Does your customer experience deliver on your brand promise?

In his 1994 article “Engineering Customer Experiences,” Lou Carbone coined the term “customer experience” and so launched the customer experience movement. Carbone describes the customer experience as “the effect that an organization has on its customers.” Carbone asserts, “Customers are going to have an experience, whether we want them to or not. You cannot NOT have an experience. The question is: how managed or how haphazard that experience is.”

In “the era of smart customers,” prospective and current customers are more savvy and connected than at any other time in history. Technology and infinite access to information puts the customer in the driver’s seat and in control of the buying process. The traditional sales funnel is dead and companies have far less control of when and where customers initiate contact with a representative from your company.

Because the customer has assumed so much control of the buying journey, it is critical that organizations develop a customer experience strategy that is intentional and not, as Carbone mentions, haphazard. A well-managed customer experience requires that every individual within your organization has a deep, personal understanding of who you are, what you do and the value you deliver. This means empowering every employee — at every level within your organization — with the ability to anticipate customers’ needs and deliver a consistent and compelling message at each customer touchpoint.

Essential to your customer experience strategy is the development of a Corporate Messaging Platform that thoroughly documents your company’s story, vision, mission and values. To activate the Corporate Messaging Platform within your organization, and therefore outside your organization, you must infuse this message into the DNA of your culture through Organizational Change programs that enable employees to make the most of every connection they have with customers throughout the buying journey.

Only by implementing an intentional and disciplined corporate messaging management process, inside and outside of your organization, can you ensure your customer experience lives up to your brand promise.

Watch this short video to learn how your employees can consistently bring your story to life.