Effective onboarding goes beyond tactical training and integrates new employees in a brand-right, comprehensive, and strategic program.

Every new employee reflects time and money - not only in the recruiting and interviewing process but in the time it takes to bring them up to speed and make them productive.  Creating an engaging and comprehensive onboarding program will maximize your investment, reduce your overall training time, and generate motivated and enthusiastic new employees who are ready to help your company thrive.

How can Onboarding align your brand and marketing messages?

Many companies view onboarding as simply “orientation” - those first few days on the job where new hires learn how to use the phones, find the bathrooms, and fill out paperwork.  This completely misses the bigger picture.

Onboarding is an opportunity to immerse your new team member in every element of your company - from the basic and tactical to the strategic and cultural.  An effective program will help new employees become ambassadors of your brand and company, which is especially crucial if they have contact with customers, vendors, partners, or anyone outside the company. They will reflect and deliver your brand to the outside world so it’s imperative they do so in a brand-right way.

By integrating brand, culture, and marketing messages into your onboarding program, you will generate alignment and consistency throughout your organization and support the delivery of your brand.

Ten On-boarding Best Practices

1. Reflect the brand. The strength of your brand plays a huge role in recruiting and retaining top talent. The on-boarding process should reflect your brand seamlessly and consistently.
2. Reduce time to productivity. How fast can your new hire be up-to-speed? The sooner they’re productive, the sooner the company will benefit from their contributions.
3. Unify all on-boarding efforts.  There are multiple components and agendas that make up on-boarding - everything from payroll and benefits to security, IT, branding, customer service, and more. A unified and integrated program that covers all on-boarding elements will ensure each topic is trained consistently and according to company standards.
4. Introduce company culture. New employees can impact an organization’s culture. Now’s the time to introduce the company culture, and help new hires understand how they will be expected to meld into it.
5. Roll-out for maximum retention. Don’t overwhelm new hires by cramming all on-boarding into the first few days or weeks on the job. Spread it out to improve retention and provide on-the-job experience that can build better context.
6. Provide coaching & mentorship. It’s easy for new-hires to get frustrated, overwhelmed, and simply throw in the towel. If you lose them, you’ve also lost time and money. Give new employees an appropriate and safe outlet to vent, ask questions, and get coached.
7. Include evaluation and go/no-go checkpoints. Sometimes that person who shined in the hiring process turns out to be not the best fit after all. Build in checkpoints and measures for evaluation to help identify and de-select a poor fit early in the process, before you’ve invested a lot of time and money.
8. Involve managers. Don’t pass off on-boarding to the training or HR departments. Involve managers to establish rapport quicker and help them identify strengths and weaknesses, communication styles, motivation factors, growth opportunities, and more. 
9. Keep employees in the work environment. It’s tempting to ship your new employees off to a classroom for onboarding, but they’ll learn faster and retain more if you provide as much training as possible in the actual work environment.
10. Map to a larger plan. Onboarding should connect to and reflect your overall business objectives to support long-term company success. Also, development plans for each employee that are initiated in the onboarding process will improve motivation while building upon larger business goals.

This was a big week for RadioShack as the 88-year old company announced that it’s reintroducing itself as simply “The Shack.”  According to an article in USA Today, the company is making the change in an effort to maintain its brand heritage while also attracting more tech-savvy shoppers. The article goes on to say that a new ad campaign will focus on the company’s knowledgeable sales staff and the idea that their small stores are easier to navigate than big-box competitors.

Bloggers and Twitterers buzzed about the change all week long - many were quite critical saying the name change doesn’t pull the company out of relative obscurity compared to sleeker rivals like Best Buy.  One blogger wrote that his impression of RadioShack is that it’s a brand that “never made the jump to the 21st Century” and that this re-name doesn’t do enough to give the brand a larger overhaul to make it relevant.

Any time you make a change to your brand, it’s perfectly natural to experience resistance, both from your customers and your employees. What will make this a win for RadioShack will be well-trained, engaged employees who are truly enrolled in and representing the fundamentals of the brand to customers.  This is the foundation of internal-external marketing alignment, and it can make or break a shift in your brand.

This is is critical in the face of competitor Best Buy who recently launched a new program on Twitter called Twelpforce: “A collective force of Best Buy technology pros offering tech advice in Tweet form.”

What do you think of RadioShack’s name change?  Does it impact whether or not you will shop at the store?  Leave us your comments and tell us what’s on your mind.

