Customer Experience: Brand Promise & Customer Loyalty

The course leaders, Shaun Smith and Andy Milligan, introduce themselves and describe why purpose is becoming increasingly important for brands. They explain how the term 'On Purpose' has two meanings; having a brand purpose that describes why you exist and being intentional about the customer experience you provide. They give a brief overview of the structure and content for this course, Customer Experience Management: Brand Promise & Customer Loyalty, and explain its role in the context of the Customer Experience Management: Grow Your Business With A Purpose course series.

Shaun discusses how customer experience has evolved and become a key driver of business success, showing data from the latest research. They talk about the shift from products to services to experiences, the importance of creating an emotional connection with customers and the role of brand purpose in driving advocacy.

Shaun introduces the three types of purpose and the importance of starting with brand purpose.

Andy outlines the three dimensions and eight practices that characterise purposeful brands. He poses these questions: What do purposeful brands do differently? What is the profile of successful brands? What is your company profile? At the end of this lecture, you can use the On Purpose Workbook tool to assess your own brand before moving to the next section.

Shaun and Andy offer a warm welcome to this course, Customer Experience Management: Brand Promise & Customer Loyalty.

In the previous introductory section (the course series foundation), they speak about the importance of brands standing for something more than simply making money. In this welcome lecture, they explain how they will teach you to design a customer experience then deliver it every day to ensure your customers keep coming back.

You will be introduced to the Alignment framework, a powerful model to ensure that everything is joined up and supports the brand purpose, and asked the questions: How will you deliver it? How will you Stand Out from your competitors?

Refer to your On Purpose Workbook and Self Assessment Tool or download them again here.

In this lecture, Shaun discusses how ‘trusted’ brands successfully communicate their brand promise and values across media. He explains how bold brands see the involvement of their customers in the development of their products as a key part of marketing to them.

Shaun illustrates how social media reflects your behaviour as a brand, explaining that 'brand marketing' should be understood as a verb, not a noun.

Andy guides you through how to use customer co-creation as part of your marketing strategy and stresses the importance of timing.

Shaun explains how a 'branded customer experience' is one that is distinct from competitors and provides value to the target customers where they need it most. He offers case studies for brands who have done this successfully and asks you to think about how to design and deliver a 'branded customer experience' in your business.

In this lecture, Shaun focuses on how to create customer journeys across multiple channels. He explains why just mapping customer touch-points is no longer enough and shows you how to choose where to ‘over-index’ in order to dramatise the experience and select what you wish to become famous for.

In this lecture, Andy talks about how to define a brand promise that articulates what you intend your customer experience to achieve.

Andy explores the reasons why you should study comparators rather than competitors and explains why best practice is bad practice. He asks you to think about how you encourage innovation in your business and gives examples of innovative brands.

Andy shares insights for setting yourself up for long-term success. He gives examples of brands where senior leaders are personally committed and fully responsible and suggestions for consulting your people across length of tenure, functions and age. He also discusses the importance of internal communications for keeping the momentum going in a positive direction.

Shaun and Andy conclude the topics and insights discussed in this course, together with some final words of advice.

Review your On Purpose self-assessment and the assignment from each lecture to determine your top three priority actions and share these with your leadership team. Then go to the Smith+Co website (www.smithcoconsultancy.com) for the tools and advice guides to help you take action.

If you enjoyed this course, take a look at Shaun and Andy's other courses that make up the Customer Experience Management: Grow Your Business With A Purpose course series:

- Customer Experience Management: Brand Purpose & Leadership

- Customer Experience Management: Brand Purpose & Employee Alignment

Too often, the failure to be purpose-led in your business and for your customers comes down to a repeated set of behaviours. Andy introduces the '7 deadly sins' that will kill your efforts to build a bold, purposeful brand in which you and your customers can take pride and shares his experience of what most frequently goes wrong with customer experience initiatives, and why.

Shaun offers some final advice. He explains how brands are constantly being disrupted and therefore your commitment and a desire to listen to your customers changing needs is paramount.

Review your On Purpose self-assessment and the assignment from each lecture to determine your top three priority actions and share these with your leadership team. Then go to the Smith+Co website (www.smithcoconsultancy.com) for the tools and advice guides to help you take action.