Your company’s message is the thread that connects the customer experience. It’s the one thing that can truly make a difference in what your customers think about your company. From your website, to content marketing, to sales conversations and customer service phone calls, your corporate story is everywhere. It directly impacts customer perception and their overall experience — so when, where and how well you deliver your corporate message throughout the customer experience matters.
It’s the one thing that is omnipresent.
Forrester Research defines the customer experience as, “How customers perceive their interactions with your company.” Interactions define experiences. To interact, an exchange must take place, and nine times out of ten, that exchange takes place in the form of words. Words consumed by customers in conversations, print materials and digital experiences. Words exchanged between your employees and customers, your partners and customers and your content and customers.
It’s the one thing that directly impacts perception.
How you communicate and deliver your company’s story matters, because words matter. In fact, a recent report from Insight Agency, a strategy consultancy, found that almost 50 percent of a brand’s image is attributed to what it says and how it says it. How you describe who you are, why you exist, what you do, the value you deliver and what makes you different defines how your customer perceives you. The question is, how consistent are the words that you are delivering throughout the customer journey?
It’s the one thing that emotionally engages your customer.
Interactions are rooted in emotion. The emotional state of customers, entering and exiting interactions with your company, determines how they perceive their overall experience. What emotion is your story designed to evoke? As you formulate corporate messaging, you need to think about how it will emotionally connect with and motivate your target audience. That emotion needs to be authentic and true. Your story must go beyond selling something and emotionally connect with what your customer truly values.
It’s the one thing that connects all phases of the customer journey.
From the self-service phase of the buying journey to the sales process and the post-purchase phase of the customer experience, your corporate message is omnipresent. Your story is being consumed 24 / 7 / 365. As a CMO or marketing executive responsible for defining brand perception and customer relationships, delivering a clear, compelling and consistent corporate message should be at the top of your customer experience priority list.
Your story is the bedrock of your entire customer experience.
The bedrock of a successful customer experience strategy is delivering a clear, compelling and consistent message. Just how important is it to deliver a consistent corporate story? According to Harvard Business Review, companies that deliver a consistent message throughout the customer journey increase revenue 10–15 percent. We will say it again. Words matter. Your goal is to achieve complete alignment and connectivity between your corporate story and how your customers perceive the interactions they have with your company.
