Comments

I believe that it is extremely important for an organization (its culture & value systems @ work) to understand these kinds of workforce behavior and try & take remedial steps inorder to bring about a sense of “one-ness” or “belonging” amongst staff. It doesn’t matter whether you pay more or give them more holidays or let them party every week end…it’s letting them know and making them feel that they are important to the organization, nurturing them (as Jack Welch said….”Employees are like flowers”) and helping them unleash their true potential & thereby increasing workforce (team) productivity. It makes a lot of sense for both the corporate & its employees. It doesn’t matter whether they are contracted or permanent staff….ultimately they are people with flesh & blood and they better be treated with care & respect…that’s LEADERSHIP.

Posted by K.Sriram at February 17, 2006 11:36 PM

Obviously...employees BEING, LIVING & BREATHING THE BRAND will follow suit once a sense of "one-ness" or "belonging" has been instilled into them. I have no doubts on that! It's jus a question of time.

Posted by K.Sriram at February 17, 2006 11:38 PM

I´ve had similar eperiences with Telefonica, the spanish Telecommunications operator. A company like that, in fact, a big company, assumes it is not important for the brand to have a poor direct service. They build their brand on some objective variables such as price (they have thousands of prices, you will never understand why) and intensive advertising, when customers are demanding better personal service and more clarity.

Posted by Felix Gerena at February 18, 2006 5:05 AM

Steve,

Tesco stores are big, and getting bigger, in the UK and worldwide. Recently they have been converting their (very naff) instore cafes into (very very naff) instore cafes - subtly branded so that you would think they were still part of Tesco, but in reality run by a (or maybe a series of) nameless, faceless, subcontractor(s).

Our first time in one - a Sunday, needing sustenance, nothing else on offer for miles around in our neck of rural Scotland - and the experience was not good. Example - all the coffee cups were dirty in the self-serve rack. I tell the cashier. She grunts, but does nothing.

At the end of the meal, we want to fill in a comment card, but we have no pen. We don't want to ask the cashier for one! So I go down into the store and ask to borrow a pen from the 'Customer Service' desk, where I am told, 'we only have one pen, and you can't take it away'.

So, I explain the situation about the cafe, and the 'Customer Service' lady tells me, 'Oh, the cafe's nothing to do with us'!

I'll fast forward to the end of the tale... me in a spin, the 'Customer Services' lady in tears, the store manager called, the cafe manager called... we are offered a free meal on a later visit - but hey, guess what - there won't be one!

Why oh why is is that so few get this? Other superstores, bookstores etc. have brought Starbucks et. al into their offering - even Wal-Mart Asda have introduced McDonalds (at least you know what to expect)so what on earth does Tesco think it's doing?!

Posted by Stephen Spencer at February 18, 2006 7:05 AM

In Creating the Living Brand, Neeli Bendapudi and Venkat Bendapudi discuss the results of their 2-year study. Six lessons: (1) Know what you're looking for, (2) Make the most of talent, (3) Create pride in the brand, (4) Build community, (5) Share the business context, (6) Satisfy the soul. http://customerservicereader.typepad.com/customer_service_reader/2006/01/the_living_bran.html

Posted by Leo Romero at February 18, 2006 9:33 AM

Contractors - maybe keep them away from the front lines - they tend to be loyal only to their next paycheck and contract - keep them from visiting with customers if possible.

Posted by Sean at February 18, 2006 10:32 AM

Excellent article, Leo!

Interesting point about Creating Pride in the Brand - maybe Tesco would do well to review the emotional engagement scores for its brand - both internally & externally. I can't imagine many customers - or indeed staff - opposing the introduction of 'rival' food & beverage brands in its stores - they just don't have that kind of following.

Pret a Manger - the sandwich chain that bizarrely allowed McDonalds to buy into it in order to fund expansion, has nevertheless maintained its fundamental belief in a passion for 3 things: food, people & the Pret brand. http://www.pret.com/about/

Posted by Stephen Spencer at February 18, 2006 10:48 AM

A brand is expressed at every touchpoint...including customer service run by third party contractors. This is a pretty common view of brand stewardship yet is rarely executed as well or as thoroughly as it could be. We call it 360 degree Brand Stewardship but we are an agency and have to develop vocabulary or lingo to describe what we do. it's in our DNA. Phone reps is a big place many fall down on the brand.

