Do your customers value you?  The answer to that question may be the difference between whether your business is growing or dying.

What is value?  Can you put a price tag on it?  Think about the things you value the most – how much are they worth?  Chances are if you truly value it, you’ll have a hard time attaching a price.  Price makes it a commodity.  And thanks to big box retailers like Walmart, the lines between value and price are blurred.

Based on my experience as a business owner and a researcher, I believe true value flows out of the customer experience – the sum total of a customer’s interaction with a business.  It’s not whether they are satisfied or even loyal, although that’s a part of the equation.  The customer experience encompasses every touch point and every action, both positive and negative.  An article I ran across the other day illustrates this point very well - http://www.customerthink.com/blog/right_way_measure_customer_experience

Think about your favorite coffee shop, whether it’s a local café or Starbucks.  You’ve probably visited the establishment at least a dozen times, and each time, they’ve had the opportunity to influence your experience as a customer, even when you’re not physically in the shop.  From advertising to community reputation to employee interaction and engagement, samples and in-store displays, all of these factors tie into the total experience a customer has with your brand.  If most or all of these experiences are positive, the value of your brand increases in the minds of your customers which leads to brand advocacy and growth. 

The marketing community is responding to this premise in a big way.  Interest in experiential marketing is growing at light speed, not only here in the US, but around the world.  In fact, a recent survey predicts it will be one of the largest marketing growth areas in the next five years with 80% of respondents saying experience-based activities will account for about 1/3 of their marketing budget.  http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=178594  Another survey underscores that point, indicating that 44% of marketers planned to up their spend on experiential marketing even in a down economy.  http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS107393+23-Jun-2009+PRN20090623

Heightened interest in experiential marketing is also driving change in the business of marketing research.  Over the past two years, we have seen a huge shift in focus from research on features and benefits to measurement of the emotional bonds customers have with the brands they use.  We’re no longer “just” measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty but trying to more accurately measure (and interpret) the actual experiences that customers have at various touch points, in person and online– and we’re illustrating the effect those experiences have on brand value in powerful new ways.

As a result, we’re testing and introducing several new tools and techniques that can bring the voice of the customer into the board room with much more impact than the bar chart alone can do.

For example, we’re now able to ask people who have a laptop equipped with a webcam to answer key questions in our online surveys by responding in their own words to a question like “why would you or would you not recommend this brand?”  The result?  Rich, often emotional “video clips” rather than just a short text response.  We’re going on site to ShopAlong with customers and capturing the intersection of the customer with the brand. We’re equipping customers with mobile webcams to get a real world view of the way they are interacting with brands in their homes and businesses, and we’re measuring customer’s online experiences through our Mobile WebLab.  We’re finding that these research techniques help executives “connect” better with real customers and their actual experiences – which sets the stage for meaningful dialogue and action.

Do you know what types of experiences your customers are having and whether those experiences are helping or hurting your brand value?  Ask.  You might be surprised.