Our startup branding journey

PART 2

How to create brand consistency?

Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat

Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat

We want to go from this

Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat

We want to go from this

To that

So we’re sharing our branding journey with you!

Few days ago, we shared the 1st step of our journey

SEE SLIDEDECK SEE ARTICLE

To sum things up, here’s what we want to achieve:

BECOME MEMORABLE

STAND OUTTHINK LONG-TERM

CREATE CONSISTENCY

CONNECT WITH CLIENTS

CREATE CONSISTENCY

In this deck we’ll see how to

- Add consistency with brand design

- Pick a brand voice and tone

- Improve employee onboarding

- Build a great, consistent team

Our 4-step program to consistency:

- Add consistency with brand design

- Pick a brand voice and tone

- Improve employee onboarding

Our 4-step program to consistency:

- Build a great, consistent team

Use a color palette

That’s Zendesk color palette. Their branding rocks!

If, like me, you couldn’t match colors even if your life depended on it, here are 2 killer websites

COLOUR LOVERS COOLORS

Choose 2 main fonts to use across designs

Check this out for cool web fonts you can use all over your website and presentations:

GOOGLE FONTS!

Define a style for your images

Don’t freak out if you aren’t a design superstar. It’s ok! Just use a photo filter.

- Add consistency with brand design

- Pick a brand voice and tone

- Improve employee onboarding

Our 4-step program to consistency:

- Build a great, consistent team

First, what’s the difference between voice and tone?

1 Voice Multiple Tones

It’s your brand’s personality. !

Like you, your brand only has one personality (hopefully).

It’s what makes it unique and recognizable.

It’s the way you talk in different situations.

!You wouldn’t use the same

words talking to your grandma and talking to your friends?

How can you define your voice?

Use brand archetypes

Define your relationship

with customers

Think about brands you like

1 2 3

Use brand archetypes

1

Ask yourself these questions:

Use brand archetypes

1

Ask yourself these questions:

1) If your brand was a person, who would it be?

crazy party boy tech geek busy new-yorker

Use brand archetypes

1

Ask yourself these questions:

1) If your brand was a person, who would it be?

crazy party boy tech geek busy new-yorker

2) List 4-5 adjectives to describe your brand

fun cool safe knowledgeable classy

Use brand archetypes

1

Ask yourself these questions:

1) If your brand was a person, who would it be?

crazy party boy tech geek busy new-yorker

2) List 4-5 adjectives to describe your brand

fun cool safe knowledgeable classy

Read more about archetypes here

2Who do you want to be to your customers?

Define your relationship

with customers

a teacher

a friend

a mentor

a parent

a person they admire

a friendly neighbor

a serious coworker

2Who do you want to be to your customers?

Define your relationship

with customers

a teacher

a friend

a mentor

a parent

a person they admire

a friendly neighbor

a serious coworker

Coca cola is your easy-going, optimistic friend

3Think about

brands you like

3Think about

brands you like

Which brands do you like interacting with and why?

eg. I like Coca Cola because they are fun and light hearted. Their content always makes me smile.

3Think about

brands you like

Which brands do you like interacting with and why?

eg. I like Coca Cola because they are fun and light hearted. Their content always makes me smile.

Which brands do you dislike interacting with and why?

eg. I don’t like Redbull because they are extreme and manly. They stress me out more than anything.

How about your tone then?

Adapt your tone to:

Users Feelings

Content Format

The best example out there is MailChimp Voice & Tone Guide

CLICK HERE TO SEE IT

Let’s look at their « Twitter, Facebook » example

Know who you are taking to and what they think about your brand

Adapt the message to amplify positive feelings (and make negative ones disappear if needed)

Voice your users’ thoughts to help you make your

messages sound more like a dialogue

Give your team tips that are specific to the situation / medium

Always try to give a concrete example of a good message

You could also add:

- examples of what NOT to write

- practices specific to the platform (eg. hashtags for twitter, use of words like OTP, ship, fandom for

Tumblr…)

- Add consistency with brand design

- Pick a brand voice and tone

- Improve employee onboarding

Our 4-step program to consistency:

- Build a great, consistent team

The MailChimp guide is an amazing onboarding tool

Now, let’s look at how other companies share their culture and

values with new employees!

