When it Comes to Your Brand. Are You All Talk?
When You Battle for Your Brand. Everyone Wins. *image from Zappos
When it comes to battling for your company, your customer and your employees some owners talk the talk. Others walk the walk.
Look around. Are your common values posted on the wall? Did you just write your corporate culture in an employee hand book? Is customer service just the corporate line?
All too often this is the case. At the inception of a business concepts like culture and service are pleasant sounding paragraphs in a business plan. The idealism of a budding entrepreneur.
Think about it. When was the last time your company truly practiced what it preached? In every facet of the organization. Do everyone from the owners and senior management to new entry level employee live and breathe every value, culture and philosophy the company was founded on?
The truth is that battling for your brand takes constant, serious self reflection. As an owner it is difficult to face the hard truths. Your blood, sweat and tears are what built the business brick by brick. Digesting every complaint, failing program or neglected aspect of your company is tough business.
But it must be done. Ask Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com. Facing bankruptcy and certain failure he was forced to take a long look in the mirror. To avoid losing everything, he had to get more out of the current customer base, today. The only way to reverse Zappos’ fortune was to provide a level of service so top notch that customers would place more orders, more often. But how?
Tony began a systematic dissection of Zappos’ corporate culture. Faced the ugly truths about the way the company did business. Admitted the failings of its corporate environment. Owned up to the broken promise of superior service to its customers. In many respects they started over. Defining their core values and integrating them into every aspect of the business.
And a remarkable thing happened. The entire organization began moving in the same direction, unified by a common goal. Three short years later they became the largest online retailer of shoes, reaching $1 billion in sales. It just so happens that when an owner leads by example and puts it all on the line in the name of success employees will rise up to meet that standard. It’s all about respect.
Other companies like equipment lease and working capital provider Direct Capital Corporation are learning this hard lesson. To create a superior business you must harness power from within. Like Zappos they have embarked on a mission to improve every facet of the organization from the inside out.
Tony Hsieh wrote that when you create a superior corporate culture, customer service and brand will follow. Direct Capital Corp CEO Jim Broom agrees. Although the process isn’t easy, in the end employees, customers and owners alike will reap the rewards.
Just ask Zappos. On their 10th birthday they were ranked No. 23 on the Fortune “100 Best Companies to Work For” and continue to lead their industry. By example.
It just goes to show. When a Company Battles for its Brand. Everyone Wins.
Read more about Zappos.com corporate culture.
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Filed Under: Marketing News
