TJ's Tumbls

communicatrix:

“I’m not referring to a brand as a logo and a typeface. I’m referring to the new kind of brand, the one is formed by the entire experience of a customer’s interaction. That experience gets branded into his or her memory and leaks into the buzz of modern culture. If you can’t make a good customer experience from start to finish, you’ve failed to generate brand value that will attract customers to come back for repeat business and tell their friends to come back, too. That’s how good customer experience directly affects the bottom line.”

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The days of slapping something shiny on the surface and calling it Tasty Pancakes! are long gone.

As this sad but oh-too-true tale of branding and UX misadventures at AA.com shows, Big Business still doesn’t get it. The prime directive of pretty much every service business should be to provide an extraordinary customer experience. And yet not only do they not—they’re structured to make that nearly impossible.

From an excellent email exchange and commentary between an AA.com UX employee and the author, a UX designer named Dustin Curtis. (on Curtis’ site, via gruber)