Brand Champions as Monitors of On- and Off-Brand Behavior

All customers have no doubt heard service representatives berate their colleagues for something they have or haven't done. Every time we overhear this type of dialogue, we can very easily imagine ourselves as customers paying the price for the behavior being discussed. For example, we heard a car repair shop receptionist complain to her colleague, "They never answer the phone back there," and we assumed that probably was why our call wasn't answered earlier in the day.

Brand champions can do a great deal to mitigate the impact of this type of chatter that very frequently takes place in front of customers. First, they can listen to it, and second, they can initiate steps to remedy the problem.

Think about the receptionist complaining to her colleague about the back-office staff never answering the phone. They both needed someone to listen to their complaint. They could either go directly to the back-office staff to tell them the consequences of their behavior or go to someone who could involve the appropriate manager. This "someone" can be a brand champion, who either would talk with the back-office staff or ask for managerial assistance.

For this reason, HR managers need to stay closely connected to the brand champions. Because brand champions hold their regular jobs, as well as being brand champions, they may hear about situations through the staff grapevine that someone in HR may not. Brand champions, in effect, can become staff that do not work in HR but who can spread the reach of critical HR functions. They, therefore, also need highly developed interpersonal skills to handle delicate situations, such as one employee complaining about another.

It is easy to see how this type of simple event can become very complicated if the brand champions' scope of activity and power to act are not carefully decided in advance. When not sensitively positioned, the brand champions can be seen as brand champion police—not a good thing.

It is possible to put too heavy of a burden on a brand champion team. For example, if you expect them to be the major communication channel for all internal messages about your brand, the brand champions will become too instrumental in the process, no doubt exceeding their communication capacity. The brand champions play a better role as rein-forcers. They do not start the party, but they make sure it continues.