Building a lasting bridge

Customer Service and Sales professional will always present huge challenges to those whom are given the responsibility of managing them.  Dealing with such a mixture of personality, all with a different understanding of what excellence means, yet all performing under one banner your brand.  The best marketing campaigns and messages may give an organisation the opportunity to boost that they have the best products and services available in the industry, however that alone will still not enable you to retain and gain the loyalty of your customer.

Why?  The missing ingredient in this equation is the true brand understanding and connection of your people.  More marketing touch points is making possible all sorts of processes, which in turn are bringing new pressures to bear on the organisation and its people. With these enhanced avenues to the customer, the need for greater training and brand delivery control has never been more prevalent.  Brand cannot be expected to stand by itself. Your people must believe in its core values and feel comfortable with their true understanding of the messages. The organisation must support them to make sure that the transformation from paper to life and the positive communication of the brand’s voice are successful.

Firstly, your people must be given the three R’s: Reward, Respect and Recognition.  One of the secrets of good customer relations is empowerment in the people working the relationship. If the philosophy of the company is to set guide lines that enticed the staff to make empowered decisions, then the staff will begin to feel part of the decision making process. However these decisions must also reflect that of the brand. It must be taken into account that these are the real people who are talking to your customers, all day and every day, the ones that really know how the customer reacts. Customer contact staff is more marketing savvy than some companies give them credit for and it is imperative to utilise this knowledge.  Ask your people how they would improve the process of delivering brand messages both internally and externally. Before investing in further marketing campaigns, speak to your people and present them with some options on how they think they could reach the customers that they deal with on a daily basis.  Get all you people involved and start building the bridges between your marketing function and your delivery team.

All too often, call centre advisors, relationship managers and face-to-face sales people are given too little responsibility or no opportunity to comment on the brand of the organisation.  As well, this system of people respect will have positive effects on the bottom line and a forward thinking workforce. Personally, I believe that 30% of the complaints received from customers result in brand disalignment.  That means, the person that they where dealing with did not represent their expectation of what the brand should offer in respect to service.  Giving your brand a voice is dangerous if that voice is not a true one of partnership.  It is getting the right balance between free controls and becoming a number cruncher, focusing on service instead of only flashy marketing and promotions.  Effective communication and training will result in improved customer service, improved brand understanding and more importantly, a more seamless brand delivery in the customer eyes.

With a more balanced and happy workforce, we can turn our attention to skills training and some of the core communication skills required.  It is imperative that you set out a training regime that will enable both your organisation and your delivery team to benefit from marketing messages and budget spent impressing the customers.  If put in the correct hands, marketing and branding can be a motivator, other wise it can deter staff for their many functions and result in a loss of return on investment.  This positive approach to learning will offer a two-fold benefit.  Not only you will have a more productive team, but also you will be able to retain a higher number of your staff.  People who feel truly connected to the values of the brand are happier and want to stay with and represent the organisation longer.

It is also imperative that you set a system of check and balances with your training.  It is not enough to offer an induction programme that covers all the key aspects of the brand.  As the brand grows and shapes your organisation, the training that supports must also be continuously revisited to ensure quality control and benchmark for future advancements.  Learn for your own experiences with your brand delivery and how your people react to and grow with it.  The investment in brand placement is an enormous expense, however, to reap its benefits it must be coupled with the investment in the people that will be delivering it.