By M Nair

We tell everyone who would listen that form is important, but ultimately, it’s substance that goes the distance.

Form relates to the external and cosmetics of a person, a thing, a product or a brand. Substance is the measure of how the person, thing, product or brand is experienced. Which do you think is more important?

For many years, companies have focused on the form elements of their products and services. It’s always been about how something looks: the colours, the font or the logo. Today is the era of customer experience. Customers are more interested in knowing that you practice what you preach. They will only associate themselves with a brand that walks the talk. And how will they know that you practice what you preach? That depends on their experience with you at each point of contact (customer touch points). This is why we say substance goes the distance; because a customer experience goes deeper than how beautiful a logo looks.

Let me share with you my own experience and I hope you’ll see what we mean.

A few years ago, my daughter wanted to celebrate her fifth birthday in a ‘kids-friendly’ food outlet. We were having the birthday dinner while the children played in the indoor playground area of this restaurant. Cheerful fun and then – catastrophe: my daughter fell on the steps of the play area and there was blood everywhere. Not a pretty sight!

Now, while I was trying to staunch the blood flow and console a 5-year old who is screaming in pain, I ask the staff for help and for some ice. They appeared to be in a blur and gave me the ice…but nothing else! No one came up to us to see if there was any way they could help. Not one of them came over to find out what had happened! We rushed from the food outlet to the hospital. My daughter received five stitches to her chin and is still carrying that scar today.

Naturally, I was not impressed with my experience. The next day, I telephoned the outlet Manager to give him a piece of my mind. Imagine my shock when the manager expressed his surprise on hearing what had happened, as there was no report of the prior evening’s incident. I took this to the next step, as this is a world-renowned brand, and wrote to the country head office. My concern was not only about the outlet’s lack of response, which was abysmal, but also to note that the play area equipment was a security hazard and they should do something about the potential danger.

I received a letter from the PR Manager, stating that their children’s playing area conforms to safety standards. Enclosed was a RM 10 dining voucher for my ‘next visit to their restaurant’. Have I used the voucher? Not on your life! I keep them around to remind me to never visit this restaurant again and also to tell others about my experience.

Where was the substance? The substance was in how I experienced the outlet’s service that eventful evening. Companies need to realise that customers are looking for more that just the delivery of products and services. I was looking for the conviction and care in the staff of that company to come through when something went wrong. In this instance, the brand’s substance failed.

Brands are more than FORM. Brands have a personality. Brands need to have SUBSTANCE. And substance is measured by the experience that customers have with your company. It’s the experience that counts; and many times this means people talking to people.

So, how are your people delivering the experience to your customers?

By M Nair

Many companies are still overlooking brand internalisation, which is key to unleash hidden potentials in the organization.

More companies are adopting a brand strategy approach to build a competitive advantage. The biggest challenge facing organizations today is having their employees deliver what their brand message promises.

Branding from the inside out is really about getting the employees of the organization to be in sync with the marketing and branding message of the company.

A company establishes a two-way relationship with its customers, known as brand. In this relationship the company communicates the features and benefits of its products and services, corporate values and price. The result is the brand promise – “The Talk”. The employees are critical components in this relationship. They are the human touch points of the company and responsible for delivering the brand experience – “The Walk”.

The company culture links both the company and employees. Brand alignment needs to be achieved right here to ensure consistent execution and linkages between marketing messages and delivery standards.

If you’re thinking that it’s not easy to achieve this desired alignment, you’re absolutely right. That’s why alignment is the focus of Brand Internalisation efforts. When the above synergy is achieved then you can really say that you have an organization that “LIVES THE BRAND” and delivers from the inside out. So how do you know when you have achieved success?

Brand Internalisation is not something that is achieved overnight – it is a long-term transitional process. It requires commitment, focus, perseverance and a clear strategy.

People are at the core of any business. Whether your company operates in a Business-to- Consumer (B2C) or Business-to-Business (B2B) environment, you still have customers to serve. In order for people to be effective in their jobs they have to understand the company purpose and strategy in terms that is relevant and meaningful. In short; benefits of undertaking brand internalisation are:

Ultimately, the Brand becomes the glue that binds the employees, customers, suppliers and organization together. This is where organizations need operational branding specialists who help them make the leap from “brand strategy” to “brand behaviour”. This entails a shift in mindset internally to align with the new brand values and brand attributes – A paradigm shift!

By F Kamaruddin

We say it’s about delivering service excellence at every touch point. And now we’ve said it on radio too.

That’s right – we get asked this question a lot:

Q: What does Branding from the Inside Out mean?
A: It’s about delivering the promise of the brand experience, every time.

It’s about examining how your organization meets your customers and analysing all the processes, standards and the behaviour that goes into making each interaction a great experience for the customer. When we talk to our clients we ask them many questions. Some of the examples of questions we ask are:

And that’s just some of them.
We put the answers together into a map where we can show what the customer experiences, from start to finish. A customer lifecycle, so to speak.

We’ll put more meat in this discussion. In the meantime, listen to Mary talking about Branding from the Inside Out on BFM 89.9

By F Kamaruddin

If you think your employees don’t influence your customers’ mood, you’re wrong!

I was reading one of my fav blogs, Naomi’s Blog and a post in January caught my attention and interest. She had been on a family vacation in Italy, and she shared with her readers her experience in a tarverna and at the Ducati Caffe, where the mood of the evenings were set by how the people in the two cafes greeted their patrons.

