Don’t Just Build A Brand; Build A Brand Experience

If you’re like most business owners (myself included), you love the idea of building brand experiences for your customers. As if the draw of customer retention, increased sales, and competitive advantages it brings aren’t enough, who doesn’t want their company to be known for next-level delightful experiences? 

Of course, we all do. But, if you’re also like most business owners, you have no idea how to create brand experiences. Here are three unique ideas we’ve used ourselves at StringCan and for our customers. 

Experience your brand. 

We always tell our clients about the value of secret shopping whenever we start an engagement. But this approach isn’t limited to marketing agencies. In fact, even if you have an agency, you should still secret shop yourself. Sounds a little strange, I know, but hear me out. 

Have a rolling system in which a staff member secret shops your own brand about once a quarter. The shopper fills out a webform or calls your company to ask for more information. Maybe they speak with your customer service representative (if they won’t be recognized by their voice). They go through as much of the buying process as possible without actually buying – and then report back on what they found. This is an incredibly enlightening exercise, and can really pinpoint the positive and negative aspects of your current customer experience. 

Two notes, though. First, let it be known internally that secret shopping will be happening so no one feels ambushed by it. Doing so also increases accountability and encourages top performance, before the secret shopping ever takes place. Second, make sure you have a process defined for recording and acting on the feedback you get. If you do, this can be golden; if not, it quickly becomes a waste of everyone’s time. 

Simplify your feedback process. 

When was the last time you got feedback from your customers? I beat this drum all the time, but I will continue beating it because so many smart leaders skip this step. It takes time and it doesn’t seem essential, so it gets pushed to the back burner but you can’t elevate your customer experience without knowing what your actual customers think about it. 

So, make it easy on them. Don’t ask customers to sit through an hour-long conversation where you quiz them on how your website colors make them feel, or whether your receptionist should answer the phone with “Bonjour” or “Greetings, Earthlings” (I’ll answer that for you – neither). 

Instead, send a survey that’s only a few questions in length and make the questions count. Add a comment box so they can share more if they want, but don’t have to if they’re strapped for time. Offer a discount if they give you feedback, or some sort of incentive. But most of all, make it easy and quick. You’ll increase your responses, and learn a great deal.

Make something about the experience shareable.

If you own a massage business, a fitness studio, a swim school, a gift basket company or something else entirely, your customers have one thing in common: generally speaking, they’re social. They expect brand consistency, but they also want something about the experience you give them to be unique. If you offer something that’s worth sharing with their friends or family members, their hands will automatically reach for their phones to snap a picture. 

For example, create a photo wall for your front entry. Include a free tote with a funny quote in a customer’s order unexpectedly. When clients are planning to come in for a meeting, don’t just offer office coffee when they get there. Instead, get their orders ahead of time (make sure to jot them down for future reference), and have their favorite, personalized coffee drink waiting for them when they arrive. These are experiences that people will not only remember, but will also want to share. And these simple actions can move someone from “just” a customer into actually being a brand advocate. 

Now, more than ever, building a brand experience that matters is so important.

Give me a shout if you want to swap customer experience ideas, or simply connect.