Be Faithful to Your Brand

We all love to use marketing buzz words like brand marketing, brand strategy, and delivering on our brand promise. As a marketer, I am always cautious when using these words because they are not to be taken lightly. With the use of these marketing terms comes a tremendous obligation. If we are to take our responsibility, in practical terms not just conceptually, to our company, our employees and our stake holders seriously we must strive to excel all expectations and be true to the meaning of these terms.  

Unfortunately, many times we as leaders develop, unconsciously, our own definition of these words and we become satisfied that we are optimally executing because we have (across the organization) adopted the buzz words in our everyday speak. (Say it often enough and we believe that we are doing it).  

In many of our businesses we are actively and consistently developing our brand image and hopefully evolving through engagement with our customers. Engagement through all kinds of different formats (i.e. Circulars, customer service, social media, website, community involvement) is one thing but  measuring and tracking the results are totally different.  

We have to be able to track, evaluate and course correct all along the way for our entire relationship with the brand. Yet, how many of us have tracking tools that we don't believe or at the very least don't review on a consistent basis and/or use as an indicator to tweak our plan?  (Think of that last project where you didn't believe the numbers and put your own spin on the data).

Make a promise to be faithful to your brand by:

• Not being superficial when exploring all of the brand marketing options

• Develop non-conventional ways to get to your end game

• Examine and re-examine the data for what it is performance of your brand! 

• Be open to the data and don't put "your" spin on the numbers

• Be honest - if it's not making sense then the approach probably isn't right; dump it and move on

• Don't get blindly vested where you can't change course

Yes, when we're not faithful to our brands we are cheating on them - plain and simple. If we are true to our brands, customers will respond with loyalty and yield good returns.

Sonya Ruff Jarvis, is the Managing Member of Jarvis Consultants and Founder of the eRetailer Summit. Sonya has extensive experience in creating original innovative solutions to overcome major business challenges.  Sonya has spent most of her career visiting headquarters across global industries and has built strong business relationships across diverse brands. 

Sonya has a M.B.A. in Marketing. She is married and has a daughter and they live in  Fairfield County Connecticut.

When did, "Can I help you" become a rhetorical question?

I stopped answering the question for a while; and, now I answer the question more from the sense of hope rather than thinking that I’m actually going to receive help.  But it never fails, when I am in a store and I ask if they have my size, color, etc.  before I can get it out of my mouth the sales associate usually replies that everything we have is out on the floor. Really?  Please enlighten me and just take a look (or at least pretend that you are looking).   I realize that there are some cases where this is true and everything is indeed out on the floor. But, it can't possibly be true in every single case. 

I had a recent experience where I decided to put that premise to the test. I stopped into a national chain store looking for the exact pair of jeans I had bought the previous month (and fallen in love with) from the same retailer but in a different town.  I looked and couldn’t find my size.  I asked a sales associate for my size and surprise I was told everything is out on the floor.  I really wanted the jeans; so, I pursued my mission and asked two other sales associates at two different times. Both gave me the same answer. I didn't notice but a fourth sales associate must have seen what was happening; and, quietly went in the back and found the jeans in my size. She handed them to me.  As I was walking out of the store with my purchase, I passed her and she looked at me and "mouthed" "sorry about that".

I can only assume she saw how my customer journey was playing out and decided to intervene and do what should could to help sell me the merchandise that I desperately wanted and that was just taking up space in the store and quite frankly on the financial statement.

Retailers continuously invest in training and educating its associates.  But in so many cases it's not all about training but about hiring the "right" person to represent your brand. That sales associate should have personal characteristics and traits that reflect a service attitude. The fact is you can do all the training in the world and if the sales associates doesn't have a service "heart" and a genuine willingness to help the customer it will leave a tremendous crack in your brand. 

We all know that brand image is important; but, I would advocate that hiring a person that has a service attitude and reflects a willingness to help is just as important as investing in training. Both will reap the rewards of ultimately representing the best of your brand. 

Sonya Ruff Jarvis, is the Managing Member of Jarvis Consultants and Founder of the eRetailer Summit. Sonya has extensive experience in creating original innovative solutions to overcome major business challenges.  Sonya has spent most of her career visiting headquarters across global industries and has built strong business relationships across diverse brands. 

Sonya has a M.B.A. in Marketing. She is married and has a daughter and they live in  Fairfield County Connecticut. 

