Great brands grow over time - That's a fact! Whilst you can have the absolute best visual identity and your mission, vision and values can be second to none, all that goes to waste if your Customer Experience (CX) is not up to par!
There will be some standard practices that all brands should most definitely start with (E.g. not being rude to customers) but your CX cannot just stop there. Your brand is not just what you tell the world; it's also what the world tells you, and the businesses who are customer-focused and actively listen to their audience, will always be the ones who thrive.
In this post, we'll explore the undeniable impact of listening to customer feedback and how it can be used to develop your brand strategy.
The 5 Stages of the Customer Journey:
Before a customer has even reached out to you or engaged with your services, the customer journey has begun. Some steps in the journey may last seconds whilst others can go on for weeks. However, every step is equally important and prioritising one over the other can lead to bumps in the road later down the line.
Stage 1: Discovery
This is the stage where your customers first find you! They may have google'd a product which led them to you, clicked on a hashtag that brought them to your page or maybe they were recommended by a previous user of your service. Discovery comes about through marketing, research, pain-points and sometimes chance!
Stage 2: Deliberation
This is where options are weighed up. Will your customer go with the cheaper option? The popular option? Are they looking for the best solution? At this stage, they will make their decision.
Stage 3: Purchase
The decision to purchase has been made and your potential customer has now become an actual one. Congratulations - but the work doesn’t stop there, you're just getting started!
Stage 4: Service Provision
What was the outcome of your offering? Did you fulfill your promise to them? Was your customer happy? Did you experience any problems? What impression have you left in their mind? You want to ensure you'll retain your customers and they won't go elsewhere.
Stage 5: Retention and Reviews
If you’ve perfected the 4 previous stages, your customers should fall in love with your brand and they will talk postively about you! Better reviews and higher ratings will attract new business! However, if you have not delivered, you may not get to this stage, or worse, your customer will be so disgruntled that you'll be given negative feedback.
The Feedback Loop:
Whenever you put something out into the world via your brand, there will be a response. Feedback is essential to the growth of every brand and the truth is, whether it's positive, or not so positive, all feedback is valuable! It's completely up to you what you do with it, but an insecure business owner will shout, scream and make excuses, whilst a smart business owner, would assess the feedback and see how they can improve their brand with it. Constructive criticism is a goldmine for improvement.
There are 4 elements of the CX Feedback Loop, and actively seeking and embracing customer opinions will allow you to open the door to insights that can drive positive change throughout your brand.
This assessment of your feedback doesn't ever stop - this is why it's called a loop! The more you action this strategy of assessment and implementation, the more you can strengthen your brand.
Feedback Collection Methods:
In order to analyse your feedback, there actually needs to be feedback to reflect upon, and more feedback equals a more comprehensive understanding of your customer experience. So how do you start collecting it?
There are so many ways of gaining this data at each stage of the customer journey, but here are a few suggestions that you can implement:
Reviews/Testimonials
Surveys
Social media polls
Focus groups
Social listening
Analytics
Customer support interactions
Customer behaviour
Feedback questions on forms (E.g. How did you find us?)
The list above is a great starting point if you're unsure of ways to start the collection process. Feel free to get in touch, if you need anything explained in more detail.
Understanding Customer Needs and Identifying Pain Points:
You aren't branding for yourself, you're branding for others. Your strategy should be a reflection of your customers' needs and desires. By listening to their feedback, you gain a deeper understanding of what matters most to them, allowing you to tailor your strategy accordingly.
This is why knowing your target audience matters so much - because without knowing them, you won't be able to identify what they resonate with and how you can support them. You should aim to seek out and address pain points highlighted through customer feedback.
For example, if you are running a service for those who commonly have a visual impairment, but all the text you are using is too small for their eyes to see. This is feedback that can help you address the obstacle of accessibility. This not only enhances the customer experience, but also demonstrates your commitment to your consumers which can build customer loyalty!
Building Customer Loyalty:
When customers can see that their feedback is not only heard but also acted upon, it fosters a sense of loyalty. You should never feel shy to let your audience know that you're listening to them and their opinions matter! This emotional connection can be a powerful driver for customer retention and advocacy.
Loyal customers are at the heart of your brand and your goal should be to make everyone who interacts with you, never want to leave your side, simply because they aren't just another person to you, they should feel valued.
Customers appreciation is vital, so we'll give you some tips on showing your customer that you care about them in another post!
Product and Service Innovation:
Innovation thrives on feedback. You should use customer input to fuel your product and service enhancements. This positions your brand as one that values innovation and customer input.
For example, let's say you run a marketing agency and throughout the delivery of your service, you're being asked 1000 questions that you know you've already answered in your discovery consultation. Well, this tells you something. Either, they didn't understand the information the first time or they don't remember - potentially because you overloaded them with knowledge and they couldn't digest it properly. This repetition of questions is feedback in itself and could lead you to create a concise CX tool that they can refer to which has all the need-to know information included.
This automatically makes your service more valuable because:
Your customer doesn't need to be messaging you every 5 minutes to get the answers they want
They have time to go through the content at their own pace and can refer to it when necessary
It also frees up your time, because you aren't taking time away from their project, to answer their questions
It gives the customer a sense of support, because you've created this CX tool that will help them
If they still have a question, it won't be something you've already told them about
It's important to look at the systems you have in place and find areas of each offering that can be enhanced for your customer's benefit.
It's Time to Improve Your Brand:
We encourage you to embrace a mindset of continuous learning and enhancement to keep your brand strategy effective. In the world of business, customer feedback is not just a phrase; it's a beacon of opportunity. By actively listening and responding to your customers, you don't just develop your brand – you create a trustworthy relationship between you and your consumer, which will propel your brand towards success.
