A well-informed workforce that understands the brand it works for is vital, leading to improved customer experience and ultimately a more successful company. An obvious statement perhaps but it’s surprising how often internal communications campaigns are afterthoughts, overlooked as less important than external campaigns. Maybe it’s because the financial return is less tangible, or marketers assume staff organically learn about the brand they work for. Either way, there’s no doubt that communicating the brand internally is just as important as any external marketing campaign.
There is a lot of evidence to show that the degree to which a workforce is informed about the organisation, the direction it’s going in and their part within it, is directly linked to the performance of the company itself, says Steve Doswell, communications consultant and council member of the British Association of Communicators in Business (CiB). Employees are fundamental stakeholders. The workforce delivers the customer experience, so any work done to build the brand through external marketing can be reinforced or totally scuppered by a company’s employees. It’s unthinkable to exclude this group from your marketing strategy.
However a recent survey carried out by management consultancy Cognosis, in conjunction with YouGov, shows that many businesses aren’t picking up on this vital point. Out of 1500 UK companies surveyed, it found that two thirds of managers didn’t feel involved enough, or didn’t buy into their company’s strategy. They felt they weren’t emotionally engaged enough in the strategy-making process, says Justin Bater, senior manager at Cognosis. Many companies think that engagement is all about telling people what their strategy is and for them to repeat it parrot-fashion. But this doesn’t work.
So what does work? Tim Moore, MD and head of creative services at agency Playgroup, believes that to engage staff with a message, the communications should be fun and allow the audience to think for themselves. If it’s too preachy, then people switch off, he says. Playgroup’s recent internal campaign for BT Business, which runs alongside its external marketing push starring Peter Jones and the Gremlins, did just that. Rather than use dry email briefings and PDFs, we wanted to inject life into the campaign and hook staff with entertainment so they would engage with the message, explains Moore. We felt this would alter their attitude when speaking to customers.
The result was a fun campaign that included Gremlin sabotage at every BT call centre (see box). BT realised you can push messages to customers, but if the rest of the company isn’t in sync, it lets the whole thing down, adds Moore.
The BT campaign was large-scale with plenty of investment. But it doesn’t take pots of cash to ensure your staff are kept up-to-date with what’s going on. If nothing else, companies need to make a concerted effort to make sure a two-way dialogue is constantly available. It’s not all about top-down communications, says Doswell. Two-way dialogue is vital for a company to understand its workforce. The business world is going through a process of democratisation with increased channels of interaction such as social networking, blogging and texts. Employees particularly younger ones are demanding a two-way approach and expect to be given the opportunity to voice their concerns.
Giles Poyner, business director at branding consultancy Boxer, agrees. He explains that his company has a giant cigarette packet in reception for staff to put ideas in to. Based on the concept that great ideas are written on the back of cigarette packets, he says it can be any idea good or bad. It allows the management team to see how staff are feeling and gives everyone the opportunity to contribute.
Claire Hopkins, commercial & marketing manager at performance development consultancy Lane 4, describes its Magic Monday meetings. People engage with each other and they become learning sessions, she says. It makes them feel part of something.
For employees that aren’t based in an office and can’t attend weekly meetings, feeling part of something can be harder. Lane 4 is attempting to address this by recording podcasts for its staff who are on the road all day. Sending emails doesn’t work for this group of people, so to communicate with them effectively and it’s vital we do so, as they are the face of the brand we’re trying techniques they can use while in the car, explains Hopkins. It makes them feel included, it fits in with their working day and it helps them impart the brand message to customers.
Making sure employees know how to disseminate the brand message to customers is particularly important for business brands. This is because in B2B there is generally a more targeted audience and fewer customers, and therefore more staff/customer interactions.
External marketing investment can also be lower when compared with a consumer brand, which means it cannot afford to be let down by poor delivery. B2B customer relationships are generally longer term they are accounts rather than purchases and are more valuable per individual with higher spend, adds Rob Oubridge, MD of Aqueduct. So when staff delivery of an external marketing promise is poor, it is damaging. If your internal communications don’t support your external communications you risk wasting the investment.
A solid internal communications strategy is also imperitive during times of economic uncertainty, so that the workplace becomes a place that instills confidence rather than fear in its employees. Richard Ward, consultant at agency Dave, says it’s often advised companies should invest more in external marketing during times of economic downturn to derive the benefits when times are good again. So why should it be any different internally? During times of economic doubt, the last thing an employee needs is to be left in the dark when it comes to issues that affect them directly. It is better to impart bad news than no news at all. External uncertainty should never create internal uncertainty. Doswell agrees. When the external mood is getting grimmer, the best thing a company can do is accentuate its strength to its employees and demonstrate its ability to weather the storm.
Ultimately, employees must believe in the business internally before they can convince customers externally. As brand ambassadors with responsibility for customer experience, the workforce is the lifeblood of any company. And without its full support, enthusiasm and understanding any external marketing communications has the potential to fail at the first hurdle.
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