Driving Growth Through Connected Experiences Across Brand, Customer, and Employee
What Matters: For brands, every interaction — from the frontlines to online — is an opportunity to build trust, cultivate loyalty, and ultimately, fuel sustained success.
The interconnectedness of brand, customer, and employee experiences is more than a lofty concept — it’s part of a strategic roadmap with demonstrably positive outcomes.
In today’s competitive landscape, brand interactions hold immense power. Crafting and delivering meaningful brand experiences may be table stakes for marketers these days, but too few brands consider the relationship between the employee, the customer, and the brand experience, and where and how they intersect to drive value.
Below, we highlight several ways in which brands can benefit from a seamless orchestration between the employee and customer experience to deliver elevated brand interactions and drive organizational growth.
WORKFORCE AS BRAND ADVOCATES
At the heart of this interconnectedness lies the workforce. They are the brand's living ambassadors, shaping customer perceptions and directly impacting the customer experience. Cultivating a positive and empowering company culture is paramount. When employees feel valued, engaged, and equipped, they naturally translate that enthusiasm into exceptional interactions with customers, fostering loyalty and advocacy.
Take Zappos, renowned for its exceptional customer service. Their secret weapon is a culture of empowerment and autonomy. Zappos hires for cultural fit and invests heavily in employee training, creating brand ambassadors who go the extra mile to delight customers. This resonates: Zappos consistently boasts a higher than the industry average Net Promoter Score (NPS).
STATISTICS SPEAK VOLUMES
One study by Gallup revealed that organizations with highly engaged workforces experience 23% higher levels of profitability, 10% higher customer loyalty, and a 43% lower turnover rate. The correlation is clear: investing in employee experience translates directly to superior customer experience and bottom-line success.
Hilton's "Be My Guest" initiative, which allows properties to issue certificates as compensation when a guest encounters significant problems during a stay, highlights the employee-customer experience link. By giving employees the authority to resolve customer issues on the spot, Hilton is able to foster not only happier guests but also more engaged staff. A 2023 study by J.D. Power ranked Hilton’s guest satisfaction the highest in several segments.
SEAMLESS EXPERIENCES
Critical to all of this is being able to create seamless experiences in today’s fragmented customer journeys, across digital and physical channels. Collecting and leveraging first- and zero-party data, utilizing customer preferences, and delivering personalization at scale are all integrated elements when it comes to delivering exceptional brand experiences.
For example, Disney leverages customer data to create highly personalized experiences across touchpoints, from pre-trip planning apps to in-park MagicBands. This creates a cohesive and seamless experience, fostering emotional connection and brand loyalty. Disney also invests heavily in employee training and empowerment, ensuring every interaction reflects the brand's magic.
REDESIGNING FOR VALUE
Redesigning customer journeys is more than just convenience; it’s also about optimizing employee engagement and reducing cost-to-serve. Streamlining processes, providing relevant information, and empowering employees to solve problems on the spot improve customer satisfaction and reduce the burden on staff, creating a win-win scenario.
Lush Cosmetics redesigned its stores to prioritize both customer and employee experience. Their staff includes “testers,” which allow customers to experiment with, try out, and get their hands dirty by creating products on-site, inviting engagement and personalized interaction. This not only delights customers but also empowers employees, leading to higher retention and lower training costs.
BEYOND BUZZWORDS, REAL IMPACT
At Salient, we believe the interconnectedness of brand, customer, and employee experiences is more than a lofty concept — it’s part of a strategic roadmap with demonstrably positive outcomes. Organizations can unlock tremendous growth potential by prioritizing meaningful brand interactions across digital and physical channels, fostering a positive and engaged workforce, leveraging customer data, and integrating the right technologies across the customer journey.
For example, we supported the brand refresh of a 150-year-old regional bank, transformed its narrative, and helped launch its first-ever internal communications and paid media campaigns, lifting employee engagement by double digits and delivering a surge in customer inquiries.
We’ve also partnered with a national talent and training organization, whose mission is to diversify the tech workforce, reimagine their narrative, scale their enterprise solutions, and launch a full-funnel content marketing approach to drive more leads in one campaign than in all campaigns the entire year before.
And we’re catapulting a portfolio of brands for a global spirits company into the limelight through disruptive activations tied to cultural truths, building brand equity and selling out products on their e-commerce site in weeks.
For brands, every interaction — from the frontlines to online — is an opportunity to build trust, cultivate loyalty, and ultimately, fuel sustained success.
Daniel Welch is Chief Digital Officer at Salient Global.