The Invisible Customer

It always amazes me when I am standing at a cashier trying to check out and pay for items and the phone rings. Invariably, the cashier always answers the phone and begins serving the customer on the other end; while, continuing to process my purchases. Once my purchases are done she/he hands me my bag with the phone to his/her ear (sometimes whispering “thank you”). Each time this happens to me it’s always a bizarre and baffling experience. I want to yell, I’m not an invisible customer.  I am a living paying customer standing right in front of you.  But, I always shrug it off.  I was having lunch with a retail owner and explained the same scenario; and how it happens more often than not.  He then explained to me it’s a tough position and asked, how would I recommend handling the situation?  I explained to him, on the contrary I have had very positive experiences too.  Recently, I was in an upscale department store making purchases. The phone rang, the clerk said “excuse me please”. She literally stopped waiting on me and answered the phone.  She explained that she is currently with a guest; and, as soon as she is done she would return to helping the guest on the phone. She finished ringing me up and walked around the counter and handed me my bag of purchases.  She said “thank you”.  I looked at the cashier and said "you’re welcome and I appreciate that". She looked at me and smiled. As I walked away I glanced back and she was picking up the phone to give her attention to the customer on hold.  This customer service person recognized me as a living paying customer standing right in front of her. I realized I wasn't an invisible customer with this particular retailer and they raised the level of excellence of what I now expect from others.

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Sonya Ruff Jarvis, is the Managing Member of Jarvis Consultants and Founder of the eRetailer Summit. Sonya has extensive experience in creating original innovative solutions to overcome major business challenges.  Sonya has spent most of her career visiting headquarters across global industries and has built strong business relationships across diverse brands. 

Sonya has a M.B.A. in Marketing. She is married and has a daughter and they live in  Fairfield County Connecticut. 

When was the last time a brand exceeded your expectations?

Every company touts outstanding customer service but truth be told, how many companies really deliver exceptional customer service?  Yet, the ones who do gain unrivaled brand loyalty from consumers whether it's shoppers, hotel guests, travelers, passengers, gaming guests, you can name any customer type.  It seems like it should be a no-brainer for brands to strive to deliver excellence in their customers experience. And many do, but fall short. But, there are clearly some premiere brands that consistently excel. Here's a recent story of one.

Recently, my family was on a vacation and the hotel we stayed at had outstanding customer service in a way that made all of us feel so special. It wasn’t just one situation or an example we can cite from our vacation experience but the entire seven days this hotelier got it right.  At check in, greeting us by name, having a cool drink ready for us (including an age appropriate fun option for our young daughter) and the genuine friendly escort to our room.  That night, my husband and I both had beautiful robes but our daughter didn’t and she asked why she didn’t have a robe?  Like most kids (not fair, right?) she wanted one too.    Well, I stopped at the front desk to mail a letter and the guest relations representative asked me if we were enjoying our stay. I told her everything was great .  I then proceeded to share the story about my daughter and the robe just as a cute story.   Well, that night after dinner when we went back to the room there was a beautiful child’s robe, a stuffed lion (who was a wonderful addition to the two stuffed bears and turtle) and a box of chocolates – all gifts to help our daughter feel extra special too!  Plus, all were to take home after our trip with a lovely note from the guest relations representative.

That was the first time we stayed at that brand on a family vacation and now we stay at no other hotel brand for our vacations. The additional cost is well worth it for us because we always know we will be more than satisfied with our experience.  We are now super loyal guests and we look forward to each experience at their properties. We even keep a comparative survey that we complete after each stay. And, each time regardless of the destination the brand consistently exceeds our expectations.

Sonya Ruff Jarvis, is the Managing Member of Jarvis Consultants and Founder of the eRetailer Summit. Sonya has extensive experience in creating original innovative solutions to overcome major business challenges.  Sonya has spent most of her career visiting headquarters across global industries and has built strong business relationships across diverse brands. 

Sonya has a M.B.A. in Marketing. She is married and has a daughter and they live in  Fairfield County Connecticut. 

Guilty of Striving for Excellence!

For my entire career, I have received feedback that I expect too much from people. And, I have been accused of measuring everyone by my standards. And, through out-my career I have plead guilty to expecting people to strive for excellence (not good enough, not great but excellence). I have never felt bad with being tagged as the leader who "expects too much".  Because I have always held myself to the same standards.

My blog, Sonya's Standards will examine the mystery around striving for and/or achieving excellence (and sometimes the lack of) we are faced with as business people and as consumers.   I will break the code of excellence by sharing encounters that are interesting and quite frankly deserve more thinking and conversation.  There is where you come in, please share with me what you think about the topics I will talk about in this blog.  Every topic is game! 

My posts will appear every other Thursday.  I invite you to follow me as I journal through life's experiences in search of breaking the code of excellence.  And, I guarantee we can learn something together. 

Until next time, cheers!

Sonya