Cracking the Code: How Unified Communication Shapes Customer Perceptions

Introduction

What do your customers want?

How does a consumer see your brand?

Why does a customer choose your brand over your competitors?

If you know these answers, you know how customers perceive your brand. If not, then this article is for you.

To understand what is customer perception and why is it important, businesses should consider what customers value and how they view their brand compared to competitors. Opinions on quality, value, and overall experience influence purchasing decisions, customer retention, and loyalty. This includes both online and offline customer experience.

Businesses invest a lot in showcasing their brand and standing out, but customer perception is often overlooked. It's important to foster trust, loyalty, and credibility by knowing how customers perceive your brand.

What is Customer Perception?

Customer perception refers to how people interpret a brand based on their experiences, interactions, and outside factors. It includes both emotional and cognitive responses, which can affect their opinions, preferences, and buying decisions. Businesses need to understand and manage customer perception in order to be successful and build loyalty.

Why is Customer Perception Important?

Customer perception is directly proportional to a brand's success. Consider investing millions in marketing, branding, and customer acquisition; however, one negative experience of a brand and the customer is gone. Studies indicate that between 60% -70% of happy consumers will likely return and make more purchases.

Over time, people build an emotional connection with a brand. For example, someone buys the same product from a brand for a long time because of the trust or quality. They become so happy with the brand that they recommend it to others by word of mouth or positive reviews.

On the other hand, if they have any negative experience with a brand, They surely share their experience with others, again in the form of reviews or social media comments, etc.

So, Businesses must consider the connection between actual experiences and customer perception to maintain a good image and long-term success.

Moreover, customers have tons of other options (your competitors). They will not hesitate to switch to other brands.

Factors Influencing Customer Perception

There are a lot of factors that influence a customer's perception. And sometimes brands miss those. Like:

Personal Experience: Customers expect a seamless and quick service when interacting with a brand. For example, a person buys a kitchen appliance from a website, but its checkout process is lengthy and has fewer payment options. And when they tried to contact the help centre, they got robotic answers. This will lead to frustration.

Thus, Good experiences, like prompt and effective service, can create a positive impression, but bad ones can create a negative one.

Advertising: As presented in its marketing and advertising, a company's image can influence how consumers view it. A well-thought-out and persuasive marketing plan may positively impact a brand's customer perception.

Customer Reviews: Customer reviews are highly significant. People buy products after going through other customer reviews. And it can seriously impact their decisions about the product and brand. Good evaluations can improve perception, while bad comments can cause people to have a worse opinion of a company.

Social Media: You might have seen Influencers doing product reviews (sometimes unsponsored). People love to know about any product from influencers and experts. From unboxing to the usage. And it also drastically impact customer decision.

Personal Factors: A customer's traits greatly influence their impression. They include information about age, gender, income, education, personality, lifestyle, values, attitudes, beliefs, motives, and prior experiences, among other demographic, psychographic, and behavioural characteristics.

For instance, a customer who values their health and the environment could favour organic goods. Yet, a consumer who values status and fashion might go towards high-end and fashionable goods.

How to Measure Customer Perception?

Understanding and measuring customer perception is crucial for businesses seeking to enhance customer satisfaction and overall brand success. Customer gives a brand many hints through their negative experience or comments before completely switching to other brands.

Here are effective methods to gauge and analyse customer perceptions:

Define Customer Perceived Value (CPV) first; this includes aspects like price, entire experience, and quality. The influence of CPV on customer satisfaction is direct. Consider conducting surveys and interviews to learn more about how customers assess the value of your product or service like NPS (a.k.a Net Promoter Score).

This number is essential for evaluating consumer sentiment in general. Analyse and analyse perception scores regularly to spot patterns and potential development areas.

Keep an eye on Customer Interactions: Keep tabs on customer engagement and interactions at different touchpoints. This includes monitoring social media activity, website traffic, and customer support exchanges. By observing how people engage with your brand, you can determine client happiness and identify areas that may require improvement.