When was the last time you experienced delight as a customer? I’m not just talking ho-hum customer satisfaction (like the guy at the deli didn’t completely screw up your sandwich, but he also didn’t offer you a pickle on the side either).  I’m talking honest-to-goodness delight! Joy! Extreme fulfillment!

Was it last week at the coffee shop when the barista remembered your name and your favorite beverage and started firing up the espresso machine as soon as she saw your face in the window? Or two months ago when you called your cable company for technical support and they handled your problem with professionalism and rapid response?

For me, it was a few weeks ago at the cosmetics counter of a major department store. The clerk was so efficient in uncovering my needs that I ended up buying several things that I hadn’t intended to, but the items were sold to me in such a way that I couldn’t pass them up. I walked away feeling very satisfied with my experience and the value of the products I had purchased. I ended up spending far more than I had intended, but I felt great about it! Next time I need makeup, I’m going back to that clerk for her efficient and friendly manner. 

Out of curiosity, I visited the website for the cosmetics brand this clerk represented. I wanted to see what the brand says about the service experience they promise to customers.  The website talks about expert knowledge, friendly advice, and personalized service that’s defined as a “gold standard” in the industry. 

This clerk truly delivered that description to me - she’s representing her brand appropriately and expertly. Her brand is exhibiting internal-external marketing alignment by making sure the experience I have as a customer matches what the brand promises. The words on the brand’s website aren’t just lip service. The company is truly walking the walk and delivering upon their promise through helpful, well-trained employees who provide an expert and friendly experience.

Sure, we all expect to be delighted when we check into a Ritz Carlton or shop at a high end retailer like Saks, but delight doesn’t have to be limited to luxury brands. You can build delight into any brand and any customer experience. And when you delight your customers, you’re building excitement and passion for your brand. Your customers will probably buy more of your product or service and be willing to pay a higher price for it. They’ll probably think about your brand every time they use your product, and they may even tell their friends, family, colleagues, and the web about your brand.

Beyond the value you provide for your customers, you also have an opportunity to delight your employees. Setting a high bar for service is a rush for the right employee. It’s rewarding and energizing. Employees can feel excited about coming to work and delivering your brand, knowing they have an opportunity to make someone’s day. It starts with finding and hiring those brand-right people who can easily become natural advocates for your company. If you’re interviewing someone who doesn’t seem like they can truly deliver the promise of your brand - move on! You’ll be glad you did.

Delivering customer delight is a fun game to play.  It’s exciting to be the one delivering it - and it’s even more thrilling to be on the receiving end as a customer. What are some brands that represent true customer delight to you? In what ways do they deliver? Leave us a comment and tell us about your experiences.

We have all experienced it. A slick new marketing campaign peaks our interest in a product or service. It’s usually a bold promise about what we can expect if we purchase a product or sign up for service. We take the chance, engage with the business, and immediately start seeing gaps between what they promised and the actual experience. What happened? Where did the promise go?

Companies that don’t pay attention to the gap between the brand promise and the actual customer experience risk creating a situation where the customer senses a bait and switch. This can quickly erode the integrity of your brand and take years - and millions of dollars - to correct. 

The practice of Internal-External Marketing Alignment can help ensure that your customer experience reflects the promise of your brand by building a strong culture, providing effective and practical training, and communicating consistently and powerfully to your teams. To get started on the right path, you should first identify the various conditions in your business that have a cumulative impact on your service culture.  Here are a few we commonly see.

Are you clear about your service goal?
This seems like an obvious question, yet it’s surprising how often I ask this question in consulting sessions and get an uncomfortable silence. It’s also surprising how many businesses immediately say they provide outstanding service, but when I dig a little deeper, it’s clear they’re not delivering anything more than the most elementary and basic customer experience. There’s simply no “delight” to be found anywhere. But maybe “delight” isn’t part of the experience you’re committed to providing. If your goal is to provide a solid, basic experience, then call it that. If it’s true delight you’re after, then the elements that make a delightful experience must be clear and tangible to everyone - most importantly your customer.

Are you putting money, and time, where your mouth is?
Here’s a simple question: is your company spending more time or less time on associate training and communication now than you did five years ago? If your answer is “more,” then good for you. Building a strong culture of exceptional service requires time and commitment. If you’re spending less than before, this could be a reason for declining service standards. Over the past few years, many businesses have gradually starved their communication, training, and cultural alignment and are now seeing a widening gap between the brand promise and the service reality.

