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Empower your employees to champion your brand!Feb 12, 08 | 8:58 am
Empowering your people is absolutely essential to creating a culture that champions your brand. So why are some organizations reluctant to empower their employees? Is it because they don't trust their judgment? They might not do the right thing? Well, here's my perspective. If you hire the RIGHT employees they'll know how and when to exercise their good judgment! Several years back I flew into Hong Kong from Singapore and checked in to a well-renowned upscale hotel well after midnight. I realized the next morning that I misplaced my cell phone. Could I have left it on the plane, at the airport, on the train? After back-tracking the steps in my mind, I realized I left it on the counter of the money changer at the airport. First of all, I couldn't believe I did that and secondly, I was certain I'd never get my phone back. At that time, you couldn't put a cell phone down or let it out of your sight in Asia - it'd be gone in a second. But I was optimistic! I trekked right down to the hotel concierge desk to ask for help. I explained that I was in meetings all day and didn't have any spare time to go back to the airport to look for my phone. The concierge pulled out a drawer from his desk, retrieved a cell phone and said to me, "Please accept this loaner with compliments. Let me see what I can do to find your cell phone." To which I gratefully replied, "thank you," eyes bulging from my eye sockets. I was thinking wow, that's service! I then proceeded to give him my name and the description of the phone. Five hours later, this concierge tracked me down in one of my meetings and delivered my phone. Needless to say, I was astounded! I couldn't believe it. He personally drove to the airport (a 1 ½ hour roundtrip) to track down my phone. I was ecstatic. I must say he had no idea that I was the VP of Human Resources of the hotel chain about to acquire the hotel he was working in. I was pretty impressed, and made sure I got his name! How do you think I felt after this experience? It's pretty obvious. Eight years later, I continue to remember it and share the story! Here's another story. I recently checked into a suite at a hotel in Nashville. When I entered the room, there was this awful ‘bull-dozer' like sound. The room was on one of the upper floors. The sound of was just roaring through the room! I mentioned this to the bellman when he delivered my luggage. He immediately replied, "It's the air ducts of the HVAC in the atrium area just outside your room. This is definitely unacceptable." He was emphatic about it and insisted "I'll find you another room!" to which I replied, "Really?" He said, "Leave it to me." I was optimistic, even though I knew the hotel was fully booked because of an event my business partner and I were facilitating the next day. Meanwhile, all this was happening while I was on a conference call on my cell phone. The bellman called down to guest services to work on the situation. Yep, he took care of it after several minutes or so of conversation with his colleagues. He found me another room and transferred my luggage. What service! He felt empowered to just step in and take charge to handle the situation. Again, a very memorable positive service experience! After chatting with him a bit more, thanking him over and over for the service he provided, he told me he was new to the job (a ‘veteran' of only 4 days!). These kinds of positive behaviors bring about customer appreciation, not to mention enormous good-will for your brand. Know this. Your customer will remember forever like me and spread the word because the experience is so memorable. Empowering your people to be true champions of your brand can be as simple as hiring the right employees! Do you hire the right employees? Do you empower them to champion your brand? People rarely forget how you've made them feel. The positive service experiences I've had are feelings that linger forever in my mind. All because of employees who felt empowered to help me.
Carol Chapman is Principal and co-Founder of The Brand Ascension Group, a multi-faceted consulting and training firm that specializes in brand perception. They partner with organizations to help them get laser-focused on achieving sustainable brand success from the INSIDE OUT. They do this by guiding them to define, create, and build powerful brand experiences that engage, captivate and inspire customers, employees and all stakeholders. For 30 years, Carol has cultivated extensive experience and proven success in leading businesses through significant challenges involving organizational transition, brand development, revitalizations and integrations; leadership development, cultural alignment and mergers and acquisitions. Having held several executive management positions including Vice President, Human Resources Asia Pacific based in Singapore for one of the largest hotel companies in the world - Six Continents Hotels (now Inter-Continental Hotels Group), she has learned that the most successful and sustainable brand organizations harness the energies of their people. What is most notable is that their brands come to life through the power of this most cherished asset. They cultivate this asset in consistent, relevant and distinctive ways so as to deliver emotionally charged experiences for all audiences. As a speaker on numerous topics from driving organizational change and building the brand from the Inside Out, and author of Getting Your Employees on The Brand Wagon e-book, she is helping to create a paradigm shift in the way organizations cultivate sustainable brand success through their employees. For more information contact: 
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