Branded Customer Service: The New Competitive Edge

One of the important concepts covered in this book is the idea of "on-brand" and "off-brand." The following exercises are designed to help your staff pay attention to how their service behavior either supports your brand promise or fails to deliver it.

CUSTOMER TOUCH POINTS: ARE WE ON-BRAND OR OFF-BRAND?

Make a list of interactive customer touch points, all the Moments of Truth your customers have with your organization. Then ask, "Is the way we do this on-brand or off-brand?" If you are already largely on-brand, then ask, "How can we do this so it is even more on-brand?"

For example, on page 46 we described an experience a customer had on a luxury cruise line. At the end of the trip, customers were asked to evaluate the trip. The evaluation asked for the guests to write in their own names, cabin number, and the date. Prior to the evaluation, customer touch points had been highly personalized.

To be more consistent with the brand, a form that already had the passenger's name written (by hand!) would have shown personalization. (And to anticipate those who would not fill out a feedback form with their name on it, the form could have been perforated so their name could be easily removed.) For greater impact, the form could have been presented on lovely paper to show that the cruise line valued his or her input. And a stamp could have been placed on the envelope in case the passenger preferred to send it from shore.

Ask your staff what they would do to make their Moments of Truth on-brand. It is possible that in the cruise ship example, the staff may have decided that the evaluation feedback form was not where they wanted to put efforts to make the brand come alive. After all, a regular evaluation form is not bad service. Should we do this? is an important question when making decisions to implement brand practices. As there are limitless numbers of actions employees can take to be on-brand, they need to prioritize according to impact and time demands.

CUSTOMER SURVEYS

Most organizations conduct customer surveys. Very frequently these surveys do not measure whether your brand is being delivered. The survey described below enables your staff to receive direct information from your customers as to how you are delivering your brand and to determine what your brand means to your customers.

• Ask your staff to call three to five of your customers this week. If this is difficult, these surveys can also be conducted whenever staff talk with customers. A telephone call isn't the only way to get the information you want.

• Ask customers what they think your brand represents.

• Learn which emotions they associate with your brand.

• Ask what your customers like about your brand.

• Find out if your customers ever received service they thought was in direct opposition to your brand promise.

As a matter of course, it would be a good idea for staff to ask these questions of customers whenever appropriate. This habit continually engages both staff and customers about brand issues.

If you have some token that is related to your brand, you could offer it as a thank-you to your customers for their information.

EMPOWERMENT AND OUR BRAND

We are acquainted with a company that sells multimillion-dollar software and hardware interventions. Yet any package requiring over $25 in delivery charges must be approved by the salesperson's direct manager before being sent. Late on Friday afternoons, many managers have already left the office or are out of town. If a customer calls with an immediate need that requires shipping costs over $25, an empowerment issue is created. At this particular company, staff follow the requirement for getting approval rather than taking care of customer needs. They place the paperwork on the appropriate manager's desk for his or her return and approval—on Monday morning or later.

This action means the company's brand promise is regularly compromised when a customer has an emergency on a Friday afternoon and the remedy requires a delivery charge that exceeds $25. The staff in this company are no longer upset about the practice. They have learned to let a manager talk to the irate customer on Monday. The staff, unfortunately, have lost their personal identification with the brand promise of taking care of needs immediately. When asked about this situation, the managers say that they have no choice. They are being pressured by senior management to bring costs under control, and this is one way to fix the problem.

• Ask your staff what services they provide that require a manager's approval or intervention. Managers typically miss the impact of most approval requirements because they more likely focus on how the approval process keeps matters under control, rather than how it negatively impacts brand delivery.

• Once you have identified the empowerment limitations placed on your staff, analyze each situation through the lens of how this impacts brand delivery. When you find a conflict (and your staff will tell you if you give them an opportunity to speak out), aim for one goal: minimize the number of people customers must speak with to get their needs met.

LIVING OUR BRAND INSIDE OUR ORGANIZATION

This exercise will enable your staff to consider how your brand values are followed within your organization. Not only will the exercise open up a discussion about the relationship between organizational culture and brand delivery, but it is also possible that managers will receive valuable information from their staff about what is required to support the brand internally.

• Ask your staff to describe all the ways in which your brand is currently lived inside your organization. Use one sticky note per description so you can easily group their responses.

• Then ask them to write what they like best about working for your organization. Again, write one response per sticky note. Expect some answers to be that the best thing about work is making money. Obviously, earning money is important. In fact, you might wish to anticipate this response by writing it down as a first example.

• Finally, ask your staff to list the three actions they think your organization needs to take in order to live the brand internally. Do this exercise in groups, and you will be rewarded with a serious discussion of the issue.

The key to these questions is to help staff see that their jobs are about much more than merely completing tasks or simply making money. From the customers' viewpoint, service jobs ultimately are brand related. If staff develop an on-brand mind-set, service-related tasks will be performed to a higher standard.