Business musings

Cars and coffee. Both subtle indicators of your brand…

Too flashy a car and clients might feel they are paying you too much. But, if you drive an old banger, you could well be perceived as unsuccessful and therefore hardly a safe bet to work with.

And what about your coffee? In a world where establishments serving real coffee lie on every street corner, might your coffee be undermining your brand? Increasingly, I find that people expect the same quality coffee in business meetings as they can get on the high street.

I’m not saying these criteria are fair judgments but they do seem to happen. Might be something to think about.

Becoming aware of how areas within your business communicate with your customers is vital if you want to convey a consistent message about your brand/business.

The difficulty is that your customers don’t just read the words you write, or hear what you say about your business. They tend to read a whole lot more into every single interaction with your business. Both consciously and unconsciously. They even read things into the interactions they don’t have, or the things you don’t do.

Some examples…

• Shabby carpet in a reception area.
  Customer perception: Maybe your business isn’t doing very well if you can’t afford a new carpet.
• Taking a long time to answer the phone.
  Customer perception: Maybe you don’t actually want my business.
  
• Old fashioned branding.
  Customer perception: Maybe you are just an old fashioned company delivering out-of-date solutions.

Becoming aware of what your business is saying about itself can be hard when you’re so close to it, but with some outside help you can train yourself into noticing again. Try interacting with your business as if you were a customer – how does it make you feel? What would you be thinking if you saw or experienced those things in another business? Ask your friends, family, colleagues and customers what they think about your business.  Listen to their honest opinions.  Then aim to change the things you can.

Being confident that your business is communicating what you want to communicate is a great place to be.  Don’t let your business undermine what it is you really want to say!