Effectively aligning a business’ brand purpose and promise to the customer experience 

Businesses may know what their brand purpose and promise is, but does their customer experience match  the business’ intentions? 

While the vast majority of senior managers comprehend and champion the values of their brand and praise the experience customers have, this praise is very often not backed-up by the views of those who really matter: the customers.  

Businesses place great emphasis on trying to understand their customers’ perceptions of their brand and the experience they have. However, much of this effort critically fails to understand the customer’s world and how this impacts their perception of the experience. What are their positive and negative experiences, and ultimately what impact do they have on the brand and business revenue? 

Without this empathy and understanding, businesses are likely to make significant investment into delivering and promoting an experience which may not live up to reality – or, importantly, not deliver the ROI that is increasingly being demanded of marketing and CX functions. 

Ultimately, this shortfall increases business costs and makes it significantly harder to retain customers and influence those critical business metrics. 

Having clearly defined values that relate to day-to-day employee activity and CX behaviours 

Despite having its values identified, a business may well find itself in the position where its culture simply is not shifting to where the business needs it to be. 

In this scenario they may well begin the process of engaging with their employees to establish what is working and what is not; however, it is not unusual to find a significant disconnect between the current values and how employees behave day-to-day. At worst, the values are seen as simply ‘words for the customer’, with little relevance to how the business actually works.  

Much of this can be put down to a lack of understanding of the intimate link between an organisation’s values, employee CX behaviours, and the importance of exhibiting these in delivering an experience that customers really value.  

A business must take the time to work with employees and leaders to clearly define and convey its values in practical terms and establish the behaviours that underpin each and all values. Ultimately, this will support the customer-first culture that its business strategy needs.  

Establishing a culture that ensures teams across the organisation are engaged, empowered, and working together effectively 

Every organisation has a culture, some are deliberately planned, some are organic, some are positive, some are less so! Businesses know they would like to be more customer-focused, but as yet their culture is not wholly customer-focused, or their activity designed to make then more customer-centric has yet to be fully embedded into how the business works day-to-day. 

As a consequence, the organisation finds employees are just not leaning in to engage, or even saying that they can’t. In parallel, there is likely to be little or no real collaboration across the business, with individual teams and departments working in relative isolation and oblivious to the effect their actions have on their colleagues. 

The benefits of an engaged and empowered workforce has been well documented: improved employee retention, more effective working, reduced absenteeism, and so on. However, businesses are frequently guilty of not positioning employee engagement and empowerment as key strategic objectives. 

While business may have the best of intentions to really engage its workforce, in practice, this often manifests itself in simply conducting the ‘annual employee survey’ or asking for informal feedback. While these are important, it is the failure to close the loop – to show that they are listening to what they are being told and seen to act on it – that really undermines employee engagement. This is frequently the reason why only relatively small proportions of employees actually report a feeling of engagement and of being part of the organisation.  

Using the knowledge and experience of employees to critique the current customer experience, and continuously look for ways to enhance this, is one of the most effective ways of engaging employees. At the same time, it will begin to break down the silos that characterise those businesses lacking a true customer-centric culture. 

Making CX a key part of the day to day rhythms and rituals of employees’ activity will enhance feelings of engagement and empowerment across the business. 

In fostering a more engaged workforce:  

• businesses should consider how to engage their teams in generating feedback: a combination of informal discussion as well as a formal, anonymous employee survey is a good starting point 
• prior to kicking off this type of initiative, clear expectations should be set with their teams as to what they are doing and why, along with a promise that any information shared will be kept confidential and considered in the action-planning process 
• once key themes have been identified, it’s time to go back to their teams and ask for their help in developing the action plans which will impact business results 
• when final actions plans are available, they should be communicated broadly, explaining how changes align to and support business strategy, and what is expected of employees 
• finally, be sure to provide employees regular updates on progress against goals.