How Brand Influences Customer Experience

Whether or not you recognize it, your brand is experienced and felt by anyone who interacts with your business. People build a relationship with your brand and update their perception of your brand every time they think about your company. This experience determines if they will support your company moving forward, including whether they decide to become or continue being a customer.  

Strong Brands Guide Customer Expectations & Build Trust

Each communication or touch point subtly influences current brand perception—whether it builds loyalty or potentially damages your brand reputation depends on you.

Consistent, clear messaging helps you build trust with your customers and potential customers, ensuring you are living up to their expectations of your company. 

Use your brand as a communication tool, and you can guide customer experience in an authentic and trustworthy manner. Once customers know what to expect from your brand, they will trust you to uphold a consistent level of product quality, communication, customer support, and ease of purchasing. For B2B businesses, whose customers tend to spend thousands of dollars, this is even more vital. 

Use Digital Brand to Build a Relationship With Your Audience 

Companies slowly build a relationship and emotional connection with their customers through their brand. To build that relationship, you need to understand where the touch points happen and ensure they are creating a consistent experience for your customer. 

Due to the nature of how people purchase today, the foundation of this relationship is built through your digital presence. Modern customers take what they see online as truth. Old, outdated, and incomplete websites and social pages create a gap between your customers and your message.  

Start where you know your audience is looking for information.

Update Your Website to Immediately Show Value 

A modern buyer’s first step is to Google your business. What is present on your website will inform your prospective customer about your business. They want to feel confident working with your company would benefit them. Be sure you’ve communicated your value proposition right away in your digital content.  

Update Your Social Media to Create Brand Consistency

Social media channels are often the second or third listing on Google. Align your brand by updating the content and graphics on these pages to show consistency. What is visible here bridges your website and an in-person conversation with one of your salespeople. Social media is a digital platform to bring your brand to life.

A connection to your brand can easily develop into loyalty when nurtured correctly. When trust is established over time, customers are more likely to give you and your team the benefit of the doubt if something doesn’t meet their standards or expectations. Loyal customers often serve as brand ambassadors, and their word of mouth recommendations can be incredibly impactful.

Focus on Education As a Consistent Content Strategy

Demonstrate your value by using your website and digital channels to provide educational resources and information. Today’s customers want to do as much research as possible before contacting sales or customer service.

Modern Buyers Care About Your Brand Story 

Modern customers and buyers understand the value of their money and the impact of how they spend it. Your customers feel strongly about supporting your business if you create a relationship with customers by building trust and communicating authentically.

The next generation of buyers looks beyond price to make decisions. They want to do business with companies they feel good about supporting. Be sure to include your mission, vision, and core values when talking about your company online. 

However, buyers rely on your digital presence to learn all about your business. Companies who invest in their brand and website and engage genuinely in social pages are more likely to gain the attention of and build relationships with valuable consumers. 

Brand Management Supports Your Sales Team 

Your sales team works hard to reach out to new customers, build relationships with existing customers, and find solutions for your customers' core concerns. 

Incomplete, inaccurate, or minimal digital presence compromises their hard work and could lead to lost customers. A modern, comprehensive, and compelling digital presence will support the hard work of your sales team, helping them easily guide customers through the sales funnel. 

Positive customer brand experiences encourage customers to reach out to your sales team with confidence. They believe you can help solve their problems. Their experience of your brand will pave the way for your sales team to turn leads into sales. 

How to Set a Customer-Focused Brand Strategy  

Acuity and Strategy House are teaming up to share this blog series about branding for manufacturers. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be sharing additional information that will empower you to take control of your brand and prepare your company for future growth. 

We set the stage with understanding the role of brand experience. Stay tuned and check back for details on how to align your brand for your employees and for your community, and how it all fits into the big picture of your brand experience.