Weekly Focus

SF Time & Energy Productivity
Are your team “Brand Ambassadors”?
If not…Why not?

A dictionary definition is “A person, especially a celebrity, who is paid to endorse or promote a particular company’s products or services”. Surely, that can’t be it? The CEO of any business must surely be a Brand Ambassador.

Think beyond that and of the people that work for you. Surely, you want the people that you employ to be totally engaged with your business, and thus brand? What you really need are people that eat, live and breathe your brand…Someone that your customers can connect and engage with.

When I speak with leaders in business (Corporates as opposed to owners of SME’s), I often ask the question…”If you ran your own business, how many of your team would you employ”? Regularly, the reply is surprising, as the answer is often…”Not that many”!! The assumption is that the people are clearly not Brand Ambassadors, but equally, what is the Manager doing to correct performance?

The example often used is that when you cut into a piece of rock, you see the colours running all the way through! Similarly, with people within a team…What would you see if you cut them in half? Do you see the company brand running through them?

Often organisations offer a reward to staff if they can recommend someone to fill a vacancy. The message of course must be that they are proud to recommend!

Much begins with the recruitment- you can train a skill, far harder an attitude or behaviour. A company only excels where both the business and the staff share the same “Values & Vision”. And this comes from the top down and then right back up again!

Similarly, a business is only as good as the consistency of service and/or product. One person getting it right most of the time won’t work. It has to be excellence throughout the business. Every person, every time. Each person eating, living and breathing your brand. In such a way that the customer gets the same fabulous service each time, every time, from everyone and throughout the business.

Your Brand Ambassador may be closer to you than you realise. Make sure that they truly are flying the flag for you.

“When employees are happy, they are your very best ambassadors”.
James Sinegal