Building a brand based upon service begins with answering two questions: 1)“How does the organization’s team view the brand/company? (as discussed last week) and 2) “How do the customers/passengers view the customer service of the company?”
If the company employees (the people that are delivering the service) understand and truly believe in the company’s mission/vision, a service brand will begin to emerge. Service in the company will begin to come naturally and a consistency of service will emerge. Nordstrom’s is an example of an organization that has built its brand on service. The employees understand, are trained in and really believe in the service mission at Nordstrom’s. They deliver it is such a consistent manner that the customers know they will get that service with every interaction.
As service is delivered in a consistent manner, the customers will begin to expect that consistency and……a service brand is born. This does not happen overnight, a brand takes time to build, just like trust.
The challenge comes with trying to align these two questions. Does the team’s view of the service brand align with the customers’ view of the service brand? The answer to that question when asked of Nordstrom’s would be a resounding “Yes”. This is not to say that customer service issues are non-existent. But when issues do arise, the employees deal with them efficiently and recover from the situation to the extent that a potentially disgruntled customer frequently becomes a loyal customer.
Ensuring alignment of these two views is not a one-time occurrence. It is an ongoing drumbeat---a culture that must be developed within the organization. Ongoing communication, training and assessment (of both employees AND customers) is imperative to maintaining a service culture that supports your service brand.
