Markets have an interesting way of imposing accountability on businesses, sometimes in ways business owners may not fully anticipate. The impression that your business makes on people who are not your direct clients may have more to do with your failure or success than you think. Branding and brand name work to identify you to the outside world—for better or for worse.
Nobody loves a critic. But the yeas and nays provided by consumer feedback provide essential information in a firm’s attempts to understand consumers’ wishes. They allow the firm to respond to consumers in a timely way.
The emails I receive from the auto service department at my dealership are a prime example. By asking me to rate their service, they let me know that ratings are important to them—but so is the report of any negative experience I’ve had. Sometimes, bad news is the only way to learn something you didn’t know in order to correct it. Result: the dealership is slightly inconvenient for me to use, but they have kept my maintenance and repair business by being attentive to my needs and feedback.
Direct experience with consumers is a very important way that firms create branding, generate reputation, and garner customer loyalty. But indirect experience can be just as powerful. Consider the impression formed when we see a moving van on a highway or street. Moving companies want potential customers to notice them, see their logo, and note their telephone number. They are a rolling advertisement for themselves. The relevant information is easily spotted on the sides, back, and even front of the typical moving truck. In my experience, professional moving services are a fairly competitive business—and name-brand recognition can really be a help.
Maybe.
Recent experiences on the highway have made me aware that name brand recognition can work both ways. Rather than identify you as a good source of a needed service, a singular bad experience, even a peripheral one, can turn potential customers away. Case in point: I observe a moving van from a local company on the highway, tailgating some cars and forcing others to move out of their lanes. The driver is displaying aggressive, obnoxious, and dangerous roadway behavior. What do I do? If I can, I get on my cell phone and call the number the company has (thoughtfully) displayed on the van. I explain the purpose of the call, and what I am seeing.
I’ve made a call like this on occasion. In the instance I have in mind the company owner was 1) aghast, and 2) glad to know what kind of negative impression the driver was creating with the company brand name out on the highways. I don’t feel compelled very often to make this kind of call, but I’ve never gotten ‘mind your own business’ as a response. In a market-minded setting, the ‘thank you’ response to a concerned citizen is entirely appropriate.
Is this kind of reaction unfair to the company? My feeling about these calls—on the spot or later—is that I am giving the company valuable market feedback. As an employer in this firm, I would welcome (OK, reluctantly) knowledge of the negative impressions my employees were creating out among potential customers.
Researchers claim that consumers repeat negative stories about their contact with a business or organization eleven times more often than they repeat positive stories. And while I don’t always make a call of complaint, I do note the company logo. Past calls and mental notes include drivers from private-company school transportation vehicles (“Good Morning, Mr. _____, I hope there are no children riding in your vehicle number 124, because I am driving behind them this morning and …”), church vans (I am particularly irked by vans sporting messages of peace and universal caring, aggressively cutting me off in traffic), roofer’s trucks (one from a company I had already used—too bad), party consultant vehicles (the clown is ‘not happy’ this morning), and more. My general message is “It’s a big market out there, and there are lots of substitutes for your company’s services in it.” Employers and managers, if they are smart, ‘get it.’
Many trucking companies used to routinely, and often still do, post on their truck a “How’s My Driving? sticker with an 800 number. Today, even small business vehicles sport vehicle wraps, logos, and body-side contact numbers. I suggest that consumers use them. They advertise your product, yes, and for better or worse they display your on-road etiquette and demeanor as well. What do you want to be telling the wider market about you, your business and your employees?