The reason for focusing your brand-building efforts on employees is quite simple --- employees have choices. Just like customers, they are attracted to companies with strong brands --- companies that stand for something meaningful.

The best companies realize employees have four choices with respect to achieving desired business results for your company:

1. Join: "I choose to join your company, do great work, and help achieve goals and objectives."
2. Stay: "I choose to stay with your company, becoming a valuable employee over time."
3. Grow: "I choose to develop my skills and capabilities, becoming more valuable to your company over time."
4. Contribute: "I choose to consistently deliver and make a positive impact on bottom-line success."
   

Don't believe me, a few years back Southwest Airlines had 225,000 applications for 1200 job positions. Keep in mind this was while the other airlines were declaring bankruptcy and couldn't get people to show up to work. Same industry, same company function - getting people from one location to another - yet, one is driving profits and the rest are almost out of business.

Another great example is the turnover of Wegmans' Food Markets part-time workers versus the supermarket industry average. Industry average is 76%, Wegmans' 26%. This 50% difference is worth millions upon millions of dollars to Wegmans' bottom-line every year.

You may be tempted in this down economy to lose focus on building and sustaining your culture because no one is hiring and employees don't have anywhere to go. But, be forewarned, your best employees WILL leave if they aren't engaged or even worse, they will retire on the job draining productivity and profits. No matter what the economy is doing, there is always opportunity out there for your best employees to find a job where they are valued and can make an impact every day.

In our recent electronic newsletter, we asked the following question:
When purchasing a product or service, how often do you have an outstanding* customer experience?
(*outstanding = a time when the experience had such an impact that you openly spoke about it to others.)

Here are the results:

These results remind me of when I used to own Buckman's Bakery & Ice Cream in Rochester, NY.

In the early 1990s, Buckman’s was on the verge of bankruptcy but my business partner and I saw an opportunity. We scouted out the business and were shocked to see 7,000+ square feet of pure filth. Even more alarming were the staff—lazy, unkempt, rude, and careless—delivering bad experiences, one customer at a time.

However, having a good understanding of the power of perceptions, we knew that if we could change the customer experience, we could take Buckman's back to the days when it was a special place in the hearts and minds of Rochesterians.

So we set to work to re-establish the Buckman’s Brand from the inside out. We defined our vision and made it meaningful to our employees by providing visible, measurable behaviors that everyone was accountable for doing (such as remembering a regular's name and what they ordered). We provided systems and approaches for delighting customers, and employees and customers liked it. Employees enjoyed contributing to the success of an organization they believed in. We also decreased our product assortment to the core products we knew we could guarantee would always be good.

Over time, our strategy worked. The positive perceptions about Buckman’s started to come alive again.

After some initial hiccups with the limited product selection, customers began to focus on the clean store and energetic, friendly employees. Customers began to appreciate consistent quality and being treated with care and respect. They loved being remembered every time they came in. They loved the Buckman’s Experience!

My business partner and I ended up selling Buckman’s for ten times what we paid for it after just three short years because of the three things we did really well:

1. We hired the best people.
2. We produced only products we could be great at (less was much more).
3. We established a performance-based work culture where minimum wage employees expected to be — and appreciated being — accountable for keeping the store clean and delighting customers at every point of interaction.
   

These three things ended up becoming the foundation for the Achieving Brand Integrity^® process.

Let me relay my recent experience and you can decide.

Every time I’ve flown Northwest, the crew has worked really hard to provide a good customer experience. I cannot say the same for Delta. Recently I’ve had a few trips where half of the journey is on Northwest and half is on Delta, which has amplified the differences. What I want to know is: Which airline’s employee performance expectations and systems are going to win out in the merger?

On a recent Sunday, I boarded a Northwest flight and was greeted by the pilot accompanied by smiling, attentive flight attendants. After we all boarded and got situated prior to take off, the pilot came over the intercom to welcome us and give updates about our destination and the weather. During the flight, he came on a few more times with quick, to-the-point announcements letting us know how the flight was going and what to expect. Upon landing, pilot and flight attendants thanked us for flying Northwest, saying they appreciate our business and hope we had a good experience. They even handed out customer comment cards for providing feedback. (Funny enough, the header on the comment card was for Delta!)

Within forty-eight hours I was on a Delta flight, which I can’t help but label Customer Service Stupidity. As we boarded the plane, maintenance workers were visibly working outside of the plane and a few were actually inside the cockpit. So boarding set an uneasy tone with passengers, but to top it off, we sat in our seats for over thirty minutes before one of the workers tapped the pilot on the shoulder and said, “Maybe you want to tell them what’s going on.”

Only then did we learn that a part needed to be changed and the workers were simply following SOP to make sure everything was in working order. We were delayed more than an hour overall, but those thirty minutes of silence fueled my anxiety and disappointment with the Delta experience. I know I wasn’t the only one wondering if there was something wrong with the plane or if the delay was going to make me miss my connecting flight. And the pilot did not think to give us an update until he was prompted to do so by someone else!

It only got worse from there.

After giving us the initial update on what the maintenance was about, the pilot only spoke five more words the entire flight: “Flight attendants prepare for takeoff.”

The weather was bad and the flight was turbulent. The flight attendants were grumpy and dour. As passengers, we want to have basic comfort knowing the pilot is thinking of us as more than cargo; yet this pilot did not utter another sound the whole time, neglecting to even notify the flight attendants of landing.

Delta apparently does not have nonnegotiable behaviors or protocol in place for pilots to follow, and if they do then shame on this flight crew for not following it. I used my “Northwest” comment card to express my incredible dissatisfaction with Delta’s customer experience and plan on sending additional correspondence expressing my distaste. I sincerely believe Delta hates customers and Northwest wants to love you. I hope Northwest’s processes and systems win out.

