Your Brand is the Gestalt of Its Touch Points

 

While marketing professionals historically thought of the brand and its positioning as being primarily the result of its identity system and marketing communication, because the brand is owned in the mind of its customers, it is really the gestalt of all of its touch points. Brand managers have been talking about customer journey mapping and customer touch point design for the past two decades. However, it would behoove marketing professionals to occasionally revisit all of the ways their brands make an impression on the customer.

Does the brand's website make it easy for customers to reach someone at the brand if they have a question or a problem? Is the customer support telephone system easy to navigate? Are customers able to have their problems solved quickly or do they go through an annoying seemingly infinite loop of "press one for x, press two of y, press three for z"? How well trained are the brand's front-line employees? Do employee objectives encourage good customer service or are they more sales or profit driven? Have you ever waited an inordinate amount of time to be served at the counter of fast food restaurants or cafes because the front line employees are measured on drive-through efficiency, not on-the-other-side-of the counter customer service? Or how about filthy restrooms? Or unhygienic front line employees? Or user's manuals that are unclear and difficult to follow? 

What does the brand's distribution strategy say about the brand? How about its pricing? Its product design? Its package design? How accessible is the brand? What value-added services does the brand offer? Does the brand provide competent technical support? What payment methods does it accept? How fast can it be shipped to one's house? How are returns handled? What do customer testimonials say? What do third party product reviews say? Does the brand have third party endorsements? Is the brand known through its community involvement or its charitable support? Does the brand publish a newsletter? Is its marketing automation well-thought-through and relevant? What is its social media presence like? Do YouTube videos feature the brand? Are customers acquainted with the brand through its sponsorships? Have customers seen the brand placed in movies or television shows? What is word-of-mouth on the brand? What are customers' family, friends and co-workers saying about the brand? Do the company's computer systems support easy purchase and use of the brand? Is the brand in the news? Is the brand news positive? 

Yes, brand identity and marketing communication are important in the management of brand perceptions, but so to are overall company mission, vision and values, system and process design, user manual clarity, organization design, employee hiring criteria, employee training, common measures, individual job performance objectives, employee reward and recognition programs, product design, customer journey design, marketing automation design, brand-community involvement and company charitable giving among other company, brand and product elements that effect customer perceptions of the brand.

All of this speaks to the CEO being the ultimate brand manager, with the designated day-to-day brand manager reporting in at a very high level in the organization so that he or she can affect brand perception levers outside of just brand identity and marketing communication.

Why Customer Touch Points Matter

When people think about brands and brand management, they usually think about one of these things: brand positioning, brand strategy, brand identity and brand marketing. But they should also think about customer touch point design and execution. This is often driven by processes, systems (human and computer), organization design, front line employees (including customer service and tech support), hiring criteria, training, metrics, reward systems and other HR, operations and IT functions.

Consider the impact of each of the following scenarios on how you might perceive the brand:

• Someone in a branded vehicle cuts you off in traffic and gives you the middle finger.
• You call a customer service line and are asked to punch an endless set of digits only to find that there is no option for what you are seeking.
• You call a customer service line and are put on hold for over 20 minutes only to have the call dropped so that you have to start all over again.
• You interact with a tech support person who knows less than you do about fixing a problem you are encountering.
• You complain at the front desk of your hotel about a problem in your room but no one ever shows up to fix it or to compensate you for your inconvenience.
• (This one actually happened to me this year.) You sit on a chair in the hotel. As you get up a small nail sticking out of the seat tears your brand new dress slacks and cuts your leg. You inform the hotel staff but they do nothing about it. You move the chair away so no one else encounters the same problem but they put it back again...repeatedly.
• You find rodent hairs in your soup.
• Your online reservation is lost when you arrive at the hotel. They tell you that there are no available rooms except for the presidential suite, which is $600 a night.
• When you reach a customer service representative, she informs you that she does not have the proper authorization to fix your problem. 
• You receive a defective product via FedEx or UPS. When you reach the company's customer service person, he doesn't give you a pre-paid return address label to send the defective product back. Instead, he gives you the address to which you need to ship the defective product at your expense.
• You enter a cafe's restroom only to discover filthy toilets, sinks and floors. You are afraid to touch anything, especially the toilet seat.
• You are served partially frozen food at a restaurant. The food was supposed to be hot. Your waitress has disappeared. You can't find a waiter or waitress to whom you can complain. 
• Or, we are in the mist of this, Southwest Airlines has cancelled your flight and the flights of most everyone else because of a systems problem. You can't get back home. You are furious and they can't seem to solve the problem.

