Good brands build trust through consistency. Since the famous move by McDonalds to ‘methodise’ hamburgers, research into successful brands from around the world has proven that you don’t need a perfect product to be a market leader, but a consistent product usually gets the largest share of the market.
While there is some merit in the idea that ‘something worth doing is worth doing badly’, the quicker you can move your small business brand from experimental to consistent, the sooner you can afford to introduce new concepts and ideas.
So what does consistency mean? It’s not about being the best or the biggest in fact consistently bad is better than being unpredictable!
So how do you build consistency?
- The way you look,
- The way you deliver your product or service
- Systems and processes
The way you look- the way your brand is presented should be the same every single time. Every email, poster, flier should have the same look and feel. That means the portrayal of your logo, the font that you use, how you use space on a page. Your designer will help you produce a style guide that you can share with your team and partners to ensure you build this brand consistency.
The way you deliver your products and services is important, from having a ‘uniform’ approach to what you wear; to how you wrap and pack, to the music you play in your store.
For example I have seen many on-line stores starting out in business with everything exquisitely wrapped in the finest tissue paper with love and effort with a hand written note. Fast forward a few months – they don’t have the time, energy or budget to bother.
My second deliver arrives unwrapped, unloved and as a customer I am disappointed. Start how you plan to continue! People return to get the same experience – or a slightly better experience than the one before.
Your first sale to a customer is your hardest one – but it also sets the benchmark for subsequent sales. They come back a second time – fab – and third Wow – they are getting value for money.
Developing systems and processes easy for you and your staff to follow through will help you build consistency.
Having operations manuals that includes a style guide and systems and processes for service and delivery will help you create a culture of consistency.
Consistency to your stakeholders means no surprises – you are predictable, reliable. Reliability is about following through – doing what you say you are going to do – giving customers a reason to return.
What do you do consistently in your business that reaps rewards?
