Iconic global brands like Coca-Cola and Nike have spent decades and billions of dollars creating strong emotional connections with consumers. This customer perception of them as the respective leaders in their verticals is worth billions of dollars. (Coca-Cola’s brand value was estimated at $57.3 billion in 2021, and Nike’s was $30.44 billion in the same year.)
However, customer perception is not static; it evolves with changing societal values, cultural shifts, and global events. What these iconic companies have shown is that brands can benefit from actively monitoring and maintaining a strong public image.
What is customer perception?
Customer perception refers to the public’s overall impression of your brand. It’s how customers feel about your company and product. Maintaining a favorable perception requires a consistent effort to understand user sentiment and meet customer expectations. For example, providing a high-quality product and a good customer experience increases the likelihood of creating a favorable brand image; however, you can’t always control individual actions (e.g., negative online reviews and social media posts) or cultural shifts that may affect your brand perception.
Consumer perceptions can have a meaningful impact on your bottom line. Brands with an overall positive perception are more likely to receive word-of-mouth referrals and positive reviews. According to a 2021 study, roughly 90% of shoppers read online reviews before purchasing something. Positive perception leads to increased customer loyalty and customer retention, while negative perceptions can discourage potential customers and lead to churn. To the extent that you can control your brand image, it’s wise to invest in strategies that help you measure and improve upon it.
Factors that impact customer perception
Both direct and indirect interactions contribute to a customer’s perception of your brand. These are some of the common touchpoints that can affect consumer perception:
Social media content
Customers can form opinions about your product after seeing it on social media. Brands control their own social media presence, but individual users may independently choose to share their personal experiences with your products. Social media mentions can be positive or negative—both serve as social proof.
On an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, Erika Geraerts, founder of sustainable beauty brand Fluff, notes social media’s potential to contribute significantly to a brand’s success: “All it takes is either working with an influencer or having someone influential buy your product and post about it that your forecasting can be blown out the window.” Influencer marketing on social media can powerfully shape customer perception by promoting your brand via a voice your audience trusts and admires.
Marketing
Marketing influences customer perception in many ways. Brand messaging and mission statements tell customers about your company’s identity, while effective marketing strategies can communicate your brand values and appeal to your target audience.
For Fluff, a guiding principle behind its marketing strategy was undercutting the subtle negativity that appeared in many of its competitors’ ads. “We were really interested in the Gen Z consumer, and I was obsessed with how they were consuming content,” Erika says. “I was emotionally invested in their mental health and the messages that they were receiving around beauty. A lot of brands still communicate messaging that isn’t appropriate or that is very subtly not positive within the beauty space. We wanted to change that narrative.”
The goal was to challenge its audience’s perceptions of themselves and to explore how beauty is connected to identity. This manifested in a podcast and a marketing newsletter for which Erika herself writes pieces. The overall result was creating a customer perception of Fluff as a brand interested in honest conversations and constructive criticism that cuts through the hypocrisy of the traditional beauty industry.
Customer reviews
Customer opinions are important because they inform your product development process; just like you, prospective shoppers value those opinions. Positive online reviews can make prospective buyers feel confident—even thoughtful responses to negative reviews can help assuage concerns.
On her Shopify Masters episode, Erika describes an instance where a customer left a critical comment that accused the brand of creating artificial scarcity by limiting its product drops to four times a year. This provided an opportunity for the Fluff team to explain the rationale behind the brand’s model: Limited product drops help them meet their sustainability targets and challenge the traditional model in which beauty brands constantly market to their audiences, urging them to consume more products than they need. In explaining the rationale in a TikTok video, Fluff was able to connect with its audience and build trust.
Brand interactions
Positive and negative shopping experiences have a powerful influence on consumer perceptions. If a customer has a frustrating interaction with a website or customer service team, it can damage their overall opinion of the company. A positive interaction, on the other hand, may help build brand loyalty. Providing a smooth checkout experience and ensuring friendly, swift support can help protect your reputation.
For Fluff, creating a simple, easy-to-use website is part of how it provides positive brand interactions. “We had a very intricate custom-built website when we first launched Fluff seven years ago,” Erika says. The site was ahead of its time, but it proved unfamiliar to consumers, who wanted something more intuitive. From there, the brand went with Shopify. “It’s a foundational platform that is well-known and easy-to-use and understandable for the consumer,” Erika says. Still, she seeks out plug-ins to elevate the customer experience while keeping it simple and continually reviews competitors’ websites for inspiration.
Ways to measure customer perception
Measuring customer perception can be difficult. You can’t add it up like a revenue report—assessing perception requires monitoring digital activity and listening to customers. Here are some of the ways brands can evaluate consumer trust:
Social listening
Social listening is the practice of monitoring online conversations for brand-related discussion. Brands often use this technique to track mentions on social media platforms. Social listening can also include monitoring review sites and setting search engine alerts to observe press mentions. This research technique often yields genuine, unfiltered customer opinions.
Surveys and customer interviews
If you want to understand what customers think, consider going straight to the source. Solicit customer feedback by conducting surveys, hosting focus groups, and requesting customer interviews. A customer perception survey or interview may include questions about customer experiences and contributing factors. To evaluate brand perception, try asking why the customer chose your product, what they would change, and which celebrity it would be if it were a person and why.
Net Promoter Score
A Net Promoter Score is a numerical measurement of customer satisfaction and engagement. To evaluate NPS, businesses ask customers to respond to a single question: How likely are you to recommend this product or service? Customers reply with a figure between one and 10. The score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors (customers who responded six or lower) from the percentage of promoters (customers who responded nine or 10).
Tips for improving customer perception
Managing customer perception requires building trust and committing to providing a positive consumer experience. These are some of the techniques ecommerce brands can use to improve customer perception:
- Provide high-quality support. Focus on providing helpful, empathetic customer service. Ensure that your support team has the resources to handle communication carefully and efficiently.
- Prioritize customer experience. Walk through your customer journey and assess each step. Ensure a positive experience by maintaining a functioning website, providing fast delivery, and onboarding customers effectively.
- Listen to feedback. Incorporating customer feedback can help prevent future problems. Read reviews and customer service inquiries—repeated complaints can reveal opportunities for improvement.
- Communicate your values. Practice honest, transparent communication. Use marketing messaging to highlight your product’s appeal and share relevant brand updates.
- Share positive reviews. Consider leveraging positive reviews by sharing them on social media or featuring them on your website. Calling attention to happy customers can help build trust in your brand.
Customer perception FAQ
What is an example of customer perception?
Consider this scenario: A high-end skin care product has elegant branding, a high price point, and quality packaging—all of which contribute to why customers perceive it as a high-quality brand. Attracting positive user reviews would help this brand maintain consumer favor and justify its price point.
Why is perception important to consumers?
Emotions and opinions can influence purchasing behavior, making customer perception important. Perception matters to customers for the same reason that their own feelings matter. Positive perceptions help foster customer loyalty, while negative consumer perceptions may discourage potential buyers.
How do you influence customer perception?
Building a positive customer perception starts with providing a high-quality product and excellent customer service. Brands can influence customer perception by sharing genuine marketing messages, interacting with customers on social media, and highlighting positive online reviews.
