It takes a long time to build a strong brand but all that hard work can come unstuck with some simple mistakes. Companies don’t deliberately set out to damage their brand, but without thinking of the consequences, these mistakes can be costly. Below are my top (or bottom) five.
1. Over promise and under deliver
This comes down to how you approach your sales. Do you want to be in it for the long haul, or do you want to make some quick short-term sales knowing you are unlikely to get repeat business? The reality is, most businesses need repeat customers to keep their doors open. As I’ve said many times, it takes a lot of money to acquire a customer and much less to keep them.
Your cost of sale is usually higher for new customers than for repeat customers, due to the high cost of lead generation. For most businesses this means they have to treat their customers well to ensure they return.
If you set your customer’s expectations high but fail to deliver, you are unlikely to win their business in the long-term. If you have problems with your service delivery, be upfront about it and then make sure you fix it. Everyone understands problems occur, but it is about how you address these problems that will make or break your relationship with your customer. Communicate with them regularly, keep them informed of any issues, and when you set deadlines, ensure you meet them.
2. Under appreciate your employees
It is a rare employee who expects to remain with the same company for their whole career. In fact the average person changes their career 5-7 times throughout their working life. And almost 30% of the workforce changes job every 12 months. So, with this highly mobile workforce, few employees feel any kind of sense of company loyalty.
Employees now expect much more from their workplace, especially in the first world. Whereas once, employees felt lucky to be employed, they now feel their company is lucky to have them. And, if they don’t feel they are being valued through financial and personal fulfilment, they will happily move on to another employer. Some employees are easier to lose, but the problem with undervaluing your whole employee base means you are more likely to lose the good employees because they have far more opportunities on offer.
Ensure you communicate with your teams, thank them when they are doing a good job and let them know where they fit within the greater company strategy. There are so many sites that provide good information on competitive salaries and that is useful to make sure you’re paying them market rates. It’s important to note though, more often people leave because of their boss, not because of their role. It’s the difference between a leader and a manager and not everyone is suitable to a leadership role.
3. Increase your prices without explanation or notification
Price increases are a part of business and customers expect them from time to time. What they don’t expect is a price increase without due notice, especially when that price is going to significantly affect their profit. The best way to get your customers through a price increase is by explaining why it has happened with as much transparency as possible.
There is often a roll-on effect of a price increase, and you are likely to be one of a long line affected. Be honest and up front and provide as much notice as possible so if necessary, your customers can adjust their own pricing to mitigate the increase.
4. Don’t respond to candidates applying for jobs
It amazes me how many companies don’t find it necessary to reply to job applicants and yet it is the height of rudeness. Potential employees have probably gone to a lot of effort to submit their resume, author a cover letter and possibly even write selection criteria. It is basic manners to at least acknowledge their application. This can simply be an auto response with a ‘thanks for applying’ message and ‘we’ll let you know if we would like you to proceed to an interview’. This kind of response is a bit of a cop out, but it’s certainly better than nothing at all.
Ideally, you should get back to all candidates with a written and personalised rejection, thanking them for their interest but letting them know they were unsuccessful. I have heard of people not being notified even after they have attended interviews, which I find unbelievably rude and extremely damaging to their brand. I personally think the unsuccessful candidates probably dodged a bullet by not winning the job, because if that is the company’s approach to the interview process, I don’t believe they’d be a good employer to work for.
5. Spend more time on acquiring new customers than keeping existing customers
Depending on the way your sales team is renumerated, it is possible that there is far more incentive to win new business, rather than keep existing business. If your business is reliant on one or two customers, you really need to reduce that risk by increasing your customer base, but you also need to spend a lot of time keeping those existing customers happy.
New customers provide the opportunity for new pricing and a change in service delivery, but it doesn’t always mean they will be more profitable. Winning and on-boarding a new customer can take a lot of money and resources and before you go after their business, you need to ensure the numbers add up. If your sales team are only awarded for winning new customers, you may need to review their incentives. You want them to be successful, but you have to ensure their success means success for the business.
Rhonda Locke is a highly experienced marketer, a customer, product and brand champion, and is the Founder and Director of Unlocke Creative.