Sun, 21 Aug 2011 22:07:39 GMT
So today, Mrs B and I had a great day out to Spitalfields and Brick Lane in London. The weather was juuust gorgeous.
So being a great fan of good coffee (OK, well coffee I like!), I usually buy in Costa or Nero, but today, there was the choice of some independents up Brick Lane way, so in we went to one quite quirky, trendy cafe; I had a black americano, Mrs B had a Frappe. After the first sip, I''m sorry to say for both drinks, YUK was the comment. How disappointing when you look forward to something and it doesn''t come up to your expectations!
It immediately reminded me why brand consistency is so important. The reason so many (myself included) flock to the chains to the unfortunate abandonment the independents, is that chains provide consistency. No matter where you are, you will always get consistency, not only of the product, but the service. Even more importantly, it avoids that all important disappointment factor.
As Brand is the totality of perception and experience of a business, its product and its service (and hence becomes a state of pure emotion for the consumer), it''s vitally important for us business owners to provide absolute (good) consistency in our own product or service, and wherever possible, trying to align our business to any industry standards that exist.
Our own internal business consistency must span all customer touchpoints, not just the product, but business cards, letterheads, invoices, proposals, the website, the marketing, the way we answer the phone and emails, the uniform, the vehicles..... well you get the idea.
When our prospects and customers return to our business time and time again, give them the consistency (good consistency!) they deserve, and they''ll return time after time.
