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How do you recognize transparency?

April 17, 2019

Transparency seems to be everywhere in the media lately so it has been only fitting that we have been discussing it. We’ve been studying “mea culpa” ad campaigns and how the marketplace’s expectations around transparency play a role in that. We scratched the surface of how that same expectation influences buying decisions – both from a consumer and an employee point of view.

To round out the discussion, I’d like to wrap up by identifying how transparent organizations behave so you can not only determine your own level of transparency, but you can also make sure your key audiences recognize your efforts.

They have, share and live their mission and vision statements: I’m not talking about the seven-paragraph, jargon-filled, committee-written and approved mission and vision plan. I’m talking about a battle cry – a single sentence or a short series of phrases that defines who you are as a company, what you value and how those values shape your choices and behavior.

Every employee, and ideally, your customers should know what it is and be able to recite it. More important, they can give examples from their own experience of how you actually live it.

They speak plainly and truthfully: When a transparent company screws up, they own it. They don’t hide it behind legal trickery, fancy language, or hide. They out themselves and they focus not only on what happened but why it happened, and why it won’t happen again.

They’re accessible and open to questions and concerns: Whether it’s a monthly employee meeting with open Q&A or an active Twitter account that fields questions from consumers – a transparent company is present and ready to listen. They don’t always agree or say yes, but they respect people enough to give them a voice.

They take the first step: Transparent companies don’t wait to be asked. They know what people want to know concerning pricing, quality, and guarantees. Rather than waiting to be called out, they offer up the information before anyone can even think to ask.

They are the same in every venue: When you lead with your brand (another way of thinking about transparency), you’re the authentic you. Sometimes that’s playful you, showing employees enjoying an informal beer o’clock gathering. Sometimes that’s helpful you, sharing a blog post about how to best use your product. But it also means being candid you when you mess up.

It’s not about being one-dimensional, which is another word for being manipulative by putting on a front. It’s about being all of you and not trying to hide any of it.

They’re willing to make someone mad, leave, or stop being a customer: Being transparent as an organization isn’t about being a people pleaser or trying to make everyone happy. It’s about knowing yourself as an organization and being very clear and upfront about that, knowing that it will attract some and repel others. This is about wearing your organizational heart on your sleeve and letting your audiences decide for themselves if they love you or not.

Just a reminder – a genuinely transparent company behaves this way internally and externally. Again, there’s no faking it. You accept and celebrate who you are organizationally, keep trying to get better, and own up to the mistakes along the way.

This is one of those easy to say you do it, but hard to live it sort of things. You’re not going to get it 100% right. But own that and keeping living your goal to get better out loud so your employees, customers and potential customers can see you’re trying.

That’s what they really want. They don’t expect perfection, but they’re hungry to find organizations who are genuinely willing to try.

The hidden benefit of transparency

April 10, 2019

Lately, we have been focusing on the “mea culpa” ads that we’re seeing all over the media. Wells Fargo, Facebook, and Uber are some of the big brands that have actively run apology campaigns.

The absolute expectation of total transparency is one of the factors driving the need for these campaigns, but that expectation falls pretty heavily on all of us, whether you are a local business or a big international brand. According to recent studies, up to 94 percent of consumers surveyed indicated that they were more likely to be loyal to a brand that offers transparency, while 73 percent said they were willing to pay more for a product that offers complete transparency.

And, by the way, that’s transparency inside and outside your walls. Consumers expect you to be just as forthcoming with your employees as they do for themselves. Here’s the upside of that, beyond that you want to be honest and trustworthy – it’s an excellent recruitment and retention tool when it comes to building and growing your team.

If you are like most organizations, your biggest worry is your employee base. With the unemployment rate as low as it is, finding qualified candidates who are looking for work is difficult. Even if you can find someone who is a good fit, their salary demands are often astronomical, compared to what you are already paying inside your company. Those prospective employees know they’re a scarce resource and they are applying the law of supply and demand to their pricing model. If you want them, you’re going to pay a premium for them.

