Brand Leadership Through Manager Communication
The client was a large, publicly held utility company. Eloquor had already rolled out manager communication training to 300+ seasoned and mid-level managers when the company put new emphasis on its brand. The final round of training was anticipated to reach 400+ front-line managers and team leaders in the field and in call centers.
Eloquor integrated the brand into the manager communication training to help managers and team leaders identify brand behaviors and better understand how to leverage communication to achieve these behaviors. While the daylong training was largely practical and tool-based, targeted at those with little or no formal schooling in communication, it also helped participants understand how communication messages and approaches connect to and support the brand.
The program had several key modules:
- How communication drives behavior: current research and a thinking model
- The leader’s role and expectations
- Communication, the service-profit chain and the brand
- Leading and engaging groups
- Planning for and delivering great communication
The toolkit was fully customized for the client, posted on their intranet and included:
- A planning template in a checklist format to guide leader thinking
- A communication channel selection tool built from recent employee research
- A discussion guide template to help the leader prepare for live discussion
One exercise asked participants to analyze the company’s brand in their market using a simple tool. Participants came from both large and small markets. Sharing impressions about consumer attitudes gave each participant a broader view of how difficult it is to manage a brand across broad geography, local politics and regulatory pressure.
While the program included an evaluation participants complete before departing, it also included three important follow-up devices:
- Participants wrote a commitment to effective communication during training which we mailed to them 60 days later
- Participants received a survey 90-days after training to evaluate their perceived value of the program
- Participants selected performance management objectives from a communication scorecard to incorporate into their
development/performance plans
The program was designed to improve customer service and reputation. While most of the client’s customers have no choice for their utility service, the company can be fined for poor service based upon complaints made by consumers to the Public Utilities Commission. Results have not yet been tabulated.