Author: Chris Heiler
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Your image follows you everywhere.
This “brand” is a reflection of all that you do and, positively or negatively, your image is how you are perceived in the community.
You might only have one chance to get this right, because, once you are perceived to be a certain way, it is very difficult to change those perceptions.
Employees acting like children (like these two clowns from Greenbelt Outdoor Services) don’t assist your brand building efforts. 10 years ago, Mrs. Ogilve would have phoned in a complaint to Greenbelt Outdoor. Today, she might snap a photo of these two knuckleheads and share it on her Facebook for the world to see.
That’s some serious (negative) branding, people.
Employees are either advocates for your brand or destroyers of your brand. Wherever you and your employees go – whether a project site or a night club – your brand follows.
Here is a list of behavior from landscape professionals that I have witnessed personally:
- Employees drinking beer in their company truck during lunch hour.
- Employees leaving trash from their lunch in a parkway, which ended up in a neighbor’s lawn.
- Employees lounging in camping chairs, with radio blasting, in a front yard eating lunch.
- Employees telling tales of their drunken weekend adventures under an open window for their client to hear.
Three of these occurred just on lunch break!
Just imagine what can happen off site. Here are a few I have witnessed:
- Drunk employee at a casino wearing company attire.
- A group of drunk employees piling into a company truck at the local watering hole.
- A group of employees, in full company attire, in a restaurant telling distasteful stories.
While the above behaviors are extreme, here are others I have witnessed that happen every single day:
- Foul language on site
- Negative attitudes on site
- Poor grooming habits and dress
- Smoking on site
- Wearing dirty shoes in a client’s home
- Using shrubs as toilets
This behavior can destroy the brand and image you’ve worked so hard to build.
Oh, and if you hire sub-contractors, they represent your brand as well.
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