As if that’s not a big enough challenge, you are also being ravaged by poachers who are plucking your best people from you. They are offering them huge raises, better benefits, more flexibility and in some cases, signing bonuses like star athletes get.

Why am I talking about employment issues in a marketing post? Because this scarcity is affecting your bottom line. We have some clients who are putting the brakes on driving new sales because they don’t believe they can service the increase in customer needs. That’s crazy! You know there are people/companies out there that you can help and yet you don’t invite them in because of a staffing challenge.

But here’s where being a transparent company has its added value. It’s one of the critical factors that make someone want to come work at a specific business or gets them to stay, even when they get another job offer that would pay them a higher wage or offers them other perks.

The job search site Indeed recently did a study that showed that Insight into company’s reputation and trustworthiness (translation – transparency) is essential for 95% of job seekers—and Gen Z won’t do without it. In the good old days, if you wanted the truth on what it was like to work at a specific company, you had to know someone on the inside.

But now that job candidates can crowdsource this information through online reviews, watch your social channels and assess your culture long before they apply – you need to actually walk your talk.

Indeed said when disclosing their study’s results, “Those who have grown up in this era of transparency are most determined to research a company’s reputation when looking for a job. Of millennials, 71% said this was “extremely important,” compared to 55% of baby boomers. Even then, a clear majority of boomers agree that this is essential information.”

Next time, I’ll outline some ways that you can spotlight your transparency both for your team and your customer base. Being transparent without getting credit for making that choice is an expensive marketing and employee recruitment mistake you don’t have to make.

How to say I’m sorry

April 3, 2019

Previously, we examined the reasons why more brands are feeling the need to say they are sorry in a very public and expensive fashion these days. I want to take a minute and dissect one brand’s attempt to offer a “mea culpa” that will resonate with their audience and smooth over the wave of negative public sentiment.

Wells Fargo does a lot of good in the communities they serve. In 2016, they donated over 9 million dollars to nonprofits, schools and community organizations in Iowa alone. In that same year, their Iowa-based employees volunteered for over 178,000 hours.

But even all of that goodness couldn’t protect them from the flood of media attention they received when it was revealed that some Wells employees were opening accounts for existing customers without their knowledge so the employee could win sales incentives. Wells Fargo was fined $185 million dollars when the regulators uncovered this transgression. Unfortunately, shortly after the first issue was revealed, CEO Tim Sloan had to acknowledge that the company had charged nearly 600,000 customers for auto insurance they didn’t need and a few other fee missteps.

It’s easy to see why the public’s confidence in Wells Fargo is a bit shaken and why the financial institution decided they needed to address it.

In response to all of the negative news, Wells Fargo launched a new advertising campaign, which is clearly an attempt to turn the tide of public sentiment.

The TV spot’s voiceover says:

We know the value of trust. We were built on it. Back when the country went west for gold, we were the ones who carried it back east. By steam, by horse, by iron horse. Over the years, we built on that trust. We always found the way.

Until we lost it.

But that isn’t where the story ends. It’s where it starts again. With a complete recommitment to you. Fixing what went wrong, making things right and ending product sales goals for branch bankers.

So, we can focus on your satisfaction. We’re holding ourselves accountable to find and fix issues proactively. Because earning back your trust is our greatest priority.

It’s a new day at Wells Fargo, but it’s a lot like our first day. Wells Fargo. Established in 1852. Re-established in 2018.

Let’s look at this spot and identify some best practices. First, let’s recognize what they did well.

Don’t deny or try to explain anything. No one wants the excuses or “yeah buts.” The spot recognizes that they made some mistakes that cost them the trust of their customers.

Define the fix. The public already knows what happened but what they often don’t understand is how you are going to fix the problem, so it never happens again. This spot gets very specific about some of the changes Wells is making as a result of their misstep.