4-WEEK CALL CENTER TRAINING

with the customer loyalty team

for every new employee!

A new employee joins the Zappos family

A new employee joins the Zappos family

He spends 4 weeks taking calls from Zappos customers and experience the Zappos’

culture

A new employee joins the Zappos family

He spends 4 weeks taking calls from Zappos customers and experience the Zappos’

culture

Gets to choose between staying or

leaving and receiving $4000 at the end of

training

Customer service is at the heart of Zappos’ culture. The Customer Loyalty Team everyone goes through

allows them to see if new employees will fit in well within this service culture.

45-DAY BOOTCAMP

to make sure new hires are a good

fit for the company culture

A new employee joins Buffer

A new employee joins Buffer

45-day bootcamp where hires are encouraged to take

on different tasks to find their place within the team +

1-on-1s every 2 weeks

A new employee joins Buffer

45-day bootcamp where hires are encouraged to take

on different tasks to find their place within the team +

1-on-1s every 2 weeks

Receive an offer and become a full time employee if they

accept it.

For Buffer, culture is everything. From being a self managed team to always experimenting with new ideas. The bootcamp helps them introduce new hires to their

culture and way of doing things.

This is what onboarding really is:

The employee’s own experience and personality

The company’s culture and core values

Good onboarding will make sure the 2 are brought together from the beginning

- Add consistency with brand design

- Pick a brand voice and tone

- Improve employee onboarding

Our 4-step program to consistency:

- Build a great, consistent team

We don’t always realize how important having a great team is.

You need people who fit in well within your culture but also work

well together.

Hire for culture fit first

Most technical skills can be taught. Soft skills can’t!

We’ve been through employee onboarding and training with the

Zappos and Buffer example but it’s not the only thing they do well.

They also have amazing hiring processes.

Here are the questions you get when applying for Buffer

Culture fit

Knowledge of company

And that’s what they are looking for in applications:

Alignment with the 10 Buffer values

Buffer user with understanding and love

of the product

Skill and experience in

the role

Strong startup mindset biased

towards action

Great match

What happens then, before someone is offered to join

their bootcamp?

That’s their stats from January 2014:

3,864 applications 13 Stage-1 Interviews

5 Stage-2 Interviews

3 Offers made

They review all applications but most people don’t make it to the first stage interview

Ok, that’s great but I’ll assume you don’t have the luxury to be so picky…

That’s our case, we are far from getting as many applicants as Buffer!

Ok, that’s great but I’ll assume you don’t have the luxury to be so picky…

That’s our case, we are far from getting as many applicants as Buffer!

But culture fit is still very important.

Here’s how you can get more qualified applicants:

!

Look for candidates through non-traditional channels.

Facebook groups and social media

in general

New communities like Somewhere

Employee referral

Whatever you do, be more proactive in the way you hire!

Don’t wait for good candidates to come to you, go to them!

Believe me, they won’t come!

Once you’ve hired awesome people, give them the tools to thrive

SOUTHWEST « We like to think of ourselves as a Customer Service company that

happens to fly airplanes (on schedule, with personality

and perks along the way). »

Just search for funny SouthWest flight

attendant on Youtube and you will see « personality » is not only just a fancy

marketing word.

Fine! I know I’d be too lazy to search too. Here’s a link to one of the videos:

CLICK HERE TO SEE

I was happy with Ryanair’s flight attendants before. Now I really

feel like I’m missing out…

And this didn’t happen because of 1 guy.

!

It happened because South West give their employees freedom to do

what they think is right to make customer happy

If you missed it, remember to check out the 1st part of our journey

SEE SLIDEDECK SEE ARTICLE

That’s it for now folks! !

Hope you enjoyed the presentation and we’d love to

hear your thoughts!

Tweet us @customericare

Chat with us on customericare.com

Also, !

if you you want to follow the rest of our branding journey, you can

sign up for our newsletter

CLICK TO SIGNUP

(Next order of business: Building a long-term vision)

THANK YOU!