What does your employee attraction program look like?
Many service businesses have relatively high turnover. Logic would tell you that these businesses should be masters at attracting great workers due to the fact that they are always recruiting. Often the opposite is true. Many service businesses have extremely primitive programs for attracting a workforce that is right for their brand and gifted at providing a great experience for customers. They rely on the most basic elements of recruiting, like posting a help wanted sign in the window or posting an ad on craigslist.  Instead, they could be building a network of qualified candidates who they’ve already determined are brand-right. Leading companies are now focusing on building the employment brand of their organizations to support the larger brand. This employment brand is what will attract the brand-right people into your company and entice them to stay for the long haul and perform to their highest potential.

Does your entire organization know how cool they are?
When working with an organization for the first time, I’m often amazed at how they do what they do, the beauty of their product, the complexity of their execution, and the innovation they foster. Yet, when I point this out to my client they often roll their eyes and shrug off the compliment. What makes their company amazing has become mundane and common in their eyes. Providing excitement and engagement for your customer starts with you being excited and engaged first. Does your organization truly celebrate what you do, what you provide, or how you provide it? Take a fresh look at what you do, how you talk about it, how you celebrate it. You might find that the secret to delighting your customer is first of all re-connecting your organization with a true passion for what you do.

Asking yourself these four questions is a great place to start in identifying where your opportunities may lie. In the second part of this post we will explore the various components of the ecosystem that all contribute to Internal-External Marketing Alignment.

15 Training Tips to Boost Your Retail Success

In the competitive world of retail, training your associates and managers is essential to building and maintaining the right customer experience that supports your brand. Kennedy Communications has had the privilege of working with a number of leading global retailers on a variety of training initiatives. We’ve developed a collection of best practices in retail training as a result of these programs. If you have any additions to this list, please leave us a comment and we’ll update as appropriate.

1. Simplify processes
Concept: Clearly define all processes and keep them simple.
Example: Process training can be overwhelming, and if the processes are too complicated they will not be followed. It is also useful to include memory devices such as acronyms or metaphors to assist retention.

2. Time-release learning
Concept: Break learning down into manageable chunks; spread information delivery over time to avoid bombarding associates with too much, too fast.
Example:  A series of short online learning sessions followed by defined exercises and manager/mentor check-in to reinforce and validate learning.

3. Evaluate ROI
Concept: Evaluate depth of training program by Return On Investment (ROI).
Example:  Base the investment in training on the predictable longevity of the associate and the ROI that will be realized from the cost of training. Also, deliver training in forms that require minimal involvement from other team members to decrease labor costs associated with training.

4. Keep associates on sales floor
Concept: Take associates out of the workspace for as little time as possible.
Example:  Design training that can be done in between regular work responsibilities on the sales floor or will only take the associate off the floor for short (15 minute) intervals.

5. Deliver training on demand
Concept: Deliver training using vehicles that are available on demand for immediate learning and usage of new tools.
Example:  Use video, computer-based training, and self-guided workbooks, as opposed to structured classes that may cause a delay in learning due to scheduling.

6. Align with advancement and competency models
Concept: Align training components with a model that reinforces and supports steps and stages.
Example: Associates will see that investing in their own training will better qualify them for future advancement.

7. Use job aids
Concept: Provide job aids in the work environment to the support concepts rolled out in training.
Example:  Provide workflow or process posters, flash cards,  and summary sheets for associates to use on the sales floor or in the back-of-store. 

8. Incentivize learning
Concept: Support learning culture by tying incentives to ongoing learning opportunities.
Example:  Create a points program or reward structure to motivate and encourage training program involvement. 

9. Follow up
Concept: Follow delivery of training content with exercises and evaluations to validate and reinforce learning.
Example:  Check back in with the  manager/mentor after a training session to review and support the learning. 

10. Provide mentoring
Concept: Offer structured communication and mentoring/coaching processes.
Example:  Many organizations find it useful to provide a mentor for a new associate that may not be their direct manager. 

11. Show commitment
Concept: Develop formalized (or branded) training program that clearly demonstrates the business commitment to training.
Example: A “corporate university” or other recognized program can effectively show a commitment to a strong learning culture. This can also be used as a recruiting tool for associates looking for a job that offers development opportunities. 

12. Communicate program goals
Concept: Develop and roll out company-wide communication about training programs, opportunities, changes, and announcements.
Example: Communicate with associates via learning portals, education update emails, and bulletin boards displaying training updates in stores. 

13. Track efforts
Concept: Track module/course completion.
Example: This can be as formal as a Web-based Learning Management System (LMS) or as simple as a checklist for associates and managers, but is very important in assuring compliance. 

