Top brands keep their promises

Have you ever been in love with a company only to have them disappoint you? It might be in person, over the phone, or in a customer service email, but at some point it’s bound to happen. Depending on the situation, your devotion to the company might have never recovered.

Brands make implicit promises with every customer touchpoint. Once a promise has been kept through a positive interaction, it creates an expectation that the next one will be too. When a negative “touch” occurs – even if it’s a small detail, it can have a horrible impact on the overall experience. That brings us to our next simple brand truth.

Truth #6: Strong brands keep promises.

Strong brands excel in achieving consistency across all touchpoints. They perfect the user experience from beginning to end.

Here are four ways you can extend your company’s brand promise to every department and touchpoint:

1. Commit to internal branding and positive company culture.

Before you can expect external relationships to be positive, you have to invest in your own employees. By demonstrating brand promise internally, you’ll model the way customers should be treated.

2. Intentionally design each step of the customer journey.

Unfortunately, customer touchpoints can’t be left to chance. Your company should intentionally design the entire sales cycle, crafting touchpoints for every step of the way. This puts information in front of customers exactly when they need to be influenced and creates a customer experience roadmap for your brand. To ensure positive interactions at every stage, leave no room for surprises.

3. Integrate design, marketing, advertising and customer service.

A positive customer journey is unified and consistent. Make sure every customer touchpoint is stellar by integrating the strategies of your design, marketing, advertising and customer service teams. This guarantees that customers receive the same message from every angle.

4. Form company communication guidelines.

Companies can’t expect employees to know best practices without providing direction. Create communication guidelines on behalf of your organization that explain how emails, phone calls and social interactions should be shaped. This makes customer experience consistent, even if multiple sales representatives are involved.

Is your brand keeping its promises?

Image via (cc) jeanbaptisteparis