One evening, her party had ducked into a tarverna for shelter from the pouring rain. They were warmly welcomed by an friendly waiter who made sure they were comfortable, as he and the rest of the staff rushed around preparing to open for the evening. The personality of the place shone through their staff, and Naomi’s group had a great time and ended up staying much longer than they had originally planned.

However, the Ducati Caffe experience was the opposite. Staff were cold and appeared to lack in personality. It was something she did not expect from such a well-known Italian brand.

What struck me most was her statement, “The evening had been set by the way we were greeted” and I really think that’s true. How many times have you stepped into an establishment and thought, “these people don’t want my money”? Also, how many times have you returned to the same restaurant or laundromat / dry cleaners because of how you were treated every time you’re there?

The people who work in an organization ARE the organization’s brand because they are the ones who deliver the customer experience. When people interact with your company, they experience your products and services through the behaviour of your employees. All these moments of interaction are touch points, where someone comes face to face with your brand. A hip, modern logo and a memorable tagline are brand promises. A brand promise needs to be delivered at every touch point. If you run a theme park and your brand promises a “fun time for everyone in the family at every moment”, that brand promise will not be delivered if your customers experience surly park attendants and cold food that arrives late in the themed restaurants! Every employee needs to practice the right brand behaviour so that customers feel that you really walk the talk and care about designing and delivering the best experience, as promised.

For now, I leave you with one question. How are YOU delivering your organization’s brand promise?

* Naomi Simson is the founder and CEO of leading online gift retailer, RedBalloon. Read Naomi’s full post, Roman Holiday – Brand Lessons here.

How long does it take to solve YOUR problem?

We like to highlight personal experiences of customer service, brilliant or otherwise, here on our blog. This is what we found on one of our favorite radio stations, BFM 89.9.

Malek Ali wrote about the service from Bloomberg when their terminal keyboard had a problem. Pay attention to what he said about how long it took from “Hi, I have a problem with your keyboard” to resolution.

Exemplary Customer Service – New York to KL in 20 hours
by Malek Ali on 12-Feb-10 20:43 (Read the original post here.)

On Thursday, I found a bunch of Bloomberg colour print-outs lying around the office and wondered why we were printing so much. Noelle, our morning run presenter, explained that the print key on the Bloomberg terminal keyboard was faulty, often getting stuck, and ended up printing 50 colour copies at a time sometimes (at 50 sen per colour copy, that would have cost us RM25!)

When I had a spare moment that afternoon, I sat down at the Bloomberg terminal and started looking for the help line to get a replacement keyboard. I was initially looking for a phone number, but the the help menu did not have one, instead it had a help “chat” icon, a Messenger help-line if you like.

“Hmm, let’s try this…”, I thought. I had seen some of these Messenger-type help lines before and had once contacted Salesforce.com on one of their products using this method. So I typed in “Hi, I have a problem with your keyboard” and explained the problem briefly. After an 8-10 seconds interval, an acknowledgment blinked on the terminal :”Bloomberg Helpdesk: We’ll be with you in a moment…”.The moment lasted a minute or so, and then the next question was, is this your address (they got it on file), followed by, is this the serial number of your keyboard (I looked underneath the keyboard and yes, it was), and then, “one moment please….”. another couple of minutes passed, and then it was “we’ll be sending you a replacement keyboard”. I asked when and the helpdesk replied “by tomorrow”.

Friday came and less than 20 hours after our first contact, a Bloomberg technician turned up to replace the keyboard.

If I’m not mistaken, Bloomberg operates a centralised helpdesk out of New York. So here was an example of superb customer service for you, served from 10,000 miles away, to our humble doorstep here in suburban Petaling Jaya.

Has any Malaysian company done that for you lately?

That sounds like a happy customer who was impressed with the service delivered. If you are a service provider, what are you doing to continuously deliver what you promised to your clients? And as a customer, do you think that Malek’s experience is a rare one or is representative of the standards of customer service today?

*Image from pressingdigressions.com

By F Kamaruddin

How do some organizations have people who really enjoy what they do, everyday?

Do you want:
• Employees who will serve customers better?
• Your company to market more effectively?
• Your people to find the working environment more meaningful?

You can have them, if you have:
• Employees who understand what is expected of them,
• A company that has organizational focus, AND
• Internal and external strategies that fit well.

How close are you to get what you want, right now?

People are at the core of any business. Whether your company operates in a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) or Business-to-Business (B2B) environment, you still need to serve people who are your customers. Meanwhile, inside your organization, you have people who need to understand the company purpose and strategy in a way that makes sense to them in order to be effective in their jobs.

Branding from the inside out is really about getting the employees of the organisation to be in sync with the marketing and branding message of the company. It’s about creating strong relationships. When this is achieved, you have a powerful marketing formula that is not easy to copy.

You’re probably asking yourself now: What do I need to get there?

You will need people who are excited about your organization. Not just employees, but also suppliers and clients (of course) who are excited about your brand. When they’re excited about your products and services, they’d choose you, always. You’ll need a committed team to drive change, as branding from the inside out is about a journey; a transition that takes time, and it’s long-term. All this commitment will not make branding from the inside out happen for your organization if you don’t have focus, perseverance and a clear strategy on make the shift from ‘Brand strategy’ to ‘Brand behavior’, because walking the talk is about creating habits that stick.

So – how close are you to get what you want, right now?