14. Enable associates to hit the ground running
Concept: Focus training for new hires on being able to use tools and content immediately.
Example:  Within their first days on the job, associates should be able to see they can add value. 

15. Encourage self-assessment
Concept: Create and provide self-assessment tools to all associates so they can monitor their progress and choose ongoing training courses that fit their skill development needs.
Example: Assessing performance and skills at regular intervals can also trigger additional motivation to stay with the company, and to continue to develop professionally.

Last week, my colleague Dan Biesma in Europe, wrote a blog post saying the end is near – the end of the recession that is.  I keep waiting to see the headlines in the newspaper and on the Net:  “The Recession is Officially Over! Life Can Get Back to Normal.”  This recession may not have an official “end” - it’s more likely we will gradually shift to a new normal that’s ripe with opportunities for companies who are ready to play big.

The new normal will have some exciting innovations. To weather the recession, we’ve all been forced to be more resourceful, efficient, and creative, which has shifted the way many companies do business.  Companies have become lean and mean, and displaced workers with an entrepreneurial spirit have opened new businesses.

As we begin the new normal, it’s important to take stock of where you are and addresses any internal issues that could stunt your culture if left unattended. Here are three tips to help you get ready to play big in the new normal:

1. Reevaluate and reinvigorate your mission and vision. As you come out of a downturn, be sure that your mission and vision still apply to your business. Make any changes that need to be made, then re-enroll your teams. During the recession, there have likely been lots of distractions, stress, and gossip as layoffs have been made and people have been forced to do more with less. This is a golden opportunity to re-enroll and reenergize. This will also help it become clear who’s with you on your team and who might need to move on to other opportunities.
2. Reassess your marketing promise. Are you still fulfilling on the promise of your brand(s) and the promise to your customers? What needs a tune-up? Examine key processes. Take a hard look at your products and services. Companies who are promising one thing and delivering another quickly lose integrity with customers during a time they need it the most.
3. Re-hire for success. Now’s the time to be poised to hire the best people to support your mission and vision and bring them on-board in a way that empowers them for success. As you begin to add back to your team, make sure you have hiring, on-boarding, and training programs that support your brand and marketing promise.

Smart companies can leverage the end of the recession as a re-birth.  This is not the time to nurse your wounds and feel sorry for yourself but to re-build, re-energize, and recommit to your business in the new normal.  This begins with a clear vision, the right team, and the right communication with your customers and your employees.

Have you ever been disappointed that your usual white chocolate mocha from your favorite coffee shop was a little too cold or not sweet enough?  What about when you scored a reservation at a hot new restaurant that’s been getting rave reviews but you were really let down by poor service and bland food?  Maybe you called tech support for help with your home computer and had to deal with a rep who was clueless and a bit hostile. 

If this has ever happened to you, then you’ve experienced a brand gap. This is what happens when a customer has an expectation of a brand that has fallen short of reality. A brand gap can leave you feeling ripped off, let down, annoyed.  Your opinion of the brand probably just took a nose dive, and you might even blog or Twitter about your experience. 

In his book Zag, the #1 Strategy of High Performance Brands, Marty Neumeier defines a brand as a “person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company.”  If his definition holds true, than how do brand gaps impact that gut feeling that you might have about a product, service, or company?

Your company has worked long hours to get your brand where it is today.  But it all comes down to what’s being delivered to your customers that counts.  If you’re not fulfilling on the promise of your brand to your customers, you’re out of alignment, and you’re putting your brand in jeopardy.

This is where internal-external marketing alignment becomes a powerful strategy in fulfilling your brand promise and avoiding the brand gaps.  It starts with creating a common vision of your brand that is supported by every function of your business, not just marketing.  Creating that common vision can begin by answering these three questions: 

1. What business are you in? This might seem like a simple question, but look deeper than the obvious. What business are you really in? It’s less about the specific product or service and more about the experience you create for your customers. What are you there to create for your customers?
2. What is your promise to your customer? Think about what your customers expect from you - not just the tangible, but the intangible. If your brand is a gut-feeling, as defined above by Neumeier, your business has an emotional deliverable. What do you want the gut-feeling to be?
3. Where are your brand gaps? Talk to your customers. Call your customer service line and pretend to be a customer. Perform an informal mystery shop. Listen to what people are saying about your brand in the social media world. Start to identify all the brand gaps that are currently in place and where you’re most vulnerable to new ones.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you have the foundation to begin leveraging the power of your brand in every corner of your business including marketing, sales, human resources, training, operations, administration, and more.  This is where internal-external marketing alignment begins.  This is where you have the power to truly build your brand, starting at the purest grassroots level within your company.

