We’re always on the lookout for great commentary on the importance of customer experience to the success of modern businesses. There was a recent post by Greg Sterling on screenwerk.com that stood out to us, that we want to share with you.

Read: No Longer Any Separation between User Experience and Brand Perception

Greg makes several points that we agree with, and that we think are particularly important to commercial service companies that we work with. Again, please read the full article, but here are three things we want to highlight:

• “One of the big lessons of the past decade is that brand marketing and advertising and post-purchase fulfillment and customer service are now effectively joined at the hip — or should be. However most brands haven’t fully assimilated that lesson with its corresponding organizational and customer service implications.” — Greg SterlingTo borrow an overused popular phrase, the struggle is real! The service companies that call on ServiceTrade are often so focused on their back office operational struggles that they’re not focusing on where there’s bigger payoff in revamping their customer service in the front office. Our suggestion is to solve the front office, where there is a bigger payoff for a larger number of users, and the back office will follow.

• “There’s another wrinkle I’ve been thinking about recently, mostly in a mobile context. That is: how the moment-to-moment user experience builds or destroys brand value.” — Greg SterlingGreg goes on to say that the online experience is just as important as the onsite service experience. The time for service companies to have an outdated brochure-like website that doesn’t engage customers before, during and after the service call has passed. If this is your current situation, take a look at revamping your site to make it an important portal that your customers use to do business with you.
• “Often companies treat their digital assets as though they’re simply tools or utilities or add-ons or necessary evils. But there’s something more fundamental I’m trying to say. There is no longer any separation between digital experience and brand identity.” — Greg SterlingAdmittedly, brand identity has been somewhere toward the bottom of the list of what keeps commercial service business owners awake at night. But we also hear it coming up more from more progressive service companies who see what Greg says, that service experience and brand experience are equally important, and are gradually merging into one.

Cheers to Greg for his article. We’re happy to see him singing from the same song book.