What they missed:

We’re sorry. There’s no substitute for those words. The spot acknowledges what they did wrong and that they are going to fix it. You can feel their embarrassment but not their remorse. That’s a big miss. The bigger the institution, the more critical the actual words “we’re sorry” are.

Let me vent. When a company you love lets you down, you’re angry and hurt. You also have questions. A big miss in this spot is that they don’t provide a way for consumers to address their concerns. At the end of the spot, there’s a URL, but the contact information provided is about setting an appointment with a local banker.

In our 24/7 news environment, more brands of all sizes will have their mistakes exposed and will need to apologize. Doing it well could decide your future, so be mindful of doing it well.

The era of “we’re sorry” advertising

March 27, 2019

There’s an interesting trend that speaks to a significant change in how brands are evaluated and how quickly they can go from hero to goat. I want to explore the origins of the trend and next time we’ll look at some examples and best practices in response to this new normal and the best way to say “we’re sorry”.

Three factors created the trend that I’m calling the “mea culpa” trend.

The 24/7 exposure to news, not only from official news sources but also from our social media connections
The transparency that consumers expect from brands
The influence of being a good corporate citizen on purchase behavior

Remember when you were a kid and you had to wait until five or six o’clock in the evening to find out what happened that day? And if it was a really big story, the newspaper would write about it the next day or vice versa – you’d read about it in the paper that morning and then see it again during the evening news.

Either way, if you didn’t read the paper or watch the news, you might never know what happened. Sure, a few happenings were such a big deal that it was water cooler conversation at work. But we were not subjected to the same news multiple times a day like we are today thanks to social media and our 24/7 news cycle.

Not only is the news being distributed by new outlets but pretty much by every Tom, Dick, and Harry in our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds, not to mention the private forums, chat groups, etc. that we all belong to today.

That constant information flow has made it much more difficult for brands, their leaders and employees to hide any transgressions. Whether a company experiences a gaffe or is actually caught intentionally making decisions that feel or are unethical, we know about it immediately, and we fully expect them to explain themselves. Consumers no longer accept or tolerate the idea that not everything is their business or that organizations have a right to conduct business how they choose and it’s not our place to express an opinion about it.

In fact, not only do we demand transparency and the right to the details, we sit in judgment of those organizations and their choices. We express that opinion by broadcasting and discussing their behavior, and we either show up in droves, or we boycott their products or services. Remember the Chick Fil A hubbub? If you supported the CEO’s stand to support anti-LGBTQ causes financially, you stood in line to buy a chicken sandwich, not only because you were hungry but because you were voting with your dollars. If you disagreed with his stance, you haven’t been to a Chick Fil A since it became public.

Consumers are much more likely to express their support or displeasure with their wallet than ever before. The #GrabYourWallet movement that erupted after some of the then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s comments targeted Ivanka Trump’s brand, and as boycotts erupted, sales plummeted and stores stepped away from her brand. All of that triggered a 32% decline in sales.

The concept of the apology campaign is not new. After the big oil spill, BP launched a media campaign. Toyota did the same thing after their recall in 2010. But they were few and far between. The confluence of the 24/7 news access, the consumer’s expectation of transparency and the quick to judge reaction to businesses who don’t behave in a way they deem acceptable means we will see more of these apology campaigns.

Use your marketing voice

March 20, 2019

Voice is one of the most significant trends we marketers have had to face in a while. Remember when the proliferation of mobile devices changed the way we designed and built websites? Voice is going cause the same upheaval and it’s going to come even faster and be more wide-sweeping than mobile ever was.

If the last decade was our mobile marketing revolution, then the upcoming decade is the era of voice.

The mobile revolution made it possible for brands to reach their audiences wherever they were, gather all kinds of data and then use that data to create near or real-time interactive experiences that felt personalized and intuitive.

That’s nothing compared to what voice is going to do to our daily lives. We talk about the proliferation of smart speakers like Amazon Echo, Google Hoe, and Apple’s HomePod but we forget we’ve been carrying a voice assistant in our pocket for years.

