We all know a brand is much more than a logo and colour palette.
As Amazon’s Jeff Bezos says, ‘your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room’, and I agree – I think your brand is what you become known, or if you’re lucky, famous for. And although it’s often said that once your brand is out there, your reputation is at the whim of the people who come into contact with it – from prospects to customers – in truth, you’re far from powerless when it comes to having a say on how that brand promise is seen.
If you want to be famous for offering an excellent client experience or for delivering an amazing service, client listening can help you make sure you’re living up to that promise. Becoming known for doing what you say you do and more, drives the positive reviews and referrals that are vital to your business for a couple of reasons: Firstly as ‘social proof’. People will often base their buying decisions on others’ publicly stated positive experiences. And secondly, because referrals are, in themselves, ‘free’ marketing – where someone else does your marketing for you!
You may have a set of brand values which guide your business, telling your clients what to expect when working with you, and communicating what’s expected of them, to your team. Those values might feature elements that refer to your service offering such as responsiveness, approachability and accuracy, as well as highlighting behaviours such as acting with integrity, being community-focused or supportive.
Client listening can help with these too.
You can have questions via a survey, or in an interview where you ask clients to score you against your values and give examples of where you’ve demonstrated them in your work. Doing so will enable you to make sure you’re famous for the things you want to be known for as well as providing you with a wealth of content you can use (with your clients’ permission) for marketing purposes. Quotes or examples of things you’ve done well are so much more compelling to prospects when they come directly from existing clients. So much more effective than blowing your own trumpet!
If you want to evolve, develop and grow your brand, you need to know how you’re perceived in your marketplace, so you can discover where to focus your efforts.
I recently worked for a law firm best known for their employment work, but who also offered a range of other services and want to be viewed as a full-service firm. My interviews with their clients helped them discover how their brand was being perceived by their clients, the challenges their clients were facing and where they needed to place their energy and resources so they could sell more of their non-employment services.
Are you famous in your market for the things you think you are?
Please do get in touch if you’d like to chat about how I can help you find out.