While travelling for work recently, taking multiple flights and staying in numerous hotels across the US, two things struck me. First, the gap that still exists between many brands’ promises and customer experience. Second, how service brands’ struggle to create great experiences has useful lessons for all.

Brands promise much. And for service and non-service brands alike, the role of CX is to create meaningful and distinctive moments that deliver against that brand promise.

Take Guinness. It’s distinctive and authentic, full of substance with a smooth drinkability. And how it’s poured in a pub – into an angled glass until three-quarters full, followed by a two-minute pause to settle before topping it up (this time with glass straight) – dramatises the promise that it’s so good it’s worth the wait.

Most service brands, however – which, without a product to create experiences around, exist at the forefront of where brand promise and CX meet – struggle to create experiences that bring their brand promise to life and convey the sense of magic and delight that brings customers back.

THE ‘STICKY’ DIFFERENTIATOR

Think of an airline or a hotel, where competing brands often use pretty much identical means of delivery for their service – in an airline’s case, for example, a particular model of aircraft. All too often, airline brands deliver customer experiences that lack meaning, value and stand-out. And they do so because of a lack of customer focus.

Lack of customer focus is an odd excuse at a time when the wants of brand-owning businesses and brand-buying customers are converging.

Businesses want to bring brand promise and experience closer, as that’s how to build trust, and the more trust a brand enjoys, the lower its customer churn, so the greater its value. Customers, meanwhile, want to buy into brands able to realise their brand values and vision in interesting, engaging, relevant and meaningful ways.

Meaningful brand experiences have never been more important and opportunities for brands to create ‘sticky experiences’ that get people coming back are more plentiful

But in today’s digital world, every customer can understand and benchmark ‘good customer experience’ and demand it – not just between different brands in a single category, but between dissimilar brands in different categories. And this presents brands with both opportunity and challenge.

On the plus side, meaningful brand experiences have never been more important and opportunities for brands to create ‘sticky experiences’ that get people coming back are more plentiful.

On the downside, customers’ assumption of a certain level of experience when engaging with any product or service creates an expectation many struggle to meet.

How often do we see a service brand doing this successfully in sectors such as banking, hospitality, or travel, where a brand cannot rely on a physical product to bring its brand promise to life? The answer, sadly, is: not enough.

THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS

Take Virgin Atlantic, which has long been committed to delivering ‘brilliantly different’ experiences to its customers. It uses the latest digital tools to create personalised services for its passengers before, during and after their flights. Its recently launched A350 aircraft even offers upper class customers in-flight wine tasting in a social space called ‘The Booth’.

Or, take Trader Joe’s, a leading chain of grocery stores in America, offering consumers a wide variety of everyday items. A brand built on a mission to provide first-grade everyday products to customers, served by employees who care. Happy employees ensure happy customers, they say, and that cultural aspect isn’t just marketing but real-world interactions – at its core is a focus on integrity.

Integrity drives the work culture of Trader Joe’s. The company is dedicated to providing a work environment that is progressive, inclusive, safe, welcoming and, most importantly, respectful to customers and team members. Customers who frequent Trader Joe’s supermarkets feel that it’s where they’ve seen the happiest employees.

The work culture of Trader Joe’s encourages employees to bring their authentic selves to work and prioritise customer happiness over everything else. Even the distinctive Hawaiian shirts worn by employees are brand symbolism, as the company’s founder was inspired by the traders of the high seas and wanted that spirit of discovery to rub off in every moment.

In today’s digital world, every customer can understand and benchmark ‘good customer experience’ and demand it

Ikea is, of course, one brand that gets this close connection between brand and CX. A brand that understands that the power of experimenting with the latest technology and enabling seamless customer service go hand in hand.

For more than 75 years, it’s created loyal customers and advocacy by constantly putting customers at the centre and by reinventing and optimising its relationships with consumers. Not just to keep up with customer expectations but also to define them with an integrated customer experience culture. Cafés, childcare and recreation areas inside its showrooms make customers feel right at home and empower empathetic values.

Even stretching into the future as a trailblazer, Ikea updated its mobile app with augmented reality so that customers could see how the furniture would fit into their home spaces. The AR also makes furniture recommendations based on the look and feel of your home. All little micro-moments that help further its brand purpose.

CREATING SIGNATURE MOMENTS

These brands, however, are not the norm. And many non-service brands, too, are still not doing enough. In today’s climate, that’s a problem.

With the cost-of-living crisis and climate change anxiety, the under-40s – the so-called Generation Dread – expect and demand positivity through meaningful brand experiences. This makes identifying and creating what can be a signature moment not just a key skill but business critical.

To raise their game, all brands must do three things:

1. They must know who they are. This means understanding their guiding principle, or north star.

2. They must articulate that north star organisation-wide – through their people and recruitment, marketing and communications, and product development.

3. Finally, they must operationalise it – effectively deploying it strategically by identifying their significant customer moments, then creating compelling CX around them capable of generating a lasting positive impact.

With a product built from daily interactions and customer service as their main differentiator, service brands are at the forefront of the brand promise/experience divide and responding to the ever-growing pressure to bridge it.

Non-service brands can’t afford to ignore the brand promise/experience challenge either, however. Or, indeed, the implication this should have on how they apportion their energy and investment.

With brand focus and investment still so often weighted towards the sale and so much less to the after-care, a re-balancing of priorities is long overdue.

Wayne Deakin is global principal, creative at Wolff Olins; wolffolins.com; Top image: Shutterstock