New-Age Branding=Moments of Delight
Until a few years back, most brands relied upon refreshing their identity, packaging, and on-boarding of popular personalities as ambassadors to create a connect with the audiences. We experienced a more one-way conversation, where the brand’s top-down approach let it dictate our relationship with the brand and its product.
Consumers too didn’t have too many options to research and take a more informed call on their purchase or on their relationship with the brand.
However, this model was forced to undergo a change with the proliferation of internet in our lives, supported by more consumer activism. Today, a consumer has access to a trove of data on every brand and its products on the internet.
Most people search for a product and research a brand before making a purchase, even if it’s an offline purchase. This has made brands more aware of their presence online, giving rise to an increase in the digital presence of companies online.
Social media campaigns are now run with the new-age brand ambassadors, online influencers, to influence the brand perception in the minds of the consumers. However, the conversation is no longer one-way; brands cannot dictate these conversations alone.
Today, consumers are constantly sharing their experiences with different products and brands online — inadvertently getting the brand involved by virtue of the tagging features on social media platforms.
This behavioural pattern has created a new space for instant reviews and feedback online. It has given space to the otherwise hidden testimonials, or honest reviews of the brand’s products and services. One bad experience with the brand, and we are quick to upload the feedback online. We even communicate with the brand’s social media channels to raise complaints for instant resolution.
Consumers now know that brands are vary of negative sentiments on social media and therefore would want to resolve a customer’s complaint as soon as possible or at least appear to be working on it by responding to the customer in real time.
But it’s not just negative reviews that customers are eager to share online. A delightful experience with a brand also gets a sincere mention online — most often more subtly than intended.
I recently went to a restaurant, where they allow the patrons to taste the 15 different kinds of curries before they can place their main course order. The serving staff member takes the patron through each curry’s taste and flavor, thus helping them make a more informed decision. This part of the meal stayed with me because it was a new unexpected experience while ordering for a meal at a restaurant. I was quick to share it with my friends and family on personal chat.
As humans, we love surprises as they break the monotony of expectations from a particular brand’s service or product. It delights us and creates a new connection with the brand. Since it’s different from the predictable routine, it creates an impression and leaves a memory. Such moments sometimes become defining factors in our relationship with a brand.
Molecular gastronomy that delighted people with presentation found its way to Instagram making many restaurants popular, a free upgrade in a hotel on the honeymoon found a mention on Facebook while checking in, a special hand-written letter from the artist with the delivery of your favorite brand’s clothes found a special place on your feed, a cup with your name on it from your favorite newspaper publication because you participated in an online survey made you more interested in the newspaper’s progress and direction.
These are just some examples of moments of delight that we might have experienced.
Branding in the new-age world is about such moments of delight. And when it’s about that moment, it doesn’t matter whether you are following any hardbound guideline; what matters is the connection you manage to create with your customer by giving them a moment to enjoy and feel good about associating with your brand’s product or service.
We might feel that economic incentives are sometimes the easiest way to create a connection with the audience. Cashbacks or giveaways, while enticing for the customer, do not always create a moment of delight or a strong reason for the customer’s association with the brand. How many times have we seen a post or an update from a friend online about a cashback from PayTM on paying for his or her mobile bill? In my experience, almost close to none. Economic incentives only get the customer to use your product; it doesn’t guarantee a long-term relationship. A true moment of delight is far more meaningful that just a cashback or discount.
How can we create meaningful moments of delight throughout the customer’s journey with us?
1) Design the Customer Journey:
It is important for brands to design their customer journey carefully, keeping in mind the backend operations, along with the customer’s points of interactions with the product and/or service. This is possible only when we research the customer’s current pain-points in the industry, and how we can elevate their emotions at such points. Following a service design model, such as the one illustrated in the image, helps you chart the journey, and supportive emotions better.
2) Don’t Look for Big-Bang Moments Only:
Sometimes, all a customer wants is a quick resolution of his or her problem in a simple, easy-to-follow manner. There is no need to plan only out-of-the-box solution for every step in the journey. Plan to make the customer’s life easier. The basics are the first moment of delight that can create a foundational connect with the customer.
Can the customer buy the product on your website without logging in? Can I deliver the instruction manual on WhatsApp instead of printing and delivering a heavy booklet? Can I quickly email the customer’s wishlist at the end of the day? Can the customer return the product without the original bill, whose copy is available online? Can I initiate a quick refund in the customer’s account and not force the refund only in the app’s wallet?
Easing the process and interaction goes a long way — Amazon’s customer service thus is ranked so high because they make the interaction as short as possible with the most optimal solution.
3) Create Wow Moments:
Once you have your service model’s basics strengthened, look at how you can create Wow moments for different points in the journey. A Wow moment is one that the customer doesn’t expect in his or her usual interaction with the product or service. These moments can be driven by small gestures and efforts, but they should be meaningful. For instance, March tee sends a naturally made pencil with a handwritten note with your first purchase on their website. Or Uber understands that the difficulty in finding your driver in a crowded area and introduces a new color-flashing screen to help your driver identify you. Or Zomato giving you extra information on the delivery boy so that you are motivated to tip him for the delivery.
4) Run a Constant Feedback Loop:
A brand can only truly understand the value of its experiences when it is constantly interacting with its customers and tracking their feedback. For instance, what you might consider a Wow moment, might not be a moment of delight for the customer as it is something that your competitor does as a matter of fact on a daily basis. Swiggy had introduced live tracking of food delivery in India, which had initially allowed it to gain traction in the delivery space in India. So when Zomato introduced it later, it wasn’t a novelty factor that Zomato could wow its users with. It had to do something more to differentiate its delivery model. Your feedback mechanism must allow you to understand your executed service design models pain-points for the customers and the different emotions, both positive and negative, that they experience with your brand. This will allow you to make changes in real-time.
5) Innovate Constantly:
The feedback mechanism has value only if you constantly prototype and innovate. Encourage your employees to go the extra mile by providing the customers with a fantastic experience. Sometimes, a jovial customer representative can completely change the experience of a customer with a brand. I frequent a particular Starbucks now because a particular Barista made the effort at experimenting with a special brew because I didn’t like the previous day’s coffee. This instantly changed the way I looked at that particular Starbucks going forward.
6) Acknowledge the Fans:
Don’t miss out on acknowledging the joy that your customers share with you when they experience a moment of delight. Give them the space on your official channels, send them a note of appreciation for their feedback, and create and continue the chain of communication with them. Don’t let them drop off the chain once they have opened a channel of communication.
The underlining assumption to all this obviously is that your product and/ or service is truly worth its money, and the quality is top-notch for the price it demands.
If the quality can be assured, then the moments of delight are what will truly differentiate your brand from your rival brand. You will create fans out of everyday users, and you will have on-boarded these fans as brand ambassadors, without any additional fee, for life!
