Deeper than Digital

The relevance of digital

The best brands are about the business of creating, maintaining and growing customer relationships. This customer-brand rapport is built over time, as brands offer value and customers appreciate and experience that value. Most customer journeys are made up of a series of touchpoints with the brand – digital, physical or both – that affect the relationship in a positive or negative manner.

Naturally, brands want to meet customers where they’re at. More and more, “where they’re at” is the digital platform, and less at the store counter or even on the phone. In many ways, it’s a digital world. Designing digital customer experiences that relationship-build with users is a vital piece of the customer journey – no longer able to be overlooked by brands, both big and small. Neither can afford to.

A brand’s digital experience is one of the best opportunities to bring the brand closer to your customer and vice versa—in many ways, digital is the brand experience.

Less frequent human-to-human interaction in today’s world has given the digital interface the opportunity to be one of the most formative mediums for the building of customer-brand relationships. Digital has been in the spotlight, and justifiably so, considering the massive implications of a strong digital customer journey. Understanding the relevance of the medium, it’s fair to say that a brand’s digital experience is one of the best opportunities to bring the brand closer to your customer and vice versa—in many ways, the digital experience is the brand experience.

The bigger picture

It has never been more important for brands to be consistent in how they show up throughout the entire customer journey. Each individual touchpoint along the customer journey is an extension of a brand—a small part of the overall brand story—but is key to a cohesive brand experience. Anything else would be a slight to the brand, missing the opportunity of connecting to the intended party. Each touchpoint has the potential to speak volumes about a brand and reinforce the value exchange of the partnership. Each interaction has the power to build up or chip away at the customer relationship.

This is why the prevalence of brand must remain central to designing the customer experience.

To quote IBM design consultant, Eliot Noyes, “In a sense, a corporation should be like a good painting; everything visible should contribute to the correct total statement: nothing visible should detract.”

Designing digital user experiences without a clear understanding of the heart of the brand story and brand value can still be effective, but misses the massive opportunity to build that long-term rapport with customers. Thinking holistically about these experiences, how can the heart of the brand show up and shine through every time?

Getting out of the UX design silo

As easy as it is for silos to form in organizations of any size, truly great digital design prioritizes holistic customer experience thinking. Intentionality is key to lifting digital design out of isolation. It’s what separates great customer experiences from good ones. Here are a few ways to keep brand at the core of digital design:

• Know the brand. To design any user experience, brand decisions must be made—and usually not just a few. What’s the brand story? What’s the value proposition of the brand? How does established voice, tone, color palette and type support the brand’s value proposition? Understanding the reasons bedrock brand decisions were made is paramount. Further, consider the benefit of foresight. As vital as it is to understand where the brand has been and is now, arguably more pivotal is understanding where the brand is going. Brands evolve; the digital experience must be a reflection, if not a driver, of that evolution. The best digital experiences are ultimately only as good as the brand they represent. If the brand is a strong one, let it speak for itself.

• Understand the context of the digital experience. Whatever the current goal of the non-digital experience is, understand how the corresponding digital experience will reflect, enhance or revolutionize that goal. See where there’s opportunity for the digital and non-digital experiences to work in harmony. Once context is established, digital design must remain focused on the goal of the specific experience at hand, while staying true to the core brand message.

• Bring brand and digital together. Assuming the brand is built on a solid value proposition and has a strong message, apply it to the digital experience. Infuse digital with the brand. The best digital experiences are those that are laser-focused on the goal of the experience and are simultaneously infused with the brand’s value proposition. Master brand guidelines will only go so far in the digital world. An interface communicates brand through voice, tone, color, look, feel, typography, illustrations, icons, personality, interaction, animation and audio. As the Nielsen Norman Group puts it: “Only when all three brand components – visuals, tone, and behaviors – are present and true to the core brand message, do customers have a consistent user experience across interactions with a company or product.” In the end, digital experiences aren’t much without the backing of a good brand message.

• Work collaboratively. Setting digital brand standards is a great opportunity for long-term collaboration. A cross-team mutual understanding that brand and digital must grow together for the benefit of the customer must remain central. To that end, the collaboration must continue. Success will be measured as customer relationships grow over time. As both brand and digital evolve, keeping the bond between the two will be of utmost importance. Collaboration is not a one-and-done touchpoint – it’s a purposeful partnership with any and all appropriate teams.

The brand experience takes into account every touchpoint of the customer experience and maximizes its impact appropriately. In the short term, a user experience without connection to an organization’s brand can still be effective in and of itself, but misses the opportunity to make it more. On the other hand, user experiences in-sync with the heartbeat of the brand they represent are strengthening customer relationships with a long term outlook. It all starts with an understanding that the digital user experience is a direct reflection of a brand. ∎