As you've probably heard, Zappos was recently acquired by Amazon. Prior to this announcement, Zappos had already made quite a name for itself, consistently being featured in well-known publications (from Fortune and Entrepreneur to Inc., just to name a few) for its outstanding culture and focus on the customer experience.

How will the Amazon acquisition affect what has made Zappos so successful?
If Zappos Ceo Tony Hsieh's e-mail to employees is any indication, it won't change a thing. The CEO e-mail is a huge employee communication touchpoint, one that can easily be strategic, compelling, and effective or fall flat, hurt the work culture, and diminish employee engagement.

What makes Tony Hsieh's e-mail so great? Well there are a few things I will call out specifically:
1. He gets right to the point. Employees are probably wondering/worrying about what the Amazon deal will mean to them and their current job. One of the first things Mr. Hsieh writes in the e-mail is, "We plan to continue to run Zappos the way we have always run Zappos."

2. He documents the benefits to the company and employees, first in a concise bulleted list, and more extensively later in the email.

3. He anticipates and addresses employee's questions, such as "Will I still have a job?"; "Will the Zappos culture change?"; and whether or not the leadership will remain the same.

4. He ties the decision and reasons behind it back to their core values and emphasizes that the employees are the true driver of the brand and work culture.

This is just a summary of what makes the e-mail successful. If you are interested in reading more, the full text can be found here: http://blogs.zappos.com/ceoletter.

Tony Hsieh understands what it takes to build a strong culture, and it's no surprise that Zappos has been so successful.

If your company was going through a similar change tomorrow, how would you communicate to your employees?

I was speaking to an audience of business leaders a few weeks back and one of the leaders asked me a great question, the gentleman asked:

"What is the greatest "branded" experience you've ever had?"

I thought for a second and then almost broke into tears of joy in describing the experience I had with the "man in the white jumpsuit"...

"You look like you might need some assistance. May I help you get to your next Disney adventure?" the man asked as he approached us. Naturally, my wife and I obliged." Your daughters would love the Beauty and the Beast Show that begins in 45 minutes. I would suggest one of you get in line for that now. Also, in about five minutes, Mickey Mouse will be coming out 30 feet behind me. Why don't one of you take the kids there and then meet up at the Beauty and the Beast Show line? That way, your kids won't need to wait very long for either attraction." He completed the experience by providing precise directions and a map on how to get to the Beauty and the Beast entrance.

What is truly amazing to me about this experience is that Disney recognizes that their maintenance workers are major frontline customer touchpoints. Therefore, they should be trained and equipped with the capabilities, skills, and knowledge to be social coordinators. They also realize that positive experiences will be communicated by happy customers to potential new customers. While this man was dressed and accessorized for cleaning the park, he was equipped with way more than a broom and dust pan. Not only was he friendly, professional, and knowledgeable of daily attractions, he knew quite a bit about avoiding long lines.

Don't think for one second this gentleman showed up for work his first day understanding how to deliver a flawless customer experience as a maintenance worker. He was enrolled in the Disney culture/brand and trained on behaviors that demonstrate everyone in the company, regardless of title, role, etc., is responsible for delivering a memorable customer experience.

Is your company a theme-park where you make "dreams come true"? Probably not... but, like Disney, you should be fanatic about designing and delivering memorable customer experiences no matter what industry you work in.

What does it look like in your business to orchestrate and deliver meaningful experiences that delight your customers? Give it more than lip-service and philosophical nods of importance, and get to work designing your customer experience.

Recently I was checking in to a hotel and was greeted by the front desk receptionist. She was wearing a button with bright red letters that read, “Service 10.” This caught my attention and I immediately asked her what “Service 10” was all about.
Unfortunately, for the receptionist, here’s how our conversation went:

Me: What is “Service 10”?
Receptionist: (Blank stare)
Me: Certainly it must mean something?
Receptionist: (Looks over to manager at next terminal and asks, “What is 10 Service?
Can you help me explain it?”)
Me: Never mind.

Now, this was not a random motel on the interstate. It was a high-end hotel chain that any leader in corporate America would know about—a chain selling rooms for more than $150 per night. Later that day, I found a sign in the lobby telling customers that “Service 10” was the company’s goal to provide great customer service. Considering that the main point of contact for checking in a guest didn’t even know the definition of great service, I knew that my stay probably wouldn’t deliver an experience worthy of rave reviews.

This is a great example of why some companies have employees who are consistently poor at delivering customer service, while others seem to be able to “outbehave” the competition, leading to stronger business results. Winning organizations understand that employees are constantly onstage, exhibiting behaviors as part of their performance and orchestrating the memorable experiences that help attract and retain business.