Almost 80 percent of Americans own a smartphone, where virtual assistants are included by default. Combine that with the fact that over 55% of American homes have a smart speaker and it’s easy to see how voice is going to influence marketing channels and choices.

Voice is expected to drive half of all searches on mobile, and it’s already having a huge impact on retail. Research done by NPD Group, Inc., found that online spending by consumers rose overall after the purchase of an Echo in every category except for travel. We haven’t seen the results of the relatively new partnership between Google and Walmart that will allow customers to “voice shop” via Google Assistant but you know it isn’t going to be minuscule.

We aren’t and won’t be limited to smart speakers or our phones. Soon we’ll all be chatting with our fridges, washers and dryers, our cars, and even our toilets.

Voice assistants of all shapes and sizes are going to have us thinking differently as marketers. Here are some of the more significant ways we’re going to need to re-think marketing:

The featured snippet: When we type our search query, the search engines serve up a list, and we choose the specific link we want to click on. But with voice search, it’s what is called a direct answer. The device answers your voice search with a voice response of one answer. If you’re asking Google, it’s going to serve up the featured snippet. The growth of voice search means that being on page one is no longer the holy grail that it was. The new goal is to be the featured snippet.

A whole new channel – Alexa skills and flash briefings: Brands are creating Alexa skills (because right now the Echo is the dominant leader) to interact with their consumers. Take a look at Purina’s Ask Purina Alexa skill that lets dog owners ask Alexa questions about their pets. This sets Purina up to be the authority in a very profitable and popular space on a broad spectrum of dog-related information. Not only are they helpful but the interaction builds trust and mindshare.

The biggest one? Writing for conversational search as opposed to keyword search. It shifts our focus to natural language and the intended meaning behind the searcher’s specific query. When we’re speaking out loud, we tend to use more words and longer sentences than we do when we type a query. Marketers need to think about how someone would ask the question that should serve up your answer. Those full sentences need to be added to your keyword list.

This is a fast-moving trend so find some sources to keep you informed. While you’re doing that, you should start experimenting with a refreshed search strategy, some Alexa skills and trying to become a featured snippet.

Today’s version of word of mouth marketing

March 13, 2019

Previously, we talked about influencer marketing, which is a combination of old-school PR and word of mouth, with a technology twist. Today, anyone can create a position of authority, build a community around them and as a result, be an influencer.

There are the influencers we’ve always known, like athletes and actors, but more interesting and more potentially valuable to the average brand are the micro-influencers. These subject matter experts may have relatively small followings (could be as few as 500 or as many as half a million) compared to The Rock or Kourtney Kardashian. But to the people who follow them, their advice, point of view and recommendations carry significant weight.

Most of them are not “celebrities” in the traditional sense. They’re a 14-year old boy who reviews technology for teens, they’re a fitness coach who works with busy moms, or they’re an accountant who helps other accountants build their practice. That’s part of their charm – they feel accessible and ordinary enough that we can relate to them, their choices and their life.

The value of the influencers is not really their follower count. It’s the depth of credibility and connection they have with their audience. It’s very much like when your best friend recommends a movie or restaurant. Because it came from them (word of mouth) – you want to check it out. Today’s channels (podcasting, blogs, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) create that sense of intimacy and confidence between themselves and their audience. So whether they have 500 followers or 500,000 – the key is that their followers actually pay attention and take action, based on their content.

If you’re ready to dip your toe into this marketing tactic, there are some things you should keep in mind to maximize your investment and avoid trouble.

Follow the FTC rules: The FTC views having a celebrity or influencer endorse your product or service as an advertisement, even if no money exchanged hands. Whether you give them a free sample, or you pay them for using your product in a photo – the influencer must disclose that they are being compensated. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy disclaimer. It can be as simple as a hashtag (like #sponsored), or it can be a sentence or two that explains the relationship.

