I am constantly amazed at how companies waste huge amounts of money on branding. The reason is that they spend most of their branding dollars on external branding. They or their advertising agencies develop catchy visual images with catchy slogans and catchy brand promises.

Companies aim to turn the public on to their brands so that customers beat down a path to their doors. The problem is that many companies are very successful in getting people to deal with them… and then fall down on delivery. In short, the brand experience – the interaction between the customer and customer service personnel - does not match the brand promise. The result is disappointed customers and erosion of the brand.

First of all, here are some branding basics: Your brand is more than your logo. It’s more than your graphic identity. And it’s more than your slogan or the brand promise that you make. Branding is about your reputation. It’s about creating an emotional bond between your company and consumers. It’s about creating a brand experience that delivers on your brand promise. If you sell golf balls, then the brand experience is not that critical. However, in the service business, the brand experience is critical.

The Mandarin Oriental is a premium brand in the Malaysian marketplace. And it deserves to be. I was at the Mandarin last weekend. As usual, I was greeted warmly at the door by the five employees who were waiting for someone just like me to walk in! The employee at the lift engaged me in conversation, asking where I was from. The restaurant staff were warm, friendly and always attentive to my needs. In short, the staff here know that the Mandarin brand experience is to make people feel special and well looked after. They are trained to deliver on the Mandarin Oriental brand experience. As a customer, I felt the brand. It wasn’t the decor, it was the people. And, of course, I do just what the Mandarin Oriental wants me to do – recommend them to others.

However, I have been to other hotels that didn’t necessarily deliver a bad experience. Rather, they delivered a bland experience. I facilitated a workshop at a hotel outside of KL recently. There was no one to greet me as I arrived. The staff engaged in the act of checking me in, but they forgot to engage with me as a person. Unlike the Mandarin Oriental, I wasn’t greeted by staff as I passed by them. There was nothing wrong with the staff. In fact, they had probably been on standard customer service training courses, but they didn’t deliver an experience that represented the hotel’s brand. If someone asked me about this hotel, I would say, “Its okay…but you can do better.”

In short, if your company is in the service business, and if you want to build your brand, then you need to excite and turn your employees on to the delivery of your unique brand experience. The challenge is to get them emotionally involved so that they understand and identify the brand experience that your company wants to deliver.

Zappos, an on-line shoe retailer, is a great example of how a company turns its employees on. In just nine years, this company is turning over $1 billion. Zappos puts all employees – including managers– through a four-week induction program. The induction goes through the Zappos customer experience, what Zappos is all about, Zappos 10 Core Values, and the skills required to deliver that experience. At the end of the induction, most inductees are emotionally engaged; they make a pledge to live the Zappos values and there is a celebration. And one more thing happens at the end of the Zappos induction. The company offers $2,000 to any employee who wants to leave! Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, says that this is a great investment, as it is important for people to feel that this is the right company for them. And if they don’t think so, the best time to leave is before they start!

Zappos has ten core values, e.g. Deliver WOW Through Service, Embrace and Drive Change, Create Fun and Little Weirdness, Do More With Less and Be Humble. The difference between Zappos and most other companies is that the values are alive and reinforced in the organization, right from the induction.

There are lots of videos of Zappos on YouTube. You will see employees with lots of energy who deliver the Zappos experience to the delight of customers. The outcome is that Zappos is rapidly building its brand through its unique branded customer service experience.

If you work with an external branding agency, it’s important to ask them two critical questions: what expertise do you have in transforming and aligning service cultures with the brand? What are your plans to align the external brand with our organizational culture? And here’s a clue: this involves much more than “brand awareness workshops”.

If you want to build your brand, turn your employees to delivering your unique brand experience. This involves changing the way your marketing department operates: it will have to work closely with HR to build an on-brand organization.

Imagine the power that would be unleashed when your people are turned on to deliver the brand promise that has been developed by marketing. You will multiply the value of your investments in branding. And there is a good chance that you will create an energized organization in the process.

Copyright © by George Aveling

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