I posted this quote from the late, great Stephen R. Covey recently on LinkedIn, and very quickly became my most viewed status update ever. For me it represents what I believe and what I value.

The importance of treating people within your organisation as you do external to your organisation. Aligning your external customer strategies with your internal ones.

The supportive comments received on this update all had a similar theme. The underutilisation of human capital: the employees. The people that businesses select and develop to become the representatives of their brand.

Establishing brand values

Quite rightly good businesses spend time on establishing their brand. They create a vision which aligns to their Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to differentiate themselves from their competitors. They develop strategies on how they’ll go about achieving it. The systems, processes, products and people that will bring their vision to life.

Their business plans focus on executing these strategies so that ultimately their customers see their brand as envisioned.

They recruit well, selecting the people that have the best potential in realising their brand’s values. Through an effective on-boarding program these people then develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that the business needs in order to execute the business plan.

Customer service excellence training is provided based on these brand values to clarify how best to represent the brand to the customer. A customised learning solution ensures that employees continue to develop and focus on achieving these outcomes continuously through their work journey.

At this point there has been an enormous effort put into getting it just right.

Treat them well

What a pity then that it could all be undone so easily, simply by not treating your employees how you want them to treat your customers.

When people have been selected and trained based on sharing the company brand’s values, then these same people will be instantly disengaged if the work environment does not demonstrate these same values.

People can’t genuinely connect with and promote a brand whose values they distrust.

So treat your people well, invest in their development. Provide an engaging work environment with a culture that supports and rewards demonstration of the brand’s values. These people that feel valued and supported will in turn treat each other and their customers in the same way not only because they were trained to but because they want to.

It’s this culture which will bring your brand’s values to life and create the real competitive advantage.

A great customer focused culture is difficult to replicate.

See our Customer Service Foundation Skills program which is customised to YOUR brand’s values.