4 ways to design brands that customers will love

Clive Grinyer is an advocate, speaker and practitioner of design thinking across enterprise and public sector. Working in the design office at Barclays as a customer experience director, he leads the direction and delivery of new digital projects and working with teams of user experience, interface, research and financial experts. Here, Clive shares his tips for creating brands that connect with customers...

01. Create a joined-up experience

"The role of customer experience director is relatively new to many. It's about being extremely customer-focused and driving the development of services and technology from a very customer-centric perspective.

"It's very easy on a complex project to get involved in siloed activity where detail is required. But it's vital to join experiences up, understand how customers will navigate, explore and discover, and receive the emotional as well as functional security and satisfaction they need when using a service."

02. Create consistent brand values

"I've seen so many brands create great promise, proposition and messaging, but stumble in the real world of customer experience. Customer experience has historically been seen as hygiene – something to do with the call centre, or something you did well when things went wrong for a customer.

"But we now live in a world where customers expect every brand to walk the talk, to experience brand values at every touchpoint and every interaction. And if they don't feel that, they'll let you know on social media! Design is the tool by which you turn the brand promise into a tangible experience. It feeds into and responds to the brand vision and makes it real and consistent."

Next page: two more pro tips