How to decimate your brand in a few hours

You work hard on your brand message, on the experience that you offer to your patients and then without knowing you destroy it at least once a month.

How? By opening at evening and weekends.

I recently went to a local children’s play centre on a Saturday afternoon. I go there frequently, it’s great or so I thought. I was shocked to see what it was like at the weekend. Team members with no autonomy, customers running the place and disrespecting basics such as taking their shoes off, young staff too scared to ask an adult to take their and their child’s shoes off as children are playing.

I heard the staff say numerous times “i’ll take the blame” I couldn’t believe it, they were deciding who would take the blame for what as they were all obviously having a bad day and they were scared of the owner!

I complained. I won’t be going back. I’m tempted to leave a Facebook review!

I am telling everyone I know about this experience, not the countless good ones I have had before. By hiring different staff, having no management or training that business decimated its brand in a matter of minutes.

I have no problem with practices opening early, late or at weekends if:

• The team are the same team who work in the week
• The team are trained in the same way
• The experience is the same for every patient no matter what day they come in on
• They are in the same branded uniform!

Trust me when I say this is not always the case. I am constantly finding practices have different staff for the extra hours they have decided to open.

Your brand message has to be the same every minute you are open.

So how often you decimate yours?

Laura