The trick to this is – you’re responsible even though you are not creating the content. You need to make sure the influencer is following the rules by monitoring what they are publishing. If they’re producing a series of blog posts, the disclosure must be on every post, not just the first one.

Be creative with your content: While the FTC views influencer marketing as advertising, it really shouldn’t be constructed to look like an ad. Work with the influencer to make the content interesting and useful, rather than use them posing with your product or endorsing your service. Have them tell a story and have your brand be a character in that story.

Reviews, demonstrations, an on-going series showing your product through some sort of evolution or a giveaway contest are all ways you can increase engagement with the influencer’s audience and encourage them to go from reading about you to wanting to learn more or even sample what you sell.

We are just at the beginning of this trend, and there’s nothing to suggest this is a short-term opportunity. No matter what you sell – this is a new twist on a tried and true tactic that is even better than it was initially. In the old days, a celebrity endorsed a product to everyone. Today, an influencer talks directly to the people you want to connect with and makes that introduction.

Who is an influencer?

March 6, 2019

Here are some truths we need to grapple with in today’s economy:

Consumers trust word of mouth recommendations from family and friends more than advertising
Consumers trust recommendations from perfect strangers more than advertising
Anyone can create a position of authority and attract a community if they demonstrate expertise, credibility and consistently produce content to keep that audience engaged

All of those truths have led to the popularity and effectiveness of influencer marketing. If you aren’t familiar with the term, influencer marketing is a new twist on an old tactic. Remember celebrity endorsements? When someone you liked, an actor or athlete, endorsed a product or service, you thought more favorably about it. Expand that definition of “celebrity” to anyone who has created subject matter celebrity or notoriety and has a defined audience that trusts their endorsements.

This could be a teenager who reviews technology for other teens on YouTube, it could be a person who reviews convention hotels, or it could be a mom with a popular blog aimed at other moms. These people have some things in common that will help you identify them as a genuine influencer:

They regularly produce content on a specific topic
They give away a lot of information for free
Typically, they will have a core channel (YouTube, podcast, blog, etc.) but also have a very active social presence
They have attracted a group of people who are all interested in their niche topic and consume their content regularly (through subscription, attending live events, etc.)
They rarely stray from their core topic or subject matter expertise
They write for other publications, channels, or media outlets

No matter what their specific subject matter expertise is, all of these people have the ability to influence the behavior and/or opinions of their audience because they’ve earned their trust.

One of the biggest shifts in this tactic is the emergence of micro-influencers. Back when we only had three to four channels (TV, radio, print, outdoor) all of the influencers were bigger names and had a broad base of appeal. In 1960, you might have seen a magazine ad featuring Claudette Colbert telling you why she chose to smoke Chesterfield cigarettes or Humphrey Bogart reminding you to buy a box of Whitman’s chocolates. Today, we’d call these kinds of celebrity endorsements macro influencers.

Interestingly, they are not the focus when it comes to influencer marketing now. In a world where niching and targeting are greatly valued, the power seems to be in the micro-influencer. Consider Mischa Pollack who has 74,000+ subscribers on his Drunk Tech Review channel on YouTube where he leads a roundtable discussion (with alcohol being liberally consumed) and testing of gadgets, technology and toys (anything from Bluetooth speakers to jet packs) or Alexandra Lerner who uses Instagram to talk about yoga and wellness, while collaborating with brands who want to reach her audience.

Micro-influencers could have as few as 500 followers/subscribers but most have between 10,000 -500,000. You name a topic and there is someone out there who has built a following around that subject. One of the challenges of influencer marketing is that it’s a bit like the wild, wild west. In some cases, the influencer will have a media kit, pricing, and contracts. In other cases, you will have to work with the influencer to define the rules and deliverables of the campaign because they haven’t formalized their process yet.

This can be a very effective tactic, but it can also go south in a hurry. Next time, we’ll explore some best practices for working with influencers to make sure you get a great ROI from your efforts.

Are you forgetting the Xennials?