Investigate attitudes and lives: Learn about the attitudes and lives of your target market to influence customer views successfully. Use psychographic information to learn about their hobbies, careers, and self-perceptions.

Find Emotional Brand Connections: Measure logical and innate reactions to your brand using extensive consumer data. Making decisions requires using instinctive reactions, which are signs of emotional ties. Analyse these answers to build a deeper emotional bond with your customers and gain insight into their perceptions of your brand.

Use Custom Surveys: Ask targeted questions and analyse how each touchpoint affects the customer's overall brand experience by using custom surveys. By asking customers directly about their opinions, you may gain insightful information. Combine survey data with larger consumer trend datasets for a more thorough study.

Keep an eye on social media: In today's digital world, social media platforms frequently host discussions on businesses. Keep an eye on these discussions and actively participate to keep tabs on attitudes, spot patterns, and address consumer concerns. Social media offers a real-time window into how consumers see your company and its competitors.

By combining these techniques, organisations may measure customer perception holistically and make well-informed decisions to improve customer happiness and brand image.

How to Improve Customer Perception?

To ensure customer success, brands should provide satisfying experiences from start to end of a sales funnel, guiding customers throughout the funnel, clarifying what customers should do next when interacting with the brand, and offering easy-to-use options for taking action.

This can be achieved by understanding your audience and knowing what they accept.

For example, why a person buys from a luxury brand, whether they can get the same product at a cheaper price.

It's about the brand's experience, legacy, and customer support.

Customers invest their emotions in a brand and expect the same from the other side.

First, to improve customer perception, make your contact centre services seamless at every touch point. Invest in contact centre tools and technology for a frictionless customer experience.

Improving customer impression necessitates a calculated approach:

Outstanding customer experiences significantly impact perception through attentive care, effective service, and personalised interactions.

React to feedback: Respond to what customers say, then address any problems or concerns positively. Seeking input proactively and exhibiting a dedication to enhancement helps fortify client impression.

Maintaining uniformity at all touchpoints is crucial. Sustaining a consistent and elevated quality throughout marketing collateral, customer assistance, and product/service delivery enhances the sense of dependability and positivity.

Internal Alignment: The brand values and customer-centric approach should be shared by all departments in a business-to-business (B2B) organisation, including marketing, sales, and product development. The outward perception is more genuine and favourable when there is internal consistency.

The Impact of Customer Perception on Business

On the other hand, if customer perception is ignored, there may be a discrepancy between the perceived quality of the brand and the real customer experience. This dissonance may lead to unhappy customers, a tarnished reputation, and detrimental effects on the company's long-term viability.

The impact of customer perception on business is profound, influencing various aspects, from brand reputation to customer loyalty. Here's a concise overview:

Decision Making: Customer perception significantly influences purchasing decisions. Positive perceptions increase the likelihood of choosing a product or service, impacting a business's success.

Brand Reputation: Customer perception shapes brand reputation. Favourable opinions lead to trust and loyalty, while negative perceptions can harm a brand's image and deter potential customers.

Competitive Edge: Businesses with positive customer perceptions often gain a competitive edge as satisfied customers are likelier to remain loyal and recommend the brand to others.

Customer Satisfaction: Understanding and managing customer perception is crucial for maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction, fostering long-term relationships, and reducing customer churn.

Conclusion

It is all about what experience, as a brand, you are providing to your customers.

A thorough understanding of customer perception and effectively managing it is crucial for any organisation to succeed. The importance of customer perception in building a successful brand cannot be overstated. A positive impression leads to advocacy, loyalty, and trust, significantly impacting consumer choices and overall business results.

In today's world of social media and fast communication, businesses must actively work towards developing and responding to client perceptions. Doing so can create experiences that resonate with their audience's ever-changing expectations rather than simply producing goods or services. This guarantees long-lasting and successful business.