How can you design an end-to-end experience that differentiates your brand?

Your customer experience already defines you, whether you like it or not. The key is design it and manage it in a systematic way. You will need to manage the total experience – taking into account customers’ rational and emotional reactions. Anything that can be perceived or sensed will form part of the total experience.

What can we learn from behavioural science?

Behavioural science shapes the memories and feelings we take away from an experience. It dictates how we rate the products and service we have received, the people serving us, the quality of the technology we use and how we view the company we are buying from. In short it shapes brand perception.

The key to differentiation is to design your customer experience so that it is memorable and reinforces your brand. Differentiation occurs in one of two ways. Either by offering customers something that competitors do not. Or by delivering something – they do offer – in a unique way. The experience has to be memorable and of real value to target customers.

Make sure all channels support the underlying customer proposition as well as the look, feel and tone of your brand.

Identify the peaks in the end-to-end customer journey and align them with your brand values. Highlighting company rituals and dramatising the experience at key touchpoints are all ways of creating a more memorable experience for customers.

There are many other lessons from behavioural science that inform the design of the customer experience. cp2experience will help you create and implement a differentiated customer experience that helps you stand out from the crowd.