What is my Brand?

Having missed an appointment at my regular hair stylist, I went to a new salon (franchisee) of a good brand of salon.

The salon meets all the specs given by brand for layouts, products and pricing. What they have forgotten is hiring manpower which lives up to the brand - both in terms of skills and customer service. I wanted a simple specific cut which a neighborhood beauty parlor would do. Both the senior stylists went blank. Pictures from Google did not help. They insisted on a style that they were comfortable with. They reason for this style did not go well with them - my high and chubby cheekbones could be countered by the sharpness of this style - result would be a more oval face. The stylist's response was brutal, haircut cant camouflage anything. You need to lose the fat of your face. Hairstyle cannot change your face shape. The only other customer in the store had a hearty laugh when he heard this.

Finally, they called their senior-most stylist who did some R&D on me. He was very well trained in sales - he was up-selling a 15,000 service by informing me that my hair quality was really bad. (I already knew the 'truths' that they were telling me. Just felt bad that none of my well-wishers gave me this feedback 😉😉😋😋). They compensated for the service with a discount. The thought process is - discounts work, right? Really

The objective of this post is NOT to tarnish the brand. I am not cribbing about the 'new' look that I have. It can be changed easily.

I want us to think,

• We are not the only ones representing our brand? Are we aware how our brand is being represented by others?
• Have we shared our brand values with our employees?
• Are we only looking at training our employees on our values, technical and softer skills?
• How do I present myself to my team - if I only ask them for revenue/ targets, how can I expect them to talk customer service?
• As an professional or entrepreneur, do I know what I stand for? Are my values being visible to my customer in my interactions with him? What is his moment of truth with me?

Branding is more than a logo or a website or an FBpage or Linked In Updates

Remember,

Branding is what people say about you when you are not in the room.