Are your people ruining your brand?

Every single time anyone from your brand represents it on any stage, it is 'your brand'. So what do you do if people are representing your brand in a way that is not positive? How do you find out if people are not putting your brands best foot forward each and every time they do business?

I am as passionate about branding as I am with marketing as a whole and when I have a bad brand experience, I am always at a loss as to what to do. Do I tell the person giving the bad brand experience? Will they care? Do I tell the owners of the brand? Or will they be like me and also trust that the people who you employ and give a career to are doing the right thing? Or do I tell the world on social media what a bad brand experience is like?

When you stay in a hotel and you have a bad brand experience, you tell them. When you go to a restaurant and the service or food doesn't meet your expectations, you tell them. When you do business with people or suppliers, it may be a different story. And here's why:

• By explaining that you had a bad brand experience quite often people put up their defenses and therefore it not only falls on deaf ears, but is totally disregarded and a waste of time;
• There may be more to the story; i.e. the person who is giving the bad brand experience may be having a bad day or something bad may have happened to them and by you calling them out, it may only make their day worse;
• If there person has an A-type personality or is a narcissist or covering their backs, they may just choose to listen to what you have to say and then start a campaign that is derogatory to you or your brand - in that case it's not worth it;
• The business owner may be thankful and when they address it with the employee, they may actually be able to help the employee improve their communications skills to better of both the company and employee;
• Maybe only you care. Perhaps the person who is giving the bad experience doesn't care whether they are or not. You are just a service provider and they have been operating like this for years, so they are not going to stop just for you.

Tomorrow, I am going to remind my team of this little story because it is important. Every person, every interaction is a representation of your brand. If you truly love the company you work for you will try and keep this in mind.