Going Above and Beyond to Create a Lasting Brand Culture
Standing out from the crowd can be tough for a business, especially in today’s competitive environment.
On our latest podcast we interviewed Scott Porter, whose most recent enterprise is a churro company called San Diablo Churros. Scott has been an entrepreneur all his life, and through creating and managing many different businesses, he has learned what helps a company succeed and what can make one crumble.
For Scott, building a strong brand culture is what has propelled his many businesses forward and helped them thrive.
Brand culture is the environment of your company. It is how your company is perceived by your employees, customers, and even potential customers.
Scott found that in order to make his brand stand out among competitors, his company had to create an experience that was so different and so special that people couldn’t help but talk about what his company was doing.
What do successful companies do to create an experience that people will converse about at the dinner table? How can a brand create a positive, lasting impression on its customers and make them want to return again and again?
The answer, according to Scott, is that they create an unforgettable brand culture by going above and beyond the expectations of the customer.
Bring the Right People on Board
One of Scott Porter’s many jobs was managing nursing homes that were “in distress” either because of finances or a bad reputation. The first step in changing people’s perceptions of these businesses was hiring the right staff members and actively engaging with them to create a more positive atmosphere.
It is much easier to create a consistent brand culture for your business when the people you hire have the same goals for your company that you do. When you make your expectations for your company clear, you are more likely to attract — and keep — like-minded people.
Scott said: “If I can help inspire my team to a higher cause and to love and provide a great service that makes people feel special and different and important, and in turn do that for my team as well, then I was all in.”
If you as a business owner engage with and inspire the people you work with, then your company will reap the rewards of loyal employees. A Gallup study found that “the behaviors of highly engaged business units result in 21% greater profitability.”
For Scott, finding the right team members to work with allowed him to do his own job better. He discovered that “when you have the right partner for your business, you are unstoppable.”
Create a Culture of Service
For Scott, making people feel special meant going above and beyond in the little things to create an unforgettable experience. Scott made sure that patients in the nursing home he managed were always referred to by their name instead of their room number. Every person who walked in the door of the nursing home was offered a bottle of water, and the doctors who came by on rotation were greeted with their favorite candy bars.
Scott said these “micro-interactions” were what really helped change the perception of the nursing home, and these behaviors helped “infuse that consistent commitment to the humanity of the people in front of us.”
These micro-interactions slowly built up the reputation of the nursing home Scott managed, and within a year the nursing home went from bankruptcy to $4.5 million in annual revenue, attracted and retained top talent, and boosted its occupancy to nearly 90 percent.
There are dozens of small ways your business can cultivate a culture of service toward your customers. Treating your customers as humans rather than just transactions makes people feel important and often exceeds your customers’ expectations.
These individual behaviors can seem unimportant, but they build up your reputation as a business.
Build a Relationship with Customers
Many businesses offer similar items or services, but if you build a relationship with your customers, you can offer them something more: a humanized, personal experience.
Throughout all the companies Scott has created and managed, the heart of his mission has always been hospitality for his customers. And with his latest venture, San Diablo Churros, Scott’s mission is still the same: “we just want to be a vehicle for happiness, and it happens to be that we make churros.”
Scott said our culture has moved from a consumer-based economy, which is strictly transactional, into a relationship-based economy that is more experiential. Customers want companies who care about who they are and who will recognize their clients as people who want to be seen and heard.
Seventy percent of people will choose whether or not to buy something based on how they feel, Scott said, and much of how people feel about your company is based on their prior experiences with your services.
If your goal is customer satisfaction, you want your customer’s experience with your company to be positive and memorable. And personal interaction with your customer is the framework on which a relationship can be built. Cultivate a relationship with your customer, and that customer is more likely to return to you because of that relationship.
“We are humans interacting with humans,” Scott said. “And the companies that realize that are the ones that will continue to win.”
Sustaining Your Brand’s Culture
The goal of building up your brand culture is to create a service so exceptional that your customers want to continue to engage with your business. When you bring the right people on board, create a culture of service within your team, and consciously develop a relationship with your customers, you build a reputation that your clients will want to talk to everyone about.
Creating a brand culture is about much more than the product or service you are selling; it is all about your customer’s perception of your company. Positive customer experience creates loyalty toward your brand and keeps your customers coming back to you.
While creating and sustaining brand culture can be difficult and time-consuming, the rewards are exponential. When you create that human connection with your client, they feel valued, and in turn they value you and your company’s services.
