with the branding that a company is doing, but in a digital world, they now have a very fast and easy way to share their thoughts. Thousands or millions of others can see, hear, and experience multiple customer perceptions of most brands, regardless of whether that brand has a strong online presence.
In the digital world, other customers (the community) may be a stronger influence on the company’s brand than the company itself.
Questions to Consider
Who is speaking the loudest to customers at your organization? Do you need to bring those messages into alignment? How can you work with those who are the most influential voices, rather than against them, to strengthen your brand and the loyalty of your customer? What do customers think about your brand, from all perspectives?
These are all critical questions to answer as companies consider how to weather the current economic storms and build stronger customer relationships.
As Director of Social Media for the San-Diego based start-up Brickfish, Becky Carroll is responsible for all aspects of social media marketing, including audience engagement and loyalty, social media outreach, and thought leadership. The author of the business blog Customers Rock!, she also teaches the class “Marketing via New Media” at UC San Diego Extension. Becky is a regular personality on the Big Biz Talk Radio show, a nationally-syndicated program, a contributing author on the recently-released business books Age of Conversation and Age of Conversation 2, and a sought-after speaker on social media and customer loyalty.
Posted by Contributor on January 13, 2009 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Leave a comment