Customer Support/Service Should Match Your Brand
TeleworkPH
Published: July 31, 2022
Brand identity is what makes you magnetic. People want to buy from a brand that is aligned with their values. That is why it’s imperative to understand what your business is all about, refine what you stand for, and create a distinct personality that will attract brand loyalty.
Customers today are aware that brands compete in their products and service offerings. It’s easy to get swayed to turn to another brand with a new social media influencer onboard or offer a sweet deal compared to yours.
However, with a strong brand identity, you get not just customers but the biggest raving fans! Having robust and well-aligned branding that is felt from your brand logo, advertising online and offline, and customer support gives your brand that people can quickly identify, relate to, and get that sense of belongingness.
A brand identity that is seen and palpable in all business areas will give the most nurturing and enriching customer experiences. Customers today are not easily blown away by discounts or freebies, unlike ages ago. Your customers today are all about customer experiences and engagement.
They are easily attracted to brands that give them the same vibe and energy. They’re all about brands that care about the exact causes they have. Simply put, they want brands that can reciprocate and match their own.
Why Track the Brand Alignment of Your Customer Support
Complete Brand Awareness
Branding isn’t a set-it-and-forget tool you can set up now and not review for the longest time. To curtail a strong brand alignment, you need to be aware of the complete picture. Are there negative impressions about my brand? Does your branding send mixed signals?
Below are the metrics that you need to monitor about your branding:
- Identity Awareness. Do people know your brand exists? How does your brand make them feel?
- Perceptions. What do people think about your brand? Do they see it the same way as you do? Are you making them feel they belong?
- Buying Decisions. Why are people NOT buying? Why are people buying?
- Preferences. What makes your brand the best choice? Why will people buy from you?
- Repeat Purchases. Are you getting repeat purchases? Why do customers buy once and never again? What makes them stick to your brand? What makes up a loyal customer?
- Recommendations. How do your customers talk about you on social media? Do you get more customers from referrals?
Once you measure the above metrics, you’ll clearly understand how your messaging impacts buying behavior.
Are you giving out the right impression? What do customers think about your brand? Why are customers NOT buying our products? Why do customers buy again?
When you have answered these questions with brutal honesty, you’ll know whether you need to tweak your customer support so it aligns with what your brand represents.
Accurate Assessment of Campaign Performance and ROI
Measuring ROI and campaign performance may be dimmed and tainted by biases. It can be challenging and confusing to pinpoint why your sales aren’t picking up despite the expensive marketing campaigns you’ve had.
Measuring your brand alignment is critical if you want to get the facts surrounding your ROI and campaign performance. If your branding screams hi-tech and modern, yet your customer service can’t keep up with the technological trends, then there is an obvious disconnect.
Say, for instance, if your brand promotes women’s equality and empowerment yet don’t have breastfeeding areas in your office or communicate sexual discrimination in your customer service, you need to have this fixed to avoid miscommunications and improve ROI.
Know Your Competitive Advantage
Are you the preferred brand of your customers? Why do they continue to buy from you? Why do they buy from the other brands and ignore your offers?
When a customer buys a product or service from you for the long term, you can assume that you are meeting the KPIs. If your customers are always tempted to buy from your competition, despite all-exhaustive marketing efforts, you will need to re-evaluate your customer service and brand positioning.
Correcting Underperformance
If you are constantly monitoring your brand health, it’s easy to spot what stages in the customer experience are flawed or need improvement.
Customer’s historical data can help you determine any signs of failing brand engagement or waning customer loyalty. You can develop strategies to correct and boost your customer service or products and services to keep customers engaged and happy with your brand.
Customer Service is Part of Entire Customer Journey
People often misconstrued customer service as just one part of the customer journey. You ask for some product information, you get a response, and that’s it. But it doesn’t work that way.
According to Zendesk (2021) “Customer service is part of the sales pipeline.”
Customers rely heavily on customer service not just for SOS, but it’s a critical part of how they interact and get to know your brand.
Do you know that good customer service can make or break every sale? See, it’s like walking on eggshells. One false move and you lose a customer forever.
While this may pose a scary scenario, you have to think of customer service as your business’s most important moving part.
Customers today expect “brand presence,” which they ought to get from customer service to help them in their buying decisions and even after making a purchase.
Your customer support is also your marketing, branding, and sales machinery. Fail at customer service and everything just goes to the ground.
