The acronym may not have caught on, but the premise is absolutely spot on. (Credit to the formidable Michael Skok for the acronym, he also delivers fantastic sessions on innovation & start-up growth via Harvard Innovation Labs here).
OOBE stands for “Out of the Box Experience”, which refers to the full experience a consumer has throughout their interactions and buying journey with a business. Brand can be a very powerful thing when maximised and applied consistently.
Apple is a very easy example to use here. They are so very conscious of the full experience they expect to deliver to a customer – simple, easy and effective. If you buy a laptop from them, set up and import of data is slick, with a few buttons to press and single-sentence instructions. This journey begins with the packaging – tabs to help you remove the often impenetrable shrink wrap. A neat compartment for each item (of which there aren’t many). A surprisingly light instruction manual.
The power of simplicity should not be underestimated, and so many businesses and even marketers or web developers mistakenly believe that you need everything to be bold, striking and obvious. This does not fit with every brand – for example where attributes such as sophistication, luxury, or exclusivity will often align better with quiet confidence. It is not only how your brand looks, but what you say whether via website, social media or personal email. It comes down to how you speak to clients and prospects, what your contract looks like (this level of detail is sometimes not considered or realistic for start-ups and very small businesses, where one person can be wearing multiple hats). It does all really make a difference.
At a time where customers have never been better-informed, and never had more options available to them, every detail counts. If you want to be perceived as a high-end service, then send a prospect a poorly written email, the identity you were building has been tarnished and inconsistency such as this can cause confusion over what the prospect should really expect from you, and what they would receive should they start to work with you.
Of course, the earlier decisions over brand can be made, the better. We would always advise that this is considered at the inception of a business – where your mission, vision and values should be defined to differentiate you from your competitors. If you are able to define this early on, it becomes far easier to reflect in your marketing communications – website, social media and email will align to create this consistent brand experience which really consumers crave, in order to be able to build any kind of trusting, meaningful relationship with a brand.
You do not need to blast your mission statement out via every channel, either. It should become obvious through the way you act, and what you deliver for your clients.
Another example here is Amazon – “We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience.. While most Amazon customers wouldn’t get this right word for word, it’s likely they could guess something along these lines based on the experience they receive as a customer.
So, consider your values and whether they are TRULY reflected in what your customer experience. You could ask a current customer for feedback on this, or test your processes out yourself as a faux customer to see what they really see.
Often, what your client experiences isn’t exactly what you imagine it, and there’s almost always room for improvement.
If you’d like us to take a look at your OOBE – or discuss some ideas for optimisations – book a free discovery call with us today.