Given my line of work, I have the pleasure of regularly meeting and presenting to some of the top business leaders in the world and some of the truly worst. What's interesting is that I learn as much from the best as I do from the worst. The biggest difference I notice between the best leaders and the worst leaders is the self-awareness of the purchase and influence power these leaders have. The strong leaders recognize they play a MAJOR role in infecting culture change and sustaining the ideal culture throughout their organization. The worst leaders delegate or completely underestimate culture change and culture sustainability.

Only leadership has the power to ensure brand and cultural success. There are two types of power:

1. The power to purchase - Both knowledge and money are required to execute culture/brand strategy. Leaders are fully aware of the company business plan, its objectives and strategies. They must know and communicate key strategic information in order to justify investing in culture-transforming strategy.

2. The power to influence - Executing culture/brand strategy requires focus, passion, and persistence. Leaders must have the power and persistence to keep fellow leaders and employees focused on strategy, day in and day out regardless of industry, product, or service changes. Leaders have the ability to heavily influence their organization through a strong focus on consistent communication and the demonstration of behavior in alignment with the organization's strategy.

Let's face it: A company cannot successfully implement a culture/brand strategy without leaders as champions. Leaders have the ultimate power because they understand the whole package regarding the growth of the company.

Implementing a successful culture/brand is leadership's responsibility. Leaders need to check their enormous egos at the door and get it done...it's their job!

I was watching one of my favorite movies of all time last night. Perhaps you remember this gem from Tommy Boy:

Ted Nelson, Customer: Go on, I'm listening.
Tommy: Here's the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box 'cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Yeah, makes a man feel good.
Tommy: 'Course it does. Why shouldn't it? Ya figure you put that little box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter, am I right, Ted?
[chuckles until he sees that Ted is not laughing too]
Ted Nelson, Customer: [impatiently] What's your point?
Tommy: The point is, how do you know the fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer? "Building model airplanes" says the little fairy; well, we're not buying it. He sneaks into your house once, that's all it takes. The next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser, and your daughter's knocked up. I seen it a hundred times.
Ted Nelson, Customer: But why do they put a guarantee on the box?
Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of sh*t. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me.
Ted Nelson, Customer: [pause] Okay, I'll buy from you.
Tommy: Well, that's...
Tommy, Richard Hayden: ...What?

And in the end, Tommy's character sells the half million brake pads needed to keep his family's company going. Of course in a perfect world all struggling companies with quality products and good-hearted employees would be able to pull themselves up with a stroke of luck and some strategic use of road flares as Chris Farley's character does in the movie. But that's not the reality. Point being that unless you can get your employees to deliver the experiences that customers most want, you're no better than a guarantee fairy. Are your employees living up to the promises and guarantees your company makes?

Ask yourself, is your brand invisible to your employees, customers and stakeholders? Of course not, you think.. how dare I ask that question!

Well, take a moment to truly understand what it means to have an invisible brand. Does every employee in your company know how to bring the brand to life in their job everyday and are they held accountable for bringing your brand to life?

The reality is most brands start out as invisible (ideas on paper). Nothing more than mission statements, core values, brand promises, credos, business principles...yada, yada, yada (insert Elaine Benes' annoying voice).

To most employees and customers, they've heard it before (yada, yada, yada) and your brand is nothing more than a few catchy words with little substance or know-how. It doesn't have to stay that way, though for most it unfortunately does.

Here are the six causes of the invisible brand:

1. No company belief system exists 
2. Employees don't understand the benefits customers are seeking and how to deliver those benefits
3. Poor employee attitudes
4. Employees choose their own behaviors hindering consistency
5. Customer experiences are not managed
6. Employees don't understand how they impact the business goals of the company.
   

To sum up the invisible brand: Beliefs drive attitudes. Attitudes drive behaviors. Behaviors drive experiences for others. Those experiences lead to a business result (more or less productivity, loyalty, and/or sales). If you don't like the business result your company is achieving, look at the experiences your employees are delivering.

Your competition can and will copy your brand (messaging, ads, marketing materials, employer promise, etc.) and flood the market with more yada, yada, yada, but they can't copy your true brand (people and process) when you've made it visible for employees and customers.

If actions really do speak louder than words, then why do so many companies miss the mark when it comes to sustaining customer loyalty and employee morale and productivity?

The answer’s simple: companies fail to reckon with reality. The experiences that customers and employees have with the company brand do not align with who and what the company says it is.

The best companies develop strategies and programs to solve the discrepancy between real and perceived brand image and build more powerful brands. In doing so, these companies have made billions in new sales, grown tremendous loyalty with customers and employees, improved productivity, and transformed their organizational culture.

Interestingly, these leading companies all have something in common - They all started by doing the unthinkable: they recognized they were wrong.

Being wrong in business nowadays can be the kiss of death. But this admission can also give a company the freedom to be okay with not having all of the answers. And, it can help a company realize that while it’s very hard to change dramatically overnight, it is possible to get better every day.

How can you help your company become better? You can start by finding out if the perceptions of your company’s brand are in alignment with reality — that is, what your customers and employees actually think.