‘With the platforms we were using previously, it would have been difficult to achieve the same outcomes that we did with Hearsay. Summarising the customers’ descriptions of the brand was easy. As we had all the videos with our key statements tagged and timestamped, it was also easy to pull together a video with customer highlights across international regions. When we shared the final deliverables accompanied by the recordings, our client could immediately see how the strategy would resonate with their customers in each of the markets.’

What’s your work life like? What three words would you use to describe it.

The words I would use are dynamic, focused, and optimistic. Our clients are feeling more optimistic as they look towards growth in 2022.

The conversations that we’re having with CEOs this year have been very different from the ones we had in 2020. It comes down to the way customers are shopping (and reliance on eCommerce) as well as the accessibility of data. More than ever, companies are much more aware of the commercial value of having a strong brand in the market and the ability to link brand metrics to financial performance.

How do you describe your role and what you do at Sharley Consulting?

Our role is to help companies build strategic brands that accelerate revenue growth. By strengthening a brand’s position in the market, the value that they offer their consumers and broader audiences, and designing a narrative that reflects consumer behaviour and more broadly, cultural movements.

We build brand frameworks that allow any team, brand or marketing-led, to then take that strategy and implement it in the business.  The process we follow starts with an audit measuring brand perception and performance, and customer behaviour. We speak to the leadership team, team members, other stakeholders, and with customers. Anyone close to the brand. We look at the market, competitors, and any cultural shifts that are happening to get a sense of where the starting point is. We then review all available data and insights to see what patterns emerge both for our client, as well as with competitors.

From there we identify where the opportunities are – a new market; a new category; a new customer group; or a new position. We then design the strategy to allow the business to capitalise on that.

We build out the strategic brand position, brand behaviours, brand expression, both visual and verbal, and go-to-market strategies.

The final stage is about implementation. We set up the process, and allow the team to lead the execution of the strategy and brand measurement, and we support along the way as needed.  We also recommend any processes or tools like Hearsay to help them monitor their brand performance or capture customer insights on an ongoing basis.

How did you come in contact with Hearsay?

Through Alanna from Femeconomy where I was introduced to Pip.  Previously we were conducting interviews using a variety of different platforms, generally Zoom, Google Meet, phone calls, frantically taking notes and using Google Docs to capture thoughts.  It was more of a manual process, not streamlined. So, then I was introduced to Hearsay and we set off from there having recently completed our first project.

What was the trigger for using Hearsay this time and not others?

A new Hearsay pricing model launched with voice to text — it’s a lot more affordable and flexible, whether it’s a small or a larger project.

The pricing model absolutely works for us. I like the fact that you can buy conversation by conversation. We started with 10 and we ended up at 30.

So now you when you look back on that spend and talking about brand value, does that match up?

Yes, definitely. The one thing which we have been able to do, which we weren’t doing on previous projects is develop an internal brand film to capture real voices of the customer.  A collection of the different narratives customers used to describe the brand and its products and experiences were shared with everyone in the company for this recent project.

With the platforms we were using previously, it would have been difficult to achieve the same outcomes that we did with Hearsay. Summarising the customers’ descriptions of the brand was easy. As we had all the videos with our key statements tagged and timestamped, it was also easy to pull together a video with customer highlights across international regions.

Just having a bite-sized narrative of the customer meant that our clients could share the insight with other team members who immediately got a really good sense of what the customers were saying without having to go and listen to each of the recordings.

When we shared the final deliverables accompanied by the recordings, our client could immediately see how the strategy would resonate with customers in each of the markets.

What else did you love about the Hearsay Platform?

Having Lizzie on LiveChat guiding us through the project was fantastic and it was easy to see the platform was built by people who have a lot of experience in the industry.  It just felt like it was very streamlined and easy to use.  It helped us focus on what we needed to achieve.

The conversation guide is easy to pick up and run with, the transcripts were all there so it is easy to just run through them and see those common descriptors that we tagged.  Having the video recordings and seeing the body language, hearing the words customers used was gold. Having all that available in one platform was beneficial.

How would you summarize your experience of using hearsay?

It is seamless, streamlined, intelligent, and guided. Valuable to anyone designing brand or customer experiences.

Can you see this being part of your toolkit moving forward?

Yes, definitely.  It is not only great for the work we do, but I would love more clients to be using this. We want to ensure that they have the tools and processes in-house to own the customer feedback.  I’d love to see clients continue to have conversations directly with their own customers, especially high-value groups who are most loyal to the brand.

Using Hearsay gives clients real-time context around their customer lives, what’s on their mind, their aspirations, needs, and challenges so that they can then provide a better experience. Anyone who is client-facing or customer-facing would benefit.