While brand marketers can say all they want about the brand through advertising, social media, mobile marketing, etc., this is not going to overcome poor or inconsistent quality or service, which are mostly caused by HR, operations and IT issues. The brand manager needs to work closely with these functions to ensure that the brand is consistently delivering on its promise and creating positive emotional connections with its customers. And this alignment needs to be driven and supported at the highest levels of the organization.

Customer Journey Mapping

I have witnessed dozens of approaches to customer journey mapping leading to dozens of different types of customer journey maps. They all have one thing in common - they attempt to map the customer journey. Many approaches overlay the purchase decision hierarchy: awareness -> consideration -> preference -> purchase -> repeat purchase -> loyalty -> advocacy. Each approach highlights individual customer touch points and the quality of the interaction at each of those touch points. The touch points could be through a mobile device, over the telephone, in a magazine, on a television, in a conversation with a friend, in a store, at the point of purchase, at a service location, at a technical support desk, at an ATM or somewhere else. 

Mapping this journey is only useful if it helps identify purchase influence or decision points and how to affect outcomes at those points.

Obviously, the journey is different for every customer and sometimes for the same customer at different times. So, there is no definitive map that outlines the journey for all customers from every segment for every need state. 

The journey will be different depending on the type of purchase. For instance, large, one-time purchases have a different journey than the purchase of everyday consumables. Consider the purchase of a new home or a yacht versus that of toilet paper or milk.

And impulse purchases are an entirely different category of purchases. 

Some purchases are habitual. The trick with those purchases is to interrupt the habitual behavior if you are interested in stimulating brand switching. It is important to identify the most promising points at which to interrupt that habitual behavior.

Sometimes a brand can insert itself in the process while a customer is looking for another brand. Again, identifying the best place to do this is critical to success.

A brand is particularly vulnerable to brand switching if it is less than totally accessible. For instance, another brand may be able to get the sale if the preferred brand is not available 24/7 or does not offer 24/7 support. It is also vulnerable if it is "out of stock" or otherwise unavailable. Greater responsiveness on the part of a substitute brand could get the sale if the preferred brand is not nearly as responsive.

Another thing to consider in the customer journey is at what points emotional connection can be made with the customer. I lead volunteer development (fundraising) efforts for a number of not-for-profit organizations. In that role, I have learned that an organization needs to raise friends before it can raise funds. Initial interactions with potential donors are focused on creating relationships and emotional connections, not asking for money. That comes later. The same is true for brands.

It is also important to determine how much of the purchase decision is based on price, convenience, brand loyalty, habit or category enthusiasm/exploration for a given customer in a specific category. This will impact how to alter interactions at specific touch points or whether to create additional touch points.

It is important to identify the customer's emotional state at each touch point. It is also important to discover what triggers the purchase. And finally, identifying the "moments of truth" can be very helpful.

Anthropological research and depth interviews will inform the mapping, as will other carefully constructed research methodologies. 

The key outcome of this process is to identify places in the shopping process at which brand choice can be influenced and a purchase can be stimulated. Further, customer journey mapping affords the opportunity to improve the customer experience at each touch point.

Finally, it is important to note that customer journey mapping is not "rocket science." It is a label applied to a more methodical and thorough process for understanding the customer's journey and how to best make it work to your brand's advantage. I wish you great success in mapping your customer's journey.

Customer Service Comes of Age at Insurance Companies

In 1999, BrandForward conducted a comprehensive study of brand equity and brand perceptions in the insurance industry. The study gathered metrics on more than 200 insurance brands. The results were not flattering. All insurance companies but one (State Farm) disappointed their customers when it came to claims. This contributed to a lack of loyalty, focus on price and insurance company switching.

Fast forward to today - 19  years later. If Allstate is an example of how insurance companies have evolved over time when it comes to claims processing, they have been careful students of creating the total brand experience and customer touch point design.

