Brand Recognition
The process whereby customers begin to recognize a brand. This has a big effect as people are most comfortable buying from brands they recognize.A potential customer first sees your brand in an ecommerce search.
A teenager first sees a fashion brand when someone is wearing it at school.
A snowboarder first sees a snowboard brand in a snowboard competition on television.
A snowboarder is often served digital ads featuring a snowboard brand and they are starting to get curious about it.
A fast food company purchases billions of ad views a month and has done so for about 50 years. Their brand is familiar to the vast majority of people on a global basis.
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is the degree to which customers know something about your brand.A teenager knows a brand of handbags is quite expensive and therefore perceives it as a luxury item.
A shopper knows that a food brand is best known for its cheese products.
Brand Image
Beyond what people know about your brand, it is important what they feel about it. This is brand image.A traveler feels that a particular airline is safer than most.
A business person feels that a fast food restaurant is probably unhealthy but also feels it is tasty and convenient.
A fashion enthusiast feels that a brand is youthful and further feels it shouldn't be worn by anyone over 30.
Media Engagement
The customer hears about you in media or visits your media.A teenager sees an social media personality they follow wearing your brand.
A software developer hears good things about a cloud platform on forums.
A consumer reads a product page on a third party ecommerce site that describes, rates and reviews your products.
A snowboarder visits the social media page of a snowboard brand and decides to follow them because they are talking about interesting stuff.
A fashion enthusiast finds a fashion blog that often covers your brand to be highly engaging such that they spend loads of time viewing photos from your press kits.
Customer Visits
A customer actually takes the time to visit your shop, showroom, booth or ecommerce presence.A customer visits a brand website for the first time and is immediately greeted with a popup newsletter offer. They bounce from the website and do not return.
A customer walks into a fashion retailer for the first time and the staff give them the cold shoulder. They feel a little uncomfortable and leave.
A customer visits an old cafe and immediately falls in love with the 1970s decor and historic feel of the place.
A traveler walks into a hotel in the winter and sits in front of a large fireplace in the lobby to heat up while others in their party handle check in. They feel a moment of wonder for the alpine feel of things.
A customer purchases some socks at a snowboard shop and find the staff to be cool and pleasant. They wonder if they should have purchased a snowboard they saw.
Moment Of Truth
The customer actually experiences your product or service for the first time.The unboxing experience for a pair of speakers goes well as the cardboard box has some interesting product information on it and is easy to open.
A customer tries speakers for the first time and the left speaker immediately rattles. They swear never to buy the brand again and plan to write a review.
A snowboarder fits their bindings to a new board and the process goes super smoothly as the two are compatible despite being different brands.
A customer wears a new sweater for the first time and likes its fit and look.
A customer walks into their hotel room and finds that it's roomy, clean and that the view is better than described on the website.
User Experience
The experience of using a product or service day in and day out.A user finds that the operating system on their desktop is often getting in the way of their productivity in one way or another. They start to intensely dislike the brand and wishes there were alternatives.
A user of office productivity software often triggers gestures by accident and wishes the software didn't have so many obscure functions and features.
A pair of desktop speakers work consistently and become a part of the user's routine. The user feels much good will towards the product and the brand.
A small investor wants to log on to their bank quickly to buy a stock and is greeted with three separate popup screens that have important notifications about stocks they don't own. They wonder if they need a better bank.
A user becomes a heavy user of their phone such that they are able to use advanced features with great efficiency. They would have a large learning curve to ever switch to a phone with a different operating system.
A user is slightly annoyed that a game they play is always popping up news related to the app every time they start it.
A customer loves a dish at a restaurant the first two times they try it. On the third try, the dish is completely different and they are seriously disappointed.
Customer Service
Customer service includes purchases, inquiries, support requests, returns and any service interactions such as check-in at a hotel.A customer calls their bank about unexplained fee increases on their account and is put on hold for 40 minutes.
The pool attendant at a luxury hotel is helpful and personable. They are nice to all customers and add to the chill environment by the pool. Customers greatly appreciate their service and presence.
The attendant at the changing room of a fast fashion retailer acts stressed out and is generally in a hostile mood much of the time.
A sales person at a car dealership is pushy and fails to establish rapport with a customer.
An IT consultant is good with customers and manages to smooth things over when their team's deliverables are perceived as low quality.
An ecommerce company has a self-service function to cancel orders. This is a great relief to customers who find this to be a convenient feature.
Service Quality
The quality of services themselves.A customer notices that a banking website is rocket fast and never down.
A delivery company that is far more reliable than the competition such that its low rate of missing packages and late deliveries earns it respect from ecommerce customers.
A hotel restaurant that pays great attention to every detail such as the professional attire of staff. Customers aren't sure exactly why but they can feel that the place is refined and excellent.
Customer Relationship
Efforts that a firm makes to sustain a relationship with the customer and to prove to the customer they are the best in the business.A customer cancels their telecom service and is assessed a large penalty for canceling the contract. They promptly pay but continue to receive invoices for the amount. The customer calls the company and it takes four months of dealing with hostile service reps to get the payment recognized. The customer can't believe that such a firm exists at all and often tells this story to friends.
A customer often uses a hotel for winter vacations and has stayed there many times. One year they have to cancel on short notice due to an injury. The hotel is entitled to a 70% charge but they wave this charge because the customer had a good reason to cancel. The customer can't recommend the hotel enough and remains a loyal customer for decades.
A coffee shop has the same personable staff member cover the weekday morning coffee rush for more than a decade. She establishes rapport with all or most customers and is a great asset to the shop.
