MentorWords

A dear friend recently went on her first date in many years; a blind date arranged by a cousin she has good reason to trust. The date was with a man of high professional regard, one who had been married for nearly 20 years before losing his wife to cancer, whom he cared for until her death. My friend’s expectations of him, based on her cousin’s description, were fairly high. She anticipated excellent conversation, a capacity for empathy, a certain amount of groundedness, and general respect for others.

What she encountered was nothing of the sort. Her date was sarcastic about the wait staff, lacked basic manners, only attended to the conversation when the topic turned to horse racing (and how she got there she wasn’t even sure), and spoke scathingly about a number of his acquaintances. The date, as you might imagine, was a disaster. Even as we laughed and laughed about the multitude of discomforts the evening had provided, we couldn’t help but wonder, had he sent a stand-in for his date? A down-on-his-luck friend in need of dinner, perhaps? So sure was my friend that this had been the case that she asked her cousin if she had a picture of the man. Yes, she did, and it was the same fellow. Did he have a twin, perhaps? No, he did not.

My friend is a big girl and we all needed the laugh, but the situation brings to mind the dissonance that occurs when a business does not manage all its details. The most obvious comparison is when a customer visits a retailer she has trusted for some time and she has a bad service experience. The result is a feeling of betrayal, even if the customer understands that one bad employee does not a business make.

Or does it?

Every detail of your business speaks volumes. If luxury is one of your defining characteristics but your boxes and bags are cheap, the customers experience dissonance. If your brand and business culture convey warmth and connectedness but the first late-pay contact is through a collection agency, your customers will be shocked. If your business identity is related to youth culture, but you only advertise in the newspaper, you’re proclaiming a certain stodginess (as well as missing the mark).

The most difficult consistency to maintain is among employees. We all know that micro-management is damaging and ultimately useless, but many business managers constantly fight the temptation to monitor every word and action of employees lest they misrepresent the company. Even this careful monitoring can backfire. I remember laughing heartily a few years ago when I asked a young lady working a cash register about the colorful band-aids on her nose, beside her eye, the tops of her ears, and up her forearms. I fully expected her to say it was a high school prank – the band-aids did not seem to be covering injuries, she was obviously in no discomfort, and the band-aids were clearly chosen for their animated character representations. She explained (with a grin) that her employer did not allow employees to show piercings and tattoos other than one earring per ear, and they were required to cover any other ornamentation with band-aids. My first thought was that customers would be far less intrigued by the piercings and tattoos. My second was to register dissonance – the establishment was what I thought to be a fairly hip, independently owned coffee shop.

We know from study of psychology that children with inconsistent parents grow into insecure adults, that marriages with inconsistent fidelity eventually break under the strain, and that pets trained by inconsistent owners become unruly. We drift away from friendships in which the other party is inconsistent in behavior or attention, inconsistent managers do not develop trusting relationships with their employees, and inconsistent quality leads to business downfall. Consistency is clearly a key to success in many things.

Just as the key to individual consistency is a clear sense of self and of one’s beliefs, so is the key to business consistency a clear sense of purpose and business identity. The development of individual character begins at birth, and so does the development of business identity. Principles, self-awareness, and purpose together form the character structure of a person. Strategy, value proposition, and brand provide the same character structure for a business. Any parent who has launched a young adult into the world knows that his or her child’s success will be largely dependent on the ability to consider ideas, decisions, and behaviors based on the character they have wrought.

The business owner who takes care to develop a strategic plan, who considers carefully the value proposition for the business, then crafts a brand identity as the outward expression of those plans is off to an excellent start. But unless he makes every hire, every operational decision, every marketing plan, every customer service policy to be consistent with the initial plans, he will not make a consistent, controlled impression in the customers’ minds. Unless he considers his own goals, desires, and self-discipline within the context of those plans, he risks going on expensive or ill-advised tangents that do not serve the ultimate business interest. An inconsistent business fails to control its brand image. It is as jarring as feasting your eyes on Brad Pitt two booths away in a restaurant, only to have him start picking his nose.

My girlfriend’s blind date ultimately only cost the price of dinner, and she claims the entertainment value was worth it. Unfortunately, just about any business mistake brought about by failure to build consistency will cost more than $57.95 plus tip. The next time you’re inclined to cut that corner, hire that warm body that you know isn’t quite right, buy that cheaper bag or box, or run that self-serving ad on your phone system, remember what your mother said. Never pick your nose in public.

©  2009. Andrea M. Hill