Dilution of corporate values leads to loss of trust

Chapter 1, Part 1 - Corporate Brand Personality

Where have all the manners gone?

In the past decade and possibly longer, there has been a steady decline in manners in business, leading to an almost accepted culture of apathy, rudeness, disrespect and general lack of common manners in communication and business dealings.? All the good work often gets diluted and overpowered by the negative messages being projected. Sadly, it is the negative that gets remembered and talked about.??

This Chapter will look at the significant dilution that is happening with corporate brand investment, and the resulting loss of trust that is being created as a result.

Digital marketing spend is high and budgets have typically increased. With this clear focus on connecting with customers more in many businesses, we certainly need to see more of this spend allocated to the human elements of brand marketing in order to maximise the impact of the marketing budget.

Top brands that have traditionally relied upon their well-known name to carry them through, are finding that the name is no longer enough to maintain market-share and sustain profits. A greater intensity of positive customer experience is critical today.

?We’ll be looking at:

·?????????????? The impact of a deterioration in manners in business

·?????????????? Loss of trust

·?????????????? The customer experience gap being created

·?????????????? Bringing back the trust and consistency

·?????????????? A global concern

In on-going Walking TALL research with 120 professionals, managers and senior directors, we have found that business communication in general is deteriorating. The basics of doing business have been diluted significantly during the past 15 years in particular, with a loss of focus on what is really important.? It is already becoming increasingly difficult to get that old culture of good customer service back and as a result we are heading towards an intolerable situation that may not be reversible if not addressed very soon.

?Our research showed an incredible 73% of people reporting an increase in poor communications and lack of respect in the workplace in the last five years. You would think with technology at our fingertips, 24/7, that communication would be easier and more efficient – our research shows it’s not, it’s getting worse. In fact ironically, because the methods of communication are plentiful and accessible, most is not getting read and important communication is getting diluted or missed, and it is in fact damaging our brands, both corporate and personal.

?With regard to levels of responsiveness, we found 63% of respondents agreeing that communications (any form) are taking longer to get responses to.? This in turn can lead to a culture and mind-set being created of – “if he doesn’t respond, then I don’t need to either”, and this then snowballs. In addition, we found that over half of our respondents said they are experiencing an increase in colleagues cancelling meetings at short notice. Vast amounts of time are being wasted on chasing, checking, making excuses, unaccountability and the general extra workload created due to others not doing what they should be doing.

?What this suggests perhaps is that people are busier than ever – however it also demonstrates that there is lower level of respect for other peoples’ time and efforts. We find that managers will pull team members from meetings or training courses in order to address ‘something more urgent’ without enough regard to the impact on the team member and their colleagues. Accountability Expert, ? Sam Silverstein, CSP, CPAE says:

?“Companies don’t take time to determine what they believe in, therefore they don’t communicate it, nor do they set absolute standards around it. So what happens is employees don’t know how to act, don’t know what the expectations are, and are not inspired to be accountable to each other”.?

?In my experience, any internal apathetic culture like this spills out to the outside world also, and needs to be stopped in its tracks if we are to protect brand messages. Individuals in organizations often say to me, “The way we interact with customers is different to how we behave internally when communicating with each other”, but in my experience, no it isn’t!

?As a result of all this, an attitude of distrust, unreliability and lack of responsibility slowly grows, when in fact in today’s business world, customers and clients seek exactly the opposite. In the last three recessions, buying patterns show our clients are searching not just for lower prices, but more for trust and the comfort feeling that they are going to get what they pay for, including reliability and responsiveness. In the current climate, if our people are not delivering this then we are not only missing a huge opportunity for competitive advantage, we are worryingly losing significantly large amounts of corporate brand investment, potential revenue and loyal customers.

Your company and business brand today is about people. Corporate bad manners are entirely down to people behaviour, driven by many factors which we will explore in this book. In a climate where our clients want and need us to go the extra mile for a positive experience, with more communication, we can see the massive void about to open up.

How many times have you gone to a particular home improvement store for example, expecting service and smiles just like the ones you’ve seen frequently on the latest TV advertising campaign, only to be disappointed in the actual reality of employee behaviours?? Instead of the happy, energetic and upbeat employees you were expecting, you experience demotivation, apathy and a general lack of interest in their job. This does not suggest a cheerful and rewarding place to work! Company executives often say to me that they want to exceed the expectation of their customers, however I believe that you only need to meet the expectation that is portrayed in your brand awareness and advertising. Doing this consistently will set you aside from your competitors and create a customer loyalty - they know they are going to get what they expect to get.

As an organization, you have a great height to fall from, making a huge negative dent in your corporate brand reputation, if you set yourself up in this way.? Furthermore, the trust in your service or product is diluted and loyalty amongst customers will start to suffer. This could be to a level that will be difficult, if not impossible, for a long period of time to recover from.? You may have got away with it so far in business, and traded off your previous successes and brand reputation, however beware because this alone is unlikely to carry you through the next 10 years.? You need to consciously work on closing the gap between the expectation you create with advertising and branding, and the experience your customers actually receive. Meeting expectations is required, not necessarily exceeding them.

The balance of supply and demand is out of kilter - the level or supply of corporate bad manners in the business world is increasing, at the same time the value placed on, or the demand for a positive and unique customer experience is growing.? Eventually the gap that is opened up creates a massive crater for a haemorrhaging of customer loyalty, positive social media hype, corporate brand investment and ultimately market share.? We are more likely to be impacted by a bad customer experience, as we somehow have more of an expectation that the experience will be good, perhaps due to heavy advertising, marketing messages and social media. Therefore when the expectation is not met, via the people interactions we have, then the gap is greater than it would have been should the expectation not have been there in the first place. To put this into context a little here - we’re not necessarily talking about major, knock ‘em dead experiences.? I am referring in part to the simple things that cause us to remember a person, a situation or a company – a simple smile with eye contact, some interest shown in me, something that shows recognition of having met or spoken to me before and consistency – behaviours that create a feeling of us being valued as a customer. All these things can make a significant difference to how your stakeholders including your customers feel about you as a company, and furthermore they should be the simplest behaviours to project.

As bad customer experiences become more common, consumers are becoming less surprised by them. This opens up a huge opportunity for consumers to be delighted by a great customer experience and therefore talk about it even more.

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