Most employees struggle to understand their company’s brand promise, which has a major impact on customer engagement, according to Gallup research.
Fewer than half of managers (46%) and only about a third (37%) of non-management employees strongly agree that they know what their company stands for and what makes their brand different from their competitors, according to a Gallup study. What’s more, only 9% of other employees – including frontline or customer-facing workers – possess little understanding of their company’s brand promise or differentiation, yet deal with customers every day.
To deliver on its brand promise, the first thing a company must do is align all the elements that contribute to an exceptional and differentiated customer experience: customer knowledge, strategy, process design, human capital, measurement, and leadership.
Investments on facilities, technologies, and advertising reap major benefits for companies, but investing in employees to ensure they understand what the brand stands for and why it’s important internally and externally might be more important.
A brand promise defines the integrity of that identity and how well companies perform across every customer touchpoint. Active disengagement can occur when brand messaging, customer expectations, and execution aren't aligned.
Gallup found that an effective brand promise is:
Compelling: The brand fulfills an important and differentiated need in the marketplace
Connecting: The brand consistently creates an emotional bond with customers that transcends its functional attributes
Credible: Customers believe that the brand's promise fits the brand's identity
To gauge how engaged customers are, consider the following:
Fully engaged customers are strongly emotionally attached and attitudinally loyal. They’ll go out of their way to locate a favored product or service, and they won’t accept substitutes. True brand ambassadors, they are your most valuable and profitable customers.
Engaged customers are emotionally attached, but they aren’t strongly loyal. They do like your product or service, but they can be tempted to switch by a more convenient, more attractive, or lower-priced offer.
Not engaged customers have a “take it or leave it” attitude toward your product or service. They’re disconnected emotionally and are attitudinally neutral toward your brand.
Actively disengaged customers are completely detached from your company and its products and services. They will readily switch brands. They’re always eager to tell others exactly how they feel.