The best customer service can pump up value in every interaction to nurture and make a sale in a rinse and repeat process.
How the Biggest Brands Sell with Brand-Aligned Customer Service
The big brands have that natural flair for selling without blurting out a single sales pitch. Notice that?
Yes, they sell like the proverbial hotcake just for being who they are. Easy peasy.
Customers are so in love they don’t need to exaggerate at all. It’s their brand alignment that attracts customers. It’s easy when you know how it works.
See how the biggest brands provide the best customer support just for being who they are:
Nike
Nike doesn’t sell shoes – they sell people a brand of lifestyle. Anyone will buy a Nike shoe without even checking the features or the price.
Why?
Well, it’s Nike. What could go wrong?
Nike is Nike because they have the most robust and agile customer support. You mention them on social media, and they instantly jump in to help you out. They have a dedicated team for every social media platform available 24/7 and can support seven languages (English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch).
They show up for every complaint or question, which speaks volumes of how they are intensely passionate and dedicated to being there for their customers and helping them out with their problems.
Their customer service cares, and it shows. They’re incredibly patient, even when flooded with customer requests day-in and day-out.
Netflix
Even if this didn’t come from Netflix, they know that this made them connect well to their audience. Netflix isn’t very formal or corporate. Their branding is – well, more casual and chill.
When handling customers, learn from Netflix and give it a personalized touch, so they know it’s you and get comfortable in your presence. Why does Netflix continue to be a famous brand for this generation? It speaks their language.
The branding has always been straightforward and consistent. They don’t pretend to be corporate and stick to their DNA.
You see, people will always buy from someone they know and trust. With their agile, responsive, and cool customer service, Netflix has greatly established that.
Spotify
Spotify appeals to tech-savvy music lovers. Now, their customer service is quick and efficient as it keeps it very simple for their customers.
They also provide a very personalized and on-brand approach with their customer service. After solving a customer complaint or issue, the Spotify Cares team will conclude by leaving a link to a song that fits the customer. Spotify invests a lot in customer support. They are highly detailed and deliberate in following a specific brand tone of voice.
If the big brands can do it, anyone can! Investing in your customer service/support is a cost-effective marketing strategy that will help you rock your branding efforts.
How Your Brand Can Rock Customer Service Like The Big Guys
Have a Dedicated Social Media Account for Customer Support
With a dedicated social media account handling customer support, you can better manage and streamline customer service. Customer support isn’t just support. It’s a combination of marketing and sales which requires well-trained and calibrated staff.
Social media is constantly evolving, and your social media customer support should be able to keep up with these rapid changes.
For instance, Facebook might have been enough last year, but now you’re beefing up your customer support to include IG and Twitter. Setting guidelines for customer support will help keep your brand aligned with your credo.
Be The Brand That’s Quick to Respond
After messaging or posting about a complaint, people who don’t get responses from brands will always switch to the competition. So, if you think ignoring posts or customer requests will appease them, think again.
Social media customer support is not an option for your business. It’s a must-have! If you want to keep your customers happy, you have to take customer service seriously.
Define KPIs
Depending on your branding goals, you need to set the parameters that you want for your customer support. Here are some KPIs to consider.
- Reaction Time. It’s crucial to be very responsive on any platform. This speaks well about your efficiency and how you genuinely care about your customers.
- Brand Sentiment. Are your customers satisfied with your brand? How do your customers perceive your brand? The overall brand sentiment will help you capture the bigger picture of where your brand stands.
- Churn Rate. This will give you feedback on customer retention. Are you keeping customers satisfied? What can you do to improve customer retention? How do you make customers stay with your brand and not leave?
Economies, technology, and social ecosystems are now on a speed train. Brand loyalty may become a thing of the past when your branding lacks consistency.
Customer needs evolve, and they tend to try new brands along the way. Tracking your brand health and consistency in customer service is fundamental to understanding whether you are still meeting the mark or losing the plug.
Customers have always wanted predictability and reliability, even in this rapidly changing space. We all need something permanent and constant, for sure. It keeps us sane.
Does your branding match your customer service? If you are confusing your customers, then you’re not communicating well enough.
At Telework PH, we care about brand alignment and are heavily vested in getting your business to reciprocate and communicate with your customers. So, if this has been bogging your business down for the longest time, let’s get it straightened out the Telework PH way. Contact us now for an appointment, and we’ll squash that curveball right away!
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