ICMI's Customer Management Insight - September 2007 - (Page 29) RECOMMENDED READING how you can improve upon the experience you offer your customers. Finally, focus not only on what’s working, but find aspects of your brand that are not succeeding and do everything you can to improve them. Understand your company’s “reach of influence.” Everyone in business is familiar with the adage that a happy customer tells one friend about a good experience while an unhappy customer tells 10 of his friends about a bad experience. It’s the customer experience ripple effect, and you want to ensure that your business creates only positive ripples. To do this, you need to focus on actions that show you acknowledge and understand your customers’ needs. Doing this will help you create a brand whose promise creates evangelists who are ready to sing your praises near and far. Avoiding creating a negative, widespread ripple effect is easy. Simply deliver on your brand promises and your customers will never feel disappointed. Your brand promise is inextricably tied to your reputation, and you want to make a big enough splash that delivering on your promise ripples indefinitely! Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. You are your and the brand evangelists that come with it–without understanding what you are all about. You don’t want your customers to feel like they are being “sold” based on a false business persona. When you are sincere about trying to understand your customers’ needs, desires and what they’d truly love from you, a genuine connection is made that is the foundation of trust between you and your customers. And customers who trust a business keep coming back to that business over and over again. Know that the easy way isn’t always best. Technology has Don’t drive your customers to a flawed service. A common brand, and your brand is you! Everyone has a brand identity, but they don’t all understand their own brand correctly, or even know what it is. Branding is not a matter of putting on a persona that others will like. It’s not playing a role, putting on a mask, or pretending — all that is superficial, a veneer that covers up the “real” you. You cannot develop an authentic, sincere brand — made communication so much easier. But if you’re not careful, too much of a reliance on technology can take your out of direct contact with your customers and as a result erode your brand. Texting, emailing and instant messaging do not allow you an opportunity to create emotional connections with your customers. Effective use of technology should help you streamline your operations, create new opportunities, reach a broader customer base, and reinforce your carefully developed brand. Regardless of whether or not your business is brick-and-mortar or Web-based, remember to use technology to transcend, not replace, your brand. When considering technology in your business or organization, ask yourself: “If I were my customer, what would be the ultimate customer experience for me?” I guarantee you, you would not love endless phone trees, unreturned calls or SPAM email advertisements. Don’t let technology be the end of your brand; let it be the beginning of expanding, extending and sustaining it. mistake for many business owners is that they drive customers to a business that does not already have a brand identity in place that welcomes and encourages those customers. You can’t figure out what your service is after the fact. You can’t put a message out that is not reinforced and transcended by the brand experience. Appearance without substance — advertising and driving people to your business, without a powerful brand identity — leads to unsatisfied customers and eventually failure. Here’s what businesses need to understand: Your values and sincerity are your brand, and any marketing or advertising efforts need to be based around that brand identity. Your brand can be created only by you and the relationships you develop. All of these lessons work together to bring us to one critical conclusion: If you want to be successful, you must build a powerful emotional brand. You must stop looking at customers with dollar signs in your eyes and start creating relationships with them. This may seem like an expensive proposition, but believe me, it’s less expensive in the long run than neglecting customer relationships. When your customers see that you truly value them and care about the service you can provide them, you’ll be able to provide them with their ultimate customer experience and they’ll be customers for life. That’s the real secret to long-term success. The Brand Who Cried Wolf: Deliver on Your Company’s Promise and Create Customers for Life is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. (www.wiley.com). | SEPTEMBER 2007 icmi’s insight www.icmi.com 29 http://www.wiley.com http://www.icmi.com
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