May 11, 2016
James O’GaraCEO / Founder, OnMessage
Your company’s message is the thread that connects the
customer experience. It’s the one thing that can truly make
a difference in what your customers think about your
company. From your website, to content marketing, to
sales conversations and customer service phone calls, your
corporate story is everywhere. It directly impacts customer
perception and their overall experience — so when, where
and how well you deliver your corporate message throughout
the customer experience matters.
It’s the one thing … that is omnipresent.
Forrester Research defines the customer experience as, “How
customers perceive their interactions with your company.”
Interactions define experiences. To interact, an exchange
must take place, and nine times out of ten that exchange
takes place in the form of words. Words consumed by
customers in conversations, print materials and digital
experiences. Words exchanged between your employees
and customers, your partners and customers, and your
content and customers.
Ensuring your organization stays “on message” is
foundational to customer experience success. That’s why
CMOs must implement focused and strategic initiatives that
enable employees and partners deliver a consistent story.
Initiatives that ensure they can bring the corporate story to
life in the communication vehicles and conversations used
throughout the customer experience. Maybe that is why Colin
Mitchell, Worldwide Head of Planning at Ogilvy & Mather once
said, “Weaving corporate messages into employees’ everyday
experiences, ensures on-brand behavior becomes instinctive.”
It’s the one thing … that directly impacts perception.
How you communicate and deliver your company’s story
matters, because words matter. In fact, a recent report from
Insight Agency, a UK consultancy, found that almost 50
percent of a brand’s image is attributed to what it says and
how it says it. How you describe who you are, why you exist,
what you do, the value you deliver and what makes you
different determines — how customers perceive your
company. Companies that consistently communicate their
story outperform those that deliver an inconsistent and
fragmented story in the marketplace. The question is, how
consistent are the words you are using and delivering
throughout the customer journey?
It’s the one thing … that emotionally engages your customer.
Interactions are rooted in emotion. The emotional state of
customers, entering and exiting interactions with your
company, determines how they perceive their overall
experience. What emotion is your story designed to evoke?
As you formulate corporate messaging, you need to think
about how it will emotionally connect with and motivate your
target audience. Your story must go beyond selling something
and emotionally connect with what your customer truly values.
The Journal of Business Strategy published an article that
said, “In its simplest sense, a corporate story is a narrative
tool that tells the tale of a company’s strategy in action. It is
a clear, structured, compelling articulation of ‘‘who we are’’
Your Story: The Bedrock of Customer Experience.
To interact, an exchangemust take place, and nine times out of ten that exchangetakes place in the form of words.
and ‘‘where we’re headed’’ that rallies emotional and rational
support from stakeholders.” Do the stakeholders that play a
role in your customer experience understand what your target
audience truly values and the emotional connection your
company wants to make with customers?
It’s the one thing … that connects all phases of the customer journey.
From the self-service phase of the buying journey to the
sales process and the post-purchase phase of the customer
experience, your corporate message is omnipresent. Your
story is being consumed 24 / 7 / 365. That’s just a fact you
must have a plan to deal with. This means how your message
is delivered … when it is delivered … matters more than ever
before. As a CMO or marketing executive responsible for
defining brand perception and customer relationships,
delivering a clear, compelling and consistent corporate
message should be at the top of your customer experience
priority list.
Your story is the bedrock of your entire customer experience.
The bedrock of a successful customer experience strategy
is delivering a clear, compelling and consistent message.
Just how important is it to deliver a consistent corporate
story? According to Harvard Business Review, companies that
deliver a consistent message throughout the customer journey
increase revenue 10–15 percent. We will say it again. Words
matter. That’s why David Rich, a marketing executive in the
UK, said, “the words a business uses … play a pivotal role
in creating context around each touchpoint, the cornerstone
to customers developing trust.” He went on to say, “Words
– nuances in phrases – are absolutely paramount …. if you
don’t have consistency in your wording, you will never have a
coherent platform for communication.” Your goal is to achieve
complete alignment and connectivity between your corporate
story (messaging platform) and how customers perceive the
interactions they have with your company.
More Information:To learn more about how corporate messaging directly impacts
on the customer experience and ultimately the performance of
your business, visit itsonmessage.com/resource.
Your goal is to achieve complete alignment and connectivity between your corporate story and how customers perceive the interactions they have withyour company.