How to Build Brand Ambassador Programs in Your Organization

There is a lot of talk about the need for employer branding programs to ensure recruitment and retention goals are met and to build and communicate brands especially in this age of digital and social media. The following article outlines the fundamentals of building an effective employer branding program through a Brand Ambassador program.

Employees as Brand Ambassadors, a popular concept a few years ago, appears to have re-surfaced as an added means of communicating and delivering the organization brand promise also known as the brand strategy. The benefit of employees as Brand Ambassadors is that they inherently have a certain level of investment and interest in the success of the company by being employees. This is in contrast to ambassadors that you have to pay or reimburse through other means.

The need for employees as Brand Ambassadors applies even more to the service industry and call-center based organizations. Word-of-mouth is a major selling and employment recruitment tool, as reviews and feedback from friends and colleagues are a critical decision making tool for most consumers. The usage of Brand Ambassadors forms a quasi-grassroots word of mouth marketing system and is central to a successful PR strategy.

A key to success for effective Brand Ambassadors within your organization is to ensure that the organization brand strategy serves as a connector between organization values and the customer experience. This is not quite as simple as it appears as it will require a fair amount of alignment (also known as internal branding) and can be a sizable challenge in multi-layered organizations. Employees need to be aware of the exact values and how they tie in to the customer experience. For some, it may require education on what are the different steps in the customer experience process. For others, it may require an in-depth rundown of the organizational mission, vision, values framework and supporting systems.

Internal brand alignment involves a review of organizational values (vision, values) to ensure that they are in line with the brand strategy (and vice versa). It should be specific and actionable for employees, motivating and connect to the achievement of the desired customer experience as communicated by the brand. Organization core values connect to brand and bring the brand to life by guiding employee behaviours and related KPIs as part of the performance management system. Ultimately, with clearly communicated and understood organization values that are aligned with your customer experience, you can train a robust and effective cohort of Brand Ambassadors.

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