Why You Should Teach ALL Employees to Value Your Brand

"Moore Wilson’s began life in Wellington as a general wholesale merchant. From the day the doors opened, it’s been a family-owned business. You will find the family has a very hands-on approach, and this is reflected in the friendly personality and character of the stores. With four cash-and-carry stores in the region, expanding to Masterton in 1944 . . . "

Thus reads the "About" page of the Moore Wilson website . . . a statement of a brand that has a century of history behind it. And an icon of foodie shopping that, this time last year, I wrote a glowing review of.

So it pains me to now write a very different type of review. But I do so at the request of the Masterton store manager, who "wants it in writing".

So here it is. But I'm going to make it brief, because - in general - the staff are friendly and helpful. Some of them, very much  so. It seems unfair that they should be tarred with the brush of someone far less dedicated to customer service than themselves.

Today's Not-So-Great Experience

I went there today and had a product query. There's a particular "gentleman" that works in the store - an older chap - who I've never experienced with anything other than a sour look on his face (especially sour when he's looking directly at you) . . . a look that silently shouts "don't bother me". Worse still, it has a kind of contemptuous air to it, as well.

But today I was in a hurry, and he was standing right beside the product in question - so I asked him (very politely) if I could ask him a question about the product range he was standing beside.

He "answered" - wordlessly - with an unsmiling, sharp upward jerk of the chin. Hard to put the particular move into words, but we've all seen it . . . although not usually in a respectable retail outlet:  it's a nonverbal, "What? It better be good because I'm busy and you're not worthy of my attention." 

So I asked if he was busy. "I'm always busy," came the smart ass reply.

Do Your Staff Care About the Value of Your Brand? Because It Matters.

What sort of a way is that to respond to a customer? He's clearly one of the senior members of staff, yet the younger staff in the Masterton store could school him on customer service attitudes and standards.

He's not a new acquisition because he's been there at least for the year that I've been patronising that outlet. So that's at least a year he's been making a lie of the "friendly personality and character" claim on the Moore & Wilson chain's website . . . as it lauds the brand's 100-plus year history.

Consistency is important:  consistency of customer experience and consistency of culture. It only takes one bad experience or one staff member to ruin your brand for a customer. And just like any reputation that is built over many years and with multi-faceted investment, you can trash it just like that . . . for one customer, at least.

Brand perception is built - and maintained - one customer at a time. And the process and attitude you devote to maintaining your brand is as important as the effort and investment that went into establishing it in the first place.

A 'PS' to the store manager: You asked me when I'd have this review up, and I stayed up late to keep my word to you to have it published last night. The least you could do is acknowledge it. But I shouldn't be surprised. No-one bothered to acknowledge the glowing review I gave your two younger staff a year ago, either. That probably says something right there.