Is consistency important in my business or for my brand?

Yes!

Okay, well that would make for a very boring blog entry, so here are some reasons why I think you need to keep things consistent for your customers, whether it is about your brand or your business.

• Customers get used to a certain way of doing things, eg. I am currently staying in the Hilton in Chicago, usually the first thing I do when I arrive in the hotel room is check out the facilities booklet – well the Hilton no longer has them. For me this has been really annoying, every time I want to know anything I have to call the front desk, it’s just inconvenient…
• Customers get used to a certain look or feel, eg. we used to send a physical newsletter to stores each month with an order form on a separate page, one month we decided to put the order form on the back, and we had five calls from stores asking where the order form was.
• Customers like knowing what to expect when they visit a place, buy a product or use a service, it makes them feel safe, eg. one year I went to Bangkok with my now ex-husband, he insisted we ate at the Hard Rock Café, as he knew what that would be like compared to local restaurants.

Now don’t get the wrong idea, I am not saying never change anything, but more, think about what you are planning to change from the customer’s perspective, how can you make it easy for them? When sending that newsletter I should have put a note on the front saying: “we are saving the environment this month, turn over for the order form”.

Often we get so caught up in our business or brand we can’t see what is going on outside – things that we think make complete sense to us, don’t to others.

Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks, mobile phone socks www.MyMocks.com and author of Brand New Day – the Highs & Lows of Starting a Small Business. Lara’s business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.

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