We’ll talk more in future posts about brand gaps and how to uncover where they’re happening in your company.  Tell us about any brand gaps you’ve experienced as a customer and how they’ve changed your gut feeling of a brand.

There’s been a lot of talk in the social media world over the past week about the Dominos incident. Two employees who thought they were being funny posted a video of themselves doing nasty things to some food they were preparing.   Nobody wants their brand raked over the social media coals like this. 

How can you prevent this type of incident from happening to your brand? Build a strong company culture where employees have pride in their workplace and in the brand they support. Yes these are just two fastfood workers in minimum wage jobs. With jobless rates higher nationwide than they’ve been in decades, there are plenty of people who would gladly step up and take these positions.

Here are some things you can do to start building a strong culture - even amongst fastfood workers:

Create Hiring Standards
Build standards within your company for how you hire and what qualities you demand. Put checks and balances in place to help all hiring managers know when the prospective employee they’re interviewing is worthy of representing your brand. Support your teams by creating tools for hiring that help identify someone’s character early in the process.

Build an On-Boarding Program
Then after you’ve hired, bring your new team members on-board with consistent messages about your brand, your culture, and your expectations around service. Find ways to test their knowledge and skills - not just about the tactical details of the job but around the cultural and brand details too. 

Provide Ongoing Coaching
After they’re brought on-board, keep the learning alive. Build in regular touchpoints for coaching with training material or personal mentorship.

Leverage the Power of Peer Pressure
A strong culture within your company also becomes a self-policing culture. When your employees truly have pride in your brand and workplace, you can leverage the power of peer pressure to keep an eye on things for you. This eases the burden on management and helps employees feel more accountable and empowered to support the brand.

As that old saying goes about an ounce of prevention - building a strong culture within your company can help prevent incidents like the one Domino’s faced recently. That doesn’t mean you won’t continue to have disgruntled employees who act out, but hopefully you will know how to identify and deal with them before disaster strikes.

What is company culture?  Is it a page on your website where you boast about your company’s outstanding work place?  Do you mention things like what great benefits your company has and how you celebrate diversity, work/life balance, and continuing education?   Maybe company culture is what happens in the lunchroom where employees dish about topics ranging from what their boss did this morning to the latest drama on reality TV last night.  Or is company culture what’s written on your CEO’s vision/mission statement that’s buried in a file somewhere?  It might get trotted around for viewing once or twice a year at company meetings, but nobody really knows what it is or what it means to them.

Company culture is all of those things and more.  And whether you like it or not, your company culture shapes your brand.  And of course you know that the value of your brand has a huge impact on how successful you are. 

Let’s start with truly defining culture. Any time a group of people comes together and shares a space, a culture develops. This could include the culture within a family, a community, a club, a country, or your company.  A culture within any of these groups includes a set of values or beliefs that guides how the group behaves, performs, and communicates.  It’s a set of unwritten rules or a code of conduct that develops as the group works together toward a common goal. 

Leaders within the group can shape the culture by expressing a strong mission and vision for the group to align behind.  But this shouldn’t be confused for the culture itself.  The culture is how the group works toward fulfilling the mission and vision - including their actions and the way they communicate with each other and with people outside of the culture.

Company culture may seem like one of those low priority things.  It probably feels like company culture happens organically.  A culture develops over time.  Your company largely ignores it except when the occasional personnel issues arise.  Or maybe morale seems especially low and someone in your HR department throws a potluck to “boost company culture.” 

Most companies are more interested in bigger things - like brand value, profit, and sales.  Lots of money, time, and energy are directed at defining and building your brand through marketing, advertising, product development, partnerships, etc. while the HR people are left to deal with company culture.

Culture isn’t just an HR issue.  Your culture is the foundation for bringing your brand to life.  It’s the way you express your brand to the world through your most valuable brand ambassadors  - your employees.  The culture that your employees work in shapes how they deliver your brand to the world.  And with so many channels for employees to communicate amongst themselves and with the general public, it’s important they have a strong culture to shape those interactions. 

Take a look at a leader in the area of company culture:  Zappos.  In his blog, CEO Tony Hsieh wrote: “Our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff — like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers — will happen naturally on its own.”

He supported that statement with another very simple one:  “Your culture is your brand.”

So how do you build your company culture?  We’ll take a look at this in future entries, and we invite you to share your thoughts on culture within your company by leaving us a comment.