Customer and Staff Experience: Pillar 3
Quick answer: Customer experience branding means your brand is defined by what people actually live through when they deal with you, not only by what you say about yourself. Customers, staff and partners all shape that experience. In TBAC | IBES – International Brand Excellence Standard, this is Pillar 3, Customer and Staff Experience, one of the Six Trust Pillars. It looks at loyalty, staff living the brand and partner experience, and it is scored from 1 to 5 Trust Points based on evidence.
Every brand makes promises. The real test comes later: when a customer calls with a problem, when a new employee meets a client for the first time, or when a supplier waits to be paid. In those moments people decide whether a brand deserves their trust.
This is Day 9 of our daily series on brands, branding and brand accreditation. Yesterday we covered Pillar 2, Governance and Brand Care. Today we look at Pillar 3: Customer and Staff Experience.
How does customer experience shape a brand?
A brand is the sum of what people believe about you, and most of those beliefs come from experience. Customers remember how easy it was to buy, how they were treated, whether the product did what was promised, and what happened when something went wrong. They then tell others. Over time, these lived experiences become your reputation.
That is why customer experience is not a department. It is the brand in action. Your website, your front desk, your delivery, your invoices and your after-sales support all send messages about who you are. When those messages match your promise, trust grows. When they do not, people stop believing the promise.
What TBAC | IBES looks at in Pillar 3
On the TBAC | IBES Pathway, Pillar 3, Customer and Staff Experience, looks at three things:
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Loyalty. Do customers come back and buy again? Repeat business is one of the clearest signs that a brand keeps its promises.
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Staff living the brand. Do the people who work for you understand what the brand stands for and act on it in their daily work?
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Partner experience. Do partners and suppliers have a good experience dealing with your brand?
Notice that this pillar looks beyond customers. A brand is experienced by everyone it touches, inside and outside the organization.
Loyalty: the proof customers give with their feet
Customers can say kind things in a survey and still buy elsewhere. Loyalty is what they actually do. When most customers come back, recommend you and stay with you through small problems, they are telling you that the experience matches the promise.
Track repeat purchases, listen to reviews and complaints, and act on what you learn. The aim is an honest picture, not a perfect score.
What is employer branding?
Employer branding is how your organization is seen as a place to work, and how well your own people understand and believe in the brand. It matters for two reasons. First, it helps you attract and keep good people. Second, and more important for trust, your staff deliver the brand to customers every day.
The free Brand Snapshot asks two questions about this. Do your staff understand what your brand stands for and can they explain it in their own words? And do they treat your brand values as part of their daily work, not just words on a wall? If the honest answer is “not really”, customers will feel the gap long before any campaign can close it.
Practical steps help staff live the brand:
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Explain the brand’s purpose and promise when people join, in plain words.
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Show real examples of what the brand looks like in action, and what it does not look like.
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Give front-line staff the authority to fix common problems quickly.
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Recognize people who live the brand values, so the values feel real.
Partner experience: the part many brands forget
Suppliers, distributors, agents and other partners also experience your brand. They notice whether you pay on time, communicate clearly, keep agreements and treat them with respect. Partners talk to each other and to customers, and they often decide how well your brand is represented in places you cannot see. A brand that treats partners well is easier to trust everywhere it operates.
How is experience scored?
Under TBAC | IBES, every brand is scored on the same Six Trust Pillars, each from 1 to 5 Trust Points, based on evidence rather than claims. In the Brand Mirror, a brand prepares its Brand Story and 24 pieces of evidence, four for each pillar, kept in the Proof Vault. For Pillar 3, that means four pieces of proof about how customers, staff and partners actually experience the brand.
The platform drafts a score, a reviewer recommends a result, and the BrandMark Council approves it. A BrandMark needs an average of 3.0 Trust Points or more, with no pillar below 2. A pillar scoring between 2.0 and 2.9 gets a 90-day Polish Period. See the full BrandMark Pathway.
This is what makes TBAC | IBES an accreditation journey rather than a claim. Trust cannot be claimed; it must be proven. Self-assessment, evidence and independent review together show whether the experience a brand promises is the experience people receive.
A simple Pillar 3 self-check
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Do most of our customers come back and buy from us again?
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Can our staff explain what our brand stands for in their own words?
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Do our staff treat our brand values as part of their daily work?
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Do partners and suppliers have a good experience dealing with us?
The free Brand Snapshot is an easy first step. It asks 24 questions across the Six Trust Pillars and takes about 10 minutes. This is a self-check only. It does not lead to any BrandMark outcome.
Key takeaways
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A brand is shaped mostly by what people experience, not only by what it says.
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Pillar 3 of TBAC | IBES, Customer and Staff Experience, looks at loyalty, staff living the brand and partner experience.
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Staff deliver the brand every day, so employer branding is part of customer trust.
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Pillar 3 is scored from 1 to 5 Trust Points, based on four pieces of evidence in the Proof Vault.
Frequently asked questions
How does customer experience shape a brand?
People form their view of a brand mainly from how they are treated, how well the product or service works and what happens when there is a problem. Those experiences, shared with others, become the brand’s reputation.
What is employer branding?
Employer branding is how an organization is seen as a place to work and how well its own people understand and live the brand. Because staff deliver the brand to customers, it directly affects trust.
How is experience scored in TBAC | IBES?
Pillar 3 receives 1 to 5 Trust Points based on four pieces of evidence in the Proof Vault covering loyalty, staff living the brand and partner experience. The platform drafts the score, a reviewer recommends a result and the BrandMark Council approves it.
How can I check my brand’s experience for free?
Take the free Brand Snapshot. It covers all Six Trust Pillars in about 10 minutes. It is a self-check only and does not lead to any BrandMark outcome.
Make your promise real for everyone
The strongest brands keep their promise for customers, staff and partners alike. Learn more about what TBAC | IBES is, take the free Brand Snapshot, or start as a BRAND ALLY (see current options and fees at tbac.ac/join). Questions: info@tbac.ac.
Dr. Edward Roy Krishnan, International Advisor
TBAC | IBES – International Brand Excellence Standard
Learn more: https://tbac.ac
