Stakeholder Experience helps companies better understand and connect with myriad of stakeholders through immersive brand experience and communications alignment
NEW YORK, Aug. 1, 2024 — In today’s 24/7 world, any gap between brand communication and stakeholder experience means an erosion of loyalty, fewer sales and lower market share. Enter Peppercomm SXSM (Stakeholder Experience), a re-imagined service offering that allows brands to walk in their stakeholders’ shoes and experience the organization from the outside in. SX challenges brands to “mind the gap” and ensure that what they are communicating as a brand matches the experience of its stakeholders at every touchpoint – driving consistency, loyalty and consideration.
According to the recently released Forrester CX Index, customer experience in the U.S. has declined for the third year in a row, marking its lowest score since the Index’s new methodology in 2016. This decline has been attributed to multiple factors including generational engagement differences, increased impact from stakeholder audience engagement, and demand on brand managers/leads that make it challenging to do the “heavy lifting” when it comes to ensuring the brand’s value proposition is and remains accurate and authentic.
“Chief marketing officers are facing a different set of challenges today with four generations of consumers in the market and multiple ways and places to connect with them,” said Francesco Lagutaine, chief marketing officer at USAA. “The key to successful engagement with consumers lies in the ability to truly understand their habits and strongly align your brand promise in an authentic and relatable way.”
To address this growing decline, SX blends stakeholder experience audits (online and off) with stakeholder mapping as our team immerses itself in the brand and its competitors from intent to purchase/engagement. Whether internal or external, consumer or customer, SX maps the stakeholders’ experience against communications goals and provides insights to align messaging and connect the experience – boosting affinity and exceeding expectations.
“We know that brand affinity is won or lost in the user experience, and relying on only market research to drive brand experience just isn’t enough. Ensuring consistency between what you are communicating about your brand matches what your customer, employee and/or end consumer experiences is critical,” said Maggie Oneill, Chief Client Officer of Peppercomm. “Our approach goes well beyond traditional mystery shopping, placing communications professionals with decades of experience on the front line of your brand, and critically assuring that your message and experience aligns on all channels and with your stakeholder’s needs.”
Peppercomm SX gives brands insights and tools to better align with stakeholder expectations and needs by adapting techniques proven in product design and customer service, and creating a process that allows brands to experience their products and services through the eyes of the people they most want to influence and reach – customers, consumers, clients and employees. SX immerses brand leaders in real-time stakeholder moments – from online and in-store to onboarding and customer service. This methodology has helped Peppercomm clients to not only identify engagement gaps and leadership misperceptions, but also uncover white space opportunities to reach stakeholders in ways a brand has never considered before.
