Emotion is the key word when it comes to creating authentic customer engagement that most often leads to brand loyalty.
“Customers crave genuine, people-to-people passion,” Morana Bakula, Director of Customer Experience, Bond Brand Loyalty told attendees during Tuesday’s Loyalty360 webinar titled, Craving Experience Authenticity? Differentiate Your Customer Experience To Build Loyalty.
During the webinar, a slide showed a photo of an old-fashioned general store that evoked a bygone era where the proprietor knew everyone’s name and disparate needs.
“We view Customer Experience in the service of loyalty,” Bakula said, “whether it’s online, through a loyalty program, or through a brand representative. Customers today still crave authenticity, that genuine connection. These are the truly differentiating customer experiences. 
The ones we talk about, the ones we long for.”
Sean Claessen, EVP Strategy & Executive Creative Director, Bond Brand Loyalty said many of the “large, monolithic” brands are trying to replicate the kind of experience that a customer could receive at a general store on Main Street.
Most marketers want to better serve their customers by delivering compelling and relevant experiences that differentiate, build loyalty, and drive revenue for their respective brands.
Paul McCallum, Vice President, Major Accounts, Bond Brand Loyalty shared the following research: 80% of CEOs believe their brands deliver a great Customer Experience; yet only 8% of customers would agree with that assessment.
In a poll question of webinar attendees that asked, “How would you rate your CX?” here are the results:
Out of the ballpark 10%
Meets expectations 35%
Room for improvement 45%
Poor and inconsistent experience 5%
Other 5%
Bakula offered the following loyalty equation: Engaged representative = engaged customers = brand loyalty.
“Great brands differentiate,” McCallum said, “and put the customer at the center of everything they do.”
Compete-differentiate-lead continues to evolve over time as customers become more informed.
Lead, McCallum said, is about being the best period. “Know customers well enough to anticipate their needs,” he said.
Another poll question asked attendees if they currently compete, differentiate, or lead and here are the results:
Compete (as good as) 59%
Differentiate (better than) 31%
Lead (best period) 10%
Bakula said Bond Brand Loyalty’s approach begins with brand understanding followed by CX design.
She offered three key strategic steps:
1. Create brand evangelists (who are emotionally tethered to your brand)
2. Enable brand reps
3. Implement right engagement tactics
Brand aligned means zero degrees of separation between the promise to customers and the feeling expressed when customers interact with a brand. To be brand aligned also means:
Customer Experience Design that is rooted in your brand (promise, attributes, emotion)
Customer Journey Maps created alongside your customers – future thinking first
Employee promise linked to customer promise – zero degrees of separation
All experiences, for all audiences are rooted in both rational and emotional driver…connected to the brand
“Emotionally tether your employees to your brand,” she added. “Focus on feeling and not just doing.”
Bakula noted that in 11 of the 17 industries Bond Brand Loyalty studied, emotion has a bigger impact on customer loyalty that effectiveness or ease.
To be loyalty focused means that: “Every experience and interaction your customers have either builds or erodes loyalty to your brand and ‘known’ customers should have enhanced experiences.”
To be loyalty focused, brands should also consider the following:
Embed loyalty mechanics in key moments of the truth in the customer journey
Usage data is the secret sauce to personalizing the customer experience for identifiable customers
Bakula recommended rooting CX actions in Customer Insights.
“Control the uncontrollable by leaning on the emotional drivers of customer experience, the ones that your people can control,” she said. “Heighten the emotional connection by using employee engagement insights to create brand evangelists, not employees.”