In the marketing industry there’s always a lot of talk about the brand. Many people spend a great deal of money and time building brand architectures, developing a brand and crafting a brand promise. It’s the foundation of the marketing effort.
Sadly, after many businesses establish their brand, they fail miserably when it comes to delivering on the promise that they, implicitly or explicitly, have made to their customers.
We’ve all been there. Software companies promise increased office productivity, then neglect to provide adequate staffing for technical support call centers. Banks promise one-stop shopping and excellent service, then bounce you from representative to representative.
The beleaguered airlines may be the best (or worst, depending on your perspective) example of how a brand promise can be completely disconnected from the customer experience. I don’t think anyone’s actual flying experience aligns very well with slogans such as “We love to fly and it shows” and “Fly the friendly skies.”
In reality, each and every interaction a prospect or customer has with your business is a defining moment when it comes to delivering your brand. That means that every employee, on every level, is integral for brand delivery.
To ensure a positive customer experience requires that your brand be aligned at every point of customer contact — from your call center to your Web site, from your storefront to your checkout operation. The most important aspect of creating a successful and positive customer experience is a company’s workforce.
To deliver the brand, employees must support the brand. It’s not just something that can be mandated by management. Simply telling employees what the brand is won’t work. Sure, you can tell the receptionist that she or he must greet every caller a certain way, but for the receptionist to really deliver the brand, she needs to thoroughly understand the brand.
Every employee, regardless of title or position, is a brand manager of your product or service. And who better to be managing your brand than the people who interact with your customers all the time?
This means that all employees need to understand the priorities implied by your brand promise. And they must have the training, tools, time or leeway to deliver. In some instances, employees encounter big gaps between what the customer expects and what they can deliver.
For example, if employees don’t have the necessary authority, their service level will never meet customer expectations. There are few things more irritating than speaking to a customer representative when you have a problem and finding that they can only offer A, B and C when you need D. Customers need solutions. They want results and are not – nor should they have to be — interested in the process of getting there.
Another possible barrier that can limit an employee’s ability to deliver your brand may be your business process. If your company operates in silos, and the front-line employees must rely on an unresponsive back-office staff, you could have major glitches.
A good customer has a billing problem. She discusses it with her sales representative, who traces it to a paperwork issue. But, because the person handling the paperwork is out for three weeks, the sales rep is unable to get a refund for his customer.
How are your internal incentives aligned? It’s great to reward employees for a job well done, but if your company culture doesn’t take a big picture view, you many end up with reward systems that are at odds with equipping employees to deliver your brand.
For instance, if the focus is on sales rather than service, or servicing as many customers as possible rather than solving a customer’s problem, employees will be striving to meet that goal instead of delivering your brand.
In the end, delivering your brand needs to be embedded in every aspect of your business, especially how employees interact with customers. Take this approach and your brand can be a powerful tool for competitive advantage.