How do you compare your brand experience and customer journey to industry best practices?

1 What is brand experience and customer journey?

Brand experience is the sum of all the interactions and emotions that a customer has with your brand, from awareness to advocacy. It includes both the functional and emotional aspects of your value proposition, such as quality, service, design, and personality. Customer journey is the process that a customer goes through to achieve a goal or solve a problem with your brand. It consists of different stages, touchpoints, channels, and actions that influence the customer's decision and satisfaction.

2 Why compare your brand experience and customer journey to industry best practices?

Comparing your brand experience and customer journey to industry best practices can help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your competitive advantages and disadvantages. It can also help you identify areas for improvement, innovation, and differentiation. By benchmarking against the best, you can learn from their successes and failures, and adapt their strategies and tactics to your own context and goals.

3 How to assess your current brand performance?

The first step to compare your brand experience and customer journey to industry best practices is to assess your current brand performance. You can use various methods and tools to measure and evaluate your brand performance, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, analytics, reviews, feedback, and audits. You should aim to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, and cover both internal and external perspectives. You should also define clear and relevant metrics and indicators, such as awareness, perception, loyalty, satisfaction, retention, advocacy, and profitability.

4 How to identify gaps and opportunities?

The next step is to identify gaps and opportunities in your brand experience and customer journey. You can use different frameworks and models to analyze your data and find out where you are falling short or exceeding expectations, as well as where you have potential to grow or innovate. Some examples of frameworks and models are SWOT analysis, gap analysis, value proposition canvas, customer empathy map, customer persona, and customer journey map. You should also prioritize the most critical and impactful gaps and opportunities, based on your objectives and resources.

5 How to benchmark against the best in your industry?

The final step is to benchmark against the best in your industry. You can use various sources and methods to research and compare your brand experience and customer journey to industry best practices, such as reports, articles, case studies, awards, ratings, rankings, and testimonials. You should also look for both direct and indirect competitors, as well as aspirational and inspirational brands. You should focus on the key aspects and elements that make them stand out and successful, such as their value proposition, positioning, differentiation, communication, innovation, and customer centricity.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?