About a month ago, we decided to work on our brand to achieve a bunch of goals: being more memorable, create consistency... 2 weeks ago, we shared the 1st step of our branding journey with you on Slideshare and got an overwhelming response which pushed us to share more. Today we are bringing the second step of our journey to you: How to create brand consistency.

1. Our startup
branding journey
PART2
Howto
createbrand
consistency?

2. Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat

3. Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat
We want to go
from this

4. Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat
We want to go
from this
To that

5. So we’re sharing our
branding journey with you!

6. Few days ago, we shared the 1st
step of our journey
SEE SLIDEDECK SEE ARTICLE

7. To sum things up, here’s what we
want to achieve:
BECOME
MEMORABLE
STAND OUTTHINK
LONG-TERM
CREATE
CONSISTENCY
CONNECT
WITH CLIENTS

8. CREATE CONSISTENCY
In this deck we’ll see how to

9. - 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:

10. - 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

11. Use a color palette
That’s Zendesk color palette.
Their branding rocks!

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

13. Choose 2 main fonts
to use across designs

14. Check this out for cool web fonts you can use
all over your website and presentations:
GOOGLE FONTS!

15. Define a style for your images

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

17. - 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

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

19. 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?

20. How can you define your voice?
Use brand
archetypes
Define your
relationship
with customers
Think about
brands you like
1 2 3

21. Use brand
archetypes
1
Ask yourself these questions:

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 2
Who 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

26. 2
Who 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

27. 3
Think about
brands you like

28. 3
Think 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.

29. 3
Think 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.

30. How about your tone then?
Adapt your tone to:
Users
Feelings
Content
Format

31. The best example out there is
MailChimp Voice & Tone Guide
CLICK HERE TO SEE IT

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

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

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

36. Voice your users’ thoughts
to help you make your
messages sound more like a
dialogue

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

38. Always try to give a concrete
example of a good message

39. 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…)

40. - 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

41. The MailChimp guide is an
amazing onboarding tool
Now, let’s look at how other
companies share their culture and
values with new employees!

42. 4-WEEK CALL CENTER TRAINING
with the customer loyalty team
for every new employee!

43. A new employee joins
the Zappos family

44. A new employee joins
the Zappos family
He spends 4 weeks taking
calls from Zappos customers
and experience the Zappos’
culture

45. 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

46. 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.

47. 45-DAY BOOTCAMP
to make sure new hires are a good
fit for the company culture

48. A new employee
joins Buffer

49. 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

50. 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.

51. 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.

52. 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

53. - 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

54. 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.

55. Hire for culture fit first
Most technical skills can be taught.
Soft skills can’t!

56. 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.

57. Here are the questions you get when
applying for Buffer
Culture fit
Knowledge of company

58. 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

59. What happens then, before
someone is offered to join
their bootcamp?

60. 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

61. 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!

62. 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.

63. 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

64. 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!

65. 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.

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

67. I was happy with Ryanair’s flight
attendants before. Now I really
feel like I’m missing out…

68. 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

69. If you missed it, remember to check out
the 1st part of our journey
SEE SLIDEDECK SEE ARTICLE

70. 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

71. 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)

72. THANK YOU!