following on from #theNTshow An Interview with @Ces_Creatively & @JayLoftus

BRAND REPUTATION

I think Nick @NickTadd and Vanessa @4_Walls are amazing and it was so much fun to create the logo. It was brilliant being a guest on the show. Challenging to keep up with the fast pace of tweets and questions, then trying to fit answers within 100 characters to leave room for links and RT! I really enjoyed it and shall continue to support #theNTshow and engage with the contributors to the live chat.

# ADDING VALUE TO AN ONLINE CONVERSATION

Here are some of the comments after the hour and a half long Q&A. We continued to answer questions via DM all day.

@ecokitchens That was my first experience of the show, learnt a lot and a lot to think about, thank you to everyone. have a great day #theNTshow

@carolinebosher Huge thanks to @JayLoftus, @Ces_Creatively @NickTadd for an enjoyable and informative #theNTshow! Also great to meet some new peeps :)

@jamesdearsley Well done @Ces_Creatively and @NickTadd the #theNTshow was great this week. and certainly moving in the right direction

@4_Walls Just finished producing another fab edition of #theNTshow with @NickTadd @Ces_Creatively @JayLoftus ... GREAT content from all involved!

I am going to be doing a series of blogs to cover some of the points raised in more detail and here is the first.

@MatthewGingell asked the Question - the top 100 brands are always listed. What are the worst brands and why? #thentshow

I had two responses to this. Firstly that I would rather big up good brands than slate bad ones to which I got the response. . .

@MatthewGingell @Ces_Creatively v.good point slating bad brands and in particular slating competitors brands can be very detrimental to your own #theNTShow

and secondly, when pushed for an answer. . .

@Ces_Creatively worst brand reputation award goes to #RoyalMail

This is partly based on actual personal experience as a customer of Royal Mail, receiving other peoples post, not getting my own post, paying extra for next day delivery and Royal Mail losing it (but it isn't considered lost for 28 days) failing to reimburse when they lose or damage something and being told by Royal Mail and Post Office staff directly that they do not trust Royal Mail to carry out deliveries as promised and as a customer you would be hard pushed to be reimbursed when things go wrong.

I also based the decision to put forward Royal Mail when pushed for an answer based on some of the recent twitter comments found on #RoyalMail (I have edited out swear words replacing with *bleep* and I have not included the twitter handles however you can find all this yourself on hash tag RoyalMail)

#ROYAL MAIL BRAND MONITORING

Off to post office no4 because #royalmail employees are lazy & useless. Ur SURPRISED everyone hates you? *bleep*

Arranged to collect parcel from post office today. Turns out 'today' means 'before 5pm, if you're lucky.' #royalmail #fail

On a download form Royal Mail says 'Return in Freepost Envelope provided' - no envelope, no address on form - Epic #fail by #RoyalMail

Got some junk mail through my letterbox today, nice to know some folks will deliver post reliably. #royalmail, you are being mocked openly.

#RoyalMail are obviously not monitoring their brand on Twitter - pure madness! I want to buy from them and they are not even bothered!

B'ah! I'm still waiting for the 2nd part of a package that arrived last week & was only posted 1 day later!! #royalmail

Deliveries coming all the way from Edinburgh! I'll get them next year then. #royalmail

Happy that I decided not 2 use #RoyalMail & b-day presents will be delivered on time,unlike Halloween gifts that have yet 2 be delivered!

3 pieces of post waiting for me at home: 1 for no. 50, 2 for no. 52; I live at 54 #royalmail #epicfail

check out http://www.thanksrm.co.uk/ Thanks Royal Mail! Tales of woe from a Small Business

Another interesting tweet was:

We don't use #RoyalMail so the postal strikes and delays won't affect your order!

I have seen that so many times on emails, websites, even direct mail. If people are voicing these views based on personal experience of being a customer of Royal Mail that doesn't say much for their reputation of being able to deliver on their brand promise at the moment, however there are two sides to every story.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

As with Transformers, there is often more to a brand than meets the eye and personally, I try to base views on personal experience as a customer and also look for the good in things. Really positive things can be said for Royal Mail too.