I get a periodic call from DARCARS, a local car dealership that I must have bought one of our two cars from. The woman reads a script into my vmail with the intonation of...a woman reading a script of language she is unfamiliar with. It's all in the name of checking with me about a recent service appointment. They are going down a checklist of customer service tasks with no awareness of the insincereity of their messaging and delivery which screams, "we don't care about you, we are just checking off a box." Why bother?

Posted by John Bell at February 18, 2006 11:00 AM

Guys I often wondered about staff buying into values , the brand and Co passion (for want of a term) and in reading your comments it dawned on me...

Kids grow up and in the formative years (0-5 and 7 years) they get the vision, values and beliefs of a family from observation, trial and error and get directed back on track if they sway too much from the accepted norm... so how do we do it with staff... here's the task do it, if it involves customers, do it well okay...

No wonder some businesses find things tough, many do not understand the fundamentals of vision, values and beliefs. Perhaps it's time to go back to basics. Train the newbies in values, vision and beliefs, perhaps for most this will mean finding out what these actually are.

Posted by Steve Gray at February 18, 2006 6:25 PM

Great idea, Steve! One of the first questions we ask our clients (note: almost never the marketing department) is for any direction and/or documentation they have on their brand standards. 99% of the time they don't have anything.

Of course, we pursue the question until we get to the marketing folks, but the point is that often times, those who work for the company don't know the brand standardsm much less those with which they contract. I think everyone associated to a brand would benefit from some brand education.

Posted by Gretchen Hartke at February 18, 2006 6:33 PM

In order for a brand to be successfully absorbed within an organization, and subsequently expressed accurately time and time again outside of the organization, it must be an holistic and true experience. Otherwise, like a game of Chinese whispers, it will be misrepresented in time because it is carried by content cramming rather than by substance and understanding.

The best way to ensure that your contractors, affiliates, outsource partners and suppliers accurately represent your brand is if your communication and interaction with them represents it consistently over time.

Your brand is not a slogan. It is not something to be recorded, remembered and replayed for customers. It is a representation of your core values, service standards and abilities. Every phone call, every meeting - every action should clearly represent your brand. If it does, your contractors, affiliates and partners will understand exactly what your brand is, and, in their own words, express it accurately.

Unfortunately, many people fail to understand this, and see a brand as something that marketing departments wrap up neatly for customers. As a result, employee, contractor, affiliate and partner experiences are not in harmony with the brand that was created - because the brand is not truly representative of the business.

Don't teach the brand. Be the brand.

Posted by Tom O'Leary at February 18, 2006 7:36 PM

Steve,

In your last paragragh......"what it is you do for you customers"....typo!

Sorry Steve, just ribbing you a bit, but it does relate to Sears. I do technical marketing and writing communications in Taiwan and your boss blogger Tom I think said he double checks postings for spelling and grammar if I remember correctly, even blogs! His statement really stuck in my mind.

We stress to our customers in Taiwan, typos and mistakes in your material hurt your brand, it weakens the message you want to deliver. It might let customers think your processes are weak or that you do not care. It is easier to check English than it is to develop software drivers for hi-tech devices! Taiwanese/Chinese marketing material and user manuals are all usually sloppy, and these companies are killing themselves trying to figure out why they have trouble building brands! My company helps our customers build consistent quality into all their communications with their customers, which includes support material. It usually always starts at the process/workflow level. Like, make sure you edit this brochure before you print 20,000 copies!

As many people mention, watch out for the Chinese, when they fire on all pistons, including marketing, service and support, it will be hard to keep up. It will happen. My company is in greater China helping these companies do exactly this. It is hard work, but I really feel we are adding value and truly helping these customers build global brands from zero, and I like that.

What does this have to do with Sears? Well, my 75 year old parents just bought an LG refridgerator (Korea). I was shocked, unbelieveable! My parents buying Asian white appliances.

The kicker for LG was my mother saying they thought LG was European! She said "the quality is just really good." Just reminds me of Sears and Kenmore and your hot water heater, and how everything sort of relates, and how all the little things really do matter. The Chinese make Kenmore now, Sears is just in the way perhaps.

