brandarticles brandbasics Reputation
Reputation
Written by Alan Bright-
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Make it a business discipline
We all know that our reputation is important. As business leaders we understand that referrals and recommendations are clearly the best method (and the cheapest) of gaining customers. So how come we leave our reputation in the hands of our staff and customers?
Of course you don’t – but the other 99% of companies do. Because they think they have a good reputation, they do not grab hold of their reputation and control it. The normal procedure is to try the best they can, trust it all goes right, and fight the fires when it doesn’t. Companies rely on the staff to deliver good service, and may even train them for it, but in the final analysis their reputation rests on chance rather than on a predetermined strategy.
Can there be such a strategy? Is it worthwhile? The answer has to be ‘yes’ on both counts. The alternative is to continue to do things as they have always been done. A common response heard is ‘We always try to please the customers, and we think we have a good reputation’. That’s more gut feel than a measured response. It’s fine until something goes wrong that is – because it will.
However, it’s not the occasional lapse that is of concern here. It is the build up effect of everyday issues. It’s the ‘straw that breaks the camel’s back’ syndrome.
If only there was a recognised, qualified position as ‘Reputation Director’! This role would have the remit to oversee brand reputation at every level. This is not a marketing role. It is a role that oversees all departments. Sadly that day has not dawned as far as we are aware and ‘Brand’ continues to be thought and taught as a sub-set of marketing. For SME’s, this ‘reputation director’ HAS to be the job of the business owner or MD. How sad to see companies struggle when things could so easily have been prevented from going wrong.
Let’s cite British Airways and Terminal Five. If they had a ‘Reputation Director’ they never would have launched to the public until the baggage handling situation had been sorted. How many of us would remember that Terminal Five opened late? But how many of us still remember that BA lost passengers baggage?
Or if you are old enough to remember, try Ratner’s Jewellers – a thriving business until a foolish joke was publicised that belittled the goods they sold. Net result was the demise of the business. Poor Gerald Ratner has had to live with the consequences of his mistake, and it’s to his credit that he has picked himself up off the floor and started all over again, hopefully wiser in protecting his reputation more carefully.
Think of Skoda jokes, and how much cash Volkswagen had to pump into the ailing Skoda brand before they could turn it round and run the ‘It’s a Skoda, honest’ campaign. There were processes to be re-engineered, new designs produced based on a Volkswagen chassis, new showrooms, better staff training, and finally an extensive campaign showing the Volkswagen logo behind the Skoda car. All this, and much more, all had to be in place before public perception began to change.
Then there was Little Chef – good franchisee outlet, poor franchisee outlet. In leaving this problem unresolved the company failed to bring their franchisees up to a common standard. Public perceptions wavered and customers declined to such an extent that it led to the closure of many outlets. The network is now largely shrunk, and trying to rebuild will take time and money.
Then there is BT, still running a ‘come back to BT’ campaign. That statement also tells us that they must have lost many customers in the first place - otherwise they couldn’t realistically ask us to ‘come back’. Why did they lose customers? Maybe competition and pricing were a factor, but the poor public perception in the quality of customer care also played a big part. Would their marketing efforts change your mind or would you be wary? That means a bigger marketing spend for a harder won return because they have already lost many potential customers before they begin.
Call to mind any company you have dealt with, and instantaneously you will remember the things you personally like or dislike about them. How about call centres or Help Desks? How about the attitude of retail shop sales staff? What about the interminable option 1, option 2 selections you are asked to choose from on the phone, when all you want to do is speak to a real person? These are among a myriad of other small issues that we encounter, often on a weekly basis. These form a perception in our minds of the company, whether it’s from good experiences or bad. Additionally we can be swayed in our opinions by the experiences of other people…
Now, who is controlling your perception? Is it the company you’re dealing with, or are they allowing you to form your own conclusions based on your personal experiences and the perceptions and experiences of others? Obviously you are making your own judgements. However, had that company put a strategy in place that ensured that everything they did protected their reputation, then they would provide you with great experiences, every time. This way they are controlling your experiences – even if you are not aware of it! And would you be unhappy with that company? I think not.
So are you certain your business could never give bad experiences occasionally? Do you have an enforceable phone answering policy? Are your staff actively involved in building the delivery culture, or is it just imposed upon them? Maybe you have never thought of reputation as a business discipline at all.
Lets look at some of the things you can control:
- Advertising
- Web sites
- Company literature
- PR
- Marketing and sponsorship
These are in your control and you should be dictating what gets out of your company at this level. Obviously it should be consistent, authentic and ethical because these are reputation builders!
These things are much harder to control:
- Internet forums and chat rooms
- Blogging
- Newspapers
- Disgruntled ex-employees
These are potentially reputation wreckers!
Unfortunately, not everyone out there is who they say they are. They purport to be a disgruntled customer when in fact it could be your competitor, or they say they are a happy customer when in reality it is the company that puts that statement out. Not ethical, but it happens.
However you can make it much harder for people to tarnish your reputation, because essentially it is the weight of opinions that count. If the majority of feedback is positive (and that includes what your staff say about the company) then potential customers give you the benefit of the doubt. Most are sceptical of every comment, and realise that some people can never be pleased. Therefore they are likely to discount one negative comment if the many are really positive.
The key to controlling your reputation lies in the quality of your internal culture. Build a positive environment with staff where they feel valued, rewarded, encouraged and involved and you have a delivery culture that will build reputation. It makes recruiting new staff easier (people will want to work for you), it will assist customer retention, and will lead to proactive participation from staff that can make things easier, quicker or cheaper. I heard of one example of a girl who had a really menial job with the company. She was considered to be bottom of the class at school, came from a different country (English her second language) and felt she had no real worth in the company. However, when the company brought in a consultant to look at the internal culture and improve it, this same girl came up with an idea that saves the company millions of pounds every year. Naturally she has now been promoted to utilise her strengths! It’s amazing what can be achieved just by getting staff involved.
But the major stumbling block is not the staff. It’s inertia. Getting change and improvements rolling is hard. It’s even harder to keep it going. The decision lies with you, the business leader to ensure things do not revert back to the status quo. Building a strong brand reputation is a long-term process. As Warren Buffet has said – “it can take 30 years to build a good reputation, and 30 seconds to destroy it. If you think about that, you’d do things differently”.
This is why you have to have a strategy. Your brand is your most valuable asset. If you leave it to chance, to the way things are, then you will hit more challenges to profitability, lower customer and staff retention, and more costly marketing to attract customers than if you strategise how to provide great experiences for everyone, every time.
If you do not already have a strategy in place to protect your brand then check out the article ‘Defining your brand’. Building a solid reputation need not be expensive – the alternative can be very costly. Just ask Gerald Ratner.
More than 22,000 irate customers lodged complaints against Lloyds banking group in the first half of 2010 (Source: The Times, Sept 15, 2010).
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