Developing Your Company Image

Recently I wanted to check how much Internet cap I still had left this month but the online portal to my ISP account was down (on reflection I am not sure if it has ever worked) so I tried the helpline.
After five attempts at the automated system, I finally got put through to someone who informed me that she could not assist over the phone but if I was to pop down to the nearby office they could assist me in person.
When I visited the office I was greeted by chaos. There were four different queues with no indication as to which served what.
There was no signage, no receptionist, just milling customers trying to have their problems resolved.
I quickly joined the shortest line (which turned out to be the cashier's - obviously business was not translating into sales) and asked where I should go.
I was directed to the wrong queue. Fortunately, a switched-on client informed me of my error and suggested I try one of the others.
After a 20-minute debacle I eventually made it to the front of the correct desk and was assisted by a young lady, who had to ask one of the other staff how to check my account status (this was after she completed her urgent personal call).
I did, to their credit, finally get the information I asked for, but left with the subtle feeling that perhaps I should change Internet Service Providers.
At the exit I gave a wan smile to the people being turned away by the security guard because it was now lunchtime. A poor image of the service provider was generated in my mind.
People sometimes talk about a company's image as if it should be this kind of facade projected to the unsuspecting public that hides the true nature of a business.
I am talking about something along the lines of "Yes we are an environment-wrecking oil-drilling business but let us project to the world that we are friendly and interested in green fuel and hope they never discover the truth."
Happy adverts and clever marketing campaigns put forward a picture in the public eye that cannot be filled in reality.
The true company "image" is the emotional residue left in your clients every time they encounter your product or use your service.
The closer this is to the adverts and slogans you display the less people will think you are a hypocrite (and deep down no one likes those).
You can desire to alter my world, but unless you do so for the better I am going to think twice every time I hear your name or see your billboard.
So how can you avoid this disparity from developing? Well, for a start take part of last week's article to heart and think a little less about "Me" and a little more about your clients.
Think more about how they feel when they interact with your company (either through your staff, your product, your website) rather than thinking about how you can empty their wallets.
If you have not done it recently, have a walk though your company from a client's perspective or hire someone to do so.
I know a restaurant that routinely gets people to eat at their establishment in order to get feedback on service issues.
Try calling your own help desk - especially if it has an automated component and do not do the obvious "this is the boss checking on how the help desk is running", create a problem and phone in anonymously.
Second, do not over promise and under-deliver. Doing so makes you a liar (they are not too popular either).
At the very least do exactly what you committed to - that will enable you to satisfy your customers.
Work on going one step beyond that and you will create raving fans. People like it when things go according to plan but they love it when confronted with a positive surprise.
The Ritz Carlton has your personal letterhead placed in your room - not just the generic hotel stationary, now that is a surprise for the first time guest.
What does your environment at work say about your service? Is the grass cut, the toilets clean, the windows sparkling?
Not as some "window-dressing" attempt to con, but because your company has a culture that says "we take care of stuff hence our offices look good".
At one of the schools I attended, pot plants would be put out only on days when there were large numbers of visitors, the rest of the time they were stored in a nursery some place far from potential schoolboy attacks.
As students we could never work out why such beautification was not part of the routine landscape, after all the plants grew, needed water and care regardless of where they spend most of the year.
You could buy the occasional new magazine for your waiting room (doctors take note here) or how about a dollar a day on a newspaper?
Finally, social awareness. Nearly every list on building a positive company image contains this one-community responsibility (which includes the giving of donations).
Starbucks happily spends a fortune on campaigns highlighting how they improve the lives of coffee growers in Third World countries.
That is praiseworthy and long may it continue, but it does detract a little from the real community change that they bring the provision of good-quality beverages in a clean, friendly environment where ever you find one of their stores.
The provision of a place where people can meet, chat and physically interact in a world that is increasingly electronic as a point of contact is surely as commendable as providing clean water to a village.
The smell and sensation of drinking a well-crafted, tall, hazelnut latte leaves a better impression in my mind than reading the small print on where their bean comes from.
By all means help the impoverished, but also remember to ask yourself how your product is helping change people's lives directly.
I am all for bettering the world, but is that not what we should be doing anyway.