Many people think of branding as predominantly visual – a logo, a corporate font, a ‘design language’ used on a website. Those items are part of what makes up an overall brand, it is true – but they are only a small part, probably less than a fifth if one sought to quantify such things, and that doesn’t take into account that percentage of the populace that doesn’t even think visually. Consider  large, successful companies such as BMW or Toyota, Gucci, Armani, American Airlines or Amtrak; you can probably visualize the logos of all of them. But most of what comes to mind is not visual, it’s the brand identity of each company, it’s how you feel about each company,its products, and its relationship to you as a consumer.

This is the fundamental aspect of branding too often ignored: that it’s not just about the logo, it’s about everything a company does that anyone sees, hears or touches. Nowhere is this more true than customer service; one of the easiest ways to get a bad reputation is to provide poor service, no matter how good the product. And here’s where you have to think very carefully about what you should do.

One thing that annoys people when they call for help is not to be answered promptly. So, you set a target – a maximum percentage of dropped calls, or a target percentage of calls answered within 15 seconds, or something along those lines. And then the law of unintended consequences kicks in; in isolation, targets like that sound like a great idea – except that they put pressure on service center staff to deal with calls as quickly as possible. So the targets can lead to callers receiving stock answers, from someone who’s not actually motivated to take the time to understand what the underlying problem may be but who just wants to get them off the phone to take the next call. What to do? Balance the targets on answered or dropped calls with targets for post-call customer satisfaction, and carry out surveys of callers to uncover what they actually thought about the service they received.

Unintended consequences can bite you in other ways. We know of a company which generates business by calling prospective purchasers; the people making the calls have targets for the number of calls placed per day. Sounds like a pretty good target; except that when the call goes to person A within a company, who says, Yes, we’re interested, but you need to speak to person B – shall I transfer you? The answer will be No – because by hanging up and calling person B themselves, the salesperson gets another call credited to them. But if the call HAD been transferred, then person A could have ‘warmed up’ person B to the sale beforehand, instead of which person B gets a new cold call.  This doesn’t build the best relationship with the brand, and relationship is what ultimately sells  The easiest sale to make should be to a repeat customer, but repeat business is unlikely in the absence of a positive image and a good relationship.

Understanding your brand, and what you want it to stand for, is fundamental; understanding that the way you do business has more of an impact on how your brand is perceived than the color of your logo is equally important.