But when did you last ring your contact centre and pose as a customer? Or apply for a job and see how your business presents itself? When did you last review your billing interaction with customers or payment interaction with suppliers? What does your car park look like? What state are your customer washrooms in?
Working on the basis that anyone at all can be a prospective customer or advocate, your brand deserves all of these channels to get a decent degree of attention from your marketing team.
Some recent examples that give me shivers:
- on LinkedIn, an industry influencer posted a photo of a customer toilet in need of attention and asked, ‘does the state of the customer facilities influence your thoughts about the care taken in the kitchen?’ The overwhelming response was ‘YES!’
- BT taking a month (with countless phone calls, engineer visits and general disruption) to confirm if we can have fibre broadband in our office – we can’t but they billed us for it anyway
- Walking into a casual dining restaurant in Windsor at 2pm and being refused a table – ‘they’re all reserved’ – even though 75% of the tables were empty
When it goes well, it’s a thing of joy. A contact is currently going through the interview process with M&S – what an organised and encouraging potential employer! At every stage of the process, there has been a thorough briefing of what to expect, with full feedback post-interview. They might be struggling on the high street, but are something to aspire to in terms of living brand values throughout the business.
It’s not always easy to pose as a customer or supplier, but it’s worth considering all human touch points when conducting a brand, comms, marketing and messaging audit. It’s not about starting a witch hunt; it’s about getting the most from the significant investment in your brand.
And if you need help with those audits, feel free to get in touch.
