This is a bit of a rant, a sad rant, not a malicious rant.
Don't we all know that the brand is defined by those people in our business who touch our customers?
That makes small businesses luckier than big businesses. It's easier in a small business to influence and train and coach your people when there are only a dozen of them and not 99,000 of them in 19 countries.
In those big companies you have brand guidelines and brand committees. And they inevitably start thinking about the logo. And that's not your logo at all. The lady from Bangalore who sits in your call centre and makes outbound (uninvited) sales calls. She defines your brand.
It's good fun to ask these people what they think the brand stands for. It's slightly more fun when they are from Bangalore, but it's just as good a laugh when they are UK based. Because for them, the brand means nothing.
BUT
You can still get it colossally wrong even when you only employ a dozen people. Because you can still forget that probably your lowest paid member of staff defines your brand.
That's the lesson - here's the story.
I have a really good friend, one of the cleverest people i know, coming to visit. Someone who understands and appreciates the good things in life. Last year I would have been guaranteed to take her for lunch or tea to Scampston Hall. A nearby country house. For a few years, their gardens (which cost an extortionate £6 to walk round, and their cafe (franchised to the people who run the Star at Harome) which charges an extortionate £2 for a cappuccino were a highlight for all local visitors. Why? Because they were fab. As we once told the Renaissance manager at Scarboro:
- You need people coming to Scarboro who think a £2 coffee is a fair price
- They will only think it's a fair price if the place they drink it in and the people who serve it to them are top notch
- You cannot renovate the buildings and not renovate the staff.
Anyway. this year Scampston gave the franchise to some new people. So we went along on the first saturday after it opened to try it out.
The place still looked beautiful.
At least one of the staff was a carry over from last year.
Prices seemed higher.
Anyway. I ordered a double espresso.
What did I get?
Watery coffee in a big espresso cup.
Clearly someone had just run the machine until the cup was filled. it was arguably the worst double espresso I have ever paid £2 for.
Which is where the story gets interesting.
When i paid they explained that the reason there was "tea" on the bill was that the machine didn't have a button marked espresso.
Fair enough, but as I left i noticed there were two "teas" on my bill??
Well you had a double espresso
He wasn't trying to rip me off. He hadn't been taught what an espresso or double espresso was. He hadn't been taught what the pricing pattern should be. He didn't realise that paying £4 for a cup of dishwater is a bad deal.
He most likely thinks anyone who pays £2 for a coffee is an idiot anyway, so surely £4 for a coffee was no big leap of faith?.
You may have complained and banged the table and got your £2 back.
i just left and knew full well that I wouldn't ever go back and give them my £1 coins again.
The people at the Crown Spa Hotel will be pleased.
Repeat after me:
Your brand is defined by the people who touch your customers.
Ignore their training at your peril
Recent Comments