I hit a deer last week. Upon calling Allstate, I was instructed to download the Allstate app to my smartphone so that I could file a QuickFoto Claim(R). The app instructed me to take the appropriate photos of the damaged area, each corner of the car, the VIN and the odometer. That took 5 minutes at most. Based on their conversation with me over the phone and these photos, they processed my claim in less than 2 hours and then downloaded the difference between the claim amount and my deductible in my checking account through my bank's debit card. The money was available instantaneously.

Meanwhile, they helped me locate a local collision shop and had already sent them my claim information. The collision center sent a tow truck and has kept me informed about the process and schedule.

Allstate also called the nearest Enterprise car rental location and had procured a loaner car for me while mine was in the shop. This cost is covered by my insurance policy. Enterprise stayed open a few minutes late (past their 6 pm closing time) to accommodate me and then upgraded my car. They followed up with me a day later to make sure my rental was satisfactory.

To me, this is an example of a carefully designed customer claims processing experience and an integrated system of interaction with their strategic partners, including the smart use of mobile technology. This has significantly improved my perception of Allstate and has cemented my loyalty to them. And this should be equally beneficial to them as I have six personal and business policies through them.

As I do not have claims very often (perhaps once every ten to twenty years or so), I cannot attest to how other insurance companies handle these situations. However, I can attest to how Allstate has handled their claims processing and my hat is off to them for an excellent job.

Bringing the Brand Positioning to Life

Question:

We have just finished a brand positioning exercise. What are the most effective methods of bringing the brand promise to life?

Answer:

Now that your brand positioning is determined, it is time to bring your brand promise to life.  The first thing to do is to communicate that new promise. One way is though your brand’s identity system from its name and logo to its tagline, colors, type fonts and other brand identity elements.  The tagline, in particular, should communicate the brand’s promise. Even if you do not change another element of the brand’s identity, the tagline should at least allude to your brand’s unique value proposition or promise.  Next, the brand promise should be translated to carefully crafted messages intended for various audiences  - an elevator speech for internal audiences, a selling script for salespeople, a press release boilerplate and an “about us” section for your website. Additionally, you can craft brand stories that reinforce what your brand stands for and what it is promising.

In conjunction with developing the brand promise communication, it is important to focus on the brand promise proof points and “reasons to believe.”  First, it is useful to identify all of your current brand proof points and reasons to believe and make sure they are visible to your customers and potential customers.  It is also useful to articulate these in support of your brand’s promise in written brand communication.

Next, you should identify all of your brand’s customer touch points to understand what platforms you have to reinforce your brand’s promise. Following this, you can ideate new brand proof points at each customer touch point and even ideate new touch points at which you can reinforce your brand’s promise. The proof points typically are real customer experiences that your brand creates, especially those that are beyond simple brand communication. These might be delivered through product functions or features, new job functions, specific customer services, the selling environment, system or process improvements or focused employee empowerment.

Once your employees are grounded in the brand’s new promise and positioning, you can offer training and incentives for employees to find individual ways to reinforce the brand’s promise in their day-to-day work. You can even invite them to brainstorm new ways to deliver on the brand promise.  Some organizations have even implemented brand behavior recognition and reward systems for their employees.

The opportunities for bringing the brand’s promise to life are almost endless. Once there is organizational consensus around what the brand stands for, then it is easier to rally employees in support of brand’s values and promise.

I hope this is enough to get you started in bringing your brand’s promise to life.

Measuring Customer Touch Point Experiences

We often work with clients to help them create additional brand promise proof points at each point of customer contact. This goes well beyond marketing communication. It also includes the product purchase experience, the product usage experience, customer service, technical support and a variety of other customer touch points. We helped a federal credit union enhance its brand experience at its ATM, branch location, online and telephone support customer touch points. Airlines have online, airport checkin, gate area, information/help desk and telephone support among other touch points in addition to the airplane experience itself.

What are you doing to solicit feedback on the quality of the customer experience at each of those touch points? Delta Airlines requests ongoing feedback from its customers, and especially its frequent flyers, on the quality of various components of individual trips taken on its airline. 

The trick is to establish a simple and unobtrusive process for monitoring customer feedback so that the customers can quickly and easily share their feedback on a regular basis without becoming fatigued or annoyed.