A few weeks ago I gave my son Matthew a handful of letters and asked him to hold them while I got the stamps out of my bag. He promptly dropped them in the post box without stamps! (who wants to listen to their mum anyway LOL) I was surprised the next day when I contacted the people they were addressed to, to find that all the letters had been delivered next day - even without stamps, and there were no charges pending. Thank You Royal Mail.

Royal Mail also deliver millions of letters and packages without incident every day providing a good and reasonably priced service to a lot of customers which should be balanced against the few times they fail to deliver a letter. I would love to see Royal Mail striving to make more improvements to their service over time and would applaud them and give them credit for doing so.

This brings me to mention brands that keep 'their customers and niche market' happy by going the extra mile and engaging with their customers in a way which is personal and shows they care usually do very well indeed. A personal brand promise which is focused on giving your customers something to really smile about and remember is a good place to start.

VIRGIN GOING THE EXTRA MILE

Nearly 2 years ago, not long after my son died, we experienced customer care from Virgin that went well above and beyond. It was a very difficult time for us and as we had no car and little money, my husband and I were taking our 3 young boys, 5 suitcases, several holdalls, a buggy, a blow up boat and a tent from Liverpool to Bournemouth by Virgin trains.

To cut a long story short we experienced a day of waiting around stations all over the country, not being able to get on trains, no help, hungry and tired children but we remained positive knowing we would get there in the end and did not get annoyed at those who wouldn't help us.

Having started the journey about 5 am, by about 5pm we were still stuck at Birmingham International. This is where some exceptional Virgin trains staff went above and beyond by putting us up in a first class business lounge and providing us with food and drink.

The regional director who happened to be at the station then organised and Virgin paid for (in excess of £250) a taxi mini bus journey all the way to our holiday destination. We arrived around 9.30pm very tired but shouting praises and eager to spread the news of how Virgin had gone the extra mile. We haven't stopped advocating Virgin since and I really admire Richard Branson's customer focused and innovative ethos.

It goes to show that even after something which may have caused upset initially has occurred, it can still result in something good and positive that far outweighs the bad.

After our holiday we blogged about this story (you can read the original blog here) and thanked Virgin and even all this time later we know of several people who have re-posted the story on their sites and linked to it from other sites. Going the extra mile is not forgotten and the good news it brings often spreads.

In my line of business now, I typically work with new or small to medium businesses who need an image that will help them look good and engage with their niche in a welcoming way often through social networking online.

A high percentage of my business is generated through online networking, not through me advertising my services but rather through being a supportive business friend first. To me, going the extra mile means not only ticking all the boxes for the design brief, but enjoying finding out what makes each individual customer tick and doing what I can to support them in an ongoing sense from a personal aspect too.

I have a final point to raise and thanks for reading this far, I know it is a long blog. My point is just to touch ever so lightly on interaction and brand monitoring.

I have not tried directly to get a response from Royal Mail. I think @markshaw may have had a response whilst assessing brand interaction on Twitter (I have just checked - no he hasn't) but just to make a point, this sort of tweet gives the notion of a brand that has little regard for it's customers...

Can you see if #royalmail respond to you? They haven't to me so think they are not monitoring anything!

This as opposed to a very customer focused Virgin who state the names of the people handling the twitter account @VirginTrains on the twitter page bio and when I tweeted I was going to be posting a blog mentioning Virgin Trains I very quickly received the response. . .

@Ces_Creatively Thank you! We look forward to it! ~RB

Again another example of how responsive and customer focused Virgin are as a brand. Thank You Virgin for leading the way in so many ways.

To be objective, there are both good and bad comments on the twitter hash tag for #virgintrains, as I said earlier there are two sides to every story. The thing that defines Virgin as a leading customer focused brand to me is innovation and constantly striving to evolve and to meet the needs of their customers as individuals. You can't fault the ethos of that.

Whatever your business is, have a productive day and do share your stories of brands you know that engage personally with their customers and like to go the extra mile and make their customers smile!

Thanks for reading, do let me know your views too.

All that remains for me to say is keep on sharing, learning and encouraging each other, if you are not doing so already I invite you to follow me @Ces_Creatively and look forward to being your friend.

Ces xx