As a Strategic Marketer, customer perception is huge. One of the things I come across with organizations that have been around for many years, is that the leadership knows how the company should be perceived but they don’t know if that is how their customers see them.
Often one of my first tasks when working with a new company is to understand how aligned (or unaligned) the customer’s perception is with the leadership’s vision of the company. Without a doubt, the further the gap between the customer and leadership perception, the more likely it is that the front-line employees (customer-facing employees) of the company are just as misaligned.
As you can imagine, when leadership, front-line employees, and customers are all aligned in what the company stands for, how they serve their customers, and their offerings; massive growth is easily achievable.
The flipside is also true.
When customers, front-line employees, and leadership all have different opinions of the company, ideas on how the customer should be served, and are unsure of the offerings; growth and momentum are difficult to achieve.
Customer Preception Can Grow Your Business
If your customers only think you offer concrete services, yet you self-perform all structural work as well, you are missing out on business.
If you offer different types of equipment and your customer only refers to you as “X equipment dealer”, you are unaligned and unremarkable in your customer’s eyes.
If your sales employees never mention any of the services and locations that don’t directly benefit their paycheck, you are doing your customers a disservice and are unaligned.
Alignment is critically important. Many organizations are uninformed about their own unalignment. While it can be easy to discover if your customers and front-line employees perceive the company the same way as the leadership, many are unaware.
Why would someone have a different perception of my business?
If your customers and employees don’t know all of your offerings or locations, that could be an indicator that you may be unaligned. If your customers and employees can’t explain your offerings and message or say something that doesn’t reflect the message your leadership would use, you are clearly unaligned. If your customers and employees aren’t given a consistent message about who you are, they will create their own, and it may not embody who you are.
When you are ready to grow, I can help. Contact me today for a free one-hour consultation. Uncovering areas of opportunity and developing strategies are some of the many things Glover Strategic Marketing can help you achieve. There is no obligation and no pressure, just a frank discussion of your company’s needs and goals. Plus I guarantee it won’t cost you anything to work with Glover Strategic Marketing. So what is holding you back from growing your business?