Our leaders and businesses are having a tough time understanding how to communicate in a digital world. “Aiyaa..what I say to my staff is different to what I put on social media. Must be careful or will get whacked!”
We have seen the results of a careless or downright arrogant post…disaster ensues. As a Malaysian business specialising in building reputation and influence, clear and consistent messaging across all channels is vital in providing an authentic, trusted and positive customer experience. If you want your message to make a difference, your story must be delivered consistently and repeatedly over a period of time. It also means that where, when and how you communicate your story must be strategically planned.
Our secret to developing a clear, compelling and consistent story is telling our clients to be disciplined and intentional. Your goal is to achieve complete alignment and consistency between your strategy, story and ultimately your customer’s experience. For this to happen, you need to get your entire leadership team and eventually your entire employees to understand one simple truth: words matter. The words you use play a critical role in the perception you create in the minds of your customers. In fact, almost 50 percent of a brand’s image is attributed to what it says and how it says it.
Most companies wonder why their message isn’t resonating or connecting with employees or customers. More often than not, it’s because the message is not being delivered consistently. A recently completed study by a strategic consultancy firm – showed inconsistent messaging within corporate websites and annual reports in more than half (64 percent) of a stock exchange’s top 100 companies. The study focused on basic building block messages like who the company is, what they do, the value they deliver and what makes them different. But why is consistency so important? Because inconsistent messaging creates confusion for both employees and customers. Lack of clarity and consistency damages the brand, reduces trust, and, in the end, negatively impacts your influence on you customer and stakeholders.
Delivering a consistent story isn’t just problematic in print and digital communication. It is also a huge barrier in face-to-face conversations with customers. A recent report published by CEB shows 53 percent of sales executives say that consistent messaging in the sales process is a significant challenge to closing the deal.
To deliver a consistent story you need a disciplined, company-wide messaging development and delivery process — a process that ensures your strategy, story and customer experience are fully aligned. Alignment is best achieved by developing and deploying a comprehensive Messaging and Storytelling Platform. A Messaging and Storytelling platform provides stakeholders involved in the customer experience with a single, comprehensive resource that contains the entire company story. It contains the compartmentalized messaging content and storytelling tools that are critical for consistency and to keep your business moving.
We have seen it happening many times over our many years of experience – your ability to deliver a consistent message is the difference in the customer experience. The difference between a highly trusted, reputed and memorable engagement or a confusing and fragmented customer experience.
Our work is always to Earn Trust, Build Reputation, Widen Influence to grow your brand and business.
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