As a small-business owner, I’m accustomed to focusing on numbers. Did we hit the goals for the month? Were we able to improve sales? Did we increase profits?

While I know it’s important to keep a close tab on financial metrics like these,  I’ve seen owners turn numbers into an hourly obsession.

As a business leader, ask yourself, which would you really rather have today: A healthy economy or the ability to replicate your best employees and the experiences they deliver for your customers?

This might seem like an odd question, but in a down economy it is more important than ever to define expectations for employees, communicate effectively and hold everyone accountable to deliver the results that keep your business going.

In the years ahead, there will be three things that will most impact the growth of your company. Unfortunately, two of them are completely beyond your control:

1. The economy. It’s ugly right now and you can’t control what happens next.
2. Your industry. You’re just one small part of the segment so you have minimal impact.

However, the third thing you have total control over:

3. Your employees. You totally control this, so you can replicate your best employees to drive experiences to a new level.

Make no mistake. It doesn’t matter if the economy is booming or if it’s a bust. You will win more and lose less if your employees stay consistent with delivering the experiences that customers value most. In turn, customers will thank you by providing their loyalty and by going out of their way to promote your business and share their experiences. And, by the way, so will your employees!

Do you want employees who come in, punch the clock (literally or figuratively), go through the tactical motions to get the job done, and then punch out? Of course you don't. What leader would?

You want employees who care about the success of the company. This happens when they buy into the brand. When they know what the brand means to the company and to them personally. When they know how to do the behaviors and deliver experiences that bring the brand to life. And when they understand why its important to the company and to customers. When this happens you will have achieved a brand-driven performance culture.

The guru on driving organizational "change", John Kotter, has a great quote, he says, "The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture or systems...The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people."


Think about your employee base as one big computer. There are two main components to making the computer perform: hardware and software. Your company has the same two components. Hardware is equal to the strategy and structure of the company. Software is composed of the beliefs and behaviors of the people in the company. If you don't have software on your computer, how useful is it. It simply won't perform to its potential. If the beliefs and behaviors of your employees don't fit inside the structure of your brand, your company will not achieve optimum performance. 

Most people desire to go to work each day, do a good job and help the company grow. But sometimes employees need a little bit more from each other, the company and its leadership. A little bit more in the form of recognition for doing a good job, organized in a way that helps the employee to understand what doing a good job looks like and shows appreciation.

I get approached by company leaders asking me why they can’t seem to get their employees to go the extra mile for the company, to show a commitment to seeing that the company does well. What I think they are looking for is employees who care so much that they’ll put in whatever extra effort is needed day in and day out, to ensure their jobs get done and done right. The reality is that if leaders want to see that kind of commitment, then they must show more appreciation in the form of positive recognition.

Most of organizations I talk with have tried and failed time and again to implement employee recognition programs that actually drive alignment and behavior change. Most company programs end up like your neighborhood ice cream man simply serving up a consistent Flavor of the Month that employees laugh at.

If you have an existing employee recognition program or are thinking about implementing one, how are you going to measure success and return on investment? Ask yourself these questions:

How is your program:

• reducing people time and investment necessary to effectively build and sustain culture?
• enhancing existing employee performance systems and employee touchpoints?
• reducing operational costs of changing culture, engaging employees and servicing customers?
• streamlining and improving internal communication and breaking down organizational silos?
• increasing customer satisfaction?
• improving effectiveness of training initiatives?
• growing revenue?
• replicating high-performing employees?
• increasing employee satisfaction and loyalty?

Recognition should be a strategic, leadership-driven process for acknowledging others in the workplace for good work that is aligned with the overall business objectives and strategies of the company.  Don't bank your recognition strategy on plaques, glass prisms, overpriced toaster ovens, toolsets, spa treatments and motivational posters!

No matter what industry you are in, customers choose to do business with you based on what they truly want from your company and the experiences they have with you. We all know people these days are looking for the lowest price. But if the best deal comes at the expense of not honoring the brand promises you make, people won’t continue to invest in your brand, nor will they refer their friends to help you grow your business.

For me, this reality has never rang as true as it did after I tried to buy new technology from my business cell phone provider. I really wanted the newest model that recently came out with all its bells and whistles.
Given that this provider has gone out of its way to tell me---via paper bills, online, and through CEO messages---that they want me to have “simply everything” I need, as well as rewards for being a loyal customer, I had high hopes for an easy transaction. Imagine how shocked I was when the salesperson in the store told me that I couldn’t put the new phone on my existing business account. “If you really want it,” he said, “you’d have to open up a separate account and pay more than your current arrangement.” In response, I calmly pointed out the thousands of dollars I spend with the company each month, as well as my willingness to upgrade many of my employees to the latest technology if we liked the first purchase. The current and potential revenue didn’t matter to him as he replied: “I’m sorry sir, I can’t help you.”

 Those final words that ended our interaction also ended my 10-year loyalty to the provider. I’m sure missing my money each month might sting, but not as much as the lasting impact of missing what matters most to customers.

My provider could have closed the gap between who they say they are with what I (and I'm sure many others) actually experienced by training employees to deliver on customer needs and translating how employees can actually “do” the promises the company makes.

In this age of uncertainty, I hope you’ll never forget the importance of positioning employees to behave in ways that add value to every interaction and experience your company has with customers. These employee behaviors will lead to consistent experiences that will go far in providing stability to your business, and to helping your brand differentiate and rise to the top.