Since the late 1990s, consumer marketing has shifted its focus to an experience economy. Today, customer journey maps trace the many experiences designed to deepen consumer loyalty. These experiences cover every point of contact with the brand’s products or services. However, employees are sometimes those points of contact, as the human face of a brand. So why are consumer and employee experiences not more aligned? For this reason, we must also look at employer branding.
In an experience economy, loyal employees who live the brand attract customers who love the brand. But what does it take to turn employees into brand ambassadors? After all, advocacy can only be the result of engagement and trust in the workplace.
3 critical success factors
Align internal and external brands
It is important to sell the brand internally. This enhances employer branding. It also helps employees form a powerful emotional connection with the products and services they sell. Without this connection, employees may work toward goals that differ from those promised to the public. Furthermore, if they do not believe in the brand and feel detached, they may become resentful of the company. On the other hand, when people care about and believe in the brand, they are motivated to work harder. As a result, their loyalty to the company increases. A sense of common purpose and identification with the brand they represent also inspires employees.
Managers can incorporate brand messages into employees’ everyday experiences. In this way, they ensure that employees’ behavior leads them to think about the brand instinctively. Edelman client REI offers a great example of this. It decided to reinforce its “opt outside” brand message with its own team. To do so, it closed its stores on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the US. Many consider it the first official day of the Christmas shopping season. In 2015, Edelman helped REI announce that all its stores would close on the biggest shopping day of the year. All employees got the day off to enjoy the outdoors. In addition, REI’s advertising encouraged everyone else to do the same. The result was an exemplary fusion of internal and external branding that felt completely authentic to all stakeholders.
REI also offers employees “Yay Days,” two paid days each year. Employees use these days to “live their passion for the outdoors” in different ways. For example, they can go kayaking with family or volunteer to build trails in national parks.
Purposely plan intertwined experiences for employees and customers (or patients)
Consumer marketing creates journeys with specific outcomes in mind. Similarly, brands can also map out the employer journey. This map addresses what an employee is thinking and feeling at each stage. It can even cover their entire time as an employee of the brand. By staying focused on the human insights at each stage of these journeys, brands can create unique approaches. In these approaches, the employee experience reinforces the customer experience.
The Northwell Health hospital system created the Culture of C.A.R.E. (connection, awareness, respect, and empathy). It then disseminated this culture throughout the organization to promote a common experience for patients and employees. By absorbing the C.A.R.E. culture, Northwell Health employees live the organization’s core values. They do so through their interactions with each other and with patients. This program motivates employees to live C.A.R.E. from the inside out. Since implementation, the Northwell Health team has become more focused on patient service delivery. This change started with senior leadership.
Similarly, Edelman recently created a shared experience for consumers and employees. It did so when PayPal launched its own CashBack MasterCard. Edelman first created an immersive experience for potential cardholders. The goal was to help them understand the power and usefulness of the card. To do this, the team set up several “convenience stores” with various common household items. These stores offered customers 2% cashback when using the card. As a result, they could see how quickly the rewards accumulate.
Then, the team brought the same experience to PayPal’s headquarters in San Jose, California. The aim was to educate employees, especially call center team members responsible for enrolling new cardholders. In this way, they gained a deeper understanding of how easy it is to turn purchases into extraordinary rewards. This one-day activation caught the attention of all employees. They took photos of themselves at the facility and participated in travel sweepstakes. They also championed the card on their own social media channels. In the end, thousands of employees participated in the event and supported the card launch, generating excitement on social media.
Helping CHROs and CMOs row in the same direction as a team
Currently, most organizations plan and execute employee and consumer experiences separately. Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) and Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) never combine abilities to bring the brand to consumers. Unfortunately, human resources and marketing rarely work together with communications. Such cooperation would synchronize internal and external brand narratives for both employees and consumers. Instead, these functions often adopt a competitive “frenzy” stance. So they miss the benefits of examining what the voice of the consumer and the voice of the employee share. However, these teams can align with internal and external brand characteristics and experience journeys. If they do, they will likely gain more—both in the marketplace and in human capital engagement and retention.
EDC is Edelman’s Affiliate Partner in Portugal. Read the original Edelman article on employee and customer experience.
