Morale // Brand

We’ve been talking about brand ambassadors this month and defined a brand ambassador as everyone in your company including vendors & sub-contractors because they all impact your customer’s experience with your brand. One of the best ways to control the brand voice coming from your brand ambassadors is to have good company morale.

A happy employee generally talks highly of their company, co-workers, work, and customers. We have all seen those disgruntled workers that trash the company that puts food on their family’s table. These people obviously do not have “brand buy-in” and only see their work as a means to a paycheck and not a long-term career with that company. Look at your typical employee at Walmart versus Target. In general (although, I must say it has been getting much better lately), Walmart employees do not want to be there and it shows. Their lack of enthusiasm from the non-greeter to the check out process to the sloppy shelves, all show that morale is down and it effects the buying experience. On the flipside, Target’s employees smile, care about you as a customer and how their store looks which makes me think they are happier. Your shopping habits are probably different in each store. When I’m in Target, my wife & I browse different sections and buy things we want and even impulse buys seems logical. In Walmart, we buy what we need and the only potential impulse buys are things that are ridiculously cheap. Which would you rather sell to your customer – valuable or cheap add-ons?

This is one of the biggest setbacks for the construction industry. The low bid process has driven everyone to expect average as the norm instead of valuing the experience, expertise, and long-term costs. This is changing though with value priced bidding, sustainability in the forefront and customers being able to pick from 30-50 companies for any given project. Customers are looking for companies they WANT to work with instead of HAVE to work with for the next few years. Your team’s morale is a big part of desire to work with your company. In the project interviews, you can easily see which project managers are excited about their work and which ones are punching a clock.

Morale, whether good or bad, is contagious. Happy people make other people happy and help you hire other people that want to work with you while its a slippery slope when a few bad apples become your company’s brand voice. Think back to the Walmart vs Target example. Where do you think the better applicants are applying for jobs? The last Walmart employee that actually stood out to me in a positive manner is now working at Target.

What do you do to increase company morale beyond pay?