I love enjoying time at a restaurant with excellent food, ambience and in the company of my husband and business partner, Dave. When the experience offered is exceptional and I know without a doubt it's about me, the customer, I will definitely recommend the restaurant in question and share how how wonderful my experience was with my online connections as well as with people I come into contact with on a daily basis face to face. We did eat at lots of different restaurants but non stood out as much as the one that created an experience for us that consisted of beautifully presented and tasty food and top notch customer service.
Dave and I have been enjoying the diversity of NYC on our recent business/personal trip and due to the locations of our meetings, conferences,trade shows, we have had the opportunity to spend time in three different hotels. Out of the three hotels only one stood out in the sense of knowing their brand. Being the brand they are known for in every way possible and creating for me such a wonderful experience, I want to share this brand with others. If we look at what "brand engagement" means then you will understand why I feel this way:
Brand engagement is the process of forming an emotional or rational attachment between a person and a brand.
My favourite hotel, the one that ticked all my boxes and lived up to it's reputation, offered me such a wonderful experience and did touch me emotionally because of the time Dave and I spent there. We chose the hotel for it's luxury and for the services offered knowing this was going to be a place where we could spend quality time together enjoying life, life without work, which for us is something we value but are not able to do very often. Yes I did form an emotional attachment to the hotel and I know we will return at some point and I will recommend this hotel to others.
But, equally important, I felt we got true value for our money which I beleive is the rational attachment to this particular hotel; the brand engagement offered to hotel guests overall is evident. I believe that organizations with high levels of customer engagement are likely to perform better financially than those with low levels of customer engagement. What company does not want the satisfied customer to spread the word and encourage others to chose them?
Our time at the restaurant which offered us an experence to remember, and the time we spent at the hotel will not be forgetten because of the positive experience and happy memories we came away with, was short, but not forgettable. So when I think about brand engagement, in this case it may have been short and sweet but it impacted me to the point I am now a loyal customer and will support the restaurant and hotel by referring them.