Building a good public image should not be limited only to one department of an organisation, but rather everybody in the organisation should work hard to achieve. It does not matter the position or the duties an employee performs, he or she contributes to building the reputation of your brand as well as modelling the public image. Here’s our advice for Turning employees into Brand Ambassadors.
It is typical for organisations to ignore the fact that every time their employees take to the social media, their posts have a huge impact on the values as well as the mission of the organisation. It, therefore, becomes crucial for you to cultivate a culture where the employees know that in addition to their daily duties, they play a vital role in selling a good image of your organisation to the world.
Brand Advocates: Turning employees into Brand Ambassadors
One of the major element of turning your employees into brand ambassadors is making sure that every person working in the organisation, ranging from the receptionist to the most senior managers, completely understand what the organisation is all about. Each staff member should be able clearly to see their contribution to overall organisational goals, as well as believe in the mission. Trusting the task of the company creates the urge to share their feelings of satisfaction with the people around them.
No matter how hard you try, you cannot compel your employees to sell a brand they don’t believe in or appreciate. Faking a brand image is next to impossible. Therefore, your organisation should spare no effort in ensuring that the staff members are passionate about your brand and take some pride in representing your organisation.
Good leadership and communication play a significant role in influencing the employees to be passionate about the brand. Smart leaders view the company beyond making profits and understand that showing transparency and carefully conflict situations are equally important. We should not forget that most employees follow the example set by their leaders, and allowing them to communicate freely with their leaders creates an element of deep trust. The employees in return can convince the customers to develop confidence in the company’s brand and create meaningful connections.
Your dream of creating brand ambassadors is likely to become a reality if you design and implement recognition programs that cover all the employees. When you reward staff members who go an extra mile ahead and perform beyond expectations irrespective of their type of job, you promote a sense of pride, responsibility, and ownership among the employees. Recognition programs that only target the sales people are not effective because other employees who contribute to the growth of the brand are left out, and are not motivated to give their best. High performing employees are likely to stick around with you if they realise that their individual efforts are recognised.
It is paramount to acknowledge the power of social media and empower the employees to utilise it to promote your brand. A social media policy should be formulated explicitly outlining how to interact with both the enthusiasts and the critics of your brand online. Most of your customers are glued to the social media sites, and it is crucial to inspire your staff members to talk about the brand on their Twitter and Facebook posts. After the employees clearly understand the goals of the company and have been trained on do’s and don’ts to observe while online, they should be cut loose to promote your brand.
Employees are your ears out there and are a reliable source of information with what people are saying about your brand. Paying attention to the feedback from the staff members is crucial to understanding how the customers are reacting to your brand and dismissing the feedback as irrelevant is a path that leads to failure. Instead of disregarding the comments, the employees should be allowed to chat the way forward on how to enhance the brand and get more customers. Since the employees are knowledgeable about the brand and the challenges it is facing, it is important to engage them using the reality and involve them when tackling the challenges.
At Red Lounge Agency we create inspiring branding for the sake of empowering your brands as well as help you leverage the power of branding. Contact us for more information.
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