Before I deleted my personal Twitter, I used to entertain myself by scrolling through my timeline looking for the newest <insert brand name> rant. You know the ones I’m talking about: XYZ brand is despicable. They made promises they didn’t keep. Customer Support was useless. Rant. Rant. Rant. My particular favourites were rants involving cell phone companies and their cookie cutter (non) responses. I very rarely, on my searches, however, came across the opposite – praise for a service or experience that was simply remarkable.
We’ve all encountered brands that are horribly bad at keeping their promises. Brands that continue to stay in business and even thrive because they have a monopoly or because the alternatives are as bad or even worse (take a bow, cellular service providers).
Or is it because our expectations have been pummeled into non-existence?
And I guess our lack of expectations is why a lot of brands coast along on mediocrity. We’ve gotten so used to awful as our new normal that when a brand gets some of the things they do right we think they’re doing a great job. As Jim Collins put it, ‘Good is the enemy of great”.
Stop rewarding mediocrity with acceptance or encouraging ‘terrible’ by giving it a platform.
And on that rare occasion, you encounter a brand that takes your breath away – by keeping its promises, by living its values, with service beyond belief, by empowering its employees to stand up for you, the customer, shout it out from the rooftops. Tell your friends, tell your networks, tell strangers. Share their remarkable stories.