Teach Team Members to Love Every Customer

RCS Influencer Marty Stout says that every employee should be trained to be a brand ambassador.

I guess because I am old school, I did not know what a Brand Ambassador was when I saw what this month’s Influencer topic was. So I looked it up. One definition I found online says "A brand ambassador is a person who is hired by an organization or company to represent a brand in a positive light and by doing so help to increase brand awareness and sales." After looking it up, still being old school I guess, I wondered why someone would hire someone "to represent a brand in a positive light, and by doing so ... help raise brand awareness and provide consumers with a memorable face-to-face experience," another explanation I found online, when everyone in every organization should be trained to be just that.

If you have a person answering your phones or sweeping the floor in your warehouse or at a job site, they need to be trained first in the importance of customer satisfaction. I am not a believer in the adage that the customer is always right because they are not, but that is a discussion for another day.  I am a believer that every customer is highly important and all members of the team need to treat them as such.

You need to start with helping new members of your team to say please and thank you to everyone. To listen to their question and commit to getting them an answer. To show due respect. To get things done for them.

If someone has a "that's not my job" attitude you must help them see that is not the correct attitude. if you can't get them to see it you must get rid of them quickly.

Customers, customers, customers; without them we have no business. So I guess yes, the guy that cleans up the trash around the house at the end of each day is a brand ambassador first and a laborer second and the person that manages the project is a brand ambassador first and a project manager second and I am a brand ambassador first and company president second. Teach your team to love customers and your customers will love you back. 

Martin Stout is president of Go Roof Tune Up, Inc.  See his full bio here.