That's why, on a recent vacation to Gulf Shores Alabama, I astonished by being treated in a staggeringly rude manner. Gulf Shores is a tremendous community with great beaches, good dining and some wonderful activities. Zooland Mini-golf, however is not one of them. Zooland offers a small zoo behind a miniature golf venue. It looked inviting, but was an absolutely miserable experience. Our family excursion of six wanted to take in a friendly, but competitive game of mini-gulf. When given the price, I gave the man a credit card, to which he grunted, "I don't take that plastic #%@*." I then gave him cash and asked, "Why not?" He aggressively replied, "I don't want to." To which, I said, "Well, it is 2008." Implying that they may want to step into this century and offer consumers the option. He evidently saw this as an insult and defiantly asked, "What did you say?" I repeated what I said and told him to just give me my change. He returned all of my cash and we went elsewhere (to the Tracks--located just a little north and worth the extra dollar). Actually, being involved in consumer branding and training, this experience was astonishing. Of course, this man was hidden behind a dark tinted shield and I could barely hear him and could see him at all. He probably felt his rudeness could be protected by anonymity. Perhaps it wasn't a man at all, but rather a gorilla had escaped from the zoo and was playing cashier for the day. Then again, a gorilla would have better business sense and better value his customers. Overall, new management is needed or our next trip to Gulf Shores will see another Mini-gulf excursion to Pirates Island Adventure Golf or the Tracks.
If the gorilla, I mean, Zooland employee, would have have explained that they had, "...looked into taking credit cards as payment, but the cost just wasn't worth it at this point," or had some other explanation that was far more relationship-centered and far less aggressively confrontational, I might be writing about a great experience at the establishment...much like the experience we had a Jake's Steak and Seafood.
Jake's is located next door to the aforementioned Zooland. It wasn't the best steak that I've ever had. Heck, it's not in the top 10 or even 20, but it is a place that I'll go back to because of one word: relationship. One member in our party was celebrating a birthday. When my brother-in-law, Phil, went to ask our waiter, Jack if they could do something for Brittany's birthday, he responded by telling Phil that they don't really do things like that. But Jack went the extra mile. The next thing we knew, Jack was moseying toward the table with some kitchen help in tow while wearing a lofty cowboy hat. The hat was promptly placed on Brittany's head as we sang a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday. Jack went above and beyond the normal call of duty to make a customer happy; and further, to help build a relationship.
Yes, every interaction gives a business the unmistakable opportunity to either enhance the brand identity and further build a positive relationship with the customer...like Jack did at Jake's Steak and Seafood. Or, the opposite path can be carved where that same interaction can be used to etch a very negative footnote about a business...like the employee at Zooland Mini-Golf. After all, both employees were responding with negative news for their customers. Jack had to tell my brother-in-law that they didn't do anything for people's birthdays and the Zooland employee had to tell me that they didn't take credit cards. Jack's response was to go the extra mile. The Zooland employee could not have made an exception for me and accepted the credit card, but he could have very empathetically told me, "Yeah, I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I'll mention that to management because we get a lot of requests for credit cards." That response would have left me writing a different review of Zooland Mini-Golf and would probably see me returning on our next trip to the Gulf. As is...not so!
In our Brand Training, we continually emphasize the need to utilize every opportunity with consumers to build or reinforce a positive brand identity. Those good feelings extend beyond functionality of a brand and touch upon the self-expressive benefits that mean so much to consumers. This philosophy makes very interaction more than just a transaction. It makes every interaction a possibility...a chance to leave the customer feeling good about their experiences with your company versus the feeling of regretting the moment they walked in your door. Focusing on building a lasting relationship through every interaction is a great way to ensure that your brand is moving in the right direction.
Next month, we'll close this series on Relationships and Branding with a look at managing conflict with an eye on brand identity.
