Risk & Business Magazine F.A. Peabody Insurance Fall 2016 | Page 24

TURNING A COMPANY INTO A BRAND Turning A Company Into A Brand BY: JOHN DiJULIUS PRESIDENT, THE DiJULIUS GROUP 6 Things Customers Cannot Live Without W e all have a company or two that we can’t fathom life without. What are the few companies that you would be extremely upset if I told you, “You can no longer do business with them, ever again”? When I ask my audiences this question, besides some favorite local mom-and-pop shops, certain brands always get mentioned: Apple, Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Amazon. Think about what these brands have done and what they consistently do to make customers so loyal, to make customers feel that they cannot live without these brands. That is power. That is brand loyalty. The more people you can make feel like they cannot live without your brand, the closer you are to making price irrelevant. Here are the six things that turn a company into a brand that its customers cannot live without: 1. Great service, great products 2. Consistency 3. Ease of doing business 4. Employee evangelists 5. Education, not sales 6. Personalized experience 1. GREAT SERVICE, GREAT PRODUCTS This is a given. It is the price of admission that your service or product better be darn good. However, this is typically not even listed in the top three reasons why people love a brand. A company is in trouble if it is relying on its product or service to differentiate itself in the market. Today, every product or service is eventually commodified. 2. CONSISTENCY This cannot be overemphasized. More than anything else, customers want brands to be brilliant at the basics. Forget the bells and whistles; just be consistent, reliable, accurate, and friendly in every interaction. 24 | FALL 2016 Don’t make it dependent on which employee your customer deals with or which production facility your product is made. 3. EASE OF DOING BUSINESS See Amazon. See Zappos.com. See Nordstrom. Amazon is the easiest and most convenient company for purchasing products, from one-click shopping, to returns, to customer support. Companies like Zappos.com and Nordstrom have very customer-friendly return policies. Bring it back in a year; you don’t need your receipt. Does your company have policies and rules to make interactions with your customers more convenient for them? How easy is it for a customer to speak to a human being? How easy is it to find a phone number on your website? Is your customer’s buying experience convenient for you or for your customer? 4. EMPLOYEE EVANGELISTS Great brands have employee evangelists who advocate for two things: what they do and what brand they do it for. Shop at Teavana Tea (owned by Starbucks). Its employees love the product, love helping and discussing the benefits of different types of tea to their customers, and they love working for Teavana. 5. EDUCATION, NOT SALES The best brands teach its employees to educate customers and not to sell to them. Consider my personal experience with Apple. I love technology, and the moment something new is released, I have to have it (the worst thing a consumer can do!). When Apple released the iPad 2, I ran to the Apple store to upgrade. When the Apple employee asked me what I wanted, I said, “I currently have the iPad, but I want the iPad 2.” He could not have had an easier sale. However, the salesperson asked me what I used my iPad for. I said, “For email, surfing the internet, social media, and I read articles and books on it.” He said, “Do you play games or watch movies?” I replied, “No, never.” He said, “Don’t get it. It won’t be worth it. The big difference between the iPad and iPad 2 is the resolution that you would only appreciate if you played games or watched movies.” I couldn’t believe he talked me out of spending $500. I was actually bummed! I said, “Well, maybe I will start playing games.” But seriously, I would have bought anything in the Apple store from this employee after that. He wasn’t about selling me, he was about educating me and making sure I spent my money wisely. 6. PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCE Every regular customer at Starbucks has his or her “order.” It is different from anyone else’s order. It usually is something long and complicated, like a grande, single-shot, four-pump, sugar-free, peppermint, nonfat, extra-hot, no-foam, light-whip, stirred white mocha. Did you know there are over eighty thousand ways you can order your Starbucks drink? What is more personalized than that? HOW CAN YOUR COMPANY BECOME A BRAND THAT YOUR CUSTOMERS CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT? Review this list of six things that turn a company into a brand that its customers cannot live without. Do an audit of how your company fares in each of these six categories, and see where you can improve so your company can become a brand that your customers cannot live without. + John R. DiJulius III is the author of The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow convention Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World, (January 2015 Greenleaf Books). He is the president of The DiJulius Group—a Customer service consulting firm that works with companies like Starbucks, Chick-fi l-A, The Ritz-Carlton, Nestle, PwC, Lexus, and many more. You can email him at [email protected]