CHANGE OF POSITION OF STAFF AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

MR. OKAGU BECOMES TRANSPORT MANAGER
Mr. Uchenna G. Okagu of Corporate Services & Marketing Department has been promoted to the position of Transport Manager. Prior to this, he was an Assistant Transport Manager. Mr. Okagu is the Head, Corporate Services & Marketing and has been with the company since 1997. He is a Chartered Marketer and member of the National Institute of Marketing, Nigeria (NIMN).

MR. OLAYENI BECOMES TRANSPORT MANAGER
Mr. Edward Olayeni of Accounts Department has been promoted to the position of Transport Manager. Prior to this, he was a Senior Transport Officer. Mr. Olayeni is a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

MR. EMERUOM BECOMES ASSISTANT TRANSPORT MANAGER
Mr. Hyginus Emeruom of Human Resources/Administration Department has been promoted to the position of Assistant Transport Manager (ATM). Prior to this, he was a Senior Transport Officer. Mr. Emeruom will also act as the People Manager and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) and Nigerian Institute of Safety Professionals (NISP).

Personal Branding: Supporting, Enhancing and Consolidating the ABC Brand:

Do employees share the same view of an organization as customers? Are employees the best ambassadors of brand? Is it true that a dull staff will give the company a dull image and a vibrant staff will invariably give the company a vibrant image? Is it possible that an impolite staff will offend the customer’s sensibilities, while a courteous staff will endear the customer to the company?

In contemporary times, personal branding is fast becoming an expedient and integral part of every organizational structure and growth. It is like the next step. Building a brand for a product or service is just not enough. That is the very first prerequisite. Yet, as the battle for customers intensifies day by day, it's important to facilitate personal branding amongst employees. This is because the point of contact for our kind of service is the customer. We relate with customers on a daily basis.

Branding builds business, but a misrepresentation, flawed communication or wrong attitude from the organization could ruin business. Imagine where a customer meets a staff and tries to find out the difference between the Regular Service and Executive Express. And the staff says the former is not air-conditioned, while the latter is air-conditioned. Well, the staff believes that s/he has supplied an answer, but would you have done better if you’d been in the staff’s position?

Some people see branding as the way in which our customers and clients perceive our organization or product. Others term it as a set of emotions that are brought into play every time anyone interacts with our organization. It has also been described as a corporate personality. All these definitions are okay, yet seem a bit insular. Branding comprises an understanding of being able to get your target market to choose you over the competition, but it essentially involves an organization’s ability to get its prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem. 

We can then affirm that branding is anything that is able to achieve the following:

• Deliver the message clearly
• Confirms our credibility
• Connects our target prospects emotionally
• Motivates the buyer
• Creates concrete user loyalty

You would agree that ABC Transport has successfully implanted itself in the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects as a brand, a great brand. But to what extent have the internal customers (staff) impressed our external customers (our superiors and Management) as a personal brand? Have we succeeded like ABC?  Now, it appears some of us have failed in this respect. Making the brand the central focus of the organization clarifies for any employee what is “on-brand” and what is “off-brand.” It then becomes easier to identify and adhere to the right decisions. Consequently, a staff who has personally branded himself or herself will fully understand his/her role and appreciate the degree to which s/he can contribute to add value to the overall corporate brand, that is, the company’s brand. Such a staff will also understand the interplay that enables or disables strategic decision-making in the organisation. In addition, you as a staff will seamlessly fit into the fabric of ABC Transport’s brand-based pursuit for market dominance in the road transport industry.
In an article titled The Power of Personal Branding, Thomas Murrel, influential business mentor, highlighted that personal brand creates a point of difference. It helps you stand out from the crowd. He further said that branding in today's competitive, crowded and noisy marketplace now needs to focus on three levels:

• the corporate brand for customers and external stakeholders
• the internal brand to attract and retain the best employees; and,
• the personal brand of the individual.

Thus, successful employees with high levels of power, influence and charisma are able to align their personal brand with that of their corporate organization.
Chuck Pettis in Building a Personal Brand Identity also re-emphasized the relevance of personal branding in supporting the overall corporate goals, and in understanding one’s role in the success of an organization. To him, our personal identity is a “package” that combines ourselves as a “product” that is part of a larger “organization” with “customers” and “competitors.” We should bear in mind that Personal Branding is not about being someone we aren’t or being fake or sycophantic. It is not about exaggeration, bragging, or egotism, or I-want-everybody-to-know-that-I-work-better-than-others. It is simply to become the best “You.” It is about finding your own personal essence that, at the same time, is valued by people in ABC Transport. In creating your Personal Brand Identity you ask yourself: Who am I? What do I want to become? What does ABC Transport and customers want from me?
Personal branding operates at three levels. The first and most inner and authentic is your core personal brand shaped by your upbringing, family, values, beliefs, personality and attitudes. The second or middle level is your created personal brand – this is a planned process of self-development that builds your knowledge, specialization and expert power to create and define who you are. The third or outer level is your perceived personal brand. Some of us might not be aware that we can shape perceptions simply by managing how others see you and presenting yourself in a compelling, visible and persuasive manner. Successful people work at all three levels.
Just like the product or service brand that aims to be successful, a personal brand must be seen over and over again. Visibility creates the presumption of quality. People assume because they see a person all the time, he or she must be superior to others offering the same product or service. All brands have customers, products, and competitors. Your “customer” may be a boss, your colleague, your subordinate, or even a friend, a family member, or relative. You are a “product” with features and benefits, certain skills and special talents that other people value. In creating your Personal Brand, ideally you want to use those skills and talents that are highly valued by your ABC Transport and that you enjoy using.
Given that we are all parts of ABC Transport and have a vital role to play – regardless of structural differences in departments – and such role is capable of inducing a spiral (positive or negative) effect on other people’s performance, we either add value or devalue one another. In simpler words, our acts impact on how each one of us acts. Remember, this goes a long way in influencing our success and happiness as employees. This explains why we need to understand the necessity of brand building. This is why we need to personally brand ourselves in order to reduce the frictions that unhinge the smooth functioning of our corporate wheel. This reaffirms the need for staff to regard themselves as brands, not merely employees, whose focus is on getting paid at the end of each month. If we don’t see ourselves as brands, we most likely will not identify with the overall brand. In fact, personal branding helps the company to create harmony and not cacophony. Therefore, it becomes inevitable to make every employee a “Brand Manager”. Some marketing experts would state it as “aligning human capital strategy with brand strategy”.
As Mr. Murrel noted, “Marketing is all about positioning – use it to position and differentiate yourself in the marketplace.” Thus, we are all in the business of marketing; marketing ABC Transport in our homes, places of association and social functions, and any other place visible enough to voice out our ABC brand. While we carry out this task, we should remember that only those employees who are personally branded would be in a more advantaged position to understand the dynamics of promoting ABC brand perfectly well. So, you see? The goal of Personal Branding is simply to build and/or improve your trust relationship with colleagues, your employers, and the company. However, you have to act in a constant, consistent and congruent way, in order to create an effective – and lucrative – personal brand.
Now do you think it is high time you developed your own personal brand statement and identity while supporting, enhancing and consolidating our own ABC BRAND?

By UCHE PETER UMEZ (Customer Service)