What Your Staff Is Telling Your Clients

Hi,

Small businesses are in direct contact with clients. Unless the owner works every business hour, the staff is the primary representative of the brand. Therefore, in most, perhaps every, small business the owner and staff is the number one medium of brand communication in terms of cost, effort, and impact. It makes sense to have a plan complete with goals, strategies, objectives, and measures to help you speak with one voice and tell—not only the same story—but the right story to each and every client.

There are many ways we communicate: body language, posture, facial expression, language, dress, etc. Here are three recommendations to get you thinking about how you currently communicate what your company stands for.

Get more focused on the client. The great majority of businesses are focused on efforts and tasks rather than results and clients. When your staff remains seated, doesn’t introduce themselves, spends more time looking at their screen or papers than looking into the eyes of clients, or when they don’t seem curious about the client or interested in developing rapport, there is an opportunity for more customer focus. Developing a Branding Framework and creating a Transformative Client Experience makes it clear what your company stands for and informs the staff as to the why and how of treating every client every time.

Let your personality shine through. Do not let your clients see you as beige. Off-white may be a safe choice when it comes to home resale value, but it’s not a good strategy for you, your staff, and your small business. Look at your exterior and interior design, your use of space, the way your staff dresses, the language they use, and the way they bring clients into the brand experience. Does every element tell a particular part of your brand story—and are these elements self-reinforcing? Developing a Branding Framework that spells out all these elements, and more, is be an important step.

Language and Metaphors. You know the old joke: What sounds better? “Sushi,” or “Cold Dead Fish”? Language can break through or fall short in trying to convey meaning. Clients hear the difference between something that is described with an overused “Awesome” and something that is “Insanely great.” For example, there is a qualitative difference between a hair stylist greeting a client with, “Come on back,” compared to stopping, offering a handshake or hug, looking the client in the eye, complimenting something about their appearance, relating to the client’s recent anniversary, and then asking, “How have you been?” as she takes the client by the arm and escorts her to the station.

Similarly, businesses located in Victorian mansions or urban lofts have built-in character by virtue of the space they inhabit. You wouldn’t usually put lace curtains in a loft and you wouldn’t expect concrete floors in a Victorian. If your business is located in commercial space or a single story shopping mall you need to adopt a metaphor to help convey your brand story through the use of interior design and architecture. Your space needs to look like a place where people that you want to reach feel like they belong. Again, both a Branding Framework and a Transformative Client Experience can help achieve these things.


Jim

Lucavìa
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
www.lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

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