Don’t Make these 4 Branding Mistakes
Reputation: overall quality or character as seen or judged by people in general
Credibility: the quality or power of inspiring belief
Brand (ing): the promoting of a product or service by identifying it with a particular brand
Each of these words play a crucial part in your overall success as a company. Your reputation affects your credibility, which either helps or harms your brand. They’re all interconnected.
So, why I am telling you this? Because, if you as a company or organization do something to hurt either one (or all) of these areas, you’re sure to leave your company in a negative light with job seekers, potential clients and customers.
Take a recent (and personal) example as a lesson: I briefly worked for a small media-related company as an intern. In fact, there was me and one other young woman who were “interning.” I use the term loosely.
After just a little over a month of working there, I quickly had to end my ties with and commitment to the company. Although one month is a very short time, believe me, it doesn’t take long for companies to leave a negative impression. And, as most would agree, first impressions are everything.
Not too long ago I learned that the other “intern” has also cut ties with this company, and after a brief convo, I discovered we both left for similar reasons. And all I can think about now is how these instances have truly harmed this company’s reputation, credibility and overall employer brand. I mean, the more people who say certain things about a company or leave similar feedback, reviews and experiences, the more who are prone to associate these things, feedback, reviews and experiences with sed company. And that’s whether good or bad.
For instance, if you were looking to apply for a position at a company, yet on Glassdoor or Indeed you read countless negative reviews and most people said the same thing, wouldn’t that send up a red flag? And wouldn’t that further cause you to associate certain characteristics with the company’s reputation, credibility and brand?
So, to help you out, below are four real-live branding mistakes that this particular company made—ones that you should avoid:
1. Disorganization
Let’s call this business Company X, and Company X was extremely unorganized. Many times we’d arrive at the office (as new interns) to find 1) our manager wasn’t present and 2) we could not get a hold of this person. No “I’m running late” emails, texts or calls and no responses from our emails, texts and calls.
The company worked with multiple clients, but there was no set system in place for handling each case. One day we’re working on one client’s materials, the next it’s someone else’s all the while other clients are calling and complaining because they haven’t heard anything back about their cases. Plus, clients would call us new interns for updates on the status of their projects and we wouldn’t have a clue of what to tell them.
Being disorganized harms your business. Organization produces order and structure so that tasks and assignments can be completed on time and in an efficient manner.
2. Lack of Communication
Workers never had a clear understanding of their roles or requirements. Both of us interns weren’t sure on a daily basis about what we were specifically supposed to be doing. Why? Because no one ever took the time to clearly define our roles/purposes and duties. Each time we came into the office it was a “guessing game” of what we were supposed to be doing, and most often, our immediate manager wasn’t around to help inform us. Even after repeatedly asking and seeking help in this area, we were left in the dark.
Employers, you must clearly communicate with your workers. Ever employee should fully understand what his/her role is in the company and his/her duties. Employees should never be in the dark about what they’re required to do when they show up to work.
3. Undefined Policies
If you’re already unorganized and lack communication, it probably stems from not having defined policies. Us interns were never given a “real” schedule, but more like “show up after this time.” And it seemed clear our manager wasn’t on a real schedule either as we never knew when (or if) this person would be in the office. We weren’t aware of how to answer the phones, cancellation policies, pricing, etc. You name it, we had no idea.
Companies must clearly define its policies and procedures and must clearly state and make these aware to each employee. Again, a worker should never be in the dark on how your company operates (and why).
4. No Paperwork
This internship experience proved to be very informal as nothing was ever written on paper. No contracts, no agreements, nothing signed and dated. Now, this part easily falls on myself and the other intern for not ensuring we had written agreements. And we suffered because of this as there were many times we were assured we’d be paid for our services, but never received compensation. But, nothing was ever in written form stating this either.
Not having any paperwork as binding agreements is a clear indicator to job seekers of how a company operates. Don’t make that mistake.