Until they merged with United Airlines I made a decision that I would NEVER again fly Continental Airlines. Ever. This was all because of one bad experience I had with a member of the Continental crew while traveling.

After this experience whenever I saw a commercial or marketing piece for Continental, I thought of this crew member and how she treated me. No amount of colorful airline livery or fancy marketing would ever replace the fact that to me that associate was Continental Airlines. And since I didn’t like my experience with her, I didn’t like the company. Period. End of story.

What does this have to do with your company?

I don’t care if your CEO has degrees from Harvard, Yale and Oxford; or if your executives have every certification given in the multi-family universe; if your regional managers are the most intelligent and articulate groups of regionals the industry has ever seen . . . to the average customer, they are not your ‘brand.’

The people sitting behind the desks are your brand. The people answering the phones at your offices, stores, car lots, front desks etc. responding to emails, monitoring your social media spaces and taking clients on tour are your company to the average customer.

Remember your first day?

I remember my first day working for a well-respected real estate company. I was a leasing consultant responsible for renting apartments that rented for $1,860 per month, all the way up to over $4,000 per month! Now how much time and effort do you think was spent preparing me to be the face of this mega-multi-million dollar community and of the company’s brand before I met with my first client?

One hour!

On my first day I was given the tour, handed the keys to the model and golf cart, showed where my desk was and given the book of many, many floorplans and a site map. I shadowed a manager on one tour and then was then let loose to help customers and become the face of this iconic community.

How good do you think I was in my first 30 days? Not very. In looking back, the people I worked with just had very full plates, so they really wanted (needed) me to figure things out on my own. While I can understand that, it doesn't change the fact that life was still difficult for me in those early days and I wasn't doing the company any favors either. 

When I got the chance to manage my own community I didn’t want my people to go through what I went through. I didn’t want someone to become the face of my community and company (and me!) without preparing them for the role.

Here is what I did:

1. I developed a new hire on-boarding program. I walked my people through all aspects of their jobs; giving them all of the tools, techniques and secrets that I learned during my career. (Eventually my company adopted some of these ideas and created an on-boarding program for all associates.)
2. I didn’t allow my new hires to help clients until they went through the program and felt they were ready. This period lasted anywhere from one week to two weeks, depending on the person.
3. I personally worked with and trained my new team members because I wanted to be the dominant influence in the early stages of their careers.

I’m not going to lie, doing these meant more work for me! There were times I thought I was nuts to do this. But when the results showed me that the effort was worth it, I was thrilled! When the office could essentially run itself and I didn’t need to be involved in the minutiae, I knew it was worth it!

Of course, the specifics of your situation may be different~but the important question to ask yourself is this...

How have you prepared your people to be the face of your brand?

I remember a story I read a few years ago from a book (I think it was Living Large by Sarah Wexler) in which the author described the experiences of a young woman who was a sales associate in a national retail chain. This sales associate proudly explained the strategy that helped her sell jeans to men and it goes something like this … (paraphrasing) 

“When a guy comes out of the fitting room in a pair of jeans, I stare at his butt several times as he looks in the mirror. Then when ne notices me “checking him out,” I act embarrassed and flustered and smile nervously so that he thinks he caught me admiring how he looks in the pair of jeans. This usually encourages guys to buy those jeans!”

As this associate went on to tell the story, it was clear that the higher ups in the store approved of her selling strategy; after all, she was getting the results everyone wanted; the young woman hit her numbers, the store likes sales, and the customer thought the cute woman in the store was checking him out, so everyone was happy, right?

So, what’s the problem?