February 27, 2019

For the past several years, the world has been obsessed with Millennials. Employers grouse about them, marketers try to understand them, and Gen X parents hope their kids don’t become the stereotype. The general demographic cohort that we have labeled the Millennials were born between the early 80s through the early 2000s. That’s a considerable span, and as you can imagine, the people born in the 80s are experiencing life in a very different way than someone born in 1999. Enter the Xennials.

Many are now suggesting that the older Millennials (who are 30-45) are blending with the younger Gen Xers to form what has been defined as The New Adulthood or Xennials. This melded age group has more in common with each other, as opposed to either the Gen X or Millennial groups they actually fit into, based on their birth year.

This “in-between” generation has redefined what growing up looks like and it’s worth our time to learn more about this forgotten group of consumers. Xennials comprise 8% of the US population or approximately 25 million people and were typically born between 1977-1983. This group is also called the “Oregon Trail Generation” in reference to a popular computer game when they were growing up.

One of the more telling facts about this group is that they had analog childhoods and digital adulthoods. They were born without the internet but used it to find their first post-college jobs. They’re the last generation to remember using the landline phone to call their friends to make plans for the weekend.

Here are some characteristics of these New Adults:

Many of them will never work for an employer but instead will move right into being an entrepreneur
They marry later
Many of them are opting out of home ownership
International travel is a priority
They are tech savvy but not tech absorbed
They are very financially literate and comfortable managing their money

From a marketing perspective, what will ring true for this target audience?

Nostalgia plays well: This group invented social media, but they remember how good life was without it. They like to reminisce about the days when everyone wasn’t connected 24/7, and you still watched TV to get the day’s news. Shows like Stranger Things appeal to their fondness for the 80s, and they get credit for the resurgence in vinyl record sales and Fuller House.

The defining moment of their childhood was 9/11, so they also tend to demonstrate more patriotism and believe in the country’s resilience. Family bonding is very important to them, and they love to cook and entertain. Interestingly, they’re also most likely to pay professionals to do chores to save time, and they’re the ones who brought about the open concept trend.

They’re natural optimists: Another nickname for this generation is the “lucky generation.” They were old enough to grow up without the challenges of the digital age like cyberbullying, sexting and having their every embarrassing moment shared with the world. They grew up as the Berlin Wall fell and Apartheid ended.

They got their first job before the recession and bought their first home (if they bought one) before property prices hit the roof.

They’d rather be associated with Gen X than Millennials: There’s no bigger insult to a Xennial than to assume they’re going to behave like the stereotypical Millennial. They see themselves as very hard-working savvy investors and view their entrepreneurialism as a way of continuing the American Dream.

They straddle the tech fence: This micro-generation loves to use innovative devices that improve their life like fitness bands, smart appliances, and VR/AR headsets. But they disregard some of the more frivolous social networks like Snapchat and still subscribe to magazines and newspapers.

Time to double down?

February 20, 2019

If your business is like the majority of organizations in the U.S., things have been pretty good. Sales have been more plentiful and come a little easier. In fact, if you’re having any trouble at all, it’s hiring and keeping the right employees to serve all of that business. Many businesses experienced one of their best years in 2017 or 2018. It’s easy to assume that we’re going to keep riding this wave, but I believe we’re about to see a shift. I’m seeing subtle signs that suggest things are about to get a little tighter. From a marketing and sales perspective, I would recommend it’s time to double down.

What I mean by that is I think it’s the right season to invest more time, talent and budget into the customers you already have. When people start spending less or are slower to spend, they are more likely to keep spending with an organization they already know, trust and value. If you’re a long-time reader of mine, you know that I think every business underestimates how much of their budget and attention should be invested in their existing client relationships. We spend too much of our time, attention and money chasing after new dollars as opposed to being more useful and valuable to our existing clients.

Your job, as we enter this season of scarcity, is to make sure the relationships you have with your current clients are rock solid. If anyone is going to give you new dollars in a tight economy, it’s someone who is already giving you dollars.

