Are You A Brand Ambassador?
Lesson From The Past
When I was in the Army stationed in Germany, we were constantly reminded that we were ambassadors of the United States to the German people. While most of us took this to heart at least a little bit, there were those few “ugly Americans” who made the rest of us look bad.
The Canadians stationed with us had it going on when it came to being ambassadors. They were given Canada flag stickers and lapel pins to pass out as they went out on the town. Perhaps it’s part of their culture, but they seemed to mix better with the Europeans than many of the people from the U.S.
Today’s Lesson
Today as I was driving to work on my motorcycle I was tailgated for 5 miles in a one-lane construction zone by a truck. Being tailgated bugs me any time, but it does especially so when I’m on my bike. Dangerous to persons in cars, it’s potentially deadly to persons on motorcycles.
When the road opened up to three lanes, I took the opportunity to move over and let the truck pass. As it did, I noted it belonged to one of the companies in town which does heating and air conditioning service. Although I’ve done business with this company once in the past and was happy with them, I decided right there to never do business with them again. It was a visceral reaction stemming from my frustration with the driver of that truck.
That driver is probably clueless as to what he did. I’m willing to bet most of the time he is a careful, courteous and conscientious driver and this incident was the exception because he was was running late. Irregardless, his actions caused his employer to lose some possible future business from me.
Are You Being a Brand Ambassador?
You are, whether you realize it or not.
Are you in a business where your company logo and information is blazoned across the side of your vehicle? Those working for heating and air conditioning companies, plumbers, tow trucks, real estate agencies, delivery companies – whether you realize it or not if you are driving a company vehicle you are a brand ambassador. Whenever you are in that car or truck you must consider your actions and how they affect those who see that brand you represent. Driving discourteously, throwing trash out the window, playing music too loud in residential areas can all give a bad impression of your company.
Sometimes you’re running late. You don’t want to give your customer a bad impression by not showing up on time and risk losing their future business. This is a good attitude to have. But, you can make up for being late and gain ground back with that customer by providing excellent service when you do get there. You can’t, however, make up for the potential business lost because of the ill will you generated driving like crazy to get to that one customer.
Consider this next time you’re out and about on business.
Are there experiences you have had where someone turned you off their brand by the way they handled themselves either behind the wheel or not?
Is there a time when you know you affected your brand positively or negatively by the way you handled yourself in public we can learn from?
photo credit: Oran Viriyincy
