Unlocking the power of your brand promise and how employee engagement contributes to its success
Unlocking the power of your brand promise and how employee engagement contributes to its success
Enhancing the customer experience can help your business stand out in a competitive landscape and improve its bottom line. However, it is also important to remember that your employees interact with your customers throughout every touchpoint of their journey and take the right steps to enhance the employee experience.
Asking yourself seven critical questions can help elevate both the customer and employee experience with your business — and increase its profitability.
It’s common for business leaders to spend weeks, months, and sometimes years crafting the perfect mission, purpose, and vision statements. Fewer businesses pay such close attention to their brand promise — and some even neglect to craft one at all.
Let’s take a deeper look at what a brand promise is, the case for making one, and the difference it can make in a competitive landscape.
What is a brand promise?
A mission statement broadly defines what a company does, how they do it, and whom they do it for. A purpose statement describes why the company does what it does and the broad impact it hopes to make through those actions. A vision statement imagines what the world will look like upon fulfilling the vision and mission.
From the company’s perspective, this covers the who, what, when, where, why, and how of their strategy.
However, the keen observer will notice something missing in that design — mission, purpose, and vision speak heavily to the aims of the business and their leadership. They say little of what the customer wants or needs from the company. This is where the brand promise comes into play.
A brand promise speaks not to the goals of the company, but rather to the people they look to serve. It is a commitment to those stakeholders to deliver consistent, exceptional experiences at every touchpoint.
Whether the business is an oilfield services company or a bustling hair salon, its brand promise sets the tone for the entire customer journey.
Defining your brand promise
Consider the brands you love. What keeps you coming back for more?
Factors like price and quality (of product or service) undoubtedly play a role. Still, countless other products or service providers provide products and services of similar quality for a comparable price. Your preferences remain, and you are certain you can tell the difference.
Likely, this is because the company you prefer offers a seamless experience tailored to your needs and preferences. You know what you’re getting and you like what you get.
This experience is a brand promise in action, ensuring that every interaction leaves a lasting impression. That could be your favourite coffee shop remembering your name or an e-commerce giant delivering your order ahead of schedule. Delivering on the brand promise builds trust and loyalty.
The holistic customer experience
Here, it’s worth emphasizing that a brand promise is not just a catchy slogan. It requires delivering a holistic customer experience across every touchpoint — from the point a customer becomes aware of your business through post-purchase support.
Imagine a customer discovers your brand through a social media ad. Their journey begins with the message and tone of voice they see there. Are you irreverent, dependable, relatable? Can you keep the promise you’re trying to sell them on?
It continues through the personalized support they receive from your customer service team when they have questions about a product. The ease of navigation and checkout on your website. The speed and accuracy of order fulfillment.
Even the packaging and presentation of the product during the unboxing experience contribute to the customer experience. Every step of the journey plays a crucial role in shaping their perception of your brand. If you want to build loyalty, it needs to be consistent with what you say or imply you will deliver.
Private Enterprise
Standing Out in a Crowded Marketplace
Today’s consumers have endless options at their fingertips. Factors like product quality, lower prices, and faster delivery have become table stakes — more likely to break a customer relationship than make one.
Instead, it’s the customer experience that offers the most significant opportunity for businesses to stand out. By focusing on personalized interactions, exceptional service, and innovative solutions, businesses can forge meaningful connections with their customers and build long-term loyalty.
Empowering your employees
By now, you may be considering how to craft (or refine) your brand promise. Maybe you’re even thinking about the policies and processes needed to deliver on it. But have you considered who will be delivering on it and how to ensure they do?
Coming up with an effective brand promise is by no means easy. Yet it is the easy part compared to the challenges of providing a consistent and uncompromising customer experience.
Your brand promise has no meaning without engaged employees who wholeheartedly believe in and are committed to it. And it will be impossible to live up to.
Some questions to consider as you continue through this exercise:
- Have you noticed a high employee turnover rate in your business?
- Do you struggle to retain repeat customers?
- Do you struggle to find qualified employees to hire?
- Do your employees understand and embody your brand promise in their interactions with customers?
- Are you measuring customer satisfaction and employee engagement regularly?
- Have you received feedback from customers about areas for improvement in their experience?
- What bottlenecks or inefficiencies in your current processes might affect the customer experience?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, it could signal that you need to sharpen your focus on the customer experience.
Marketing, product/service design, and policy development are all critical steps in developing and honouring your brand promise. So are investing in your employees’ development, providing the right tools and support, and fostering a culture of empowerment.
Only when your team and your brand promise are in alignment will you be ready to deliver exceptional service.
Elevating engagement
Creating a more engaged workforce is not merely about motivating your employees. It’s about creating an environment where your employees can thrive.
Productive employees are more likely to become engaged employees, but productivity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It requires the right processes, systems, and tools to support their efforts.
Consider the all-too-common example of an employee who constantly feels hindered by bureaucratic hurdles. Needing manager approval for every decision not only slows productivity but also leads to frustration and disengagement.
Their frustrations bleed into their work, potentially souring interactions with customers or colleagues who become similarly frustrated and disengaged. The culture is affected and so is the company’s ability to deliver on its brand promise.
Leaders can foster engagement by empowering employees and providing them with the autonomy and resources they need to succeed. This isn’t to say leaders should be absent, but the path to good decision-making should be clear. The leader’s job is to coach and provide direction and support when needed.
Good leaders also find ways to reward employees for supporting the brand promise, such as recognizing their efforts in delivering exceptional customer experiences. This further encourages employees to align their efforts with the goals of the business, driving both productivity and engagement to new heights.
Take the next step with MNP
Stand apart from your competition and deliver one-of-a-kind experiences your customers and employees will want to keep coming back for. Reach out to a member of MNP’s Private Enterprise team to begin crafting your unique brand promise today.
Together, we’ll diagnose opportunities to improve your customer experience, map your customer and employee journeys, develop creative strategies to boost engagement, and equip your business for sustainable growth and success.
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