Experience is the bridge value crosses into your brand

22 Jun Experience is the bridge value crosses into your brand

Reading Time: 2 minutes

At a recent event, I suggested, “Experience is a bridge value crosses into and out of your brand.” And while in my brand formula, I couple it with promises. For this article, I’m focusing on the specific role experience plays in people’s day-to-day activities.

First used in the 14th century, with Latin roots meaning to try or test, experience, as a noun, is defined as a particular instance or process of personally encountering or undergoing something. In verb form, it’s more emotional, meaning to undergo or feel. Simply existing means a constant flow of experience, whether we want it or not.

There’s little else in org life as relentlessly present as experience. You can’t escape it. And while often on the receiving end, we’re also complicit in shaping what others encounter.

Which is why it’s a useful carrier of value. When what I encounter largely correlates with what I expected, value crosses into the brand and gets stored for future needs. And a brand overflowing with value can help you do more work. 

For example, when your product lives up to the features and benefits list, seamlessly solves a problem for me and makes my life more enjoyable. I’m more likely to consider your next product. This means I’m an easy sell. So instead of allocating resources to convince me, you have more to improve the product. Hire a few more customer service people. Or give staff a bonus. 

But the reverse is also true. A lousy experience strips value. I lose confidence, and my goodwill erodes. It now costs you more (effort, time, money) to keep me coming back. And that’s true of customers, staff and others who work with you.

Consider the value accumulated in your brand a discount on running your organisation. Nearly everything is easier.

And big ‘E’ experience isn’t all that matters to people. Missing from the experience hype in today’s economy is the everyday role it plays. We tend to only talk about extremes. It’s either amazing and you tell your friends. Or terrible, and you tell everyone you talk to and post on social media for good measure. There’s little talk about the value held in consistent, unheroic moments. Yet that’s the majority of what takes place. And so it contributes the most value.

Think about a local cafe. All the effort the owners spent choosing and serving the best quality coffee with fabulous flourishes atop the latte (value added). Undone by an unsmiling cashier and music played too loud (value eroded). Experience is a collection of moments; too often, it’s the small stuff we remember. Terrific and terrible. 

This is good news because the unheroic stuff is often easier to fix. For example, it costs nothing to greet customers or co-workers with a smile, yet the impact of that one small act has well-documented benefits.

Think about your day so far. Examine how elements of experience have contributed or eroded value from the brand of an organisation you work for or buy from. Now think about your business. Are there places where you can improve people’s unheroic experience? 

Over the bridge into and out of the brand, value is always moving one way or the other. Hopefully, you add more than you remove on balance, and over time enough is stored in the brand to help you do more work and withstand a few missteps.

Thanks for reading