Here are some ways you can strengthen those relationships now, so they keep bearing fruit if things tighten up.

Ask their opinion: Everyone likes to provide input. A customer satisfaction survey will not only show you some places that need your attention, but it also creates a bond with the people who respond. Some business leaders shy away from customer satisfaction work because they think it invites complaints and dissatisfaction. In today’s rating and review economy – that’s happening anyway. You need to get over yourself and ask.

The key to this going well is promising the respondents that you will share what you learned from the effort and how you are going to act upon the feedback. After you’ve compiled the results, write a letter thanking everyone for their input, telling them what you learned (good and bad) and what you are implementing to elevate on the areas that need some improvement.

Bring them together: A customer-only event is a smart way to strengthen customer relationships. First, you are giving them access to something that no one else can attend. Second, you’re going to make your event something that helps them improve (based on what you sell them) over time, and third, you’re going to invite them to hang out with other people who share their interest or motivations. This works well for both B-to-B and B-to-C businesses.

An added benefit for you is that when you bring clients together, they only have one thing in common. You. Your best customers become your best salespeople. They talk about the work you do together or the product you sell them and rave about the results.

There’s no reason why the pending economic shift has to be a problem for you. Sure, it might be tougher to earn new business from new customers, but that’s not the only path to economic success. If you double down on the relationships that are already strong and can be enhanced, you will weather this blip on the radar screen well. And even if I’m wrong, there’s nothing but good that will come out of investing more in the clients you already have and love.

Is there a human in there somewhere?

February 13, 2019

My dad passed away almost a year ago and, as executor, I had to make a lot of official phone calls to everyone from the social security administration to Hyundai where his car lease was financed. Sometimes I got a human and other times I did not.

In almost all cases, I started with someone in a call center and may or may not get transferred to someone within the organization. I was stunned at the robotic responses I got from most of the people on the other end of the line. With a noted exception, there was no expression of condolences or even an acknowledgment that my family has suffered a loss. They were clearly following a script, and nothing was going to get them to step away from the prescribed words.

I wasn’t expecting to have a five-minute conversation about how wonderful my dad was or how much we’ll miss him. But when someone says “I am calling to report the death of my father. He had a lease with your company, and as executor, I am calling to find out what documentation you need,” the next sentence uttered should not be, “VIN please.”

I have a friend who owns a large agency on the west coast, and she called to commiserate with me because they landed a huge client two months ago and on Friday the CEO called to tell her that they were canceling the contract and hiring someone else. When she asked why his answer was, “your process was too rigid. For big projects it makes sense, but when we needed something quick and simple, we spent days waiting for scopes of work for a job that should have taken an hour.”

Two very different examples but the problem is the same – employees who have been trained in processes but not trained to recognize when they should step out of the process and use their brains, hearts, or humanity. Part of your culture, training, and onboarding needs to be about the rules, but an equally important part needs to be about when the rules should be bent or broken.

I know that most people hate the seemingly endless phone prompts that make you listen to the menu and then choose the best option. We think a real human will be better. But it’s even more disheartening when the human is as robotic as the quagmire of a company’s automated operator.

I’m a big fan of processes. (Well, I am a big fan of businesses having processes but I have to admit, I might do an end run now and then!) I understand the importance of uniformity, efficiency and the ability to scale. But we have to help our employees recognize that there’s always an exception to the rule. We can’t surrender to the process to the point that we blindly follow it, even when it doesn’t make any sense or isn’t humane.

Our employees are our brand. They either represent the best or the worst of us. How they respond to your customers will make or break your business. When they sacrifice their relationship with your client because “it’s how we have to do it” there’s a price that will be paid. Have you hired people who robotically follow the defined path, or have you sought people with some emotional intelligence and the insight and courage to step away from the process when it’s called for?

This is a hiring and culture issue. This is a training issue. This is a customer retention issue. This is a brand issue. You want employees who follow the rules. But you need employees who know when they should sidestep the rules to truly take care of your client.

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