Anyway, just something to think about. Cheers

Below, a very interesting link.

LG's marketing sounds like the US 50s. Definitely not PC! You can almost hear these old patriarchs talking.

http://news.designtechnica.com/article4127.html

“The TV refrigerator allows housewives to enjoy music, movies, satellite broadcasting, and cable TV in the kitchen, enhancing their pleasure and convenience. For instance, housewives can order food and kitchen items from home shopping channels and also cook dishes while watching cooking shows.”

Posted by Jay Slovic at February 18, 2006 10:50 PM

Jay - funny that you're mom associated quality refrigerators with Europe. When our nephews were visiting us here in Ireland from the States, one of the first things out of their mouths was, "Look ma, they have a toy fridge!". The standard refrigerator in Ireland was, until recently, a dull, small, single door unit with minimal cubic footage. The fact is, in Europe, people, until recently, ate fresh produce and didn't refrigerate too much. It is only in the past several years that the "American Fridge" models have taken off - more for status, but also because people are unfortunately eating more processed foods like they do in the US. The same was true in Italy.

The Whirlpool and GE brands have certainly stepped up the pace here in Ireland. Good fridges over here are completely associated with American brands. And if you really want to make a statement, you gotta have the double door American-style fridge freezer!

Posted by Tom O'Leary at February 19, 2006 1:14 PM

By the way, the same is true for washing machines. The American top-loader is all the rage here now. Supposedly, in the States, the European front-loader is now more of a status symbol according to my wife's sister in Seattle.

Posted by Tom O'Leary at February 19, 2006 1:16 PM

Steve - you raise a great question. With more and more out-sourcing (not just off-shoring but out-sourcing functions like logistics, debt management, advertising, IT, call centres etc) companies find that chunks of their customer contact is often handled by 3rd parties. If this relationship is a difficult, adversarial one, then it is easy to see trouble!

I strongly believe that your out-sourced suppliers should be managed rather like your own employees. They want to know what is expected of them, what good performance looks like, to be rewarded, mentored, managed, monitored, trained, praised, critiqued etc just like your own employees.

Fact is, if a company really wants it's people to be the brand, it needs to spin out that programme to all its customer-facing parts - be they in-sourced, out-sourced and whatever-sourced. There's a temptation for companies to outsource stuff, "to the experts" and to forget that even (especially?) "experts" need managing, too!

Posted by Mark JF at February 20, 2006 7:45 AM

Fascinating stuff - thanks Steve

I actually wonder if it is possible to have that same gut feeling if you are not within the organisation. Even WITHIN any organisation - as it grows - it is impossible to retain that same initial passion for customer care.

'Big' may not always be ugly but small is usually better looking!

Posted by Trevor Gay at February 20, 2006 2:48 PM

There were a couple of very strategic and systemic things I did with one company ... 1) For suppliers, like recruiting agencies and search vendors, we had what we called Agency Days. Had our vendors come to offices for strategy meetings (we used root maps so we had them participate to understand our biz and brand.( 2) We also had supplier awards and events - best supplier, best reppresenter of our brand; most improved performance, etc. All part of the process to get suppliers to "identify and represent our brand"

Posted by regina at February 22, 2006 12:34 AM

Further proof that, "you pay for your training whether you do it or not." Forgive this shameless plug but check out my blog's Feb 20 post for an example of a frontline employee's best practice.

Posted by Glenn Ross at February 22, 2006 8:37 AM

Employees and sub-contractors do not have to "be your brand," they already are your brand. If the people you hire are unqualified, untrained, underpaid, unappreciated, and unhappy your business will be "branded" as a certain type. It doesn't matter what "you" WANT the brand to be. The brand IS the people.

Posted by Mike at February 24, 2006 11:11 AM

One of the problems with getting employees to be a positive force in branding is that so many companies are treating their employees as a commodity rather than loyal human beings. My father's reward for many long years of service (in the good old days) was being supported in his retirement and many recognitions of a job well done. My brother's reward for 40 years of piloting an aircraft for a well known airlines was a kick in the teeth and an almost complete loss of retirement benefits. Guess which one sends a better message to the employees in regard to branding? The employees will reflect to the customers the treatment they are receiving.

Posted by Al at February 24, 2006 2:22 PM