My father, a wise and kind man, would never stop at a roadside restaurant that touted “Home Cooking” on their sign. Why? His philosophy was that, “If I wanted home cooking, I would have stayed at home!” Now, all of you who own restaurants with this phrase, please don’t send me your hate mail! I’m just making a point that a slogan can do you in sometimes.
A good friend of mine runs a hotel. Their newest slogan is, “YES! What’s the question?” He is committed to turning his employees, at all levels, into problem solvers. This is a great idea. My only suggestions is that I wouldn’t make it as “public” as he has with buttons, stickers, and signage in the public areas of the hotel. Why? There’s a inherent risk that the customers now know the “secret” he wants all his employees to act out. To me, it’s a lot like putting a sign up at the front of Disneyland saying, “Micky Mouse is NOT real. It’s just a person in a costume.”
By displaying the slogan out front, you are raising your customers’ expectations. As they are, most customers will actually underestimate the performance bar. If you want to WOW! your customers, and you have your “Yes!” button on, you’ve just raised the bar, artificially I might add, and possibly shot yourself in the foot.
I’m not saying that a “catch phrase” is all that bad. Usually, it doesn’t add that much to the customer’s experience. However, it can clarify or focus the customer’s expectations for your business. For instance, my father who ran a dry cleaning business for many years used the slogan, “There’s no substitute for quality workmanship.” Of course, this is true. It’s actually obvious. What it did infer to his customers, was that he provided quality work and not necessarily the cheapest price. Most people know what a Dry Cleaner is, so it effectively conveyed his message to both employees and customers.
Another example is for our companies. (ServiceQuality.US, The Service Quality Department) Service quality means different things to different people. We use the tag line, “Creating Customer Loyalty” In a nutshell, it tells what our focus is. We don’t manufacture anything, we don’t provide investigative services, and we’re not a consumer protection agency.
So, when you want to manage your customer’s expectations, you can do it very effectively with a slogan or catch phrase. Just be careful that you’re not setting yourself up for failure in a few words!